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.
Soo Ill start whit what comes up first.
I’m excited about hiring a virtual assistant. I almost forgot why I started to offer consultancies trough the Upwork platform. To enable to fund bigger things. The day to day expenses forced me to focus on generating enough cash flow and in some way, I’ve learned an awesome lot in the past year (ooach, you must be tired or reading new year reflections) but at the other hand my private web developments got slowed down.
Time to get things going again and create some accountability by publishing progress on – for example – a Facebook campaign to get the clickablegrid plugin going.
Ok, heres my baby:
Cjnfd nf mcimn cng nim ni nic I ib hhfhnmj v
Enough opinion for a 1,5-year-old.
./ {SLAP)
No just kidding.
She needs some aattention now. Gettinvgn bacj laer.
One hour later… relative quit has come down to the house after lunchtime. It is daddy’s day and I am not working today, but I just had to get this blogpost out. It is such a relief to know that someone is working for me -at this moment- on updating a website and later we have the help in house coming to do the dishes.
To be successful you need to have focus
For some reason I did not read the often quoted ‘4-hour workweek’ bestseller of Tim Ferris before. It was nice to read so many similarities of the path I am on to become financially independent. Currently I can say I work location independent and that is a first big triumph on a journey that started five years ago in 2013.
More on that in another sequence of my upcoming e-book on Upwork success. Yet another idea of too many ideas. To be successful you need to have focus. I am sure someone has said that, and you must have heard it around.
As a generalist I know a little bit about everything and almost nothing when is becomes specific. The more I read the more I realize how little I know. Specialists on the other hand can charge much higher rates. The thing is that I never would want to end up enslaved in my own dental clinic or lawyer’s office.
Too bad I am not native English
There are few things a generalist can become exceptional good at. One of those is copywriting. A broad range of experiences combined with knowledge, learning and research skills is a good mixture to get started. Finishing off with a sauce of practise and a new specialist is born. Too bad I am not native English. Always will be a spot on my resume as a professional copywriter so I might as well brag about it. My lower rates due to my geo arbitrage may help too in landing more clients for copywriting gigs, but low pricing has never been a winning marketing strategy to my knowledge.
Enough food for thoughts, the edible metaphors keep coming in so I’m probably still hungry.
[Fills another plate of his famous 15 min pasta]
The funny thing is that I can write whatever I want because nobody is reading anyway. I will jus keep on publishing weird postings until someone proofs otherwise.
Am I writer just for myself or for a public?
It would be interesting for you to follow how I progress with some projects, so therefore a little list of things I am working on, also as a reference for future blog material.
Lack of focus is illustrated by the ammount of ongoing projects
Webhosting
Maintaining a modest portfolio of client websites. Not that interested in accepting new clients for hosting. Only when it is an extremely interesting full concept development.
Dutch Centre of Financial Information
The Dutch Centre of Financial Information is a translation for Nederlands Centrum voor Financiële Informatie or NCFI in short. It is the umbrella brand for my activities with Dutch personal finance websites. A long going SEO project with it first website published in 2007. Currently I am drafting SOP to be able to remove myself from the system.
Management System Consulting and Audits
After further educating myself with an MBA in Costa Rica and an additional internal auditor training I am actively applying to Management System implementations and or audit openings both at the Upwork platform and on site in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. How is that for desiring location independent work? It is not for the money. It is to gain experience and a good reason to get out from time to time. Real life examples are still the best way to understand and learn how organisations operate.
Copywriting jobs at Upwork
Web content in Dutch and English such as website content, blogposts, managing affiliate marketing campaigns. Translations, creative writing, copywriting, editing. I’m trying to specialise here in content for small to mid-size organizations that need to upgrade their mission and vison statements. I’m avoiding start-ups. This strategy may change tomorrow.
E-book on Upwork Success
As I know two sides of the Freelance world, both as a freelancer and as contractor too. I can provide a unique perspective on Upwork Success and help you prevent to make many mistakes I have made so far and share the good stuff. Lots of it.
Webapp.li/cation
One of my latest blurbs that will probably get disposed after some time or become a huge hit. Either of those. The idea is that applications should be accessible to all. Not in terms of costs, but in terms of one app for all devices. I dislike non-compatibility. Explaining my weird fascination for the bureaucratic world of standards.
Clickablegrid.com
Another idea that has been on the shelve for too long time. Time to act with a Facebook campaign to get some subscriptions of pre-orders in. I have been thinking a lot -too much perhaps- on the coding language to use and all that. I have decided to move on with the all familiar WordPress PHP framework and get a plugin developed as a first shippable software product.
Image navigation technology that enables website owners to make images such as flowcharts or organigrams clickable in a simple, straightforward way, and use those for intuitive browsing. Totally responsive and available on any device. You understood that already.
Backbone.ms
Backbone Management System is the Hosted Intranet for Integrated Management Systems. It is still in the alpha design phase but soon, very soon, a demo version showing the basic concept will be available. The Clickablegrid plugin will be a feature in backbone.ms to enable simple image navigation.
Return on Investment
Based on my current rate per page this blog post would have costs you 75USD. The ROI of my efforts on my personal blog is hard to predict because it is general self-promotion, but I promise I will get back to that. One day sooner or later.
Those are a lot of promises for future content. On all these topics I should be giving updates in the coming weeks. If you have read this. Ask me about it!
