Try Microsoft Bing Ads! In an era where Google Ads CPC prices are rising to astronomic proportions it becomes less interesting to advertise on Google Ads for certain markets.
Keyword research is the reason I am not writing today about Corona virus
On short term it might be interesting to use hot topics and actuality such as this years’ killer virus. But on the long run I think it is not interesting. Not for me. Proper keyword research is.
Continue reading “Keyword research is the reason I am not writing today about Corona virus”
Crisis in Bolivia
There we are.
Two weeks ago all was nice and pleasant. Now we find ourselves hostage in our own house, only leaving the guarded compound twice a week to get groceries in the few limited hours in morning, before all roads get blocked.
Google Ads in Bolivia #Expocruz2019
Dropping the hashtag #Expocruz2019 for business owners who are looking to do business in Bolivia.
I am preparing an exclusive promo for an Google Ads Account Audit for Expositors at the trade convention that will take place from 20 – 29 September 2019 in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia.
Free Publicity
Dear Friend,
Today I am an early riser. Normally I wake up with an alarm at six and must force myself to get up, but now I cannot sleep and I silently sneaked out of bed to make sure no-one wakes up in the house.
Geo-arbitrage
Bolivia? WOW.
An often-heard response when I tell people where I live. It is called geo-arbitrage…
Houdyk Becomes Google Partner in 14 Months
Now that came as a surprise! I assumed it was on a 18-month track.
14 months ago (To be more precise on 8 of February 2018) I created my first ever Google Adwords ad. Today Google’s advertising platform is called Google Ads, and I am creating and improving ads on a daily basis.
Continue reading “Houdyk Becomes Google Partner in 14 Months”
Why your website is losing 28% of potential visitors if HTTPS is not enabled
There is a quick and simple automated solution and you can even get it for free
But wait. Discover nine reasons why you are better off paying for an SSL certificate. You will be glad to pay and get an even bigger smile on your face.
Continue reading “Why your website is losing 28% of potential visitors if HTTPS is not enabled”
Forget. Fiver is Fast. Fiverr PRO is Better
Stop wasting time. Consider it done with The Best Freelancers at Fiverr PRO. Get the Peace of Mind and Quality Time You Deserve.
Continue reading “Forget. Fiver is Fast. Fiverr PRO is Better”
How to become a Google Partner? Fast track to become one.
Continue reading “How to become a Google Partner? Fast track to become one.”
I Love It When A Plan Comes Together
Sometimes things seem to make sense all of a sudden.
Last year Freelancing on UpWork has been a great move and I truly enjoy writing publicity, creating and optimizing advertisements. I was so focussed on that I did not do too much about my own website, so heres an update.
Why I pull the plug out of Backbone Management System
I invested a lot of research efforts in the early development stages of Backbone Management System. It was to be my first SaaS business. The short answer is that I do not want to manage a multi-million dollar SaaS start up. That is a stressfull full time job.
Continue reading “Why I pull the plug out of Backbone Management System”
Google AdWords Search Certified Professional
At least untill 3th of April 2019. I may oficially call myself a Google Adwords Search Certified professional. I was awarded with the certificate after passing the AdWords Fundamentals and Search Advertising assessments. Since January 2018 these Google certificates are issued by Googles Acedemy for Ads. Continue reading “Google AdWords Search Certified Professional”
AdWords. The Symbiosis between Client and own Developments
It is incredible. The things I learn from my clients. I apply what I learn doing consultancies in my own projects. Visa versa, the things I learn doing developing my own endeavours are directly improving my clients results in every following assignment. A great example is Google AdWords.
Continue reading “AdWords. The Symbiosis between Client and own Developments”
Attention grabbing title
Sometimes inspiration is not at the highest levels and in that case production just comes down to hard work and falling back to a growing backpack of expereince. Attention grabbing title today. It might even work out great.
Are you a generalist or an expert?
This is going to be one of those brainfarts with no proper start or ending resulting from too many weeks of blogging absence, a baby sitting on my lap hitting the keyboard too, and ideas fighting to pop-up first.
