Tag Archives: Commerce

Too much work

“Too much work”, that was about the first message I got from someone who I was chatting with today. So I asked him what he was doing and he replied “deleting links”. And that reminded me of the ten or twenty e-mails I get every day in my mailbox from SEO companies trying to sell me SEO services. And while writing this it reminds me of the one hundred plus spam type e-mails I get every day. So my reaction was something like “that would be a hard job for me as first (your company) has put the links (and was paid for it) and now you are deleting them (and your company gets paid for it)” as I don’t see much value in following all the Google updates that would make SEO needs different. And my reaction was also something like, can’t we do something more for Inspiration for Success, this website, the project to inspire people, to bring more inspiration to the world. And the reply was something like, yes, but I’m too busy (earning my daily bread) and I don’t have time for that.

And this whole thing made me a bit sad, as many people are being paid for work that doesn’t add anything, doesn’t add any value to the life of people, like building cars or TV’s or even growing food.

But later on I thought a bit further, as today I was quite busy with work (also) and was very happy with that as I’ve not been that busy for quite some time as I couldn’t find enough work, couldn’t fint customers to serve, people to serve (business wise). To thinking further I asked myself if what i was doing, what I am doing is so much different from what my friend was doing. As these new jobs are also related to SEO and related to ‘selling’, to ‘advertising’. And while thinking now I am quite often working on pages, on websites where the main purpose or even the sole purpose is SEO. And one of my jobs of today was finding content writers to write articles where the only purpose of the articles is to create a quality link to the site of one of my customers.

So what I was working on today, what I am working on most of the time may not be that different of what my friend was doing, is doing. So yes, I started to ask myself if what I was doing is really different and why. As I presume I’m doing quality work, quality link building. But it may not be that different after all.

So let’s think if what we are doing is really useful, really adding something for the benefit of people, either ourselves or other people.

Politicians, employers, managers, employees and more

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When I was younger I always hated managers. As according to my experience they didn’t do much and earned high salaries, higher than people in technical jobs, more working type jobs. So I was kind of jealous and didn’t understand exactly what they were doing. I mean, I was and am more of a worker, doing the work, the thing that’s really important, the thing that ‘produces’. And over time I also started to hate salespeople. As they also just seemed to talk and have high salaries, often even commission based, something that wouldn’t really make me move, something like commission.

And then politics, I also didn’t really understand. As politicians all seem to be somehow dishonest people, people defending points of view they might not even support, people voting for things they might not agree with. How can you do that, how can you live with yourself doing things you don’t agree with, defending things you don’t agree with.

But slowly I started to understand that politics have a function in society. And that politicians have a role in that, that politicians are needed to play the political game, to make decisions that are virtually impossible to take for a person like me. So slowly I started to admire politicians, started to appreciate that there are people who can be, who want to be a politician. As of course there may be politicians who just want the fame, the name, the importance or whatever. But I guess most of them are just doing their job, are just trying to make these impossible decisions related to what people want, impossible decisions around benefiting groups at the cost of other groups. As somehow that is the right thing to do, decide something for the ‘common good’, even though you know this is going to hurt people, this is going to affect people in a negative way.

The same applies to doctors, medical staff deciding about life and death, especially after a disaster where there is not enough capacity or medicines or whatever is needed to save the lives of all people that need treatment. They would make these decisions who lives or dies, and still live with that. Which I guess is not as easy as it seems, no matter how they would normally point to ‘training’ and ‘procedures’ and such. But in the end I’m quite sure all of them would somehow being affected, having made decisions about treatments or who lives or who dies. In the end it’s still about people.

So yes, I started to appreciate politicians and doctors as they are doing things I don’t like to do, and as a person might not even be able to do anyway as I would be too much affected with the things they do, the decisions they make, have to make.

The thing with the managers I never fully understood. But somehow I realize that managers, especially good managers, get things done where I somehow don’t get things done. So yes, they do have value, even more than me, much more than me as stated in Think and Grow Rich about people who can get things done, can get other people to perform.

And the thing with marketing and sales people I am also starting to understand. As ‘selling’ or ‘buying’ is not only about having the product or service available. It’s also communicating the value of the product or service between buyers and sellers. And yes, that’s what I learned, especially after having ran my own business, is needed next to the product or service. Communicating about it, preferably before the deal is made.

