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A quiet mind is all you need

Starting 2025, still not retired. If you have been following me, you know that I have been trying to do that with the help of my numerous side hassles.

I do feel it is an uphill battle most of the time. Trying to increase traffic, getting exposure, and capturing more visitors and subscribers. It seems very forced and frankly, goes against my nature and introverted character. And now, the bots are thrown into the mix. The space is even more cluttered and crowded. I have nothing against technology but as with everything, it can work against us. And that shows now on the internet. It is clogged with AI content that is churned out effortlessly and slowly killing the content created by humans. I choose to be optimistic and consider this as a natural first phase, when there is an unregulated surge first and later one it begins to crystallize into more refined phenomena.

But what to do in the meantime? That is a big question for the man on the street. This is not the case for big tech companies that are experimenting carelessly and selfishly.

If there is massive chaos outside, one must keep a quiet mind, only from that he/she/they can keep a clear vision and clear thought. I try to do that as much as I can, not saying I am successful every time.

My current strategy is to become as human as possible. And thus differentiate myself from countless accounts that are just a bunch of words bundled together albeit in a very sophisticated manner. It forces me to answer some fundamental questions: What makes me who I am? And what makes me human? I am trying to project this into my creations, posts, and products. Is it easy? Not at all. It is extremely difficult. Often I found that what I produce, can be easily replicated or copied. And that is scary, of course.

Do I have some positive words for you, dear friends? Yes, I know you struggle and you try to navigate this vast ocean – that is currently in the midst of a storm. As I see it now, the intentions of tech companies to create “human-like” bots that will fulfill our need for ‘eye-balls’, ‘subscribers’ and ‘customers’ but it will be same like sitting on a tree branch and the same time cutting the branch off. Or a better metaphor might be the snake that eats its own tale. It always happens to giants. They do not when to stop and become self-destruct. As this is happening, for us, ordinary folks, new ways will emerge. The one I see is in building human relationships – something we have to relearn especially after the covid times. I am focused on that. Who do I know? Who I can lean on? Who can help me? As an introvert, I struggle with this. Internet was a lot easier for me, impersonal, nameless. Now I am forced to think, o.k. can I create something that serves my community and is based on human relationships. It took me a lot of thinking. For me, it is the education path and I am adding it to my side hassles. For others, it can be something else.

In comparison to my posts from all previous years, this one might sound a bit gloomy. But I am still optimistic. Let’s make it a great year, wishing you all the success, you deserve 🙂

Why Genuine Creators Matter in Today’s Online World

It is simple. There is so much content nowadays. Most of it is AI or hybrid AI. Yes,

I hopped on the train, too, and I am using AI services where I can—when writing emails, instructions for students, or presentation slides. My approach is very utilitarian. Do I enjoy AI-generated content? Some, yes. I do occasionally watch a video or two just to see what AI can generate. Do I subscribe to accounts like that? No. Why should I? There is very little motivation for me as an individual. Some accounts try to be more personal and present some story-telling but I cannot relate to them.

And here I am getting to the point. If you want to be successful and build your tribe these days, you cannot generate just empty articles full of fluff. I could also create this post with AI but chose not to. I rather struggle through the words to present my own ideas and experiences – because this was always my intention on this blog.

So how do we survive all this? Being authentic, presenting life-based experience, real stories, wins, and struggles of daily life. And by being small (or smallish). I have always advocated for small creators because they are genuine and relatable – and I trust them. So if you are one of them, please don’t give up. I can tell you that I am genuinely happy to see those on my feed and eagerly click on them.

So don’t give up dear friends and keep on creating 🙂

Here is an example of genuine creators I love:

Crafts: Kim Bliss https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EJzG_KLTVI
YouTube: Kevin Kolbe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkoOUAg756w
Art: Tarra Lu https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SVqhJes2P0

Hand drawn botanical art as an example for human artistry. — “n407_w1150” by BioDivLibrary/ pdm 1.0

What Should I Write About – Learn From My Mistakes

Last week I put together the most popular niches on WordPress. It was a revelation for me. I thought that I would be able to guess them – and I failed.

Today, I am looking into my own niches and themes just to see what actually resonated the most with my audience over the years. Well, I was almost always interested in health and food. When I started the blog – it was a golden era of blogging when the main purpose of blogging was sharing your own experiences and advice based on those. So I shared anything that worked for me in the hope that there is someone somewhere who will be helped. Those posts got very few views and they did not make it to my top 3.

Another type of post was sharing posts – I have shared my mum’s journey, her struggle with breast cancer, and her victory. Yes, it was more for me than for anyone else. I was thinking about deleting those, especially when I learned about the EAT policy of Google. I knew that those posts would be hardly seen. And they were.

