Tag: #100DaysToOffload

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My dentist’s business doesn’t have a website.

They may have some level of personal presence on social media. They may even talk about dentistry on their social media.

But they don’t have a website.

She told me they have enough business that they don’t need one.

That’s cool; word of mouth is the strongest form of advertising there is.

But what if you don’t have enough business that you don’t need a website?

You could sign up for a social media account, but then you’re beholden to their rules and their longevity.

Imagine if you had built your business site on MySpace, or LiveJournal, or even a Facebook page (Facebook pages get less and less views every year, unless you buy ads).

What if you say the wrong thing and they ban you?

What if you didn’t say the wrong thing but they ban you anyway?

They can do that, you know.

Or maybe they go out of business and disappear completely.

It’s happened.

That’s why I always push anyone who wants a presence on the internet to get their own domain name and start an email list.

And then build out their own website utilizing both.

It’s not as difficult nor expensive as one might think.

It’s my goal to make it easy and affordable for anyone, and I use WordPress as the platform to do that.

My Journey Into WordPress

When I told my wife I wanted to transition into WordPress hosting, management, and development full-time, she wasn’t impressed.

“Does anybody even still use WordPress,” she says to me.

This was just a few weeks ago.

According to WP Beginner’s 2024 market share analysis, WordPress still holds 65% of global Content Management System (CMS) market share.

And 38% of the top 10,000 websites are powered by WordPress, including a few names you might recognize such as Disney, Facebook, and Sony Playstation (coincidentally my preferred gaming platform).

Beyonce and Usain Bolt have been known to use WordPress (imagine Beyonce browsing the WordPress theme directory)!

BuiltWith.com reports (at the time of writing) 34,635,214 live websites are using WordPress, with 3,718,788 just in the USA.

Clearly, WordPress is not dead.

Even though Wix is spending a massive amount on advertising.

WordPress hardly needs it.

Mostly because WordPress is easy and affordable.

For example, Wix starts at $17 per month, and that’s with pretty limited features (“light” marketing suite, no analytics, no eCommerce).

I offer WordPress hosting starting at $10 per month, with full featured marketing, analytics, eCommerce, and other features.

It’s not that Wix is greedy or that I’m just altruistic and cutting profits for the sake of accessibility (although, I do that too).

It’s that Wix requires that kind of payment to run while WordPress does not.

My Beginnings

I started building websites when I was 13 (2001) using Lycos/Angelfire WYSIWYG builder, at 14 I discovered HTML and used that to build websites up until I was 19 (2007).

I loved (and still do) digging into the code and being able to type text that then immediately generates something visual I can share.

I also loved (and still do) writing, and now I had a way to share that more widely.

In high school I honed my HTML and CSS skills building custom LiveJournal and MySpace themes for myself and friends.

I wanted to go to Full Sail College and continue to study web design, but it was way too expensive.

So, I went to community college.

At 19, after a brief/failed stint in the USAF, I was introduced to WordPress.

I was working at a restaurant but in college for web design (I eventually got a degree in game design instead), but I got a side gig putting in data for a coupon website, which happened to be built on WordPress.

At 20, I got hired to work at an SEO company (now Analytic Call Tracking) full time, which used WordPress for all of their sites.

Through my 5+ years working with them, I installed, managed, and modified countless WordPress websites for them and their clients.

Learning And Growing

After Web 1 SEO, I got my degree in game design, but got a job working for a network of substance abuse rehabilitation centers.

Although I was hired as their Internet Marketing Director (which had all sorts of laws and rules to learn), I spent a lot of time managing their websites.

They were all built in WordPress.

When the rehab network sold, I was tasked with my first real WordPress challenge:

Moving sites from one host to the other.

Back then I was unable to find any reliable plugins to do it for me, so I had to do it manually.

It was tough!

Moving a WordPress still is, if you try to do it manually.

I eventually prevailed, but it took entire days and many headaches and calls to the hosting tech support to get it right.

My biggest lesson there was that sometimes there are things worth just hiring an expert to handle for you.

After that, I landed my current day job, Communications Director for the American Institute of Building Design (AIBD).

Working for a not-for-profit professional association has a whole new set of challenges.

As I was being hired, they were also switching to WordPress for their sites, so I was right at home.

My official job description was essentially marketing and public relations, but as time went on I found myself managing more and more aspects of the websites.

The COVID Pandemic happened, we all moved remote, and our dependence on Software as a Service (SaaS) increased.

We signed up for some cool software between 2020 and 2022 that solved a lot of our problems.

Honestly, we were thriving during that time.

But the problem with not having control over these things is that they can disappear.

It’s now 2024 and some got sold and their pricing increased. Some got sold and were swallowed and no longer exist.

I suggested we look for more self-hosted solutions.

We now run the majority of our organization through WordPress.

WordPress isn’t just a CMS anymore.

It’s now also our Association Management Software (AMS), too.

Our previous AMS, which was swallowed up, cost us over $300 per month.

