Most of my day’s self-nudging was linked to writing and being better organized.
27.1 was some extra blogging today. I wrote about my guide to astronomy as well as an article I liked way back in 2012.
27.2 was somewhat simpler, which is that I have never really done a deep organizational dive into OneNote. I used to use Evernote long ago, I liked how it was going initially, and then they changed their business model and I said sayonara. But with my writing heating up, I feel like I would like a better organizational approach to taking notes, even on my phone. I condensed some of my workbooks down to one main one, and now I’m going through and moving things around as necessary.
27.3 was a bigger writing exercise. Some time ago, I developed a rough outline for my “PolyWogg Guide to Astronomy”. Except when I did some rejigging of everything, I accidentally deleted the table of contents and outline from my blog page, thinking I had a separate copy on my hard drive. I didn’t. Sooooo, I recovered the old one from an old backup, and then added to it substantially. But I finished, and I have now sent out the ToC for feedback. Maybe some people will give me ideas, maybe they won’t. But my first stage is done.
I have been doing this series for the month, and while it had a clear purpose at the start of the month, I’m not as convinced the blogging is as relevant as when I started. I wanted it to hold my feet to the fire, to ensure I was making good planning decisions to nudge me forward, and it did that at the beginning. But now that I’m bopping along, the accountability requirement to blog almost seems redundant. Certainly anti-climactic. And, when I’m blogging about other things, this type of post is not necessarily at the top of my list to do before bed. Take this entry, for example. I didn’t write it Friday or Saturday nights, as I was too tired. Instead, I held off until tonight to close out all three nights at once. To be honest, I wouldn’t even do it tonight except my memory starts to fade.
24.1 was from Friday morning, which started off with dropping Jacob at school. With Jacob’s AFOs out of the picture for the foreseeable future, I think I’m likely to be running him to school most mornings, at least until we can figure out ways to get his endurance up (if possible). I followed up with a detailed conversation with the physiotherapist, and we have a way forward on his exercises. In the meantime, he’ll take the bus home, and most days we’ll try to meet him near the stop to help carry his backpack home. I need the exercise anyway.
24.2 was sort of “post dropoff”, running a bunch of errands to get things organized at home, with a pharmacy run for example.
24.3 was looking towards October and what I might blog about regularly, if anything. As I said above, I don’t need to post daily on my nudging behaviour, weekly at best, but I do have an idea that actually was sparked by an episode last week of New Amsterdam called “More Joy”. A little cheesy, I know, and it isn’t really tied to the episode, but we’ll see how it goes.
25.1 was the first item of Saturday morning, which was my full-body workout. I did my stretching exercises, and then went to the BowFlex system. Annnd, it was time for an step-up in my training. My body has been reacting well to the movement, the weights are about right, but for a few exercises, it was clear the reps were not up to the right level. Soooo, I boosted 8 of the 9 exercises from 1 set of 10 reps to 3 sets of 10 reps (most were already at 2 sets anyway), and for three of them, I boosted it to 3 sets of 25 reps (they too were already at 2 x 25). My body resisted a little bit, but overall, it was fine with the extra weight and breaking more of a sweat. I do, however, realize that I seem to be much better at doing the exercises in the morning. By late afternoon, or early evening, my motivation is way down, and I’m often tired with a burgeoning headache tied to allergies or blood pressure. Not a great time to jump on the weight machine. So mornings look like my best time.
25.2 was a small issue with Jacob’s setup of his Minecraft server. It’s generally working well for everyone, no lagging, but there’s a tweak needed for Jacob’s laptop and we haven’t quite nailed it yet. I did some research as to potential options, gave them to Jacob to try, and spoiler alert, it didn’t fix it. But at least it was a start.
25.3 was a blog entry about potential monetization of the sites. Or, more accurately perhaps, why I DON’T monetize the sites. I enjoyed writing it and was grateful for the organized input from another source to help me structure my thoughts.
26.1 is a big outstanding item, namely organizing the garage. Andrea and I got started on this way back in the spring, and part of it was in anticipation of my future observatory. When that died, so did some of my interest in the garage project. There are three major things that have to get done once I even get it organized, and it is the next major step in the overall set of projects. I had promised myself that I would do 30 minutes solid on it this morning, which turned into almost 2h+ instead. I’m happy to get as much done as we did, but my lower left back wasn’t too happy with me when we were done. Still, nice to have a major “chunk” out of the way.