The last type of posts got the most response. And those were about my struggle to leave wage slavery and to become a solopreneur (or simply a one-person business). Not necessarily a millionaire but a person who is in charge of his own time, a person without a boss, the person who does what he loves and is interested in, the person who retires early, travels the world, enjoys time with his family, has enough time for friends, can play with pets endlessly, can spend whole just reading…utopia right? Well, those posts got the most views and likes. So there are more people like me! Great 🙂 Let’s dream together, no, better than that – let’s get there together!

Most likes received: Keeping Everything in One Place (themes: long-term goal setting for a one-person business, platforms, social media, self-growth)
Second place goes to: Q4, the moment of truth. I think this is one of my weakest posts but the title is catchy and people are always curious – how much did you earn and how you did that. If you can share that, I am sure, you can drive more traffic purely based on this. (themes: earnings, Q4)
Last but not least: Where to put your energy. This one is an interesting one. The title is very vague. It can be anything right? In terms of the content, I regard this one to be a better one. It has some research and data, not just my opinions or feelings. It shows me that quality is better than just a lazy post. (themes: large selling platforms for small business, print on demand, Etsy)
and a consolation prize: Provide value and you will be rewarded. I could not help myself and include this 🙂 It is a very short post, more emotional than other posts. Reassuring myself that what I believe in is actually true. It did resonate with others and I am happy about it. This is what I believe social media should be also about – resonating, supporting each other, and upholding values. Yes, I am preachy sometimes…(themes: sharing emotions, feelings and hopes with others, moral values, vulnerability, resonating with others)

So, to conclude this post. The themes that interest me most and I think are helpful, did not gain any traction in the long run. The themes that were more about what I do, backed with some data and emotions, resonated the most.

I would say if something is working for you – double down on that. That is what I am doing from now on and you can catch up with me in another three years to see, whether it worked for me or not 🙂

Have a great summer, dear friends, and don’t give up!

And to add to this a little side note. I do not like to bother people with my e-mails but there was a time when WordPress would send out emails every time you posted something. From the image below you can see what topic was most liked by my readers.

Unveiling Niche Site Statistics on WordPress: I Was Wrong About Niche

I have done a little research for myself but then I have decided to share. I looked into different niche sites on WordPress and made a guess – which niche is going to be saturated and which niche is not that saturated? Well, I was completely wrong. I have put the real number of sites in the brackets. My guess (based on the WordPress tags that were offered) was as follows:

1. Self-improvement (15k sites)

2. Fitness (47k sites)

3. Mental Health (84k sites)

4. Recipes (84k sites)

5. DIY (29k sites)

And now the real numbers according to the highest number of sites:

Blogging (949k sites)
Arts (514k sites)
Books (235k sites)
Beauty (219k sites)
Adventure (199k sites)

Are you surprised by this? And what do these numbers mean? Are you in the right “niche”? Or are you simply not bothered 🙂

Have a great summer, dear friends! And make it a productive one 🙂

Pinterest is strange but I love it

This is a very short post. You might know that Pinterest is one of the few media that is working for me. If you ask me how? I would say – it was the volume and unique look combo. It took a long time to convince the algorithm and I did not see real traction for over a year. But now, something has changed. It might have to do with AI. The more people are using it the harder it is to post, actually, on my analytics breakdown a strange pattern has appeared. Every time I posted, my reach went down. As if I was punished for publishing. When I started to publish less, the analytics stabilized somewhat and a new pattern emerged. Low reach on weekends and higher on work days. I suppose it makes sense. More people are on Pinterest when at work rather than on the weekend. You can see the pattern below. If you are getting frustrated, try to post it more. Chance is, that you are mistaken for an AI and prevented from being seen. So post less but go for high value/content. I am not using AI on my pins, so I felt that it is unfair to limit me – but hey, we all know that the algorithm has the final arbiter.

Have a great spring dear friends, and stay creative 🙂

Have you got a similar experience?

My cat’s matted coat, cat’s hair on a sofa, and my experiment with affiliate

This is a different post and an experimental one. When I started this blog I used to recommend products that were great for me or my mum. I loved them purely because they delivered what they promised. At that time there were plenty of blogs doing this and they were NOT affiliate blogs.

Times have changed and most of the pages on Google – at least the first two will have some kind of affiliate link to them. My blog is tiny to make it to any affiliate and the products I will mention are too cheap to make big bucks. But they did make a huge difference to me.

The first one is about a matted coat. Oh my god. How many tears I cried that I could not prevent matting on my darling cat. Usually, I had to cut the matted coat at the end or ask the nurse at my vet to help me. I felt so useless and inadequate when they had to help me and asked me: “Why did you choose this kind of cat? She is so demanding and will need this type of grooming for the rest of her life?”

