{
  "block": 70644923,
  "op": [
    "transfer",
    {
      "amount": "0.001 STEEM",
      "from": "steemegg",
      "memo": "Free Upvotes Await!!!, Vote @se-witness for one of your 30 witness votes. Once you do so, you will start accumulating free upvotes every 6 hours automatically.  Please check my latests posts for more info.  Thanks!",
      "to": "dlkr"
    }
  ],
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "timestamp": "2022-12-27T00:25:18",
  "trx_id": "75c7109ba641911b69371091e9062c468d8c0a8e",
  "trx_in_block": 13,
  "virtual_op": 0
}

{
  "block": 41294342,
  "op": [
    "custom_json",
    {
      "id": "community",
      "json": "[\"subscribe\",{\"community\":\"hive-196037\"}]",
      "required_auths": [],
      "required_posting_auths": [
        "dlkr"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "timestamp": "2020-03-02T07:24:18",
  "trx_id": "380355df1c00570b0746c3be4c55e4047e4ecbb4",
  "trx_in_block": 19,
  "virtual_op": 0
}

{
  "block": 39513749,
  "op": [
    "comment",
    {
      "author": "steemitboard",
      "body": "Congratulations @dlkr! You received a personal award!\n\n<table><tr><td>https://steemitimages.com/70x70/http://steemitboard.com/@dlkr/birthday1.png</td><td>Happy Birthday! - You are on the Steem blockchain for 1 year!</td></tr></table>\n\n<sub>_You can view [your badges on your Steem Board](https://steemitboard.com/@dlkr) and compare to others on the [Steem Ranking](https://steemitboard.com/ranking/index.php?name=dlkr)_</sub>\n\n\n###### [Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness](https://v2.steemconnect.com/sign/account-witness-vote?witness=steemitboard&approve=1) to get one more award and increased upvotes!",
      "json_metadata": "{\"image\":[\"https://steemitboard.com/img/notify.png\"]}",
      "parent_author": "dlkr",
      "parent_permlink": "online-services-for-designing-logos-and-printing-business-cards",
      "permlink": "steemitboard-notify-dlkr-20191231t082944000z",
      "title": ""
    }
  ],
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "timestamp": "2019-12-31T08:29:42",
  "trx_id": "5005dcc1ef60516fd2cf3f441cfb0c30f4f9fc45",
  "trx_in_block": 41,
  "virtual_op": 0
}

{
  "block": 31392971,
  "op": [
    "account_update",
    {
      "account": "dlkr",
      "json_metadata": "{\"profile\":{\"name\":\"blah blah blah blah \",\"about\":\"blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah \",\"location\":\"blah blah blah blah \",\"cover_image\":\"https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmWKSWXLb4mpPK8n3yjm1SveSSCstYv7HdbiH5x5yVj7EA/Screen%20Shot%202019-03-23%20at%2011.12.00.png\",\"profile_image\":\"https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmUuiEZraV6ZcvC7hmWsB1dZxuuu5MQyEY6eVYG5Pjseqv/Screen%20Shot%202019-03-23%20at%2011.27.33.png\"}}",
      "memo_key": "STM5CUjyXZtunTAEKqJhmPBskTqCAYjCmNLoQ7YETwquou6Y6np8m"
    }
  ],
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "timestamp": "2019-03-23T02:27:57",
  "trx_id": "d60f5a4fcc3f87a8e12f30eee3bea50835212738",
  "trx_in_block": 8,
  "virtual_op": 0
}

{
  "block": 31392960,
  "op": [
    "vote",
    {
      "author": "dlkr",
      "permlink": "online-services-for-designing-logos-and-printing-business-cards",
      "voter": "ratticus",
      "weight": 1000
    }
  ],
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "timestamp": "2019-03-23T02:27:24",
  "trx_id": "779fe108a5bb2eef95c1c8ebf6dae878f14afd15",
  "trx_in_block": 1,
  "virtual_op": 0
}

{
  "block": 31392924,
  "op": [
    "account_update",
    {
      "account": "dlkr",
      "json_metadata": "{\"profile\":{\"name\":\"blah blah blah blah \",\"about\":\"blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah \",\"location\":\"blah blah blah blah \",\"cover_image\":\"https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmWKSWXLb4mpPK8n3yjm1SveSSCstYv7HdbiH5x5yVj7EA/Screen%20Shot%202019-03-23%20at%2011.12.00.png\",\"profile_image\":\"https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmWKSWXLb4mpPK8n3yjm1SveSSCstYv7HdbiH5x5yVj7EA/Screen%20Shot%202019-03-23%20at%2011.12.00.png\"}}",
      "memo_key": "STM5CUjyXZtunTAEKqJhmPBskTqCAYjCmNLoQ7YETwquou6Y6np8m"
    }
  ],
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "timestamp": "2019-03-23T02:25:36",
  "trx_id": "979e54c10878cfb66284ce1d082474637bcb7848",
  "trx_in_block": 1,
  "virtual_op": 0
}

{
  "block": 31392909,
  "op": [
    "comment",
    {
      "author": "dlkr",
      "body": "_____________",
      "json_metadata": "{\"tags\":[\"branding\"],\"app\":\"steemit/0.1\",\"format\":\"markdown\"}",
      "parent_author": "",
      "parent_permlink": "branding",
      "permlink": "online-services-for-designing-logos-and-printing-business-cards",
      "title": "_____________"
    }
  ],
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "timestamp": "2019-03-23T02:24:51",
  "trx_id": "97fb1e6ff6269d2d75c990a7c7257c2f964a8100",
  "trx_in_block": 20,
  "virtual_op": 0
}

{
  "block": 31392908,
  "op": [
    "vote",
    {
      "author": "dlkr",
      "permlink": "a-10-year-journey-through-the-world-of-blogging",
      "voter": "ratticus",
      "weight": 1000
    }
  ],
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "timestamp": "2019-03-23T02:24:48",
  "trx_id": "66d6faaf18b32121245324b07fe7e65e8faaef74",
  "trx_in_block": 42,
  "virtual_op": 0
}

{
  "block": 31392903,
  "op": [
    "comment",
    {
      "author": "dlkr",
      "body": "_____________",
      "json_metadata": "{\"tags\":[\"blogging\"],\"app\":\"steemit/0.1\",\"format\":\"markdown\"}",
      "parent_author": "",
      "parent_permlink": "blogging",
      "permlink": "a-10-year-journey-through-the-world-of-blogging",
      "title": "_____________"
    }
  ],
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "timestamp": "2019-03-23T02:24:33",
  "trx_id": "51efb1fc33db4620fc199794f9bb702e03517dfb",
  "trx_in_block": 7,
  "virtual_op": 0
}

{
  "block": 31343412,
  "op": [
    "account_update",
    {
      "account": "dlkr",
      "json_metadata": "{\"profile\":{\"name\":\"DLKR\",\"about\":\"Visual arts hobbyist learning as I go and sharing my creations. Hope you like some of them. Let me know your thoughts. | [email protected]\",\"website\":\"https://dlkr.life\",\"location\":\"Tokyo, Japan\",\"cover_image\":\"https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQma8iBa1TiVi3xF6XvEjmwn98joeJxzzgqSUs1Jp4kFzUk/Cover_Creative.jpg\",\"profile_image\":\"https://i.postimg.cc/q7mYDTGL/Profile-Photo.jpg\"}}",
      "memo_key": "STM5CUjyXZtunTAEKqJhmPBskTqCAYjCmNLoQ7YETwquou6Y6np8m"
    }
  ],
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "timestamp": "2019-03-21T09:08:39",
  "trx_id": "3161d6f24c418513c7ac9ca55c2a445bc232dd53",
  "trx_in_block": 12,
  "virtual_op": 0
}

