Merrows Collage Blog

Sun, 19 Feb 06

I did some CSS cleanup on the merrows.co.uk site. Did I say that I hate CSS? I cleaned up the headings and some layout.

Sat, 18 Feb 06

I guess this is stating the obvious, but my work week is 7 days, so today like other days I started at 3am. Yesterday, was used for sales again. I plan to clean up the dreaded CSS at merrows.co.uk. I was talked by experts in NG's into using CSS instead of tables, and now I have nothing but problems with it.

The collage work is ending now, I have some clean up the Flash magnify and then it's done.

I have seen a very interesting blog: Million Dollar Board Blog. I have rarely seen someone try so hard and in the face of so much disappointment, as the blog's author. I have started reading the blog everyday and laugh a lot.

I have seen a site which is really taking off: Million Dollar Pixel Home Page. I check it everyday, and it seems a new advertisement appears everyday. Even Google is an advertiser! (Google needs to advertise?) That must be the funniest management decision ever made. I can just see the Google meeting discussing the need to advertise! Since only 99.9999999999% of the world knows about Google, clearly the need to advertise exists! Go for it Google - spend that investment capital.

I have also seen that when sites take off, the blogs stop or slow down. Check out the big sites using "pixel" advertisements and see the blogs stop once the advertisements are sold. The Million Dollar Home Page blog promised daily updates, which then went to a promise of every week. Tew wrote: "So for those of you blog-addicts who can't help but check every day, be safe in the knowledge that on the 7th day of clicking there should be some news from me!" He wrote that on the 5th of February, 13 days ago, and since then nothing has appeared. I guess, Tew has forgotten how to count days, or is he busy counting dollars? I guess counting 1,000,000 dollars would take 1,000,000 seconds which is 11 days if he counts 24 hours a day! That's a lot of counting. Go for it Tew.

Back in the world of non-millionaires (counting my money would take less than 11 days), I have to write more modules for my accounts program, and then clean up CSS. They should assign CSS to the ocean, and bury it under 7 tonnes of sea water.

Fri, 17 Feb 06

Today, a 2am start, and I feel better after sleeping last night. I added some more cosmestic changes to Flash and the buy option. This means users can see selections in a listbox, and also use doubleclicks to remove. I am nearing the end of cosmestic changes, and then I can conclude the work on the Collage. I will then add some links, and concentrate work on the merrows.co.uk and the bathrooms.

I made some English corrections to FAQ.

I am getting more enquiries for Fast Homes, a second business line I started in buying properties on the verge of repossession.

Thurs, 16 Feb 06

Shop was busy again yesterday, and I got back late, around 11pm or 12pm after deliveries. A fitter came in and helped pack up the boxes, and I delivered two baths.Due to the late night I slept until 6am. I added some more Terms, and made a few Flash changes. The shop opens in a few hours so not much time for anything, and I just had to check the shop accounts.

Wed, 15 Feb 06

Today, a normal start time of 4:30am. I have just added some cosmestic changes using CSS. My USD account would take about 2 weeks to open, so I am using my GBP with conversion factor of 0.57. I was yesterday packing up boxes and doing the accounts, so I had no time for the merrows.co.uk site.

In case, it is not obvious to anyone, Merrows has traded for over 2 years, and the Collage is just an add-on. My main business is retail and mainly bathrooms. Also, the merrows site is all automatically generated and I am the only full time employee of the company. The fact that one person can generate so much, indicates the power of the Web and the Merrows business model.

My hope is that the Collage will be sold and the funds used to invest into Merrows, making the company grow. Obviously, that will provide revenues to advertisers, especially as Merrows traffic is shopper based.

Tues, 14 Feb 06

Another early start, about 1:30am. The shop was more busy yesterday, and also in the evening I took more orders. In the evening (yesterday), I made some blog comments and asked some sites to list the Merrows Collage. See http://www.milliondollarhomepage.ws for some interesting links on the very new "pixel" advertising million dollar pages.

I find the work actually very interesting; Flash allows zoom so getting into tiny detail is no problem at all.

I did some finishing on the Flash program. I added the Buy button and the link to Protx. I have to wait a few days for the USD account to be setup. I have cleaned up the text a little on the merrows.html page.

It's about 4:30am now I and I will try and get some sleep before the shop opens at 9am.

Mon, 13 Feb 06

I am a early riser, and today I started work at 12:45am. Normally, I start at around 3-4am, but today was especially early. I finished the Collage, and implemented it. I found that the buy module was too slow for seven letters so I used just one. I will change the letters when, or if, they fill up.

I just started writing the blog and HTML. HTML is like the definition of bordem for an engineer. But I am doing it. Markup in its most primitive - HTML.

I have to open the shop at 9am and so I am rushing now.

Sun, 12 Feb, 06

I now have got the collage working, and have transferred to the merrows.co.uk site.

Sat 11 Feb, 06

I just installed Flash MX and got out my dusty books on Flash. Today I have written the basic code for the Collage.