Woocommerce for WordPress
I just added Woocommerce to this site. Woocommerce is an e-commerce solution for WordPress websites and it works awesome. By default several payment options are available. It can be used to build an entire online retail space, or just to sell a few products.
Why I missed hundreds of dollars and got set back one month in time
This simple administrative trick I am about to share now can save you a month or two of your precious time and opens up access to hundreds or even thousands of dollars’ worth of jobs.
Continue reading “Why I missed hundreds of dollars and got set back one month in time”
How to get your first client on Upwork
One of the steps on my route to financial independence and anticipated early pension is the ability to work no matter where. In stead of listening to the rant of someone who claims to have made it, I thought it might be more interesting to share my experiences on my path to freedom. Such a clichee claim – but as the matter of fact, while struggeling I did make certain advances and I am sure that the tips I am about to share about the Upwork platform are huge time savers and potential money makers for people just starting. I just recently passed the procces from Newbee to Rising Talent to become a Toprated freelancer.
SSL Security https safe browsing enabled
A whole long time of silence, and than suddenly appears backbone.ms to be a safe encrypted site accessible trough https and SSL certified altogether just as banks do. What seemed to be a luxury but often required feature is something that almost every site will have implemented one year from today. But let’s enjoy the feeling that having https is something special and welcome all those 100’s of new visitors that come to this super-safe site and learn about the Backbone Management System, your Hosted Intranet Solution.
How to install a SSL certificate to upgrade you WordPress site to https ?
Do you wonder how to install a SSL certificate to upgrade you WordPress site to https and get that fancy green lock in your browser? I did not care too much about that. It was something for web shops. This year something changed. Google started punishing websites that do not have encryption and are accessible through the old fashioned http by displaying them below all https results. And that hurts.
Continue reading “How to install a SSL certificate to upgrade you WordPress site to https ?”
ExpoCruz 2017
This week from 22 of September until next Sunday 1st of October is the 42 edition being held of the largest tradeshow in the wide region around Bolivia in one of the most existing and fast growing cities of South America, Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Expocruz once started as just another trade show for agriculture, now has the most wide range of exhibitors and attracts thousand’s of visitors in a ten days during festival.
Updated Contact Details
I just changed my contact details because we moved from Costa Rica to Bolivia. That was quit some trip. It took almost two months to get fully settled, but here I am in my new home office. All you need is a laptop? Well, stable internet is pretty useful too. That is why I spent some time in Starbucks last weeks.
Buying and selling a car in Costa Rica
After living over three years in Costa Rica, I realized that perhaps I might have learned some things that can be useful to a international public, especially for people that are going to live in Costa Rica soon. Perhaps you have just arrived and consider buying a car, you might be just in time to buy ours!
Half way update on weekly blogging
How about transparency? Nobody is reading this anyway, are you? So far replies and comments are absent. That is ok. User generated content takes a long breath, I know that.
Certified internal auditor
Last week rushed by in a blink.
All schedules overboard for a little vacation time so I will not write too much now. We’ll see.
How I totally missed out on Woocommerce
Week 10, Monday
How I totally missed out on Woocommerce. Woocommerce came out in 2011. I tried setting up ecommerce sites in 2010 and said, no more! After trying solutions for WordPress, Joomla and Magento. There was just not simple solution available to build a platform myself, so I gave up on it. No more ecommerce for me! Never looked at Woo.
Ten Sprints a Week
Sunday
10 Improve weekly planning by defining the week into 10 blocks of 3-hour work, perhaps you could call them sprints. An interesting approach to go through a full plan do check act cycle each week, with the 10 chapters of the high level structure in mind. Continue reading “Ten Sprints a Week”
Auditor Training for Management Systems
Monday
Never stop learning. That is why I continue to develop myself and take an auditor training to be able to perform internal audits. The course is following the principles for management system audits as described in ISO 19011 and using ISO 9001:2015 as a reference standard to be audited for.
