First of all, I would like to Wish A Happy and Prosperous New Year -2008 to all my visitors and supporters. Another year has just gone by and I must say, this year was more than hectic for me as its not always easy to hold a regular full-time job and be a webmaster at the same time.

I started my “webmastering” – as a hobby on 7^th January 2007 – exactly one year ago by acquiring two web directories – www.dbestdir.com and www.pagerankluck.com . Later on I tried my hand on blogging ( www.amazingindiaexperience.info , www.searchenginematrix.org ) – but I was always short of time that is required to write high quality posts on a regular basis. So, I had to abandon it and concentrated on developing few more directories which do not demand a lot of time. I must say that, it has been a mixed year – with lots of experience – both bad and good.

Going into 2008, I am much more confident and experienced as a pure web directory owner and I feel that I will develop ¾ more directories which will be based on specific Niche topics. I have already developed a Shopping Directory ( www.onlineshoppingindex.org ) and a Gambling Directory ( www.onlinegamblingindex.org ) and by second half of 2008, I have plans to develop 3 more directories on Business, Health and Real Estate. I reckon that will be the completion of my web directory network.

Being in academics, its there is always an urge inside me to share my knowledge with anyone who is interested. So, once my directory network is completed, and the sites are established, I have plans to start blogging again on those two blogs and I won’t make them commercial – I’ll blog to share my experience, life and knowledge.

There goes a rough sketch of my 2008 online road-map.

Now let me talk a little bit about my personal life.

On Friday (the 4^th January), my colleagues proposed for a new year picnic at a tea-garden nearby ( 20 KM away). I am always looking out for such type of programs to go out and enjoy some good times. So we went to picnic yesterday (Sunday) and had some real free-wheeling time outdoor. It was fun to go around the tea-plats, climbing some slopes and enjoying some good whisky sitting on the grass in between tea-plats and playing some games of chess.

The Picnic

Tea Garden

Tea-Leafs

The Factory -usable tea-leafs can be made from fresh leafs in 2 hrs!

I am also resuming my Bachelor of Education ( B.Ed) course that I left mid-way in 2004 due to my father’s serious illness (hearth-attack). To tell the truth, although I have been a teacher for more than 7 years, I am not yet professionally trained for it. It’s a real shame on me. But, I don’t want that shame to be there for long. So, I’ll have my first year final examination starting from 14^th January. If I get through it, I’ll have to attend lectures for 3 weeks in May and 2 weeks in October. Then again the final examination in January, 2009. Hopefully, I could claim to be a trained teacher by May-2009.

Hope, you enjoyed reading the post.

The role of a web directory is to review and list quality websites in the best organized manner possible by topic and categories so that surfers and search engine bots find it easier to find them.

In order to add more quality and make our directory unique, we have initiated re-categorization of all topics and categories. It might take couple of weeks to complete the job for us.

Hence, webmasters are kindly notified to excuse our editors if reviews are a little late.

Best Regards

John

Admin of BIR

I started my online journey back in 1998 from cyber cafes and friend’s desks just to check e-mails. Slowly, I got addicted to it and more so with Yahoo Games playing chess. It was my jobless time and I used to run bills of Rs. 5000/- per month (around $175 at that time)–and my father was generous enough to foot the bills.

Then I stared working and started o know the value of money. But my urge for internet was greater -as I bought a desktop and got myself the only available internet connection in my locality from BSNL. I was playing 3/4 hrs per day and had to pay around Rs. 3000/- per month ($75-80). where as my salary was barely Rs. 8000/- per month ($225).

I had to look for alternatives- but there was no way out. BSNL was the only ISP providing dial-up connections which was too slow. During the monsoon season, it was like I had to go to the Amazon jungle where no-humans lived as connections blacked out for days.

I was also looking for alternative income sources to foot my online passion. I tried to give private tuitions to students. But I never liked taking money for giving out some knowledge- specially to poor kids. So I stopped it and started looking for venues to earn money online. I tried freelance jobs -but nobody would gimme a job without experience.

Then I discovered Digital Point Forums in December 2006 and here I am — being a webmaster and SEO enthusiasts.

The probles has been, while I started earning some money from my online work, my Internet bills went up to Rs. 5000-6000 ($125-$150) per month. It ate all my profits.

But- perseverance always pays. Finally, I have been able to get a BSNL GPRS connection a week ( it has been introduced in my area not so long back) it cost only Rs. 223/- per month for unlimited internet connectivity. What more, I can even follow my business from my work-place, school through e-mails.

I also hear that, Broadband connection will be in my village preety soon. Lets see. Now I can really surf the net all the time without worrying about my internet bills.

Cheers for the LIBERATION.