The Journey To Where I Will Be Part II
As I said in a post a few weeks ago, my experiment on being fully supported by income from the internet began in earnest in August 2007. It wasn’t without a few hiccups along the way, but within 4 months, I was making more money online than I was making before as a teacher. Simply amazing.
More than just the increased income, I also had more free time. I was in the Philippines at the time so I was able to go out to Jollibee with the kids whenever I wanted to. I could let them play in the kiddie area while I just sat back and relaxed. This easy life continued for about a year.
It continued until there was a confluence of negative events all at once. The financial crisis in September 2008 was a major catalyst. People started getting scared and within a few weeks, the paid writing market just about dried up completely. People just weren’t paying for business services. This meant a sharp reduction in my writing income.
Another problem that came up was a bad decision on my part. I decided to take a month to help a friend try to build a business quickly. He needed the help and I thought that I could afford to stay away for a month from paid writing while people got their heads back on straight. Bad move. It was a bad decision because first the friend’s business went nowhere and was basically a lost cause. Second, well the few existing customers I had looked elsewhere for their writing needs.
As I said, there was a confluence of events. The last nail in the coffin was diabetes. Normally diabetes develops over a period of time and there are plenty of warning signs. Not for me. I was hit like a freight train and it culminated in a month of being bed ridden not able to figure out what I had. By time I got to the doctor and got proper medication, I had been out of work for more than 2 months. Two months is a long time in an industry that moves at internet speed.
December 2008 wasn’t a good month for me. I spent the month trying to once again get back into doing the internet work that had solely supported me for more than a year. I sputtered along but several things started to become abundantly clear to me. I think it was the turning point for my time in the Philippines.
By January 2009, I was looking for alternatives and knew that real alternatives were hard to come by during a Great Recession. During my research, I ran across a post about Saipan. I started doing some real research about Saipan but found that there wasn’t a lot of information about it. The most important fact that I learned was that my wife could come here with just a visitor entry permit and that I could change it to an IR permit within 30 days. I realized that it was our best chance and with a window closing by June 1st, it was something that needed to be done right away.
The Journey To Where I Will Be Part I
As I alluded to a few weeks ago, I am in the process of moving forward with a purpose. I remember just how I got started in all of this business so maybe now is the time to reflect on just how business for me began.
I remember arriving back dead broke to the US back in August 2004. I struggled financially for the first couple of months but then things finally started to click for me. I had a few extra dollars and an old computer connected to the internet. I decided to start hosting a few sites and get back into the work that I had been involved with several years before. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time needed to devote full time to this so guess what? I didn’t find the level of success that I wanted.
I ended up going abroad once again, this time to Korea and then on to Thailand once again. I was back teaching English. I was doing programming for others, as always, but I was also trying my hand at putting together sites of my own. Into my lap fell an opportunity in January 2006 to run a TEFL community called TEFLWatch. While it wasn’t very profitable at all, it did open doors that had previously been closed. Unfortunately, I closed it in December 2007 because of a confluence of several factors.
With many doors open, by August 2007, I was able to support myself entirely through a mini network of sites that I developed. I did everything on them, from hosting to web development to content development to marketing. It’s hard to be a jack of all trades, but I think I could classify the work as a success.
But this isn’t the end of the story, it’s merely the beginning….
Onward and Upward Against Diabetes
I am learning more each and every day in how to deal with this disease called Diabetes. It truly does sap my energy and it makes it hard for me to do the things that I used to do. I am confronting different challenges but it only helps me get over this illness and move onward and upward.
Some days I feel like I can change the world, while other days I feel like the world is trying to change me. I would say that this is the biggest challenge affecting me because of this diabetes. I am thankful that during this time, I have received a lot of moral support from friends and family. It has made all the difference.
Is The Recession Over?
I was reading a comment earlier today on a forum that really struck a chord with me. The person was commenting that the recession was over. My first thought was, “Yeah right. You say it’s over but what does that really matter?” I continued and read what he offered as proof.
He is a content writer and his proof was that people were once again ordering large orders of web content that he could fulfill. He surmised that since people were ordering content, people must be buying once again and so the recession must be easing. I don’t know if this is necessarily the truth, but it sure does bear watching.
Better Focus On Projects
I am enjoy doing some work around here on a few sites. Slowly, day by day, I am making more time and more energy for projects that can actually benefit people and the community at large. I sure wish I could do more, but right now I am doing what my health allows me to do.
One of the hardest things to do when you are intelligent and capable of doing so many things is learning how to focus on just a few things and excelling just with a things things. It’s something I am learning to do the hard way and something that I know I can get pretty good at if I can just learn how to focus better.
Any idea how I can meld my focus and the projects that need to be done?
Dealing With Blood Sugar Spikes
I am not usually big on personal stuff here on this blog, but I thought I would post this because it’s important and it deal with me and my life. As some of you may know, I suffer from diabetes. It’s been hitting be pretty hard this last two weeks and the doctors really have no idea why the blood sugar has been excessively high over the last few weeks and why the spike just shot up like it it did. I was actually in the hospital with a fasting blood sugar of 416.
What does this mean for me? I am dealing with all of the issues that come from diabetes. This means my outsourcing work is falling behind and many of my other projects. It seems like this is pretty cyclical over the last few months, but I hope that I can soon get this all behind me and get back to work like I love.
I would appreciate any ideas or comments about how to deal with this from people who know how to deal with this disease. Any advice is appreciated.
My Ebook Progress
It’s been a while since I last made an update about the progress of my ebook. Truth be told, I haven’t had much time to work on it over the last few months, but I am hoping that I can focus more on this project going forward. I really think my project is a winner and can really benefit a lot of people, all I need to do is buckle down and put together a good work schedule so that I can reach completion sooner rather than later.
The Slick Marketing Of Nothing
It seems like everything these days has to be a nice product all put together in slick packaging complete with a slick marketing campaign, even if all three elements are essentially fake. I know this is an older video from Youtube, but I couldn’t help but think of this video the other day. If you like great tasting water and like to pay for the privilege then this video is for you. Enjoy.
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