I got websites

This is the last post of my personal blog personal challenge!
3 months have passed and this it post #12.

I feel like I have a lot of things to write but in the future I’ll post when I’ll feel like without any commitment, experimenting writing and sharing when loneliness will comes.

Anyway, I decided to disclose one of the things that had keep me busy lately.

When I embraced the path of fixing my knee,  that will keep me away from Salsa dancing for months, I realized I HAD to find something alternative to keep me busy and avoid depression…

So I decided to invest some time and money on websites, something I always been passionate about.

It’s an old passion of mine, since the time back to 2001 my ITVC.net project, an online community for Italian IT freak I created, developed and then closedt without realizing his potential.

The other year I tried instead with an online business experiment, PercussionConga, a niche blog dedicated to my favorite percussion instrument used in Latin music, that is still providing me with a luxurious passive income of 5$ a month…

This time I wanted to scale up, investing my non-Salsa nights and IT-money in something already up and running, because in fact as you can buy a bar, a candle shop, an apartment to rent, you can buy an online business too.

Took me over a month and a half checking what’s on the market, screening hundreds of websites on sale.
99% of them were bad, ranging from pure scam to completely rubbish, and with time I learn how to spot them.
The 1% left deserved accurate checks, understanding the market, digging into Google memory, discussing with the seller and being extremely suspicious: “Trust no one“, as Fox Molder use to say in X-Files (the last TV series I saw in my life).

At the end of this funnel, I was left with a website I really liked (I don’t mean for the graphic, as you can see on the right!).
Or better, 3 websites packed in a single sale.

They are job boards, website where employers post their vacancies and candidates look for a job.
Do you know Monster.com? Same concept, another scale.

And the best thing is: they operate in Latin America……México, Colombia and Perú.
Do you think is another coincidence?

Since the moment I signed the deal I had a pornhorror feeling: a mix of excitement (something new!) and fear (I’ve been f#ck@d).

Then I felt like new parents when they arrive home from the hospital with their newborn baby: what to do now? what does he want? why he’s crying?

The baby doesn’t come with instructions, so my websites.

The technical aspects weren’t a problem, I have plenty of experience, but had no idea how users were using my websites, what they wanted and the business logic behind.
Every change could bring unpredictable effects. What if I change the home page? What if I move that banner? What if I send the newsletter at another time of the day? what if…?
I felt paralyzed, thinking over and over zillions time before changing anything, and then observing the results.

Plus, another funny detail is that my websites are in Spanish, a language I learn from the street and in the Salsa clubs… replying a formal e-mail from a company or someone looking for a job with a song from El Gran Combo doesn’t really work.
Luckily I have friends in Cali and I got my super-assistant Dilia lined up to save my days 🙂

It’s not a get-rich-quick thing. I have to work hard to learn the game and getting things under my understanding: traffic statistics, advertising models, media marketing.

I had some freaky days and nights, up to the point that I would have stay till 2am at the PC in a very excited state of mind, then move to bed but unable to switch off the mind till 3am. And then at 7am waking up with the Blackberry in my hand checking e-mails.

At least my websites don’t poop as babies do!

Now is over a month I’m owning my websites, as well as over a month I’m not dancing, I can see some results and I feel more relaxed.

I love my websites.

I love that in an online world full of people trying to make quick money out of Google (tricking the system to be on top of search results) or out of people (tricking users to buy something they probably won’t need) here I stand with websites that offer a FREE service for people looking for a job, and companies looking for workers.

I love that I’m helping people of México, Colombia and Perú getting a JOB, something pretty low in Maslow pyramid of needs.

I love that my websites are more than cashing in the Internet business – there’s a social purpose in them.

I love that I feel excited and enthusiastic about it, and may I loose all my money then FUCK IT, it will mean that I paid for the emotions I care the most.

I love that I feel genuine, this is Daniele investing his life and taking responsibility for doing things his way. Not serving any corporate business “ethic”.

I love that I’m full of ideas about making my websites work better, finally busy with a creative process.

And finally I love the technical aspects I’m so comfy with.

My babies are:

www.puesto.com.mx

www.puesto.com.co

www.puesto.com.pe

 

No poop, no crying at night.

 

 

Greetings from London, where I’m writing from a Starbucks instead of visiting the city.