{
  "block": 31342843,
  "op": [
    "comment",
    {
      "author": "dlkr",
      "body": "@@ -21318,88 +21318,50 @@\n ked.\n-%0A%0A#### 1%5C. WordPress.com%0A%0AI didn%E2%80%99t want to come back to WordPress because\n+ The first two were at extreme ends\n  of \n-its\n+the\n  com\n@@ -21371,7018 +21371,1969 @@\n xity\n-, but it is open source, and the organization behind it claims to be %5Bcommitted to free speech%5D(https://wordp\n+ spectrum, and the third I liked.%0A%0A1. WordP\n ress.com\n-/freedom-of-speech/). The platform is mature, stable, and its hosted service is significantly more straightforward than the self-hosted version. They have strong user support and very reasonable %5Bpricing%5D(https://wordpress.com/pricing/).%0A%0AI re-visited the service and spent a day trying to get set up. The next day, I woke up and realized that I just couldn't go on like this. If you're TechCrunch, then sure, use WordPress, but for a one-person operation, it's overkill.%0A%0A#### 2%5C. Ghost%0A%0AThe hosted offering of %5BGhost%5D(http://ghost.org) seemed like an ideal match for what I want\n+ is much easier to deal with than WordPress.org, and it has improved a lot since I used it ten years ago. Nevertheless, it is still overkill for my ne\n ed\n+s\n . \n-It is open source, committed to privacy, and pro free speech. Usability and simplicity is their big sales point. The creators realized that WordPress was too complicated for most people. But, they didn%E2%80%99t strip it down too far to the bone. It%E2%80%99s just right.%0A%0AHowever, at $29 per site, it was out of my budget since I need nine sites! I looked around at alternative Ghost hosting providers, but a certain degree of technical skill was required to set up and maintain Ghost on their platforms. Sigh%E2%80%A6 I really wanted to use Ghost%E2%80%A6%0A%0A#### 3%5C. Write.as%0A%0A%5BWrite.as%5D(http://Write.as) is a minimalistic and thoughtfully crafted platform designed to let you just focus on writing. It ticks many of the boxes on my list of wants including being open source, committed to user privacy, and reasonable pricing.%0A%0AWhile I don't see a clear commitment to free speech, their business model of being funded by their\n+After a day of wrestling with it, I gave up.%0A%0A2. Write.as is at the other end of the scale. I found it overly minimalistic and bare bones. I experimented\n  w\n-r\n it\n-er users means that they will likely be much more lenient than companies reliant on advertising or venture capital.%0A%0AWhat I really wanted was something like Medium, but Write.as is a different animal.%0A%0A* **Editor:** Medium is super easy to use thanks to its beautifully designed minimalist %5BWYSIWYG%5D(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WYSIWYG) editor. With Write.as, you need to use markdown for formatting. Markdown isn't hard but takes a while to get used to.%0A* **Customization:** Unlike Medium, Write.as lets you customize your blog's appearance, but you will need to use %5BCSS%5D(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascading_Style_Sheets) and %5BJavaScript%5D(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript) to do it. The upside of this is that, if you need to set up multiple blogs with the same styling, you can just drop the code into each one, which is much faster than having to click around the various nooks and crannies of WordPress settings.%0A* **Images:** You can't just drop images into posts as you can with Medium. They do have a sister service for image hosting, %5BSnap.as%5D(https://snap.as/), but you need to do a bit of messing around to get images into your posts.%0A%0AI'm hoping that the usability issues will be improved over time. For now, it is excellent value for money, and I can see that I'll quickly get u\n+h it for a few weeks but then gave up because so many of the features I wanted were either far off on the roadmap or not planned at all. It wasn't for me.%0A%0A3. Ghost was somewhere in between the\n se\n-d\n  t\n+w\n o \n-it.%0A%0A## What I've Set Up on Write.as%0A%0A%0A%0A#### Blogs for My Business%0A%0AI migrated the landing pages mentioned above to Write.as, adapting them to fit the blog format in the process. %0A%0A1. **%5BDLKR.co%5D(https://dlkr.co/)**: Targeting SMEs outside of Tokyo, including overseas, that might be open to working with me remotely. Here, I'll write about marketing and business topics that are global.%0A2. **%5BDLKR.tokyo%5D(https://dlkr.tokyo/)**: Targeting SMEs in Tokyo. While most people here have limited English, there is a substantial expatriate presence, and sometimes they prefer to work with English-speaking service providers. Plus, I can use my specialty, which is being able to provide content marketing services in English - a relatively rare skill set here. On this blog, I'll write about marketing and business topics that are relevant to Japan.%0A3. **%5BDLKR.jp%5D(https://dlkr.jp/)**: A Japanese translation of #2. I can write Japanese, but only poorly, so I hired native speakers via %5BGengo%5D(https://gengo.com/) and %5BFiverr%5D(https://fave.co/2BuDDMz) to help. I have a client that operates an AI-based translation system. It's a secure alternative to Google Translate. I'll be using this to provide translations of my articles from the above two blogs and providing a link to my client's service, thereby showcasing their service's capabilities while generating content in the local language. It won't be as good as a human translator, but it will be a point of interest.%0A%0A#### Blogs for My Creative Pursuits%0A%0AMy services are just to pay the bills while I build up my income as a creator to the point where it can support me full-time. This is because (i) at nearly 45, I%E2%80%99m already too old to be employable in the eyes of many companies, and, (ii) my creative work is what I really want to do.%0A%0AI%E2%80%99ve had the privilege to know a few creators, including one who is able to live off his work full-time. I%E2%80%99ve also been following and studying several creators over the past five years to learn how they do things.%0A%0AHere%E2%80%99s what I%E2%80%99ll be working on in terms of creative pursuits:%0A%0A*   **%5BDLKR.photos%5D(https://dlkr.photos/)**: Over the years, I%E2%80%99ve taken a few photos that were flukes. I had no idea what I was doing but was at the right time and right place. I%E2%80%99ll be building on this to develop my skills and document the process.%0A*   **%5BDLKR.art%5D(https://DLKR.art)**: I%E2%80%99ve had a long love of digital art since my university days. Even before then, I was trying to learn how to create images using analog paper, pens, paint, and pencils. I%E2%80%99ll be using various manipulation techniques and filters to create artistic versions of selections from my photo collection.%0A*   **%5BDLKR.video%5D(https://DLKR.video)**: Building on my photography skills, I%E2%80%99ll be shooting video clips and learning to edit them together into montages.%0A%0AI%E2%80%99ll have several ways of monetizing these:%0A%0A*   **Patronage:** I%E2%80%99ll be offering options for people to contribute one-time or recurring donations. Patreon has been exposed for being censorious and they're really just a middleman. Most platforms either have or are in the process of building in ways to allow fans to support their favorite creators.%0A*   **Print-on-Demand (POD):** I%E2%80%99ll use POD sites such as %5BRedBubble%5D(https://fave.co/2S1iKhu) and %5BSociety6%5D(https://fave.co/2Bxkvhh) to let people buy prints of my photos and art.%0A*   **Affiliate Links:** I%E2%80%99ll continue using %5BSkimlinks%5D(https://fave.co/2Ef1odS) to monetize any links to online merchants.%0A%0A#### Documenting the Journey%0A%0AI set up %5BDLKR.blog%5D(https://dlkr.blog) to talk about the overall journey for all of the above. Gary Vaynerchuk advises to %5Bdocument rather than creating%5D(https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/creating-content-that-builds-your-personal-brand/). So, for all of the above, I%E2%80%99ll be taking more of that approach.%0A%0AThis may seem like an insane number of blogs, but another key to being a successful content creator is to cater to specific audiences. Somebody who reads my business articles is not going to be interested in my art. People who enjoy my video montages may not like reading about my overall journey, etc\n+extremes and felt like a good compromise, so I've chosen to go with it and set up DLKR.life as a place to share what I learn from my business and creative pursuits, along with my art, photography, and videos.%0A%0A## Becoming a Creator%0A%0AMy services are just to pay the bills while I build up my income as a creator to the point where it can support me full-time. This is because (i) at nearly 45, I%E2%80%99m already too old to be employable in the eyes of many companies, and, (ii) my creative work is what I really want to do.%0A%0AI%E2%80%99ve had the privilege to know a few creators, including one who is able to live off his work full-time. I%E2%80%99ve also been following and studying several creators over the past five years to learn how they do things.%0A%0AAs a creator, I have several ideas for income streams:%0A%0A*   **Patronage:** I%E2%80%99ll be offering options for people to contribute one-time or recurring donations. Patreon has been exposed for being censorious and they're really just a middleman. Most platforms either have or are in the process of building in ways to allow fans to support their favorite creators.%0A*   **Print-on-Demand (POD):** I%E2%80%99ll use POD sites such as %5BRedBubble%5D(https://fave.co/2S1iKhu) and %5BSociety6%5D(https://fave.co/2Bxkvhh) to let people buy prints of my photos and art.%0A*   **Affiliate Links:** I%E2%80%99ll continue using %5BSkimlinks%5D(https://fave.co/2Ef1odS) to monetize any links to online merchants\n .%0A%0A#\n@@ -23904,20 +23904,20 @@\n n %5BDLKR.\n-blog\n+life\n %5D(https:\n@@ -23922,17 +23922,21 @@\n s://\n+www.\n dlkr.\n-blog\n+life\n /blo\n@@ -23960,9 +23960,10 @@\n -journey\n+/\n )\n",
      "json_metadata": "{\"tags\":[\"blogging\",\"medium\",\"wordpress\",\"onlinepublishing\",\"solopreneur\"],\"image\":[\"https://i.snap.as/NLLCwd0.jpg\"],\"links\":[\"http://blogger.com\",\"http://WordPress.com\",\"http://WordPress.org\",\"http://upwork.com\",\"http://www.pikkles.com/\",\"http://adamtperry.com/\",\"https://wpengine.com/\",\"http://medium.com\",\"https://fave.co/2Ah7xU5\",\"https://www.strikingly.com/\",\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect\",\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open-source_software\",\"http://linux.org\",\"http://wordpress.org\",\"http://gimp.org\",\"https://minds.com/?referrer=dlkr\",\"https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=minds+bill+ottman+interview\",\"https://gitlab.com/minds\",\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveillance_capitalism\",\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Four_tech_companies\",\"http://DuckDuckGo.com\",\"https://brave.com/\",\"https://virtualshield.com/\",\"https://restoreprivacy.com/google-alternatives/\",\"https://fave.co/2S1iKhu\",\"https://fave.co/2Bxkvhh\",\"https://fave.co/2Ef1odS\",\"https://unsplash.com/photos/a_L_fVDQQXI\",\"https://www.dlkr.life/blogging-solopreneur-journey/\"],\"app\":\"steemit/0.1\",\"format\":\"markdown\"}",
      "parent_author": "",
      "parent_permlink": "blogging",
      "permlink": "a-10-year-journey-through-the-world-of-blogging",
      "title": "A 10 Year Journey Through the World of Blogging"
    }
  ],
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "timestamp": "2019-03-21T08:40:12",
  "trx_id": "49435811c13d2488e629373fd9d35d51cf6334ee",
  "trx_in_block": 16,
  "virtual_op": 0
}

