39 Things I Have Learned As I Prepare to Turn 40
May 26th, 2008
How old are you? What are some of the life experiences that you have been through and what have YOU learned?
I don’t turn 40 for another month and half but while I was out running yesterday I started to think about all of the stuff that I have witnessed, learned, and been exposed to during my thirty nine years.
There are many people out there who are far more sage than I ever will be! However, one thing I really enjoy is to hear about, and learn from, what other people have experienced. As I head towards forty I thought I would just jot down some of what I have learned.
Please note, the ideas expressed below are purely my own and are not meant to offend in any way, but they are a reflection of what I have observed during the reality of my life thus far.
- You can’t remove an arrow from someone’s head in the middle of the rainforest with a pair of Swiss army knife tweezers.
- If you don’t believe in yourself chances are nobody else will either.
- No matter what you do or how nice you are some people are NOT going to like you and that’s okay.
So you STILL Want to be a Travel Writer? Part Two of My Interview With New York Times Freelancer Cindy Price
May 24th, 2008
Yesterday I ran part one of my interview with Cindy Price who is a freelance travel writer for the New York Times. Below is the second installment.
What has been your most dramatic travel experience? What has been your most “creative” meal while on the road?
That’s a tough call. For sheer drama, probably going to Rome for three weeks when I was 19. I grew up in a family of six in Jacksonville, Florida, so we couldn’t exactly foot six airline tickets. Most of our travel had to be by car. We took a lot of trips to Orlando, chilled on the People Mover, then beat it home.
So Rome blew my mind. I don’t know what I expected – I was a sheltered American kid. I think I thought all the women would be squat and walking around with pots on their shoulders like those old Sicilian renderings you see at Olive Garden.
So you want to be a Freelance Travel Writer? Interview With New York Times Freelancer Cindy Price (part 1)
May 22nd, 2008
Editor’s note: I know that a lot of people who like to travel also aspire to write about their travels as a freelance writer. After Cindy Price, freelance travel writer with the New York Times, contacted me for some information about Culebra, I thought, “it would be really good to get her insider’s point of view on what it is really like to work as a travel writer…” So here is part 1 of a two part interview that I conducted with Cindy.
image source: screen grab cindyprice.net
How did you get into freelance writing?
Well. I desperately wanted to be a novelist, but could not manage to actually finish a novel. Or even a short story for that matter. But I loved to write, and so I got an internship at a magazine. Soon after, I started to publish but it took a long time for me to go fulltime as a freelancer. I’m not terrifically ambitious, either – so every once in a while I have to kind of give myself a kick to produce more work. More importantly, I do other writing projects on the side, which pay more. I’m not above doing odd jobs if they pop up. You have to hustle a bit, but the payoff is not having to go into an office. I read somewhere recently that freelance writers are like the migrant workers of the media world, which made me laugh. It’s possible to make a living doing this, but most of us have other sources of income.
Let me ask again – Does passion guarantee a successful venture?
NO! But, passion, combined with vision, hard work, and tenacity can certainly help to ensure that your project or venture will continue beyond the “thought” stage.
image source: marioragona
When I originally started the make money online challenge I was quite excited to see if I could earn some additional “passive” income online, which would help to increase my capacity to continue pursuing personal freedom and designing my life. Though I was passionate about my self-imposed challenge I think I was lacking motivation in certain areas.
So, ultimately I have failed with my goal and plan because I have not taken any action towards monetizing my site or creating new niche sites.
Today I made the STUPID mistake of thinking that I could remove my primary Google Analytics email address and update it with an address that I use more frequently. Guess again! I wound up accidentally deleting a YEAR’S worth of traffic data that I don’t think I can get back. :(
Back to square one! No more Analytic’s highs or lows for the time being…
What Happened?
For well over a year I have been using Google Analytics with no problems. However, the primary email address that the account had was one that I never use and the secondary email was my standard Yahoo account, which I always use. Trying to standardize things, I re-activated a different Google email address that more closely matches my Yahoo one in name (i.e. mark_w_hayward) and I was going to make that the primary. However, STUPIDLY, I assumed that if I deleted the primary address that I would still be able to access all of my Google accounts with the secondary Yahoo address that was available…Well, I learned that hard way that if you delete the primary address all of your data is GONE!
And I did not want anyone else to run into this problem.
I can no longer log into my Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, or Google Documents. Man I am pissed at myself!
Matt Cutts, or anyone from Google Analytics, are you out there? Is there anyway I can retrieve all of that traffic data that has been lost?
Open Source SOCIAL Entrepreneurship and a Guest Post
May 6th, 2008
First, apologies for the lax posting schedule and server issues recently!
Last week I had the chance to take a mini-surf trip down to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands for a few days and with the end of the north swell season upon us I could not refuse.
As far as my self-imposed AnyWired-Middlebrook Make Money Online Challenge goes, I think I am about to shift gears. During the past year I have been given a LOT! I quit my job, purchased a small business, etc… As such, I began to feel a little greedy when reading the category “Make Money.”
So my plan as it stands now will be to investigate some online [SOCIAL] entrepreneurial ideas that I have. In that way I can pay forward some of the good karma that I have received and learn about the ins and outs of making money online while generating funds for some humanitarian agencies that I would like to support. I have NO idea where this will go, or if anything will get off the ground but will certainly keep everyone posted!