The Backbone Backlog
The one and only reason for posting this message is to publish my idea for the name of Backbone Management System updates. “The Backbone Backlog”.
Week two of keeping a real log
Monday
Published last week’s Real Logs. My previous series of weblogs I scheduled for every Tuesday afternoon. I am not sure if it really matters a lot at this stage when I publish, because I am writing basically for new visitors that find my weblog trough their search engine, or social media at the times that they are browsing. Timing becomes more of an issue, when the flock of readers are looking out for my new post, and frankly, that is not the case. Yet. More to keep posting, I think every week log should be up on Sunday evening, or Monday morning.
The Real Logs
Accountability and community are two of the most sought after aspects that solopreneurs are looking for when working on their start-up. Perhaps that is why I propose by me, myself and I, to start using my weblogs in a most literal way. Keeping a log on the web. A real web Log.
From 10K to 100.000 monthly visitors
Is was a bumpy ride, but somehow I developed the skill to get blogs from zero to 10.000 monthly visitors. Will I be able to push this one up to 100.000 engaged visitors? Join me on that journey and subscribe to my weblog updates!
Scientific Copy writing & Scientific Advertising
I am taking a quick break now from my Scientific Copy writing to write about Scientific Advertising. Currently I am finishing my thesis were I write about farming systems, value chains and strategic planning. Interesting topics for some other time perhaps.
Continue reading “Scientific Copy writing & Scientific Advertising”
No Rocket Science, Science that Rocks
Have you seen the series Mad Man? This hit on Netflix is about an Advertising Agency and I loved it. Everything about it just shows off the efforts that were put in to make the series stand out from a mainstream production.
The decors, the clothing, the cast. It all adds up to a very realistic feeling of the time setting. I am not a marketing expert, but I know a thing or two about search engine optimization and content creation for the web. The advertising aspect played a vague role as a background motivation to watch the series.
Difficulties converting Twitter followers into #blog #subscribers
Every blogger wants to get eyeballs to his content. I described before my long-term strategies to grow visitor numbers to my blog. I still think that is the best way, but now I face some challenges regarding the time frame to grow my list of subscribers. And, let’s be clear, there is no budget for advertising.
Continue reading “Difficulties converting Twitter followers into #blog #subscribers”
Visionary Statement
Visionary statement Backbone Management System (2017-2021)
By the end of 2021 Backbone Management System will be a significant player in the market for integrated management systems. Aiming to meet ten percent of the demand for integrated quality management systems. Making continual improvement and organizational learning accessible for small and medium sized organizations. Our projection is to reach 3000 implementations in five years, with the point of gravity of our clients located in the U.S. and Europe. The implementations of the Backbone Management System will contribute to an increased sustainability thinking, with the triple bottom-line as the basis for new metrics development and sustainability management.
Are You the Perfect Customer?
Yesterday I did the annual B-assessment to keep track of the impacts that my management-system-in-formation potentially has. It is still a theoretical exercise to measure impacts, in the pre-launch phase, but I think it is a useful tool for strategic thinking.
We are ordinary business… before we even started
We are in the so-called alpha or pre-launch phase. That may sound interesting, but it means that lots of work is being done, without any money coming in. Not such a good business.
Continue reading “We are ordinary business… before we even started”
Planning my SEO Blog Content Outlines
The One Thing Agriculture and SEO have in Common
Although farming has at first sight little to do with Search Engine Optimization, these fields of expertise have one thing in common…
Continue reading “The One Thing Agriculture and SEO have in Common”
The Art of Blogging: Learn my Organic Traffic Building Strategy
Writing a blogpost about blogging is as lame as trying to make money with the ‘writing about how to make money’ strategy. Too many people are doing it. Why would I even try to beat the competition?
You need a good reason, a clear goal to do so.