So yes, slowly I am starting to see that there are good reasons why society, why governments, why companies are organized as they are. That indeed all those roles that exist need to be fulfilled to get things done, to serve people.

But somehow there is one thing I don’t fully understand. And that is why some people, many people, all people are being paid differently. Or not that they are being paid differently, but why, e.g. a not so hard working manager is being paid more than a very hard working laborer. As they both do their best, they both do best what they’re good at. So why would the one just doing what he is good at be paid more than the one working very hard, doing extra effort, who is not that good to deserve the higher pay.

And I don’t have the answers. And this is just what it is right now. But somehow I have the feeling it can be organized better. As the current wealth doesn’t seem to be distributed properly with our current payment system.

So maybe yes, maybe you can think with me and put some comments on how we could organize this better, that e.g. hard work would be paid a bit more, versus that only work clever or efficient would be paid more.

Also God starts with desire

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Today I was looking for some meaning and didn’t really feel like doing anything as most of the things I did lately were not appreciated very much. So, based on one of the advises of Abraham Hicks I decided not to do anything, except the little things I had planned and just wait, just wait for some inspiration. Or not just waiting, but kind of thinking, letting things sink in. Because somehow I feel like I have some kind of information overload as i read somewhere. And if so a human has information enough to make decisions but just needs time to process it.

And I’m still trying to match this ‘wait until you are inspired’ from Abraham Hicks and the ‘put your plan into action straight away’ from Napoleon Hill, but I think they’re not really contradictory because today I really didn’t know what to do. And I tend to do ‘just action’, but also according to the teachings of I think both, ‘just doing things’ and/or working hard is not really something that brings you success. Maybe you know: I feel like I have worked hard enough in my life, but in the end it didn’t really bring me anywhere.

So my resting and thinking and ‘doing nothing’ somehow brought me to another self help type book I have. The book “Your Best Life Now Journal” from Joel Osteen. And this book, this journal starts with the same thing as where Napoleon Hill starts: with desire, what do you want. So I pondered a bit about that. And I allowed a bit what I wanted. And before I always wanted to be rich, really rich. And I still want to be. And somehow I am starting to believe that I will be. But things have changed over the last year, because I know more why I want to be rich, I know more what I really want in life. And the main things for now are just having a car, and yes, I still want to show off also, so I prefer a Mitsubishi Pajero, not any car and having a holiday, and the last to be specific to Bali. But these things mean more to me than ‘just a luxury car’ and ‘just a holiday’. The car means mainly that I can move around, visit friends and family and the holiday means mainly that I want to have some private time with my loved one as we had when we just met, when we were really in love and the first few years we were together.

And I am crying now, because I still don’t know what exactly went wrong with those things, with my life. We started so well here, being together, starting a business together, moving to our dream house together. And we were so enthusiastic, especially when moving here, ideas about business, parties with friends, holidays indeed. And somehow, somewhere things started falling apart.

And maybe this was all needed to bring me where I am now, start this project, this website, mean something in the world. And yes, I have learned a lot, an awful lot, about life and such. But the price has been enormous and I still don’t fully understand why I deserve where I stand now, feeling like having nothing left, especially financially, especially living the good life, especially just enjoying life. But looking at the ideas that Napoleon Hill describes in Think and Grow Rich it seems that all people, maybe especially successful people, have these deep downs. So I still have hope that it will be alright, that things will be OK soon. But like today and yesterday it’s not easy to see meaning, to be happy, to be positive, to be inspiring. And I’m not sure if I should share what I just wrote right now as sometimes I think you, the world needs leaders who are successful, who look successful and not someone who doesn’t know anymore, at least not yesterday and not until this moment today.

The funny thing right now is though that I am starting to feel better right now as it feels that I should continue this project, that maybe this is the thing that the world needs, as one of my other ambitions, one of my other ideas and maybe my purpose in life is to make the world a better place. As some things, like especially the financial system, doesn’t seem to work. At least not for me right not and not for many people without a job, without any perspective right now. And as I stated in my desire document for this project I want to make people serve each other (again?) in a happy way instead of working for money and focusing on the money as I think most people do, and I did and still do. As that is how the world works, that is what makes the world move right now. And there is nothing wrong with money, but right now, me, an educated experienced person not being able to give services to other people I like to give (and indeed, receive money for that) is plain waste, especially seeing that so many things are not being done, are not being serviced. So money, capitalism, is not the only or not the definite way to make the world go around, at least not in the way we have organized it right now.

