So we went back to Staples today and got my chair. It only just fit in the boot of the car, but it's now all assembled and I'm feeling quite tall in it! It's actually very comfortable. I needed to get a chair that would go high (my feet aren't touching the floor right now!) so that my arms and hands were at the right height for typing. Spending up to 15 hours a day at my desk I need a good chair and I'm very happy with my choice

I've been setting up mini ventures online for years now, trying to make money from the Internet. And whilst I've made a bit here and there, I'm still looking for the right 'path'. I've played with affiliate sytems such as Amazon, right back in the late 90s. However making money online has never been any more popular than now. There are so many get rich quick schemes or money making offers around. Some people are sucked in, spend a lot of money and either don't have the time or the knowledge to put their purchase into practise. To be honest I'm fairly guilty of setting up a site, playing with it a bit and then leaving it and forgetting about it. Yes whilst there are sites like that which you can get away with they'll be slow earners at first usually, and take time and patience. Plus I'm more a fan of setting up sites with worthwhile content and are of some quality. However I also know sites knocked up within a few minutes can rake in a nice lot of money. To be honest this was first how one of my, in fact my busiest site was started. Just a site generated by a piece of software. However the site had a decent design added to it and the code fixed up to be compliant. I've continually added more content and products when I can too. Now it's a very busy site, shame it's just not converting into the type of money it should/could be earning.

With work being so busy I decided to just stop the whole 'AIS' (Automated Income Stream) idea and carry on earning from my clients instead. Right now I earn more from them than I do/could from AIS (note that's me earning, not the general opportunity of earning with AIS!). I decided that I'd give up for a while, leave the few sites I have just ticking over and then come back to it after my holiday when things had quietened down for me. Well work is not going to be quiet when I get back, this I already know now. But I'm not intending to take on any new clients for quite a while as I have a new business launching in June along with my contract job and the rework of a very large site where the to do list just doubled in size. So I'm also hoping to spend some weekends setting up a few new sites to possible all pull a bit in each which will add up to enough to at least warrant a dinner out once a month.

I've recently joined and been visiting a new forum set up by Dave G for Money Making. It's beginning to gather momentum already and is a good place to go for advice on setting up AIS sites, along with Marketing and SEO advice, site advice and other ideas. There's just a handful of users there at present but Dave G alone has experience of a lot of success in the AIS world, along with others on there, all of which have their own areas of expertise. Oh and me! If you fancy trying to make money online or perhaps just want some marketing or SEO advice then why not come along and join? It's free to use and free of annoying flashing banners, just a couple of subtle adsense ads.

On the SEO subject I've spent most the day reworking a site that was redesigned and then dropped out of the rankings in January. After asking on various forums I finally got some pointers on things to try at Brighton Vibes and so I've been putting those into practice. Just a case of wait for Google to recache the site and see if anything improves (fingers crossed – please, please, please!).

Have a good May Day Bank Holiday weekend

I did a bit of gardening on the weekend. Too much crouching down and the result is two pulled hamstrings! Tells you how fit I am. My left hamstring is giving me a lot of pain and has been since Monday morning. In fact I think it's just getting worse and not better. Dave went out and got me some Nurofen Gel and Iboprufen so I'm hoping that it will start to go soon as I can't bear the pain right now. I never suffered this much after months of skiing! Yet a bit of gardening and I'm bedridden

Got some pictures of all my good work however, I'll put those up later

I've been looking for a new desk chair. My current one is years old, the back no longer supports and it's too low down. So I went to Staples in Milton Keynes and tested their chairs. My Mum and I spent about half an hour sitting in various chairs until I found one comfortable and suitable. Then a young lad who worked there informed me that I could order online and get free delivery. Great! So I went to my local Staples here just to see if I could maybe get them to delivery it instead. No must be ordered via the catalogue or online. However I'd found an even better chair so it wasn't a waste journey!

So yesterday I went online to Staples. I found the chair I wanted, added it to my basket. Then staring at the checkout screen I noticed "All prices exclude VAT". Yet the chair was £79.99 the same price as in the store.

So what does this mean? That if you buy from the Staples web site you may get free delivery but you pay 17.5% for it! £14 to have a chair delivered! I'll go back to the store and put it in the car (it'll just about fit!). How can a company do that? Charge the same price in store as online except one includes VAT and one excludes it. I wonder how many online customers of theirs realise this?

Now that spring is finally here and the summer will be soon I am really itching to get on my bike. I don't know the area where I live very well, but I do know it's fairly flat and probably a good place to go cycling around. Plus I'd like to start working out the areas to determine where I'd like to possibly buy somewhere to live next year. Of course the most beneficial aspect is the exercise. I've never had a problem cycling. Walking up the stairs sometimes gets me out of breath but I can cycle (and ski) for a very long time without a problem. Perhaps that's just where I have the strength in my legs but I really enjoy it because I find it easy. Not exercise bikes however, they seem completely different. Perhaps it's because you're putting resistance against you instead of just creating a power.

The annoying thing is that I have a perfectly good mountain bike at my parents, but they won't be coming up here for at least another 2 months and I'm too impatient to wait that long. I'd have brought it back in my car but the downside of the Smart is the lack of large space. I can fit a lot of stuff into my car however the bike, even minus the wheels, is too large. So I'm going to buy a new bike to use up here, however I'm now thinking, considering my other bike (American Huffy) is 13 years old, that perhaps I should just spend a little bit more and buy a decent new bike. Dave's going to be buying one too so that we can both go out and get some fresh air and exercise.

We took a look today in Halfords and JJB Sports. It seems the general price seems to be £80 upwards. Add accessories onto that however of course. None of these bikes had mud guards on for a start. The price isn't an issue any more, which is nice! And I'm always willing to pay out if it means I'll get some exercise. Plus to be honest if I just cancelled my gym membership I'd be saving £36 a month, suddenly 3 months down the line that's a new bike paid for! Yes I'm being slack. I'm going to cancel my gym membership (I've not been in about 6 months) this month.

I've been very slack with my diet recently. So much for losing a little excess before going on holiday! I've lost and gained and am pretty much the same now as when I started about a month or so ago. I've not been updating my Diet Blog either, and visitors have dropped off a little on that. I'm hoping to put things right this weekend and at least be healthy until I go away. We stocked up yesterday with fish, steak burgers, and plenty of fruit, veg and salad. We're going to have our first barbeque up here on Monday, corn on the cob, steak burgers and salad.