I’ve always been very reluctant to ask for help or favours. I hate the idea of troubling other people or making them feel obligated in any way. Also I’m a bit proud that way. I’m the worst delegator. I find I’m the most efficient as an individual contributor and content creator.
I try to do everything on my own as far as possible as I’ve been doing for this self hosted blog since 2011. Prior to that I had no issues with free blogs on WordPress and Blogspot but you are limited in terms of space on those. And I was told a .com is more professional and worth investing in. A bit like real estate.
Due to eyesight issues, cancer, chemo, surgeries, radiation and so forth I neglected my blog, especially in the year 2019 and due to Go Daddy WordPress accounts being attacked by malware, I really needed professional help. At that point I had already added a firewall and security to my website so that it’s safe for users who come to it.
This time I was desperate. My partner told me there’s no point in trying to teach myself coding as that would take years.
It cost me. But it was worth it. I’m glad I resolved the heartache. The alternative? Seeing all my effort go down the drain. It felt terrible to loose all my memories at one point where half my posts were gone with a ‘solution’ provided by the Go Daddy telephone helpline. That’s the thing about the online world, it feels so temporary.
I asked the web developer I hired through the website Codeable (which seemed to be the safest and best for WordPress users) if I could mention him publicly and he said he’s ok with it. I didn’t know he was from Ukraine, but I learnt about it later.
But I’m so glad Egor Dankov was one of the three developers I got paired with on the website that I picked. In spite of the trauma of his country being attacked and undergoing a war he was still so professional and worked quickly to answer my guzillion questions. Luckily he’s based in Thailand, but it must have been distressing to be worrying about family in Ukraine. He’s young enough to be my nephew or kid probably, so I felt for him, learning what he’s going through.
Wish I was rich enough to hire Egor for more jobs, but since I’m not, I thought I would share his details, in case, like me, you’re an old fogey who didn’t grow up with technology and are searching for a solution and you have low trust levels approaching just anyone on the web. (Especially with all the scary scams out there) Codeable is pretty good as they verify their developers, but as a result it will cost more. But as my dad used to remind me, “Don’t be penny wise pound foolish.”
Please be assured that this is not an ad and I haven’t placed a single ad on my site or been paid a cent since I started. Honesty is the most important thing to me so if at any point I do cave in to the commercial element of things you’ll be the first to know.
Right now I’m just a broke lady hoping someday someone will realise my value and things will turn a corner for me one day. And one day I’ll hire Egor to add a tip jar for me when I feel comfortable enough to do that.
Just thinking aloud. Maintaining a blog costs money. It is why most diary bloggers give up after a few years because it takes time effort and money. And a tip jar is not begging right? Because I’m not coercing anyone and you’re free to leave nothing? What are your thoughts on this? Will it put you off? I prefer tip jar blogs rather than one with ads. Even worse, those with secret ads that are not declared, but it’s obvious the reviews are biased.