The AMS they wanted us to switch to would cost over $1000 per month.

With Paid Memberships Pro, we are able to manage all of our members and certification for under $500 per year.

And personally, on this website, I run MailPoet which is an email service that runs through WordPress.

I was using ConvertKit (affiliate link) before, which is still the one we use at AIBD and I recommend to to anyone who doesn’t want to run their emails through WordPress.

My first freelance client project, recently, was a big failure, though.

She was the perfect client, but I dropped the ball and learned a hard lesson:

I am not a designer.

Hosting, managing, securing, and some development, I can do.

Design is not something I can do.

I can modify premade themes to do what my clients want, but trying to design something based on her specs was a mistake.

I got the site up and functional, but she ended up hiring another company to redesign her website after my failure.

Hard lesson, but she was very kind about it.

Looking Ahead

Now that I know what I can and can’t do, I’m confident in my abilities as a WordPress host, manager, and developer.

I love digging into the WordPress code (or plugin code) and adapting things to work the way I want them to.

My intentions are to move from my current day job into a full time freelance WordPress hosting, management, and development position.

I will continue to learn and grow in the field, adopting new technologies where I see fit, without compromising security and privacy.

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Someone in a copywriting group I’m in got this question from a potential client:

“If you were a soup, what soup would you be?”

They thought it was a pretty strange question from a potential client, but it’s actually not.

You see, back in the 12th-17th centuries, alchemists had to hide their esoteric knowledge in secret code.

At first, it was because the knowledge was so powerful that they didn’t want too many people to use it.

Imagine if any old bloke could turn lead into gold. It would completely destabilize the economy.

That’s not good business for the alchemists, so they kept their secrets behind symbols and metaphors.

Copywriting is the same.

It’s powerful, and we can’t just let anyone learn it.

Just like the alchemists, most copywriters are charlatans.

They’re not turning lead into gold.

They arrive with lead and hidden gold, and use slight of hand to switch them out so you think they’ve transmuted.

The true copywriters know about soup.

The question “If you were a soup, what soup would you be” was devised by an elite and clandestine guild of copywriters known as the Ink Illuminati to do two things:

  1. Figure out who the real copywriters are (for they will have an answer)
  2. Figure out what type of copywriter they are (as the answer will reveal)

Different soups have different meanings, so your answer is important but it must be knowledgable of the secret code.

Tomato soup means something different than chicken noodle soup means something different than Italian wedding soup.

Only the initiated know what the correct answer for them is.

And if you try to pick one, they’ll know just by your writing if you know what you’re talking about or not.

If you know the secret code or not.

If you can turn lead into gold or you’re just attempting slight of hand.

For your information, I’m a beer cheese soup (made with PBR) and if you’re interested in learning more about copywriting (for your music, or software, or whatever it is you’re working on), hit me up.

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You’ve probably heard of permaculture.

Permanent + Agriculture = PermaCulture

According to Bill Mollison, cofounder of the movement,

“Permaculture is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems.”

Another thing Bill Mollison said,

“The only ethical decision is to take responsibility for our own existence and that of our children.”

In 1978, I don’t think he was considering the impact computers and the internet would have.

Or electronics in general.

According to a 2021 study by Lancaster University, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) makeup between 2.1% and 3.9% of global emissions.

Techoptimists say increasing efficiency of computers will improve this, but they have been historically wrong.

In is 2023 essay on Frugal Computing, Wim Vanderbauwhede writes:

“We can’t rely on next-generation hardware technologies to save energy: the production of this next generation of devices will create more emissions than any operational gains can offset.”

Permacomputing is one answer to this problem.

Just like permaculture is permanent + agriculture, permacomputing is permanent + computing.

It’s quickly becoming a “buzzword” around both sustainability and communities.

Even kids tech magazines are talking about it.

Let’s take a look at the permaculture ethics and principles:

Ethics:

  1. Care for Earth
  2. Care for People
  3. Reinvest Surplus

Principles:

  1. Observe and Interact with the land.
  2. Connect and integrate the pieces.
  3. Catch and store energy and materials.
  4. Each component performs multiple functions.
  5. Least change for the greatest effect.
  6. Use small-scale, intensive systems.

Permacomputing.net has a page for Principles, which integrates the Ethics as well:

  • Care for life
  • Care for the chips
  • Keep it small
  • Hope for the best, prepare for the worst
  • Keep it flexible
  • Build on solid ground
  • Amplify awareness
  • Expose everything
  • Respond to changes
  • Everything has a place

Last year I had already decided to stop buying new music equipment.

I’m either buying used, repairing/refurbishing broken, or building my own.

Moving forward I’m going to be thinking (and writing) a lot more about permacomputing and how we can all live that life, especially from a musician’s standpoint.

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My favorite website is the Berkshire Hathaway website.

It has nothing to do with the company itself.

I invest in stocks because I feel like I have to if I want to retire.

