2023: A year of change

Looking back at this blog, I see how much has changed AGAIN.  Not only is Facebook still being difficult, now Twitter is no longer a positive place to be. I'm hanging in with it to stay connected to people I've learned so much from, but I'm finding more connections with LinkedIn alongside dipping my toes into Mastodon.  

From a work perspective, this image represents my year. Do you think it means taking a chance on change? Or make a change to get a better chance? I think both-and will be the goal for the year. 

The number 23 is significant to me and I am happy to be in 2023 contemplating next steps across the board. Let me know if I can help your business do the same... what changes do you need to make? What cleanup are you doing post-pandemic to clear the decks for your next big adventure? 

Wow the landscape has shifted

My headline means two things to me today. First, the social media landscape. This was my post on Facebook this week. 

Social media is a mess right now. The new Facebook interface is convinced I want to be one of the groups I support all day long (and not myself) which completely confused a friend this morning. Twitter keeps changing its interface and asking me to give them money (no way, you should be grateful I'm still logging in and seeing any of the ads on the site). Instagram keeps sending me videos of strangers describing knitting hacks in languages I don't understand (and I'm not entirely sure why except for the one "how to crochet a penguin video" I did watch once about six months ago). I'm not job hunting so LinkedIn is not a destination and I prefer to read instead of watching videos so YouTube is not the best place for me either. 

But, I do like to know what you're all doing. Going to try to keep hanging in here to see the people I love doing the things that they love and chuckling about LOTR memes and Mariah Carey on her way.

It's getting worse. And now I see people going to Mastodon, Tumblr, Reddit and Discord. I'm in a few of those places, but I'm not sure that this business needs to reinvent itself again in social. I'll keep this blog going and I'll stay active on LinkedIn, but I think I'll be closing my Twitter account after I get my data. I don't use it enough and he doesn't get to count it. 

And now my second point.

The freelance world has changed since the pandemic. I used to see dozens of options available to connect with potential clients for reasonable rates and now FIVERR is advertising on TV, PhDs are taking editing jobs, and more people have jumped into the remote world. Many of the places where I used to find gig work at night (EST) are already finished by the time I can log in. I'm happy for the companies but sad my routine is broken. I will be honest I was hoping that my business model would last another 20 years, but the world changes constantly. 

I am fortunate to not be desperate enough to write for pennies. I am also fortunate that I am not homebound and can flex in different ways to support myself and my family. After a few months of frustration, I am moving forward again with a new part-time gig and it's exactly the bridge I needed. When it's time for me to leave my full-time job, I'll be able to focus more on Off Peak again.

How are you navigating this changing landscape? 

Treating myself like a client

Decided to apply for a Google scholarship to Coursera yesterday (see previous post) and it got me wondering about the analytics for this blog and if there is still any useful info buried deep within it. 

So, I went back to the beginning and started reading and realized a few things.  

First, I am not a good blogger. I rarely spend time here. I do leave myself some really useful tips that I regularly come back and review (ie, how to Adobe with difficult PDFs) but I'm not really consistently acting like a thought leader! 

Secondly, shame on me for not checking my analytics and realizing that I don't have data on the early years. Or to make sure that all my links work etc. I do those tasks regularly for my clients, but fail on my own site. That's not a great business plan if potential clients are coming here first. 

Finally, I need to hold myself accountable for making connections, celebrating them and being prepared to reinvent myself for another 10 years. So much has changed since I launched this blog (my third LOL) but I'm still here. 

Task for the week: Checking and fixing broken links in the old content. You'll see notes when I update the old posts:)