So, after almost 2 years I have finally got my domain name back. I allowed the domain to expire because by the last couple of months of me owning it I had lost interest in blogging and didn’t even bother to check if it had expired.
The problem with allowing a domain name to expire is that there are companies who will buy it up, place ads on it to try and make money on any traffic that comes by, and then when that dries up they will offer to sell you the domain for a ludicrous price. They offered to sell it back to me for $2,500.
So rather than pay an absurd amount of money I took the decision to sit back and allow the domain to expire again and then pick it up. Once it expires after they have brought it they hardly ever pick it up again.
A lot has happened in the time since I last owned this domain.
Because my online income had completely dried up I had to go and get myself a real job in order to pay the bills. I worked for a gambling company called Cashino (that job lasted about two months, I’ll write about that another day) and for the past year and a half I’ve been working as an estate operative for a number of agencies. It’s not glamorous work, but it pays the bills.
I have looked into resuming my online incomes, but the landscape has almost completely changed whilst I have been away. Sponsored posts – gone. Text links – gone. Most of the advertising networks I have partnered with have gone to the wall. I even got my Adsense account back and they now only seem to offer a form of banner advertising that show different ad sizes depending on what advertiser you are displaying.
Even freelance writing, which I used to do OK with, has radically changed, a couple of the networks that are still around has cut their pay out considerably! And the ones that are still around either have too many people signed up or you need a masters degree just to get through their sign-up process.
I am still running. In addition to becoming a proud member of Victoria Park Harriers & Tower Hamlets AC I am also a new member of a masters club called Veterans Athletic Club. This opens up a lot of masters race opportunities for me (races only open to people 35+). I am currently training for a number of masters championship races next year (1 mile, 5k, 10k, half).
I also took part in a race back in February that I won!
My weight journey has continued to progress, I am now down to 182lbs. I am still looking to drop another 20lbs. Not having regular work has helped immensely as it means I can’t drink and consume as much alcohol, fast food and junk as I used to.
In fact here is a picture showing me in 2015 and me a couple of months ago:
It’s good to be back!