26.2 was a simple outing this afternoon after an afternoon conference call to do some shopping for Jacob. He needs a new fall coat, some gloves, a new toque, maybe a few other things. We didn’t have much luck on the coat side, at least not at SportChek, but we ticked the box for the rest.
26.3 was some more research on alternative exercises. On Saturday, we did an outing for a massage for Jacob’s legs, and as part of the outing, we came up with five new exercises to replace part of our workout regimen that wasn’t working as well. While I had a great set of diagrams earlier, the replacement ones require a bit more work to finetune. I’m also considering going to see a local kinesiologist in order to figure out my workout options for me, and we have a PT coming who will likely have some fine-tuning ideas for Jacob’s routine. In the meantime, I downloaded some images I can use to remember each exercise.
I made a small typo in my predictions for this show, as I thought it was called “The” Foundation, but it is simply “Foundation”. For my prediction, here is what I said:
The Foundation starts on Apple TV+, a sci-fi series ruled by a clone not happy about a mathematician predicting darker times ahead. I am in like Flynn, and if it was on regular TV, I’d say cancellation; on Apple, I’m predicting renewal to Season 2.
Now that I’ve seen the first episode, I’d be tempted to predict possible renewal anyway. It’s hard to say. The show IS pretty hard-core sci-fi, and likely too dense for most casual viewers.
Here’s the skinny…a young woman has won a galactic math competition set up by a professor. She is from a conservative planet that shuns science and math, yet she has embraced it. She travels across the galaxy to the main planet to meet the professor and to take up a job with him, but upon her arrival, he tells her that she will be arrested the next day as one of his followers. The contest was really bait to find someone who could understand his mathematics well enough to verify that his predictive analytics are correct: the current civilization will fall within five centuries and may be followed by 300 centuries of dark conflict. He has a plan to limit the duration of the darkness — libraries to help people rebuild — but the current ruling dynasty is not happy to hear that his predictions have them dying off. The professor’s simple prediction comes true, they ARE arrested, and the trial basically accuses them of treason.
The professor, Hari Seldon, is played by Jared Harris, and I almost didn’t recognize him. Normally, he plays a bit of an oddball, emphasizing some issues with his eye alignment to make him seem a bit deranged and always a bit sketchy. Here, he’s very formal, sincere, respected, and speaks slowly and persuasively. In short, he is awesome. But he almost always is. Hodge from Mortal Instruments, Jones from Fringe, or Moriarty from Game of Shadows, he always delights.
Relative newcomer Lou Llobell plays the girl who won the competition, Gaal Dornick. She is generally solid, although in EP1, there are a few places where she seems a bit inconsistent i.e., either too light or too serious, although it could be the intent of the script for the scenes. Just seemed off a bit, pulling me out of the story.
There are a host of other characters…three leaders (clones), various people who represent the government (including Alexander Siddig aka Dr. Bashir as the government’s advocate), religious groups, and other supporters. It’s not clear yet who will make it through the series, and the direction of the series itself is unclear. The story has two time periods (present and 35y later), and both seem potentially compelling, although once you know it’s been 35y, I’m not sure the urgency of the interim period is as exciting.
Overall, it was a great Episode, really well done for production values, seemed more like a mini-movie than an episode. As I said in my prediction, I’m in like Flynn. Looking forward to the rest of the series.
I find it intriguing that on a regular basis, I get comments, enquiries and outright offers from people about how to monetize my sites. Mainly, they are referring to my PolyWogg site, and the HR content. That it is free money that I’m not “grabbing”. With suggestions of how to turn the site(s) into a consulting business or to sell the content as training, most often. I find it intriguing for two reasons.
First and foremost, I find it amusing that they think that I have never considered it myself. I have, I admit it, but it is always more of an abstract idea than a serious option to consider.