{
  "block": 31341489,
  "op": [
    "comment",
    {
      "author": "dlkr",
      "body": "@@ -9109,20 +9109,20 @@\n n %5BDLKR.\n-blog\n+life\n %5D(https:\n@@ -9127,17 +9127,21 @@\n s://\n+www.\n dlkr.\n-blog\n+life\n /des\n@@ -9176,9 +9176,10 @@\n ss-cards\n+/\n )\n",
      "json_metadata": "{\"tags\":[\"branding\",\"design\",\"logos\",\"marketing\",\"printing\"],\"image\":[\"https://i.snap.as/N3xrQ42.jpeg\"],\"links\":[\"https://fave.co/2SYFzrx\",\"https://www.trustpilot.com/review/tailorbrands.com\",\"https://fave.co/2ST0Seg\",\"https://db.tt/Tc6jI63N\",\"https://fave.co/2STF3uN\",\"https://fave.co/2STFpBY\",\"https://fave.co/2BMAMii\",\"https://www.pexels.com/photo/turned-on-gray-laptop-computer-1449081/\",\"https://www.dlkr.life/designing-logos-printing-business-cards/\"],\"app\":\"steemit/0.1\",\"format\":\"markdown\"}",
      "parent_author": "",
      "parent_permlink": "branding",
      "permlink": "online-services-for-designing-logos-and-printing-business-cards",
      "title": "Online Services for Designing Logos and Printing Business Cards"
    }
  ],
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "timestamp": "2019-03-21T07:32:30",
  "trx_id": "f3bc0a9e94838090a5c1b4f24266502573e70075",
  "trx_in_block": 25,
  "virtual_op": 0
}

{
  "block": 30677841,
  "op": [
    "comment",
    {
      "author": "partiko",
      "body": "Hello @dlkr! This is a friendly reminder that you have 3000 Partiko Points unclaimed in your Partiko account!\n\nPartiko is a fast and beautiful mobile app for Steem, and it’s the most popular Steem mobile app out there! Download Partiko using the link below and login using SteemConnect to claim your 3000 Partiko points! You can easily convert them into Steem token!\n\nhttps://partiko.app/referral/partiko",
      "json_metadata": "{\"app\":\"partiko\"}",
      "parent_author": "dlkr",
      "parent_permlink": "online-services-for-designing-logos-and-printing-business-cards",
      "permlink": "partiko-re-dlkr-online-services-for-designing-logos-and-printing-business-cards-20190226t060603331z",
      "title": ""
    }
  ],
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "timestamp": "2019-02-26T06:06:03",
  "trx_id": "6533eb857dfa42b65b9ad6426ecb6986939b414b",
  "trx_in_block": 23,
  "virtual_op": 0
}

{
  "block": 30618916,
  "op": [
    "transfer",
    {
      "amount": "0.001 STEEM",
      "from": "allaz",
      "memo": "Promote your post. Your post will be min. 10  resteemed with over 13000  followers and min. 25  Upvote Different account. Your post will be more popular and you will find new friends. Send 0.5 SBD or STEEM to @allaz (post URL as memo ) Service Active.",
      "to": "dlkr"
    }
  ],
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "timestamp": "2019-02-24T04:56:57",
  "trx_id": "abb2c1c4f9b2d8e73d3a00d70af1fa937984e814",
  "trx_in_block": 21,
  "virtual_op": 0
}

