2020.02.21
I think that I should explain my day for more transparency. I get up at 4 AM, since Jessica has work, starting at 5:30 AM. I read the scriptures first thing in the morning as well as during breakfast and lunch; plus, Jessica and I do family scripture study during her breakfast. After I write for Once Upon a Precept, and I curate the ‘Single Adults’ Blogs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’. I catch up on the news until 12; then after lunch I write up my video transcript, record, edit, publish, and share. Today is going to be tricky because I want to figure out how to publish with Amazon too.
Today I started to look into publishing with Amazon. My weekly world news reports are more popular than my daily posts, and I am planning to publish it on Amazon, charging money to emphasize that I need patrons. I will be giving the weekly world news reports for free for my patrons.
This morning I wrote an article that I have been looking forward to writing for a while, explaining the unique nature that was composed in the Maxwell Institute Study Edition of the Book of Mormon.
I am having a late start to my study of the news because my daily precept was lengthy.
24 February 2020
This morning my routine was enhanced by a jog to help balance my sedentary lifestyle. 30 minutes was the plan, but I found a loop, reducing it to less than 20 minutes. This is fine, since my running habit has not been practiced in my life for some years. A picture was taken to help address my followers on Instagram to promote my publication, continuing a habit from my daily cycling photograph a few months ago.
Last Saturday night I worked on my weekly world news report for publication on Amazon; however, the process was not completed. The publication of it this morning was my plan, but wisdom has been expressed to me that I should have a business banking account to separate the business risk from my account. I plan to do that today, when my bank opens.
I like that I don't drive to the gym or the bank. They are both very close. I run a very lean business.
My father-in-law recommended that I review the business self-reliance manual by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints yesterday, and my grandmother reminded me that my cousin is in the publishing business. I sent him a Linkedin connection request. I spoke to my father for more than an hour on Sunday.
On Saturday I helped my mother-in-law donate old computers to Deseret Industries. Afterward we went grocery shopping for the week and for Sunday dinner with Mercedes. Jessica saw the farmers' market in Beaverton. She has been wanting to go for years, so I spontaneously turned to see it. There was sadly only one booth that actually had produce.
2020.02.25
Yesterday I looked into publishing and improving my website by merging all my blogs to one professional website. I am finding that I should register my business. The price is reasonable. I am planning to use LegalZoom, but I need to establish marketing before I make some business expenses. I need income. I want to establish a limited liability company, so I don't lose everything if I get sued or something.
My aunt-in-law offered good feedback yesterday on my daily world news reports. I try to write in a dense way, avoiding plagiarism; however, I was advised to write with an easier flow to read.
2020.02.26
I seem to run into many obstacles to establish my business. I realized on Monday that I need to make time for marketing daily, if I am going to make my business successful. I need to engage my audience, and see if they are willing to be part of a foundation of my publication by pledging to my Patreon. I not only have to engage my audience, but I need to establish my audience. People do not want to pay for things, and I understand that. That is why my content is free. Furthermore, since only the people that care for me would pledge monthly to my Patreon, I need to see who cares enough to consult their finances and families to make a pledge. I found out on Monday that to establish a business for LegalZoom. A 40 dollar subscription fee is attached other than the few hundred dollars a year to maintain my business license, which I am willing to fund; however, I want at least a forty dollar income from my business to have the legal fees at least sustainably covered.
I tried to begin marketing yesterday, but I found that, if one clicks on the link to my main blog from emails, it would bring up a page that says that the page is not safe. Clicking on the link from text messages does not bring up the warning. Again my initial goal is 40 dollars for this week. I want to get the business rolling. I can't publish on Amazon and receive my pledges without establishing my limited liability business. I don't want to risk my personal assets.
I don't know how long that it will take to receive my business license, but I plan to merge my blogs into one professional website as soon as possible. I hope that it will also eliminate the warning that the website is unsafe too.
My life is not my business. I started running this week.
2020.02.28
I got a reply from Hutch, a cousin in the publication industry. He taught me that a one man publication would work best with a subscription based service with some free content. He said that advertising and Patreon would not work. I thought that it was interesting that my-timid-self did the opposite. I tried Patreon and advertising. Patreon is much better than advertising. I only got less than two dollars from advertising, and I got one Patreon, which is much better, but the results is not what I need. I am not asking for much. I only want enough money to pay for my bills for now. I currently leverage my weekly reports for people can catch up for my patron, when I should be the opposite. I should give my daily reports to my subscribers, giving the weekly report free. I just need to figure out how to establish a subscription interface for my blog.