Well, the truth is. She is a rescue. She chose us and we could not say no. So what is the magic product that helped me? It looks like a simple brush but it is not. It gets the matted clumps out so well. Use it as a normal brush, be gentle of course but this time you don’t have to stress. My cat enjoys it!

The second product is more for me but it is about the cat’s hair again. I have been getting lots of her hair on our bedding blankets. Yes, I have used the old lint roller but it did not do the job so well. Now I finally have something that helps me to scoop the hair and have the blankets clean. A photo is below. There is something I need to say though – it is more labour intensive, you do get the hair off but little by little. Also, I have tried it on my blanket covers that I bought in IKEA, these are fairly cheap and cheerful fabrics and I don’t mind them being damaged. I would not use it on an expensive fabric and the teeth are fairly aggressive when scooping and might damage more delicate material.

So here you have it. Two products that changed my life (and my cat’s), too. Enjoy them as much as I do and they just cost a few dollars.

P.S. Of course, this post is for cat/dog lovers but for my regular readers who are petless a little explanation. Yes, I do want to help cat owners but I am also testing something. I want to know if this post will get picked up and if there is something to the “affiliate” concept or not. Is it worth it for someone who has a small blog and is just promoting products from daily life? I will let you know the results or you can keep on checking this post as time goes. I do not have high hopes as I am not using any SEO strategy or anything like that. Anyway let’s see, shall we?

Have a great spring, dear friends 🙂

Two products – one has a link and one does not because I can’t remember where I got it from.

Cat hair problems, matted fur, pet hair matted solution, solution to matted cat hair

Side-Hassle Do and Don’ts

I don’t like long blog posts. So here we go.

This year I have dropped;

Small selling sites that just took my focus away i.e. Zazzle, Spoonflower, and the biggest of them all – Amazon. By dropping, I mean not creating new products and leaving it ‘as is.” And I have also dropped, and I mean completely dropped, my website. I had high hopes for that, especially after listening to numerous videos on blogging and selling on your blog. Had a nice WordPress website, pages, posts, images – for a year. That is what I gave it. Also shelved some courses that I thought I would be using but – nahh. Also done nothing on Instagram. To my surprise, I have noticed that my friends still have not grown as they expected and I have lost only 40 subscribers. So, yes I did not regret not spending any time on Instagram.

Of course, all of these above can work and work for people but they did not for me. I have limited extra time to give it and limited resources. That is why we call it a side hassle right?

What I am keeping. Again, as many years previously – Pinterest and YouTube ( I forgot Etsy, yes still keeping it). The growth is there. I have not monetized either of them but I do see value in these two.

In general, I have noticed these things:

1/ It is often recommended to spread out but this did not work for me. there was no cumulative effect. Rather focus on what works and give energy to that. Figuring out new things and platforms should be done only if you have that time on your hands.

2/ Often is said – keep on going, you are so close to winning. This I found really annoying. I would recommend choosing a realistic timeframe and then if it does not work, scrap it. For example, I website I have had on for over 2 years 🙂

3/ Buy and do courses only from people you have been watching for years. If it shows as not being useful, at least you will be left with a good feeling that you have supported someone you like.

4/ Keep a cohesive look of your shop/product – people will automatically assume you are a brand.

5/ Give things your unique spin. This one will become harder and harder because of AI but if you can figure it out, you are a winner. After AI saturation there is going to be a huge demand for authenticity. If you can tell and show your story – that is a great bonus to everything. Storytelling will be big no matter which century you are in.

6/ You will learn more from small YouTubers or creators. They are more willing to share their knowledge and they still have a real passion for things which the big ones often lose.

7/ Keep up with the latest in technology but don’t have a shiny thing syndrome – that proved to be very costly.

8/Someone who makes the tutorial ”a show” is more successful than others.

Deep and detailed tutorials and not holding anything back are a lot more appealing and trustworthy. Aim to be a micro-influencer.

9/ Focusing on one thing first is better than doing ten things simultaneously.

I think that is all for 2023. I should probably come up with 10 or 12 points – but I am not using ChatGpt to write this 🙂

As always, have a good one friends!

Summer tends to be a quiet time

Summer tends to be a quiet time, at least on the surface. I am looking at my numbers and again, as every year – I am not happy with them. I know the economy is not great but really, I don’t like to make any excuses for myself and I rather look at things as they are.

Last year, I was excited because I got some traction with several products. Although it was just a few dollars – I was sure I could 10x. Why not, right? I heard so many times that if you get a dollar, you can make it into a hundred. My optimism quickly fizzled out. It stayed at single or double digits – and that is just not sustainable for too long.