Which brings me to the second reason. I view my site as my words upon the waters. I write it, people read it. It’s not poetry, it’s not hard-won, it’s not a book. I have a well-paying job already. I don’t see any compelling reason to charge for the content, even if I could. It almost offends my sense of honour to suggest that I should profit from it.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not completely altruistic. I have a desire to write fiction, and I would absolutely write that content for sale. There are a couple of areas I might write after I retire that again, I think, would be amenable to book format and sale. Yet for most of my content, the idea of profiting from it seems wrong.
A recent article came my way from WPBeginner.com and it lists nine types of ways to make money from your website. The categories blur a bit for me, and so I would group it by four headings as I try to organize my thoughts.
Monetize
The most common suggestion for any site is to run ads. You can do it with Google AdSense or sell your own advertising directly if your site is popular enough. I get a few nibbles from time to time asking if they can pay me to run an ad on my site. It is the crassest of the options and turns my stomach at the thought. I never want ads on my site, not now, not ever. I hate them on just about every site I visit, even when done tastefully. It also strikes me as a stupid question. If they had actually visited my site, they would know that I don’t run ads ANYWHERE on the site now. Is their product so compelling or the pittance big enough to say, “Oh yeah, let me change my entire approach?”.
I did consider affiliate marketing for my book reviews. If someone read my review, liked the book, and clicked on it such that a few pennies went into an Amazon account for me to buy more books? That seemed okay to me, more or less. It wouldn’t affect my review in any way, it was so removed from the review writing and wasn’t enough to push me towards the ugly side of reviews i.e., paid reviews. But it was too much work to maintain, and I didn’t really generate any revenue from it. I just don’t write enough book reviews, and I wasn’t going to put lists of books on the site just to get clicks. Meh.
I have been approached by people wanting to exchange posts or “sponsor” certain blog posts, and that is way too close to paid reviews in my book. My site, my name, my opinions, my reviews. Period.
There’s one other area that the article talked about, but it doesn’t really apply to me. The idea is to create a site, get some traffic, monetize it, and then sell the site to someone else. “Flipping” sites, they call it. The third circle of Hell would be closer in description, if you ask me.
Memberships
The short version of this is that you sell “memberships” and people get members-only content. A private forum, or articles only they can see, or maybe a Q&A section. A few enquiries have been aimed at this, partly because I already have the content. So lock it down, make it more interactive, and sell regular subscriptions or even one-time only subscriptions. Separate from the icky feeling I have of only sharing with certain paid subscribers, there is a lot of overhead in managing memberships, payments, and privacy. Pass.
A heavily-related version would create unique content, like a job board for example, or some sort of posting where people pay to post their content. Could be a job board, could be Ebay for certain products. Or people could pay to list their company. Or events. But instead of the site being private and people paying to access the content, it would be public with people paying to post. Except I have no desire to post other people’s content.
Sales and Services
These generally fall into five categories, one of which I’ll hold to the end.
For services, some people suggest offering consulting services, or coaching, or even freelance services in whatever field you do. I have no interest in starting a side hustle nor particularly in continuing to “work” after I retire. My brother has a gig that would be far more likely for me to embrace than this.
A second service people often suggest is to sell physical products online including standard stores, online t-shirts, dropshipping, or simply as a full-scale Amazon affiliate store.
The third is very similar to the job board idea, where you turn your website into a platform to host other sales, like an online marketplace or auctions site where others can post their goods.
Finally, if you build off that “flipping” option earlier, there are suggestions to go hardcore with the WordPress material itself i.e., plugins, themes or graphics tied to WordPress layouts and look/feel. My skills are NOWHERE that good, and again, it’s just a side hustle consulting business. I already have decent skills in other areas, but again, I have zero interest in using the site to build a business.
Things that don’t offend my sensibilities
Obviously, I could turn the content into a book (for the PolyWogg HR Guide), and I like that idea. It makes sense to have a book option, people can read it online or if they want a copy of the book, click and order. Very popular, doesn’t offend me. I’m a wannabe writer and I spend a LOT of time writing on the sites. If it was fiction, I wouldn’t hesitate to charge. Why not charge for non-fiction if it’s in a book?
My hesitation, like my initial intrigue, is two-fold. First, I want people to have access whether they pay anything or not. I don’t like the idea that someone could benefit from my approach, but doesn’t because they don’t have $10 or whatever to pay for a book version. Or that ordering just adds friction. I want as many people to read the stuff as possible. Charging for it kind of restricts that goal.
