School is done, and so is another website project!

I finished my Bachelor's degree this past Friday December 13th, 2019. I was doubly excited because 1) I'm done with the Bachelor's and 2) and I could finish the website projects I had to put aside because of school.

So the first project I've completed is https://preownedrunningshoes.com/
This website sells pre-owned brand name running shoes. The inventory is updated automatically on a daily basis. I got it done in 2 days (half day on Friday, Monday, and half day today). All the practice I got with the courses I took on website development and planning helped me get this project done fairly quickly.

Web development tip: The header text of this WordPress was not responsive, even though it was using a relative unit of measurement. I changed the units to vw and the header text is now responsive on all devices. You can read about how to use different CSS units of measurement at https://www.w3schools.com/css/css_units.asp

My goal is to finish the website projects for my undeveloped domains before I start grad school in (hopefully) two months. I'm so happy to cross this one off the list!

Business is steadily growing!

Thanks to God the web development business is growing steadily. The orders from Fiverr are starting to flow in and I've been getting good reviews. I did receive one bad review from a crazy person, but it hasn't stopped new customers from trusting me. I've maxed out my gig offerings and I'm now just a few steps away from becoming a Level 1 Seller and I'm very excited! You can view my Fiverr profile and see my customer reviews at https://www.fiverr.com/raquelsellsphil

I got to attend my first WordCamp event earlier this month in Philly and I learned so much. One of my goals was to learn how to develop themes and one of the sessions gave me enough information to research and start developing themes on my own. This whole time I thought I had to master PHP and the WordPress codex before I could create a theme. The speaker at WordCamp showed how we could use a starter theme to create from scratch and I was blown away.

My plan to offer Elementor templates as digital downloads was scratched because Elementor doesn't offer a simple or secure way to transfer templates. I'm going to pivot my Etsy web development downloads business to offer HTML website templates, HTML email templates and email signatures. I'll offer custom WordPress sites built with Elementor as a service in a separate venture. All this will be under the WebCodeDesigner umbrella.

I also want to offer other digital downloads, such as resume templates in Word, PowerPoint templates, wedding invitations, Instagram templates and funeral programs. All things that people will need forever. Being evergreen is the key.

I'm scheduled to finish my Bachelor degree this December and I want to get these businesses rolling before then. These last three classes are intense, but I don't feel anxious about them. I'm actually excited to get them done and move on to the next phase of life. God willing.

How to create t-shirt designs with transparent backgrounds using LibreOffice Draw and GIMP

Last night I volunteered to create a t-shirt design for the addiction recovery Bible study that my husband and his best friend are teaching. We're planning to wear them for the Recovery Walk in Philadelphia next week and we want everyone on the team to match.

I needed to create a design with one image and text with a transparent background and I know I'm supposed to be able to do it with GIMP. But I just can't figure out how to format text in GIMP, and haven't found a good tutorial on it yet.

But I do know how to use LibreOffice Draw! I created a design in LibreOffice Draw with the hope that I could copy and paste it into GIMP. It worked! Here's how to do it:

1. Create a new document with a transparent background in GIMP.
2. Switch to LibreOffice Draw and create a text design. Select the elements of the design and copy them to your clipboard.
3. Switch back to GIMP and paste.
4. Export the design to your desired format.

Voila! You now have a text design with a transparent background that can be uploaded to a t-shirt printer.

Maybe I can offer this as a service in the near future, hmmm.

Update: I just found out that when exporting designs from LibreOffice Draw into an image format, it will automatically have a transparent background! Now I just need to figure out how to specify size in pixels.

Update on WordPress development environments, making it even simpler

I recently wrote about using a subdomain for a WordPress development environment. I kept looking at the setup and thinking if it could be any simpler. Of course it can. I don't need to use subdomains at all. The development environments can just be folders on the main domain. So I transferred all existing projects and deleted the subdomain.

I also remembered that I can set a password for pages so I don't need to install and learn to configure a membership plugin to protect works-in-progress. At least not yet anyway.

Happy web developing!

I did work today for the nails dropshipping business

I revised the titles, descriptions, tags and permalinks for 10 items. I also setup the Google Analytics for ecommerce tracking, setup Google Search Console, installed a CRM that connects to Woocommerce, revised the Terms & Shipping page, and updated the Privacy Policy page.

Now I just need a regular schedule for adding new items and marketing.

Setting up WordPress development environments

Before this past weekend, I was developing WordPress sites by creating new pages in one installation. It was becoming a pain because I would have to turn off certain plugins when creating a new design, but it was working for me. Then one day I installed a template that I didn't realize would overwrite what I created. I lost more than five designs! And no I didn't backup the files. But thankfully my webhost keeps backups so I paid a reasonable fee for them to restore the pages. (I've since installed UpdraftPlus and now backups are done automatically on a daily basis and stored on Google Drive, all for free.)

I've been developing sites from PSD designs, and my decision was confirmed when I read this article on how to get unlimited ideas for web coding projects. The only way I can continue developing sites without interruption is to have an environment that works for me.

I became interested in WordPress multisite because I use it at my job. I like how it works and thought the idea could work well for me. So this weekend I tried to setup multisite on my own domain. It didn't go well. I followed all the steps from the WordPress codex, even found tutorials from reliable blogs I've referenced in the past. I could not get it to work the way I wanted. So I've found another way!

My webhost offers a one-click install of WordPress into any folder I choose. So my development environment will be on a subdomain, and every new WordPress install will have its own folder on the subdomain. This allows me to install the themes and plugins I need just for that design, without disrupting any other pages. I'll keep track of the URLs and pages in a Google Doc spreadsheet. Easy peasy!