I actually believe that shareholder value is a myth and that it’s actually bad for our economy.

The reason BerkshireHathaway.com is my favorite website is because it’s built in pure HTML.

It remains largely unchanged since 1997, which is the oldest Wayback Machine goes.

Seriously, go to https://berkshirehathaway.com/ and hit F12 on your keyboard (you might have to hold down the Fn key).

You’ll see your browsers inspector pop out.

You can see that https://berkshirehathaway.com/ doesn’t even have modern HTML 5.

It’s still built with tables.

A single Berkshire Hathaway stock (Class A) is worth half a million dollars.

Their entire stock portfolio is worth about $351 Billion.

That’s $351,000,000,000.

That’s enough money to buy everyone on the planet a hamburger.

Every day.

For a month.

But their website design hasn’t changed in almost 30 years.

Their website technology hasn’t changed in almost 30 years.

That’s awesome.

The site load speed is 116 ms with a page size of 198.1 kb.

For comparison, my website at the time of writing loads in 2.14 seconds with a page size of 2.8 mb.

And I’m not worth anywhere near $351 Billion.

The carbon footprint of BerkshireHathaway.com is rated A+, cleaner than 95% of websites, according to Website Carbon Calculator.

Again, for comparison, mine is a B, above 64% of websites.

This has inspired me to leave WordPress and build my website to be much lighter.

In 2025, GarrettMickley.com will join the SmolWeb.

If I can, I’ll have it running on a solar-powered server, too.

Until then follow my RSS feed or register for my email newsletter:

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My “hierarchy of automation”:

  • If you have to do something more than once, automate it.
  • If you can’t automate it, delegate it.
  • If you can’t delegate it, make a checklist.

For my $dayJob, I’m moving our online courses from Teachable to Podia (ref), because the pricing and features are much better.

We have around 50 courses, some with several hours of video in them.

It’s a big move taking me two months to do.

  • I couldn’t automate it at my current level of knowledge.
  • I couldn’t delegate it because multi-factor authentication is required, and it costs money to give that access to another “seat.”
  • So, I made checklists and got to work.

But the task is so monotonous that I struggle a lot to get it done.

I set a hard deadline, told Dadboss it was time to launch it, and now I’m pulling an all-nighter to get it done.

Because I procrastinated way too long.

I got sidetracked working on things I’m more interested in.

More intellectually stimulating tasks.

Right now, as I type this, I’m waiting for videos to upload.

That’s the hardest part of this move.

Downloading and then re-uploading videos.

I’m at the mercy of the speeds my network and their servers will allow.

I’ve tried so many different ways to get organized.

So many apps.

As I wait for videos 3 and 5 of this course to upload, I’m reading about going back to basics:

Plain text everything.

  • Todo.txt looks promising.
  • Several friends have recommended Vim.
  • (None have recommended Emacs).

This guy also has some good ideas on using Github and plain text to manage pretty much everything:

I keep forgetting, I should be prioritizing time while something is uploading.

I just made a bunch of new tasks in Basecamp, the tool my $dayJob uses.

And while doing that, I should have had a video uploading.

This is another thing I need to think about more.

Using time wisely.

How do you get things done? 

What tools do you use for productivity? 

Any tips on managing time wisely?

Please let me know.

I want to kick ass in 2024 and beyond.

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My wife-to-be had to step out for an errand while dinner was cooking.

She already did all the hard work.

Everything was cleaned, cut up, assembled, and put in the oven.

She said, “All you have to do is take it out of the oven in 40 minutes.”

I immediately set the timer on my watch.

And then I forgot about the cooking food altogether.

Because that’s how my brain works.

I can remember getting a Mr. Potato Head for my 3rd birthday.

I can remember the party was at a pavilion in the beach parking lot.

My cousin was upset because he wanted to play with it and he had to leave.

But the dinner I just put in the oven is completely gone from my mind.

So there I was, trying to be a good fiancé and do the dishes.

I took off my Apple Watch, put it on its charger in my office, and turned on a podcast on my iPhone.

Then returned to the kitchen.

My Apple Watch requires the iPhone for pretty much everything (I don’t have the Apple Watch w/ the phone service built in).

In my mind, if I put a timer on my Apple Watch, my iPhone should know.

And if I take off my Apple Watch, my iPhone should know.

So when I take off my Apple Watch, and there’s a timer on it, the iPhone should let me know when the timer goes off.

The Apple Watch requires the iPhone.

If I set a timer, it’s obviously something important.

The User eXperience should always be:

Err in the favor of the user.

It should always be:

Protect the user’s interests.

Meaning:

The timer going off on a very smart device in one room that is connected to another very smart device in another room much closer to the user (I know they can measure this) should prioritize making sure the user knows the timer is going off.

Is this a UX issue? 

Is it some setting I turned off somewhere along the line?

Or is the real issue my reliance on technology?

I’ll order a big red tomato timer for the kitchen counter.

And instead of being a cook, I’ll stick to making music.