Continue reading “The Art of Blogging: Learn my Organic Traffic Building Strategy”
[VIDEO] How to make Organic Substrate – Organicos el Cerro Negro
For my internship with CIRAD, I have the pleasure and honour to work with a group of organic farmers “Organicos el Cerro Negro”. During one of my visits, one of the associated organic farmers, Mainor Barrantes explained how to make organic substrate. He grows his own seedlings to sustainable produce organic vegetables on a mountain ridge nearby Nicoya, Costa Rica.
Continue reading “[VIDEO] How to make Organic Substrate – Organicos el Cerro Negro”
Best Webinars: Transition to ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015
One year ago, in September 2015 the new revised ISO standards for Quality- and Environmental Management Systems, ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 were published. The old standards can still be used during a three year transition period, so for organizations who already have a certification for their Quality,- Environmental or Integrated Management System there are maximum two years left for the transition towards the new standards.
Continue reading “Best Webinars: Transition to ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015”
Dropbox promotion sign up link 16GB free
Try dropbox trough my promotional link
…and receive free extra online storage.
Get up to 16 GB of free Dropbox space!
Invite your friends to join Dropbox, and for each one who installs Dropbox we’ll give you both 500 MB of bonus space.
Document and File Management in the Cloud
Confession: I still use external harddrives. I am not a geek, but an average tech user, just like you and most of my clients. No Apple for me, just one of-the-shelve laptop with windows, a commonly used tablet and a regular phone both running on android.
Continue reading “Document and File Management in the Cloud”
Just Moved
Technical Debt and the Urgent and Importance Matrix
This post is about Technical Debt and how this can accumulate easily… Just to show an example, In a previous blogpost that I wrote quickly using my tablet, I did not include all the references that I perhaps should have.
Continue reading “Technical Debt and the Urgent and Importance Matrix”
Managing Multilingual Content
Avoid managing multilingual content unless it is absolutely essential. Creating the content is at least double the work, or even more with several languages. Ofcourse an automated google tranlation is an option, but the output – without manual revision – will be full with errors.
Blogging with my samsung android tablet
It works! More or less. Today is thursday eight of september and I am in the middle of a field trip for my graduation project in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. From a hostel in Nosara, with the ocean waves crashing on the beach nearby. I sit down this evening to write a bit and fill some of my blogs gaps from the past weeks. It seems to be hard to publish something weekly. Perhaps I need to get used to the frequency, not be perfectionistic and just get something out each week.
How to make a Whiteboard Explainer Video with Fiverr
In last week post I shared my first whiteboard video. Today I will show how I made this video with few resources. I did not use a whiteboard at all or make any drawings, because there is software that can help create such a video in a semi-automated way. Most offers on fiverr are based on videoscribe software, that is why most examples look very similar. Forget the idea that you can hire someone to actually makes drawings for little money.
Continue reading “How to make a Whiteboard Explainer Video with Fiverr”
First Whiteboard Explainer video published
Following people versus organizations on Twitter
Because organizations do not follow back… Reviewing my twitter account I realized that most organizations do not follow back. Following people, organizations or blogs are filling up your timeline, but have no effect on the reach of messages you send or the post you feature, if they are not exposed to your outings.
Continue reading “Following people versus organizations on Twitter”
How to use Timestamp in WordPress
Time is a sensitive topic sometimes. A call for attention if something needs to be done swiftly, or for many other reasons, because time plays such a big role in our daily life.
Framework for Management System Standards
Currently two developments are interesting sharing.
First is the roll out of the highlevelstructure.com information portal which will serve as wiki page explaining the High Level Structure. The HLS is so essential because it is the new framework for management system standards. Now the site show a youtube video I recorded about a year ago. We are working on a update to convert it into an whiteboard explainer video.
Continue reading “Framework for Management System Standards”
A blog, serious? Thoughts on strategic blogging
Since 2004 I’ve been doing websites, blogs etc. But I never really took up blogging serious because I found it more interesting to create information websites (about personal finance), of to write specific blog about fishing.