There's no way around it, I have to do the work

Watched this video today: https://youtu.be/bKCQdp5sq38

When they start talking about how long an affiliate business takes to make money compared to service business models, I had to admit the truth. I've shared my affiliate links in TONS of places, and I have yet to break the $100 earnings mark. Meanwhile, my dropshipping ventures have made more than that in the first month.

I changed the nails dropshipping site to an affiliate site. Why? Because of laziness. Because of my refusal to do the work. I didn't feel like rewriting titles and descriptions for about 60 items. Even though I knew that making those updates would only improve sales. Switching to an affiliate model was a stupid move.

If I want the business I have to do the work. There's no way around it. I can't afford to pay someone to do it, so I have to do it.

The nails business is switching back to the dropship model. What will I do differently this time? A few things:

• Import and revise a small number of items at a time. I got overwhelmed because I listed almost 100 items that needed to be updated. Adding about 10 items at a time should be good.
• Implement a consistent marketing plan to generate sales.
• Once the store is profiting $40 per month, I'll upgrade to the complete order automation plan.

The nails dropshipping site is now an affiliate site!

Got it done in less time than I thought I'd need. Here's the new site: https://nailsgaloreshop.com/

One new skill I learned while doing this: you can change a WordPress footer easily when you know where to find the file. Here's the tutorial that helped me: https://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/remove-proudly-powered-by-wordpress-footer-link/

The WordPress templates business has launched!

I did it! Thanks to God I was able to create my first template and upload it to Etsy. You can view it at https://www.etsy.com/shop/WebCodeDesigner

So excited! Now I'm off to change my dropshipping site to an affiliate store. Then back to creating more "inventory" for my downloads business.

Almost finished an important step and other passive income stuff

I focused on getting my first downloadable product done last night and realized the install instructions were missing an important step. So I'm finishing that today and will upload to Etsy.

I've also made a few other decisions on my passive income business checklist:

• Decided to change my dropshipping nails store to an affiliate store. Mainly because I don't feel like rewriting titles and descriptions every time new products are added. I also don't feel like processing orders and doing customer service. So I'll be making the switch today as soon as I finish the Etsy upload.
• I scrapped the PLR blogs idea and am sticking with autoblogs fed by RSS feeds. The setup time is less and I'll never have to maintain it.

This is my week off from school until classes start again on Monday. I am determined to get at least two passive income streams started.

To-do list for passive income

It is August 2019 and I still haven't completed any of the steps to get an online passive income stream going. My personality is such that if I don't write something down along with a plan to get it done, it won't get done. This is true whether it is a task for church, school, business or work. When I wrote a plan for my education, I was able to earn the associates, and I'll have earned a Bachelor degree by the end of this year God willing. The same applies for my passive income streams. It isn't done because I haven't written a plan for it.

Last week I initially just wrote an outline, then I wrote out the details to get each item done. One plan I started a few years ago but never completed was a huge set of blogs. I got the idea from warrior forum. The idea was to setup a collection of blogs using free PLR articles and then activate Adsense on them. But of course now that I have a plan and start to execute, I find out that Adsense requires extra file uploads and reviews to be activated. That is extra work I don't want to do and more time waiting for income to start. So I'm pivoting and using Ebay partner network instead. No waiting required. I just have to focus on blogs that can advertise related products available on Ebay. Shouldn't be hard, and no approval or waiting necessary. Yay for progress.

I completed my first contract on Upwork! And what I learned from it

I finally got on the ball and started submitting proposals on Upwork. Of the first two submitted, one was accepted! The client first asked me a few questions via messaging and then also requested a phone call. My proposal was accepted shortly after the phone call. The job was to transfer an existing website built about 15 years ago to WordPress, as well as provide some tutoring via screenshare for the client to learn how to navigate WordPress. The client ultimately decided to move to another format because WordPress wasn't easy enough to use. So we decided to end the contract early. The client seems happy though and said I did a great job.

Here are a few things I learned and that I'll implement going forward:

• Set milestones or deadlines, even if the client says they don't want to. While this client at first said there was no rush and didn't want to set a deadline, that changed and there was a sudden urgency to get things done. Setting up expectations from the beginning would've eliminated any questions.
• Remember that answering project questions counts as work, and so the timer should be running when doing so. There were several occasions where I was responding to messages about the project and I should've been getting paid for that time. I didn't notice until I had been working for quite a while and by that point I couldn't remember what time I'd started.
• Don't wait until a current project is finished to start bidding on new work. You really have no idea when a project is going to end, so you should always have some business in the pipeline.

I can't find the words to express how exciting this freelancing venture has become. I really can work from anywhere as long as I have an Internet connection! I thought I wanted an office job as a front-end developer, but I can't imagine doing that now. I haven't applied for a job since I started getting regular order on Fiverr. And now that I'm learning to master Upwork, I see no reason to work for anyone else ever again.

Freelancing via Fiverr is working out!

Looks like redoing the gigs paid off because as of today I've completed six orders on Fiverr! Three were accepted and received 5-star reviews and three are waiting to be accepted. I also have one new order that is due in two days. This is so exciting! It's what I've wanted for a long time - a business I can do from anywhere as long as I have an Internet connection.

Fiverr feels like the ebay of the freelancing world. You can offer pretty much any service and someone will probably buy it. It almost feels too easy.

In my quest to dominate on Fiverr, I purchased a udemy course (on sale of course) that's supposed to show me how to maximize my income on Fiverr. I'm about two-thirds of the way through the course and so far it does have some useful information. But let's just say I'm glad I didn't pay the "regular" price of $216. I will implement all of the optimization tips for my profile and gigs, then move onto Upwork (which I also purchased a udemy course for).