I grow out my beard because the temple was closed for a few weeks.
2020.03.02 Second Weekend with my new Publication
I did not work this weekend: Saturday or Sunday. So many things were going on Saturday. The missionaries were coming for dinner. Jessica had her first youth activity. I had to shop for the week. We had to clean up for company. Jasmine and Lucas came over. My co-teacher performed with his band. I was thinking about switching to work the Saturday PM shift at the Portland Temple, so I can get my daily report out by 4. If I had changed shifts, I would also had to have cleaned the church. So many things were going on this weekend that I should probably not be a workaholic.
Jessica and I were so busy cleaning the house before company came over that we did not start preparing the food until the missionaries came. At least the house is mostly clean and orderly.
It was good to catch up with Jasmine and Lucas. After dinner with the missionaries
2020.03.03
Yesterday I was pushing for establishing my publication with Hutch’s platform. I have not had a formal introduction to the capabilities of BlueToad, and the things that I were proposing was out of his platform’s capabilities. He does not do website hosting, so I need to build my own website; then, BlueToad can do a subdomain under my website. I bought a new domain with GoDaddy, and I am having trouble with their Website Builder again. It is very bad.
2020.03.04 Wix seems promising.
I am exploring ways to create my publications website, but it is hard to learn modular website development with or without coding. I am not even going to try coding. Wix looks promising, but merging the content of many websites is going to be odd. I am thinking of embedding all my blogs onto separate pages; however, I would need to update all the layouts of my blogs to have a similar feel to the umbrella website. I capabilities of the website host does achieve my hopes. I have not explored other website hosts like Weebly or Squarespace.
Yesterday, Trevor and I planned out our podcast, so we won’t record too late tonight
Blogger is part of Google’s ecosystem, and it is to merge the content with other websites.
2020.03.05 Progress on web development
I have made some progress on my Wix website. The RSS feed widget/app is a little clunky, but I got it functioning. Functioning does not always mean presentable though. I have some more ideas to make the website more presentable. I have been able to make my subscription plans.
Trevor, Nick, and I recorded a podcast last night, and the call was cutting out at the end. Nick said that he recorded a video that we were not able to discuss. I hope that we can discuss it tonight to add it to the podcast.
2020.03.06 The mobile website is going to be more tricky.
This morning was mostly productive except Jessica has a sore throat, and she did not go to work, throwing a wrench into the morning.
I got my Wix desktop website mostly complete, but the mobile website editing page has a lot less settings than the desktop editor. The mobile website preview does not match the editor. The preview actually looks more clunky than the editor website. The mobile website requires a lot of work to make functional.
I ran for my first time in Oregon rain this morning. I was able to get a picture today that I was unable to get yesterday since the clouds blocked the sun.
2020.03.09 Finalizing website
Today I decided to risk sole proprietorship for now. I almost gave up on wix, but I was lucky that a blog of mine had an adaptive template, so it does not remain desktop mode when it was viewed on a mobile screen. I am having all my blogs embedded into the website, so they are still on Blogger, but you can view them on the website.
It functions. It is good, but not incredible.
I just got an email from wix, prompting me to check the security of the website. Now that it is HTTPS; I can launch it today! I am only going to have about 4 hours to make my report. Launching the website was my priority for today. I wanted to start of the week with it.
2020.03.10 Setting up the Single Adults’ Blogs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
This morning I wrote an article for Once Upon a Precept; then, I re-engaged my audience at the Single Adults’ Blogs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints pages. Merging all my blogs to one sight is very rough. My numbers are very down. Before the transition I got about thirty views a day. I hoped that someone would sign up. It is basically starting all over.
My hair is very long, and it is messing with me. My little brother has extremely long hair currently. I don’t understand how he survives. I don’t like having long hair because hair falling out is more common. I went to go get a haircut about lunch, but I asked for the hair dresser that I had last time, scheduling an appointment on Thursday. She cut my hair perfectly last time.