I have decided to change my strategy and 10x only those products that will prove themselves and bring me 100 USD/month. So there, new threshold, and by next summer, I should know if that was a good decision or not. Of course, it can happen that I will not be able to make even that – and would mean a serious overhaul of my one-person business strategy.

So, we will see…

Have a great and productive summer, dear friends 🙂

P.S. At the same time, I still working on some social media and building skills that are not easily replaced by AI 🙂

So let me add this in 2024. I have noticed that summer IS a quiet time for my business. In the last couple of years, some people have done well, selling courses and programs in the summer months. I suppose there is a good psychology behind that. People are on holiday but they still want to learn or do something productive that is outside their work. They often pick up a course or two that is connected to their hobby or side hustle. It makes them feel good that they are not completely idle or lazy 🙂

How do I know? This is a pattern I have observed in myself. I like to look at my favorite bloggers and YouTubers whom I followed the whole year and I like to learn from them one thing or two. The things I have learned from those courses I found to be a good value and something I end up using. So if you have a course rethink your launch date and maybe summer is not going to be a quiet time for you!

Can A.I. save me or finish me? From creating to selling

I have always been looking at all my business ventures and analysing them. Am I going to write about “how I became a millionaire” any time soon? Haha, nope.

I have tried many things and different techniques including manifesting. When I read that actually, I quote: “be prepared that some people’s dreams will happen instantly but some people’s dreams will never come true”, I thought to myself: “Maybe one person’s business is always a grind and never success…, do I really know a one person, who would achieve financial independence by himself/herself? Don’t they always have a team of people behind them?” People I know in real life have either side hassle, part-time or hobby-like activity and it brings them a side income that is up and down as the weather – but none of them retired on it.

And I really try all channels possible except one – and that is the one that seems to be everywhere now. – the mighty A. I. So yes, I am in a process of thinking about how to use it. My main problem so far is the fact that I can create products but I am not able to market them. Can A.I. help with this? I do not really need help with the creative side, that is the side I love and I do not want the A.I. to do it for me. But the marketing and selling – I hate that part and as a result, I am pretty bad at it.

If you understand this need, and you know more about A.I. than I do, you can create a new business developed purely on this. I would not mind paying for it if I can see the results. Ads so far are spaghetti on the wall and the results for most of us are intangible.

So this is what I am looking into now, I am looking at it as another chance. Of course, there will be big businesses figuring out the same thing, but I don’t want to miss this boat.

Here are some ideas for a one-person business if you are good at A.I. utilisation:

A.I. based – targeted market research for individual niches
A.I. based – ads or marketing agency, market prognostics
A.I. – copywriting services, admin services, selling interface services, alternative selling/shopping platforms
Just one rule from me please, keep the A.I. as your assistant and do not let it replace you – otherwise we, as humanity are doomed 🙂

Have a great 2023 dear friends!

Q4, the moment of truth

So we made it. This is it. The Last Quarter about which we are often told how spectacular it is.

As a tiny solo entrepreneur, I have experienced only one fairly good Q4 on Amazon and that was in 2019. I did have a lot of hope and thought, sure this is it – and it will only get better. It did not. But I am not here to moan. It is usually better if I curb my expectations, it shows me what works and it shows where I have been wasting my time. So in that sense, IT IS a very important quarter. I am always excited no matter what. I will be mainly looking at my Amazon sales, Etsy sales, and maybe Zazzle sales as well.

I will not be using paid ads and I will rely on Pinterest and Instagram. Just a side note on Instagram. I have very little reach and all in all, I am very tempted to drop Instagram altogether. YouTube is very slow but growing. The blog is probably the weakest point. I was very excited about using the blog as another channel but I think at the moment I am at the sandbox or something as literally there is no traffic whatsoever.

I have been thinking about social media in general. I am aware that many mention saturation and competition but I am feeling differently about it. I think if I could talk to CEOs of any social media, they would tell me: “So you think that we are a charity?” And of course, I know that they are businesses and they think like a businesses. That means that they will look at anyone who comes to the platform as a customer or a source. My mindset is different than years ago. Now I know that the platforms will look at my account and think – what do you offer, what do we get from you? Can you bring us more customers? Can you keep people on our platform longer? Can you pay for ads? And sure enough, I have noticed that where I am able to do it, I experience growth. At the moment I am trying to figure out which platform to drop and where to double down.

And I think that Q4 will shed more light on this. I need to save my energy and time to avoid another burnout. I hope that you are doing well and have a great Q4!

P.S. I have noticed that my post is sent out to all my subscribers

whether they like it or not. I apologise for this as I have not figured out

how to change that. If you know, please let me know 🙂

2024 update:

I am still excited about Q4 although I have not experienced the “amazing” results, yet.