{
  "block": 30618860,
  "op": [
    "comment",
    {
      "author": "dlkr",
      "body": "![Photo by [RawPixel via Pexels](https://www.pexels.com/photo/turned-on-gray-laptop-computer-1449081/)](https://i.snap.as/N3xrQ42.jpeg)\n\nI created a custom logo and used it to print business cards - all without hiring a designer or visiting a print shop! Learn how I did it and what I discovered.\n\nDisclaimer: I don't know if these are the best services available, as I haven't tried all options (there are quite a few out there!), but they at least appear to be regarded as leading players in their respective service niches. Hopefully, this will give you some ideas of what to look out for.\n\n---\n\nFirst, I created my logo using the...\n\n## Tailor Brands Logo Designer\n\nI'm not a designer, but like to think that I have decent taste in aesthetics. Over the years since first discovering it, I've used the [Tailor Brands Logo Maker](https://fave.co/2SYFzrx) for quickly and easily creating unique logo designs. I've also recommended it to clients.\n\nMy comments are based on last using the service in December 2018, so note that it may have changed since then by the time you read this review.\n\n### Pros\n\n- You can get a unique and original design concept for free.\n- It's much faster than working with a human designer.\n- You have full creative control.\n- It's easy to use.\n- If you like the design, you can pay a reasonable fee to download various versions of it in different formats for use in online media or printing.\n- Depending on the package you purchase, you can also get multiple templates, and even a brand book generated automatically.\n\n### Cons\n\nIf you go onto review sites such as [Trust Pilot](https://www.trustpilot.com/review/tailorbrands.com), you'll see that overall Tailor Brands has excellent reviews. However, they do have a significant number of one-star reviews, and they are almost all regarding their pricing system.\n\nBack in the day, Tailor Brands offered the service for a one-off fee. You'd make your logo and, if you liked it, could pay for a package depending on what collateral you needed.\n\nIf my memory serves me correctly, the cheapest package let you just have print-ready files for the logo, the next package included a vector version and a brand book, and the larger package included lots of templates using the logo and color scheme. I used their larger package several times and it was a sweet deal.\n\nHowever, some years ago, they changed their fees to [subscription plans](https://fave.co/2ST0Seg). This never made sense to me because, for each project, I just wanted to create a logo, download the files I needed, and get on with things.\n\nIn their [FAQ](https://fave.co/2ST0Seg), Tailor Brands explains their logic as follows:\n\n> \"Our Logo Only plan grants you unlimited storage of all your logo files and the higher plan you purchase, the more you get for your brand and small business. Looking for different sizes, professional presentations, social media posts, or business card designs? Create your own logo, refine to your liking, choose the right plan for you, and you’ll have access to your own Brand Profile for as long as you have a subscription with Tailor!\"\n\nDoes that make sense to you? Doesn't to me.\n\n- In an age when we can easily get free cloud storage from the likes of [Dropbox](https://db.tt/Tc6jI63N), why would \"unlimited storage of all your logo files\" be a selling point?\n- What is the point of having \"access to your own Brand Profile\" when you can just download all the files?\n\nSo, when I used the Tailor Brands Logo Maker, I just purchase one month for whichever plan I need, download all files, and then cancel the subscription. The cost is still reasonable.\n\nHowever, many people don't pay attention when inputting their credit card details and assume they're just going to pay a one-off fee. Later on, they notice that they've been paying monthly and are furious because technically, they agreed to sign up for the subscription and so Tailor Brands won't give them a refund.\n\nFurthermore, it is complicated and counter-intuitive to figure out how to cancel your subscription because they've buried the setting in a very obscure part of the dashboard.\n\nI can understand why a subscription system is more attractive to the owners of the Tailor Brands business, but it doesn't make sense to customers.\n\nThere are two other issues I had with the service;\n\n- You have to request a vector version of your logo design. This used to take one business day for them to create manually, but I think it's automated now. This is a relatively minor inconvenience.\n- The brand book they produce is ok, but it's not editable, and you can't download it. They're trying to justify charging you a subscription for the privilege of being able to access it. This is ridiculous. I ended up recreating it in a doc file so that I can edit and maintain it as I like.\n\nIn any case, I got what I wanted from them, and immediately canceled my subscription. I'd advise anyone else who uses their service to do the same.\n\nNext, I needed to get some business cards printed and delivered. I started by trying...\n\n## Tailor Brands' Integration with Zazzle\n\nThis is where I had trouble. If you want to know what worked, skip below to the section on MOO.\n\nTailor Brands lets you design a business card and then gives you the option of having them printed via their integration with [Zazzle](https://fave.co/2STF3uN), one of the top print-on-demand (POD) platforms.\n\nI didn't like the business card design Tailor Brands gave me, and there didn't seem to be any way to change it. Still, the design was passable, and I wasn't in the mood to figure out how to improve it via other options, so I just selected to get them printed. This then bounced me over to Zazzle to order the cards.\n\n### Problem 1: Shipping\n\nI chose the cheapest shipping option, without tracking. My delivery got lost and ended up taking around six weeks to arrive. I'm in Japan, and their printing was, I believe, done in the US. I made the order in December, so perhaps that had something to do with it, as the postal service was trying to cope with the tsunami of Christmas and New Year cards (the latter are a big deal in Japan).\n\nAt around the three-week point, I contacted Zazzle, and they told me to wait until the one-month mark. If after then, the cards still hadn't arrived, they would send another batch via express courier. We did this, and they were delivered on time. Shortly after, the original batch finally turned up at my door after all.\n\nTo be clear, this wasn't Zazzle's fault - it was the postal service. Lesson learned: If you're in a hurry, pay for a proper courier service with tracking.\n\n### Problem 2: Poor Print-Setting\n\nThe design was not centered properly, and it looked like I had printed the cards at home and done a poor job of cutting them by hand. I sent Zazzle Support a photo with an explanation. They sent another batch - with the same problem.\n\nI contacted Zazzle Support again, and they said that the problem was with how I had set up the design and not properly centered it to fit the printing area. This was not the case, as the design was made on Tailor Brands, and there was no such option. They also said that since their replacement batch had arrived, we were done.\n\nI attempted to explain the situation, but Zazzle Support went silent. I think they'd had enough of me by this point and were befuddled with how to rectify the situation with Tailor Brands.\n\nWhile the alignment issues were caused at Tailor Brands' end, I was surprised that Zazzle wasn't able to take the time to rectify them by manually re-setting the design to properly fit the paper.\n\nFrustrated with the Tailor Brands/Zazzle integration, I gave up and tried...\n\n## Making Business Cards on MOO\n\n[MOO](https://fave.co/2STFpBY) is another well-known POD service. Although they print a variety of items, their business cards are particularly popular. I had known of them for years and seen examples of the beautiful cards people had made using them.\n\nTo cut a long story short, I had zero problems with MOO. Their site was straightforward to use, they offered plenty of options without being overwhelming, and I was pleased with the cards once they arrived.\n\nEven if the Tailor Brands/Zazzle cards had been cropped properly, they would still have been significantly inferior to what I got from MOO. I'll be returning to MOO when I need a new set of cards.\n\nMOO doesn't yet offer an automated design tool like Tailor Brands, but they do have [customizable templates](https://fave.co/2BMAMii) which might be sufficient for some needs.\n\n---\n\n## Conclusion\n\n- Tailor Brands' [Logo Maker](https://fave.co/2SYFzrx) does a good job, but don't use them for printing and be sure to cancel your subscription immediately after you download all the files.\n- [MOO](https://fave.co/2STFpBY) is superb for business cards. \n- I'd love to see MOO acquire Tailor Brands, integrate their service so that everything is together, and do away with their sneaky subscription scheme.\n\n---\n\n- Cover photo: [RawPixel via Pexels](https://www.pexels.com/photo/turned-on-gray-laptop-computer-1449081/)\n- Original: Published on [DLKR.blog](https://dlkr.blog/designing-logos-printing-business-cards)",
      "json_metadata": "{\"tags\":[\"branding\",\"design\",\"logos\",\"marketing\",\"printing\"],\"image\":[\"https://i.snap.as/N3xrQ42.jpeg\"],\"links\":[\"https://fave.co/2SYFzrx\",\"https://www.trustpilot.com/review/tailorbrands.com\",\"https://fave.co/2ST0Seg\",\"https://db.tt/Tc6jI63N\",\"https://fave.co/2STF3uN\",\"https://fave.co/2STFpBY\",\"https://fave.co/2BMAMii\",\"https://www.pexels.com/photo/turned-on-gray-laptop-computer-1449081/\",\"https://dlkr.blog/designing-logos-printing-business-cards\"],\"app\":\"steemit/0.1\",\"format\":\"markdown\"}",
      "parent_author": "",
      "parent_permlink": "branding",
      "permlink": "online-services-for-designing-logos-and-printing-business-cards",
      "title": "Online Services for Designing Logos and Printing Business Cards"
    }
  ],
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "timestamp": "2019-02-24T04:54:09",
  "trx_id": "4364fae607f29a345d0cb5e37aefbe55b27c533c",
  "trx_in_block": 12,
  "virtual_op": 0
}