Continue reading “A blog, serious? Thoughts on strategic blogging”
LinkedIn Group: Sustainability Management Professionals
Last month I started the LinkedIn Group: Sustainability Management Professionals.
Continue reading “LinkedIn Group: Sustainability Management Professionals”
Development news of Backbone Management System
After the initial contacts with experts and important players in field of compliance management I had end of 2015, the list of potential features for the Integrated Management System kept growing and growing. Sketches of the solutions have been made and I am working on a conceptual model, as a working prototype, before to get back to potential users. For now I thinks it is about time for an update and share some thoughts;
Continue reading “Development news of Backbone Management System”
B Corp Quick Impact Assessment [22/200]
![B Corp Quick Impact Assessment [22/200]](http://i1.wp.com/houdyk.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Quick-bcorp-assessment.png?fit=800%2C479&ssl=1)
Backbone icon
The development of an logo or icon is something that can take a lot of time. For earlier projects I spend hours and hours drawing and sketching logo designs. If you are not a designer that usually is a waste of time.
Quality-, Environment-, Health & Safety Standards
Historic development of Standards
In the 1960’s and ’70 quality standards were first developed as military standards, which ultimately led to the widely adopted quality standard published by the International Standardization Organization (ISO) in 1987 with ISO9000:1987 as its first version (The British Assessment Bureau 2015). In the early 2000’s, the environmental standard ISO 14001 started to gain the interest form many thousands of businesses (ISO 2013), followed by standards for Health & Safety with OHSAS 18001 reaching over 90.000 certified companies in 2011 (T.R. Fisher 2015). The standards for Quality, Environment and Health & Safety are Management System Standards (MSS). Given the ongoing growth of MSS, more and more business owners understand the importance of Quality, Health, Safety and Environmental (QHSE) aspects in the establishment of sustainable business (figure 1) and many clients and local governments require the formalization of the integration of MSS in the organization with the certification of the management systems (interviews with QHSE-managers).
Continue reading “Quality-, Environment-, Health & Safety Standards”
Development Blog
Since I am working on the prototype of Backbone I thought it is about time to share some things about ongoing developments. Read the weblog on my homepage about the steps I took so far. In future I will post news about backbone right here at this site.
Compliance Software for Sustainable Entreprises
It is getting about time that I share some ongoing developments… I researched the possibilities on compliance software for sustainable enterprises and this is leading to the development of a prototype right now. With this weblog I want to summarize and share the steps I took so far. I am very exited about this and I hope to be able to explain and make you feel why.
Continue reading “Compliance Software for Sustainable Entreprises”
Clickable Process
The Foundation
Some two or three months ago I was watching a series of interviews with successful entrepreneurs made by Yaro Starak. The interview with Dane Maxwell, co-founder of The Foundation inspired me to check out his program. Yaro has great content on blogging and offers a course to become ‘the authority’ on your subject. I learned a lot here, but I will not take his course, because I think a great business should be able to run without depending on me being the expert.
Mindmap and Youtube Video Channel
Last week I’ve uploaded two new video’s. In the first video, I explain How and why I use a Mindmap to set the outline for my youtube channel content. In this Mindmap video, I found four key themes that lead to Online Software for Environmental Business. For each topic I created a separate playlist and one playlist to list all the video’s together. Continue reading “Mindmap and Youtube Video Channel”
How to create a Youtube video with impact
Today I started a Podcast series by creating a videoblog on Youtube. Please subscribe to my Youtube channel at this url: //www.youtube.com/c/Houdyk-Video and leave your comments on the video’s.
Continue reading “How to create a Youtube video with impact”
Google webmasters tools: Mobile Friendly
My Manga Avatar
Today I used Face Your Manga to create a few avatars for my websites users. Trough wordpress’ Gravatar, each Avatar gets linked with an emailaccount. This way at the end of each post, will appear such an Avatar.
Hello world!
Hello world!
Invitation Focus Group
To share best practices on Integrated Management Systems I would like to invite you to register for the Backbone.ms newsletter to be accepted in the LinkedIn group.