But I also hesitate because I wasn’t charged to GAIN the knowledge. I asked people about their experiences and a lot of what I write is not just my own experiences but theirs. If they didn’t charge ME, how can I justify charging others? It doesn’t feel right.
If I go sideways for a second too, I also feel like it’s part of my duty as a manager in the public service to help other public servants figure out how to prepare properly for selection processes. And I already get paid to be a manager. So wouldn’t I be asking someone to pay me for something I should already be doing as part of the duties in my day job? Not as part of the day job, obviously, but as part of my obligations to help others in the community.
Once I retire, my position will likely shift a bit in that regard as it will take more work to stay current on stuff, and I won’t be an “active” manager. No residual duty to “help” would be in the way of charging. I already said I don’t want to do consulting that much, or even really coaching. Too time-consuming in my view. I might for some occasional cash or to keep my hand in the game. But not as a major function tied to the website.
I have thought about changing the content from a static website into more of an online course option with modules. And some people have suggested doing so as a full training course that is “sold” by subscription. But I have the same hesitations in whatever form it is provided, video or text.
And yet there is one area where I’m more open to the idea. If, after I’m retired, someone wanted to pay me to make a presentation to a group, I’d be willing to do that. Truth be told, I love the idea. I don’t care particularly if I get PAID to do it, provided there isn’t much cost to me to participate. Reimburse me for my out-of-pocket expenses like parking or a coffee, and I’d likely be good to go. I do have another area of expertise where I could see it being potentially lucrative to get hired to present in various locales around the world on two or three specific topics where I could develop a stronger content base on my website.
The article I referred describes it as “paid engagements as an influencer”, although I prefer to think of it more as speaking engagements for expertise. If someone in Boston wanted me to speak to their Board about one of the topics, I’d be happy to do so relatively cheaply, so long as they pay for my travel. I just don’t know if I want to hustle that much to seek out those options.
Last but not least
I have zero interest in setting up a Patreon account to attract donations. I am not interested in “patrons” sponsoring me or whatever. And yet, I love people who set up donation buttons to “buy them a coffee” for a variety of different sites or services. It is the equivalent of “shareware”, which is another concept I love. Completely free to use, full versions of whatever, but if you want to send me a couple of bucks, feel free to do so. As long as I’m working FT, I won’t do that. I might consider it after I retire. I haven’t decided yet. But it does interest me at least a little.
And yet NONE of these are things are attractive to me anytime soon. Nor, if I do have interest in the future, do I need any help doing it. Yet, like I said, I get enquiries that intrigue me, even if my answer is a polite but firm “no”.
Item 22.1 on Wednesday was some more fall TV premiere planning. Mostly getting my “tracker” set up so I know when shows are on, if I want to watch something live.
Item 22.2 was going out for dinner with Andrea for her birthday followed by dessert afterwards.
Item 22.3 was figuring out the stupid passport-on-my-phone links. I do not know what is going on with my iPhone as there are two things lately that SHOULD be working one way but when I try to access those menus, it throws up its hands at me as if it has never heard of those options. I got the files there no problem, but trying to create simple links to them on the home screen was WAY more complicated than it should have been.
Item 23.1 for Thursday was an appointment for Jacob. This was a crapfest unfortunately for outcomes. What we thought was a simple fix to his orthotics has turned into a need for other appointments first, which we can’t get until later this fall/early winter. Which leaves him without his AFOs for the foreseeable future. Which leaves him with limited endurance. Admittedly, Andrea did most of the legwork on this one, I was just the chauffeur.
Item 23.2 was related to the first one…I called the physiotherapist we used previously with Jacob and tried to book someone to help us figure out some detailed / targeted stretching for him. Guess I’ll wait for a callback.
Item 23.3 was giving Andrea her birthday presents. I confess that Jacob and I had been relatively stumped for a gift idea since she doesn’t want “stuff” that takes up space in the house. Jacob had the idea for a Van Gogh puzzle, and while we couldn’t get it in the exact size we wanted, we managed to find two other puzzles that were a bit interesting. So we passed those over tonight…a day late, unfortunately. Sigh.