{
  "block": 30618587,
  "op": [
    "comment",
    {
      "author": "dlkr",
      "body": "![Photo by RawPixel on Unsplash](https://i.snap.as/NLLCwd0.jpg)\n\nLessons learned from a decade trying multiple blogging platforms, failing as an online publisher, and refining my direction as a creator and solopreneur.\n\n---\n\n### Blogger: The Starting Point\n\nFebruary 2008 marked my eleventh year living in Tokyo (I'm originally from Australia), and I had obtained permanent residence status. In the summer of that year, I graduated from yoga teacher training and started on Google’s [Blogger](http://blogger.com) service to provide information about my first classes. It was easy to use, but eventually, I found it too limiting, so searched for options.\n\n### WordPress.com: More Features & Possibilities\n\nBy the time 2009 started, I had moved to [WordPress.com](http://WordPress.com). It gave me a lot more possibilities and served my needs for around eight months or so.\n\nMeanwhile, I had started using the blog to help spread the word about yoga workshops and events in Tokyo. I then branched out into interviews. Eventually, I created a crudely implemented studio and teacher directory. Since there was already a lot of local sites giving information, I decided to focus on providing information in English about classes, workshops, and events offered in English.\n\nA girlfriend came up with the name, HelloYoga. Working through an intermediary hired on Elance, I managed to secure the .com domain name from a Chinese entrepreneur. I also got a freelancer to design a logo.\n\n### WordPress.org Attempt I\n\nWanting to offer my yoga class students an easy way to check my teaching schedule and sign up for classes, I looked around for options.\n\nFacebook had an events feature, but the social network was only just starting to gain traction in Japan, and so not all my students were on it. Furthermore, its event reservation system was a bit lacking. People would click to join the event but not show up. Others would show up without having made a reservation. Facebook wasn't it.\n\nThere was no suitable web-based service available at the time, and WordPress.com didn’t allow plugins, so I migrated to [WordPress.org](http://WordPress.org) and hired a series of Indian developers via Elance (now [Upwork](http://upwork.com)) to build the features I needed.\n\nWe found a plugin that was the closest possible to what I wanted and had the developers modify it. It was incredibly buggy and never quite worked. Whenever the WordPress core was updated, it would break the site. We had constant problems with the plugins too. On top of that, I kept having new ideas and changing the scope of the developers. The project was a bloated mess, and nobody was happy.\n\n### WordPress.org Attempt II\n\nI made friends with a small creative agency, [Pikkles](http://www.pikkles.com/), and worked with them on refining the site's concept. We worked out an arrangement to fit my shoestring budget. They moved the site to their servers, gave it a slick new design, and continued working on the scheduling system.\n\nI established a company in Spring 2010 as a vehicle on which to build the business and found a local accountant to do my annual tax filings. This, I hoped, would help me do business with brands and perhaps serve well if I wanted to sell the operation later.\n\nThe scheduling system never did quite work out – I hadn’t realized what a massive undertaking it would be. Today, there are WordPress themes and plugins that would have reduced the development work to just minor customization, but it was the only course of action at the time.\n\nI attempted to work with a series of interns to work on the site, especially the scheduling system. However, despite their valiant efforts, the result was a growing pile of spaghetti code, and each intern eventually moved on to a real job, leaving me in the lurch. Finally, I reached the reluctant decision to throw in the towel and just make the site an online magazine with a directory of teachers and studios.\n\n### Trying to Go Bilingual\n\nDiscovering the site’s visitors were mainly Japanese, I recruited volunteers to translate the site’s content into Japanese. We got mixed results. Since I’m not a native speaker, I couldn’t judge the quality or accuracy. Some Japanese told me that, while several translations were incredibly well done, most were average, and several were quite poorly done.\n\nI adapted and added another layer of volunteers so that for each article or profile, it would be translated into Japanese, and then another would check and edit it. However, even this failed to produce consistent results, and we ended up with a variety of writing styles and tone across the Japanese side of the site.\n\nI ended up ditching the attempt at making the site bilingual. To do it properly would have required a huge budget to hire professionals, which was not feasible. Another lesson learned the hard way.\n\n### WordPress.org Attempt III\n\nBy the time we entered 2012 smartphones had proliferated to the point where it was becoming embarrassing not to have a responsive website. HelloYoga.com had been limping along with an old custom theme that would break whenever the WordPress core or plugins were updated.\n\nBy this time, the content of the site had lost focus, and there were multiple genres and categories. It was a mess, and I needed to do a full renewal. I took the site offline and just put up a “Coming Soon” page. Meanwhile, I worked with [Adam T. Perry](http://adamtperry.com/), who drafted a stunning new design in Photoshop.\n\nIn 2013, I moved to a new WordPress-specialized host that took care of all layers below the core CMS. That took care of many of the technical issues, but a few months later, the host went down for an extended time, so I decided to leave them and move to [WP Engine](https://wpengine.com/), one of the top hosts in the business.\n\nIn 2014, I worked to separate the content into several genres and categories. It made sense to split into different blogs to sever the different audiences. I worked with a Serbian-based agency to build my new family of blogs, including adding a new schedule system based on recently released plugins and themes. Finally, I was set to achieve my dreams!\n\nUnfortunately, due to my lack of experience, knowledge, and constant revising of the scope, the project went in circles, and I burned a ton of money again. Frustrated, I decided to wait for a while.\n\n### Migrating to Medium\n\nIn 2016, [Medium](http://medium.com) began presenting itself as a free, easy-to-use CMS that serious publishers could use. To prove their worth, they had worked out deals with several independent publishers and migrated them to their platform. These were powerful case studies.\n\nIt was an incredible offering. I could walk away from the smoldering wreckage of my WordPress mess and migrate to a platform that was minimalist, clean, free to use, and unlimited in scope. No more WordPress, no trying to customize it, and no hosting or development costs.\n\nIt was a lot of work to migrate, but I was able to do it myself without developers. Once it was done and I got into a rhythm with the content production workflow, I fell in love with Medium. After wrestling with WordPress for so long, it was such a pleasure to use. My legacy content never looked better, and they even had a slick mobile app.\n\nMedium had announced that various ways for monetizing publications would be forthcoming, and I, along with many other online publishers patiently waited. We enjoyed the effortless publishing experience and focused on our content until potential income means such as subscriptions, advertising, and donations were released. Meanwhile, nothing was stopping us from using affiliate links in our posts. I found [Skimlinks](https://fave.co/2Ah7xU5) to be a particularly convenient system for this.\n\n### Medium Pivots Multiple Times\n\nIn early 2017, Medium famously pivoted again. They dumped their advertising options and continued delaying allowing publications to offer subscriptions.\n\nOver time, Medium shifted away from serving publishers' interests. The monetization tools never came, and they discontinued support for adding custom domains. There was an exodus of publishers, many of whom went back to WordPress and other self-hosted CMS.\n\nUncertain of what to do, I persisted for a while but failed to find ways to monetize my portfolio of publications. I naively thought that if I just built up a big enough audience then avenues for monetization would eventually present themselves and everything would work itself out. But, that never happened.\n\n### The Epiphany Phase\n\nI had been paying guest writers, many of whom submitted shoddy work. In most cases, I would spend vast amounts of time editing, and sometimes wholly rewriting their work. I would also edit their photos and supplement them with stock images. Once their work was published, I would promote it via social media, including paid Facebook post \"boosts.\"\n\nLooking at all the work I was doing for these guest writers; it just didn’t make sense. The affiliate income I was generating was negligible, and I had no other revenue streams.\n\nThe irony was that I had become a lean and mean content machine. I was doing better than the marketing departments of many companies. A yoga brand should have bought me out or brought me onboard. However, the content was too grassroots and non-commercial. It wouldn't have worked well to market yoga products well.\n\n## Bowing Out\n\nIn Autumn 2018, this project which had started with a humble blog back in 2008 ended. As much as I enjoyed the many aspects of the work, it just wasn’t a sustainable venture. I had sacrificed vast amounts of time and money over the years without ROI.\n\nMany motivational speakers will tell you never to give up, but, if, after ten years you still can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, you need to ask yourself if it is worthwhile continuing. I felt shattered, disappointed, and embarrassed at my failure. But, at the same time, there was also some relief in there and the knowledge that I was opening myself up to new opportunities which would be built on what I had learned from this failure.\n\n### New Beginnings\n\nI decided to start again from scratch. Sometimes it’s better that way because there is no legacy structure holding you back. It took me a while to figure out what to do next, but I had come up with several conditions on which to base my next venture.\n\n1.  **No Development:** While I can understand the concepts, I am not a coder or engineer, so prefer to use SaaS that I can just sign up for.\n2.  **No Collaboration:** Guest writers cost time and money while demanding full creative control over the final product. Interviewees can be hard to get a hold of to review drafts. After the interview is approved, they may come back later, after having a change of heart, and ask for it to be pulled. I’d rather just make my own original content and have full creative freedom.\n3.  **No Outsourcing:** I have blown obscene amounts of money on developers, writers, designers, and artists over the years with nothing to show for it. Better to focus on my strengths instead of trying to fill in the gaps with hires. That said, I will still do it when absolutely necessary. For example, I use an accountant for my company.\n4.  **No Deadlines:** One key to becoming a successful content creator is publishing regularly. That said, if you raise the frequency too high and put yourself under too much pressure, you suffer burnout. Furthermore, for the time being, I’ll have to prioritize earning money to pay my bills before my creative ventures.\n5.  **Privacy:** I prefer to keep my name and face offline. This wasn’t the case even five years ago, but now I know the risks associated with it. I’m not good looking or charismatic, so building a personal brand isn’t going to work for me.\n6.  **Integrity:** If you put something online, you need to be prepared to have it be discovered and come back to you. Not only content but also little comments you leave on different sites. You wouldn’t believe the technologies and techniques that experts can use – and, AI will make this even more possible. So, unlike some anonymous content creators that I know, I’ll be assuming that everyone can figure out who I am and trace anything I do online back to me - and behave accordingly online.\n7.  **Minimalism:** I want to remain lean and mobile, so won’t be renting an office or hiring staff. I don’t want an office/studio full of equipment, so I will be using only mobile devices and accessories.\n8.  **Mobility:** It’s not easy to just up and move to a new place, but I want to simplify my life and shift towards working remotely so that I can be location independent as much as possible. I live in Tokyo, but the city is overdue for a massive earthquake, and you never know when tensions with China or North Korea might erupt. I may need to get the heck out of here fast one day.\n\n<br>\n\n### New Brand, New Ventures\n\n*   **Brandname:** I chose the initials of my full legal name, DLKR, as my brand name. I do use my real name in a few places, but have greatly minimized it compared to before and aim to phase it out altogether eventually.\n*   **Company:** I renamed it to DLKR, Inc.\n*   **Logo:** Whereas I’ll use my profile picture for my personal brand, for my business, I’ll use a simple logo of why initials.\n*   **Profile Picture:** As for profile pictures, I’ll still use my face, but it will be manipulated and obscured to be unrecognizable.\n\n### Reinventing My Business\n\nI thought back over my career to remember what exactly it was that (i) I knew I could do well, and (ii) people appreciated. While I’ve become known as a “marketer” over the past decade, marketing is a broad field, and I’m only good at certain things.\n\nBased on much reflection, I put together a menu of services that I often get contacted for out of the blue by people who know me. These were obviously things I did well and people valued. You could loosely fit them all under the category of \"content marketing.\"\n\nMy experiences have taught me that I prefer to work with SMEs that are financially stable, open to new ideas, lack a dedicated marketing department, and have few decision makers.\n\n### Strikingly\n\nI needed a simple landing page showcasing my content services. After reviewing various options, I chose [Strikingly](https://www.strikingly.com/), a website builder best known for its simplicity and reasonable pricing.\n\nIt was initially created to specialize in one-page websites and landing pages. However, as with many online services of its kind, had built in many additional features based on customer requests.\n\nAfter finalizing my landing page, I duplicated it and translated the copy into Japanese. I then made one more copy and reworked it to appeal to companies located outside of Tokyo that I might work remotely with.\n\nHowever, I was soon about to have a change of heart and start looking at Strikingly in a very different way.\n\n### Principles: Free Speech\n\nUntil I reached my forties, I didn’t have much interest in politics. Perhaps it was my getting older and developing more of a broader perspective, or maybe it was the 2016 US presidential election. Either way, I have gradually shifted towards following a number of commentators to try and become more aware and educate myself.\n\nI’ve developed a fondness for edgy commentators. Following them on various social media became a form of entertainment and escapism. Over the past few years, several have gotten themselves banned from multiple platforms. This introduced me to the issues surrounding free speech, censorship, and where lines should be drawn.\n\nMost platforms claim to support freedom of expression but within certain guidelines. The problem with this is it gets into a subjective territory and is open to abuse and corruption.\n\nThe commentators I follow started joining platforms where they wouldn’t get censored.  These free speech platforms only remove content that breaks US law. The logic is that the solution to bad speech and wrong ideas is more discussion and communication.\n\nWe should let ideas compete in the open marketplace. If they lack merit, then their shortfalls will soon be shown up. Conversely, if you censor, repress, and ban, then it has the opposite effect. It can lead to extremism. When you tell somebody they aren't allowed to see something they are more likely to want to see it. This is known as the [Streisand effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect).\n\nThis introduced me to the alt-tech (alternative technology) movement, which is building free-speech alternatives to the mainstream social media.\n\n### Principles: FOSS & Privacy\n\nFOSS stands for [free and open source software](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open-source_software). I had known of high profile examples such as [Linux](http://linux.org), [WordPress](http://wordpress.org), and [Gimp](http://gimp.org).\n\nThe CEO of one of the free speech social media platforms, [Minds](https://minds.com/?referrer=dlkr), explained in [several interviews](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=minds+bill+ottman+interview) about the benefits of open source. One of these is transparency. Since they make [their entire platform](https://gitlab.com/minds) open source, anybody can inspect its code and make sure that it is only doing what they say it does. You can also use it to set up your own independent instance of Minds.\n\nAnother benefit of FOSS is that there is no vendor lock-in. Google and Apple have built convenient and comfortable walled gardens that are almost impossible to leave if you want to function in modern society. The FOSS community is working to produce alternatives to these closed offerings.\n\n[Surveillance capitalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveillance_capitalism), the business model of companies such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, and others has alarmed many. We are being tracked. Our data is being stored, spread to multiple companies around the world, and analyzed. FOSS alternatives provide alternatives that respect privacy.\n\nWhile I can’t help but marvel at what [Big Tech](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Four_tech_companies) has built, these issues kept nagging at me and I’ve decided to start working on transitioning towards using FOSS wherever possible. It’s a big undertaking, but I believe in supporting this mission.\n\nOnline privacy is a fascinating and broad topic. The average person has no idea just how much these companies know about them.\n\nPrivacy enthusiasts include a broad range of people. On one side, you have characters such as the concerned parent who wants to protect his kids to journalists who are putting their lives at risk by revealing truths. On the other side, you have people engaging in illegal activities who want to be untraceable. It’s quite fascinating.\n\nTo start with, I adopted a few of the easier choices:\n\n*   **Search:** [DuckDuckGo](http://DuckDuckGo.com) is a privacy-respecting alternative to Google\n*   **Browser:** [Brave](https://brave.com/) is an open source and privacy-oriented alternative to Google Chrome that lets you use the same extensions\n*   **VPN:** [Virtual Shield](https://virtualshield.com/) is a virtual private network service which provides some privacy protection\n\nHowever, these only slightly reduce what privacy experts call your “attack surface.” I have a long way to go and have compiled a list of other [Google alternatives](https://restoreprivacy.com/google-alternatives/) and other tools/services that I’m planning on transitioning to.\n\n### Why I Had to Leave Strikingly\n\nAs much as I enjoyed the convenience and ease of use that Strikingly provided, they had several glaring issues for me:\n\n1.  **Closed Source:** If they decide to shut down the service, there is no alternative. I can’t just export my content and migrate to another company who uses the same platform. It’s a lock-in situation.\n2.  **Small Company:** Small companies are usually run by one or two individuals. This isn't such a problem if the project is open source because it can live on after the founders or company that originated it disappear. However, if a company operating a closed platform implodes, then their tech goes with them.\n3.  **A Chinese Company:** China is ruled by a totalitarian government. Any Chinese company operating an online platform has to comply with the government’s surveillance requirements, or they cannot operate. Since Strikingly is run by a Chinese company, this makes me wary of using it. Nothing against the good people of China, but I have my principles.\n4.  **Prohibiting \"Hate Speech:\"** Being against hate speech sounds like a good thing at face value. The problem is that it is vague and subjective. Who gets to decide what constitutes hate speech? What if I published a post that politely and logically argued against their political beliefs and they choose to delete my blog/site without warning?