So how should it be done, could it be done? I’m not sure, but indeed thinking from ‘giving and receiving’ instead of ‘exchange services for money’ might be a better way of looking how we can do what we like to do and at the same time serve other people. Anyhow, more on that later as we did not prepare the site yet for our ‘receiving’ part. Ah, and yes, I am starting to see more and more that I think most humans have more problems with giving than with receiving.

How I want to give service and how I want to be paid

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I have been thinking a lot about how to be paid. And related to that of course about how to give service and what service to give. And I decided that I want people, I want you, to pay me the amount you think my service is worth to you, to people. That’s all. And that’s how I want the business model, the payment model of Inspiration for Success to be. Just pay us what you think it’s worth, what makes you happy to pay.

And I think that’s a good payment model as I would know if I am, we are, giving good service to you. And as of the moment my conclusion is that I’m not giving good service to you, to the world as not may people go to our site and as far as I know not many people have paid.

But keep in mind there’s a catch, because if you came this far in this post it means I have been writing something of value to you. So if you’re not happy paying me for the value of my effort writing this post, building this site and doing the other things we have in mind for the brand Inspiration for Success, then please stop reading right now. As if you would continue reading there would be value here, otherwise you would have stopped reading and left the page. So then it should make you feel happy to give something back to me, to pay me.

And I know this is not how the world works right now, at least not for me and probably also not for you. Because I have the feeling we’re living in a world of ‘give and take’ and not in a world of ‘give and receive’. And I think we can do better. Because I also have the feeling I have given a lot. And I didn’t receive much. Meaning either I didn’t give any service to you, to other people, or they didn’t see what I gave them or they don’t appreciate what I did and do.

So if you came this far I would like to ask you what you consider the value of these few paragraphs for you. Is it one cent? Ten cents? One dollar maybe? Or even more if I gave you some idea or made you move? Or you were just enjoying what I have written here? Or you think it’s just bullshit and just think I’m crazy?

And I don’t mind the answer, or actually I do, because if would help me build my life, build this site, build my business better. But keep in mind, if you came this far in this post there must have been something of value here. So it might make you happy to give something in return.

Another WordPress plugin

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Well, who would ever have thought I would be writing WordPress plugins as was, and still am, not really convinced that WordPress is the best system to build websites. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not against WordPress or something. Even this whole site until now has been built with WordPress. I just don’t believe WordPress is the best system to build e.g. company websites, especially not for company websites that don’t change that much and need to be search engine friendly.

But I have to admit that the WordPress theme has built an efficient and user friendly framework with which it indeed is possible to build websites in a user friendly way. Just keep in mind that I am a web developer (and a control freak) that prefers to build websites from scratch in html/php straight away. And with my skills and knowledge that is often the most efficient way, especially for more advanced websites or websites that need to be dynamic based on structured data and for websites that need to be search engine friendly.

And that was exactly what I was missing in standard WordPress: the option to be able to set title tags, meta description tags and meta keywords tags on a ‘per page’ basis. And that is also the reason that I built my second WordPress plugin: IFS SEO Simple (ilnk to current download here).

The plugin is based on previous modifications to the theme in combination with the custom fields we normally set for posts and pages as I was not very knowledgeable about the WordPress framework before and just needed some quick fixes for SEO. So that’s what I did before, but whoever knows me might know I’m kind of a perfectionist, so of course the SEO stuff should be in a plugin and not in the theme as that’s just where it belongs.

Anyhow, the whole WordPress plugin stuff just started with a suggestion from John to create a plugin to promote the project Inspiration for Success. So that’s where I started my mass mailer plugin with which I send the daily quotes that I think could also be useful for bloggers with a limited audience. That plugin still needs some fine tuning, for myself as well as for other users, but I’m using it and it basically suits my needs.

And so now we also have this little SEO plugin for setting titles, meta descriptions and meta keywords and I just installed it in the site to replace the theme changes and it seems to work fine.

And of course I hope it will be useful for others also, maybe even you.

Looking forward to your comments and feedback by the way, as this is just my thinking and there may be a lot more ideas around it.