Huangyangtan - A failed business model

Yesterday marked the 2-month anniversary of Found in China. We and our readers have shared good times and bad, laughs and tears, perhaps a used tissue (sorry about that; it looked clean). Here's a status report:

Things are rrrrrreal slow.

About 175 people a day read the Google Earth forum post. They're probably late-comers, people who for some reason just ran across the subject in some blog somewhere. About 75 people a day stop in here at Found in China, and I know that one of them is my mom who only does it out of charity probably, leaving only 74 serious visitors.

These numbers will probably head down bit by bit over the next while as Huangyangtan fades from the collective hearts and minds of the world. I'll continue to monitor things, but probably won't be posting as frequently.

That's a result of a few things. You might recall that I'm looking for work, so I really shouldn't be spending much time with Google Earth. Wife sees to it that I don't, and so I usually check up on matters only briefly during my early-morning breakfast. The Found in China blog hasn't proved to be an adequate economic replacement for paid employment. The PayPal donations never rolled in (but no surprise here, really), wasn't taken seriously by drunk readers who sympathized with me (perhaps my readers are not as drunk as I presumed). The income from a few clicks on ads hasn't even paid for the electricity used by my PC. And there haven't been any other unforeseen developments; no job offers by intelligence agencies, no trips to China sponsored by travel agencies in exchange for publicity or an exclusive report, no book offers.

But it has been fun, and I'm not the kind of person to give up in the rabid face of adversity. Nope, Found in China is still alive and kickin'. At least during breakfast. Now I need to find work.