\n\n### Open Source Website Platform Options\n\nThere is a surprising number of open source blogging platforms, CMS, and website builders. Many require you to have your own server, set it up, and maintain all the various layers of software involved. That wasn’t an option for me because I want to focus on the content. So, I had to limit myself to SaaS offerings.\n\nI came down to three that I liked.\n\n#### 1\\. WordPress.com\n\nI didn’t want to come back to WordPress because of its complexity, but it is open source, and the organization behind it claims to be [committed to free speech](https://wordpress.com/freedom-of-speech/). The platform is mature, stable, and its hosted service is significantly more straightforward than the self-hosted version. They have strong user support and very reasonable [pricing](https://wordpress.com/pricing/).\n\nI re-visited the service and spent a day trying to get set up. The next day, I woke up and realized that I just couldn't go on like this. If you're TechCrunch, then sure, use WordPress, but for a one-person operation, it's overkill.\n\n#### 2\\. Ghost\n\nThe hosted offering of [Ghost](http://ghost.org) seemed like an ideal match for what I wanted. It is open source, committed to privacy, and pro free speech. Usability and simplicity is their big sales point. The creators realized that WordPress was too complicated for most people. But, they didn’t strip it down too far to the bone. It’s just right.\n\nHowever, at $29 per site, it was out of my budget since I need nine sites! I looked around at alternative Ghost hosting providers, but a certain degree of technical skill was required to set up and maintain Ghost on their platforms. Sigh… I really wanted to use Ghost…\n\n#### 3\\. Write.as\n\n[Write.as](http://Write.as) is a minimalistic and thoughtfully crafted platform designed to let you just focus on writing. It ticks many of the boxes on my list of wants including being open source, committed to user privacy, and reasonable pricing.\n\nWhile I don't see a clear commitment to free speech, their business model of being funded by their writer users means that they will likely be much more lenient than companies reliant on advertising or venture capital.\n\nWhat I really wanted was something like Medium, but Write.as is a different animal.\n\n* **Editor:** Medium is super easy to use thanks to its beautifully designed minimalist [WYSIWYG](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WYSIWYG) editor. With Write.as, you need to use markdown for formatting. Markdown isn't hard but takes a while to get used to.\n* **Customization:** Unlike Medium, Write.as lets you customize your blog's appearance, but you will need to use [CSS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascading_Style_Sheets) and [JavaScript](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript) to do it. The upside of this is that, if you need to set up multiple blogs with the same styling, you can just drop the code into each one, which is much faster than having to click around the various nooks and crannies of WordPress settings.\n* **Images:** You can't just drop images into posts as you can with Medium. They do have a sister service for image hosting, [Snap.as](https://snap.as/), but you need to do a bit of messing around to get images into your posts.\n\nI'm hoping that the usability issues will be improved over time. For now, it is excellent value for money, and I can see that I'll quickly get used to it.\n\n## What I've Set Up on Write.as\n\n\n\n#### Blogs for My Business\n\nI migrated the landing pages mentioned above to Write.as, adapting them to fit the blog format in the process. \n\n1. **[DLKR.co](https://dlkr.co/)**: Targeting SMEs outside of Tokyo, including overseas, that might be open to working with me remotely. Here, I'll write about marketing and business topics that are global.\n2. **[DLKR.tokyo](https://dlkr.tokyo/)**: Targeting SMEs in Tokyo. While most people here have limited English, there is a substantial expatriate presence, and sometimes they prefer to work with English-speaking service providers. Plus, I can use my specialty, which is being able to provide content marketing services in English - a relatively rare skill set here. On this blog, I'll write about marketing and business topics that are relevant to Japan.\n3. **[DLKR.jp](https://dlkr.jp/)**: A Japanese translation of #2. I can write Japanese, but only poorly, so I hired native speakers via [Gengo](https://gengo.com/) and [Fiverr](https://fave.co/2BuDDMz) to help. I have a client that operates an AI-based translation system. It's a secure alternative to Google Translate. I'll be using this to provide translations of my articles from the above two blogs and providing a link to my client's service, thereby showcasing their service's capabilities while generating content in the local language. It won't be as good as a human translator, but it will be a point of interest.\n\n#### Blogs for My Creative Pursuits\n\nMy services are just to pay the bills while I build up my income as a creator to the point where it can support me full-time. This is because (i) at nearly 45, I’m already too old to be employable in the eyes of many companies, and, (ii) my creative work is what I really want to do.\n\nI’ve had the privilege to know a few creators, including one who is able to live off his work full-time. I’ve also been following and studying several creators over the past five years to learn how they do things.\n\nHere’s what I’ll be working on in terms of creative pursuits:\n\n*   **[DLKR.photos](https://dlkr.photos/)**: Over the years, I’ve taken a few photos that were flukes. I had no idea what I was doing but was at the right time and right place. I’ll be building on this to develop my skills and document the process.\n*   **[DLKR.art](https://DLKR.art)**: I’ve had a long love of digital art since my university days. Even before then, I was trying to learn how to create images using analog paper, pens, paint, and pencils. I’ll be using various manipulation techniques and filters to create artistic versions of selections from my photo collection.\n*   **[DLKR.video](https://DLKR.video)**: Building on my photography skills, I’ll be shooting video clips and learning to edit them together into montages.\n\nI’ll have several ways of monetizing these:\n\n*   **Patronage:** I’ll be offering options for people to contribute one-time or recurring donations. Patreon has been exposed for being censorious and they're really just a middleman. Most platforms either have or are in the process of building in ways to allow fans to support their favorite creators.\n*   **Print-on-Demand (POD):** I’ll use POD sites such as [RedBubble](https://fave.co/2S1iKhu) and [Society6](https://fave.co/2Bxkvhh) to let people buy prints of my photos and art.\n*   **Affiliate Links:** I’ll continue using [Skimlinks](https://fave.co/2Ef1odS) to monetize any links to online merchants.\n\n#### Documenting the Journey\n\nI set up [DLKR.blog](https://dlkr.blog) to talk about the overall journey for all of the above. Gary Vaynerchuk advises to [document rather than creating](https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/creating-content-that-builds-your-personal-brand/). So, for all of the above, I’ll be taking more of that approach.\n\nThis may seem like an insane number of blogs, but another key to being a successful content creator is to cater to specific audiences. Somebody who reads my business articles is not going to be interested in my art. People who enjoy my video montages may not like reading about my overall journey, etc.\n\n## Peace Out\n\nI was just using this post to organize my thoughts and do some reflecting. Thank you for reading, and I hope it gave you some ideas for your own endeavors.\n\nOne of my favorite YouTubers rants and raves for as long as he likes each video. When he has finally run out of steam, he abruptly ends with, \"Oh, well, that's about all for now. Peace out!\" So, it feels appropriate to end this long and rambling post with the same words.\n\n> Peace Out!\n\n---\n\n* Cover photo: [RawPixel on Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/photos/a_L_fVDQQXI)\n* Original: Published on [DLKR.blog](https://dlkr.blog/blogging-solopreneur-journey)",
      "json_metadata": "{\"tags\":[\"blogging\",\"medium\",\"wordpress\",\"onlinepublishing\",\"solopreneur\"],\"image\":[\"https://i.snap.as/NLLCwd0.jpg\"],\"links\":[\"http://blogger.com\",\"http://WordPress.com\",\"http://WordPress.org\",\"http://upwork.com\",\"http://www.pikkles.com/\",\"http://adamtperry.com/\",\"https://wpengine.com/\",\"http://medium.com\",\"https://fave.co/2Ah7xU5\",\"https://www.strikingly.com/\",\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect\",\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open-source_software\",\"http://linux.org\",\"http://wordpress.org\",\"http://gimp.org\",\"https://minds.com/?referrer=dlkr\",\"https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=minds+bill+ottman+interview\",\"https://gitlab.com/minds\",\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveillance_capitalism\",\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Four_tech_companies\",\"http://DuckDuckGo.com\",\"https://brave.com/\",\"https://virtualshield.com/\",\"https://restoreprivacy.com/google-alternatives/\",\"https://wordpress.com/freedom-of-speech/\",\"https://wordpress.com/pricing/\",\"http://ghost.org\",\"http://Write.as\",\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WYSIWYG\",\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascading_Style_Sheets\",\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript\",\"https://snap.as/\",\"https://dlkr.co/\",\"https://dlkr.tokyo/\",\"https://dlkr.jp/\",\"https://gengo.com/\",\"https://fave.co/2BuDDMz\",\"https://dlkr.photos/\",\"https://DLKR.art\",\"https://DLKR.video\",\"https://fave.co/2S1iKhu\",\"https://fave.co/2Bxkvhh\",\"https://fave.co/2Ef1odS\",\"https://dlkr.blog\",\"https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/creating-content-that-builds-your-personal-brand/\",\"https://unsplash.com/photos/a_L_fVDQQXI\",\"https://dlkr.blog/blogging-solopreneur-journey\"],\"app\":\"steemit/0.1\",\"format\":\"markdown\"}",
      "parent_author": "",
      "parent_permlink": "blogging",
      "permlink": "a-10-year-journey-through-the-world-of-blogging",
      "title": "A 10 Year Journey Through the World of Blogging"
    }
  ],
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "timestamp": "2019-02-24T04:40:30",
  "trx_id": "939c40e24d73f93648777e1e230ce05f7b349f71",
  "trx_in_block": 2,
  "virtual_op": 0
}