2020.03.11 Redoing Pressing Forward again
Wix is mostly functional, but one thing that I don’t like that it is designed for desktop first, so my mobile website suffers for an odd reason. The website editor does not refresh well.
Today I did not feel that it was right to charge for my curated content with my Single Adults’ Blogs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints accounts because I would be making money off other people’s content. Reconstructing the website to make that section of the website free was way more of a hassle than it should have been. It took me all morning, when it should have only taken a few clicks. Wix is very customizable, but loading all the customizations does not always work for the web host.
This morning was odd because I did not feel inspired to write an article for ‘Once Upon a Precept’, and I did not want to force a topic that I was thinking of. I don’t want to just run with any idea. No one even read my article from yesterday, so I reposted it. The post as 5 clicks, but I am sure that they are all mine. One click from yesterday that was recorded was one by Jessica was by my invitation, and she did not even read the article. Transitioning to the new verry.pro website is rough. Hopefully people will catch on.
I feel bad for depending on my contacts and acquaintances to start my business, but I don’t have money to advertise.
2020.03.12 Stability after website establishment
Recording the Very Hicken Bros podcast always records late, and I slept in this morning because I was drowsy last Saturday, serving at the temple. The podcast was fun because Trevor and I shared a piece of us. We spoke about Usain Bolt because I followed up on why we covered a story about him co-founding an e-scooter company. I served my mission in Jamaica, and I was in Jamaica when Usain Bolt broke the world record a second time. I also shared this because Chloe Dygert broke the world record twice in one day this year for indoor cycling. The victory sounded so similar especially since I had Usain’s world record audio as my ring tone several years ago.
Following up on my entry yesterday, I did not like the dead end that happened when one would like on the Pressing Forward selection on verry.pro, since it required a subscription. I also felt bad, since I was trying to make money off other peoples’ content. Restructuring the page to not require subscription was a lot more painful than was necessary. I had to rebuild the entire page, taking half of my day yesterday.
2020.03.13
Today was a monumental day. I published the first three chapters of ‘Read the Story of the World’. These chapters do not require subscription.
I also made my first weekly edition of ‘Pressing Forward’, the publication for “Single Adults’ Blogs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”
In my podcast, I said that I should probably just focus on my main product of ‘Read the Story of the World’. I don’t know how influential ‘Pressing Forward’ is; furthermore, the data from Wix analytics is minimal, and it only updates once a day.
It seems that the full vision of Verry is running until expansion plans are implemented, when the publication is profitable. I do want to reboot my podcast for ‘Read the Story of the World’. Now that the table of contents is live. I have a good place to put it.
2020.03.16
Today I decided to further develop my service of the ‘Single Adults’ Blogs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’. Previously on the page, I would share content every two hours; however, I thought that it would serve my audience better, if I would make one webpage with the list of content that I would post throughout the day instead of the previous situation. Today I decided to return the main page to the former operation enhancing it with the daily digest. I am using a second page to be the main outlet of publication of the ‘Single Adults’ Blogs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ called ‘Pressing Forward.’ This second page is not new. It is called “Best of Latter-day Saint YSA Blogs.” After starting that and going for a jog, I wrote a letter to the More Good Foundation.
I only have two weeks to secure an income within publishing. I don’t know how quickly that they will reply, but I hope that they will want to work with me.
Sunday was good. Jessica and I had a good “Come, Follow me” lesson. I also watched a video that I was advised to watch by an ordinance coworker at the Portland Temple yesterday. He recommended that I watch a video that came out in the late eighties called “How Rare a Possession”. It told two stories of one of Parley P. Pratt, which was shorter than the story of Vincenzo di Francesca’s story. His story was a lot more interesting than the other, covering his adventure to discover the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; although, he did not know the title of the Book of Mormon, yet he was converted to the faith, since his copy of the Book of Mormon did not have the title pages.
Jessica and I met Emmanuel, who is Jessica’s third cousin, at Mercedes apartment. We ate dinner there.
On Saturday, Jessica and I served in the Portland Temple, where the leaders were receiving the new instruction to not do proxy work. After all, the temple was decided to be closed for both living and proxy work.
We shopped for the next two weeks afterwards because the Coronavirus is making food supply low. Many things were gone. The only things that we could not get at the first grocery store of Winco was sugar and wheat flour, and we were able to find them at New Seasons.
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