I tell friends and family that I’m in “digital marketing”, but I realized that most of them haven’t the foggiest what I do all day. I’m also increasingly asking myself in which direction I want to steer the rest of my career, so I felt the need to firmly define what is it that: I enjoy doing, am good at, pays well enough to finance the kind of life I want to have. »
I got an inspiration to write this as I was examining my deeply held, possibly limiting, beliefs about marketing and writing. The you, you, you mantra I’m talking about is this one: You should use lots of you, you, you in your writing, instead of me, me, me. This popular writing advice falls in the category of “writing customer-centric content”. Unfortunately, this advice often fails to generate customer-centric content. »
You only start feeling the loss when something you’ve been taking for granted has been taken away from you. Less than two months ago, I was in a hospital bed in the intensive care unit, recovering from a surgery. I wasn’t able to sit up; I had to call the nurse if I wanted to pee (in a pot). Hospital was not a bad experience for me, but I never want to see an ICU again. »
It was time for another change. The first reincarnation of this blog was built with Python and Django in 2009. The second reincarnation was built with Ghost.org in 2014. In 2016, I built this version 3.0 with the Hugo Static Website Engine. So far, I love most of Hugo. I Miss Writing on My Blog I realized that I haven’t written anything since 2014 on my blog. I need to write. »
Don’t blame the economy. Don’t point fingers at your enemies, competitors, clients, partners, suppliers, Facebook, or Google. It’s not the government’s fault. Your parents, family, or your spouse aren’t responsible either. No, it’s not about your genes. Whatever or whoever you think is to blame, change that - and see it that helps. It might - but please, make that change! Take action! If that change doesn’t help, could it be that maybe, possibly, you’re changing the wrong thing? »
People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing, that’s why we recommend it daily. - Zig Ziglar I was researching slash writing about the reasons why we keep delaying implementation of crucial changes in our business. What or who impacts the way we make decisions? Are there decision-making activities that set the most successful business people apart? Thinking about that led me to the subject of mastermind groups. »
I ran into these two tweets the other day: I was immediately like: OMG this guy is totally right! Do my articles come off as condescending and as patronizing like that too? Gosh I hope not. How do I make sure I don’t patronize my readers and still get my message across? As someone who writes educational content for a living or, to be honest - who only recently started to write for a living - not being able to teach people important stuff is kind of a biggie. »
I hate writing. I love having written. - Dorothy Parker I published a book. I’m an author. On June 9th 2014 I pressed Publish on Leanpub and the book Recurring Revenue For Web Agencies with my name on it appeared online for the world to read, buy, appreciate and critique. I wanted to publish a book since 2012. It didn’t happen then for a number of reasons. This post explains what I changed and who or what helped. »
I’m successful in many areas of my life. For example, in April I celebrated ten years of being vegan. In the past decade I never once lapsed to eating anything of animal origin. I’m also proud to say that I am a happy person. I’m happy for who I am, where I am, what I have and whom I’m with. Being happy is my ultimate achievement and I’ve worked hard for it. »
Want to write for a living? You can. You just can’t put a $2.99 price tag on your book if you want to eat. I’ve been ranting about pricing for the past five years. Charge more. Just fucking do it. That’s what I’ve been telling my fellow web developers and web development company owners. That’s what I’ve been training myself to do. Now that I am finally ready to finish writing a book, I see that the same web development lessons about pricing apply to publishing books as well. »