{
  "block": 30618115,
  "op": [
    "transfer",
    {
      "amount": "0.001 STEEM",
      "from": "a-bot",
      "memo": "Ever wanted to own your bot? Just delegate your Steem Power to @a-bot and get 100% daily rewards!",
      "to": "dlkr"
    }
  ],
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "timestamp": "2019-02-24T04:16:54",
  "trx_id": "9e6995c99af3526216b261ff101392d9cb0396fa",
  "trx_in_block": 15,
  "virtual_op": 0
}

{
  "block": 30618099,
  "op": [
    "transfer",
    {
      "amount": "0.010 STEEM",
      "from": "smartsteem",
      "memo": "Hey there @dlkr, we just wanted to congratulate you on powering up some STEEM and celebrate your growth with you! Thank you for investing in STEEM and seizing this opportunity! If you are also interested in earning a lucrative revenue with your Steempower, then we've got something for you. We are offering multiple risk-free & effective ways to invest your Steempower. For more info, feel free to visit our website: https://smartsteem.com. Warm regards, Team Smartsteem",
      "to": "dlkr"
    }
  ],
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "timestamp": "2019-02-24T04:16:06",
  "trx_id": "381c89e56ebf16f2bcddd10fb89c72ee9f27456d",
  "trx_in_block": 3,
  "virtual_op": 0
}

{
  "block": 30618093,
  "op": [
    "transfer_to_vesting",
    {
      "amount": "224.153 STEEM",
      "from": "blocktrades",
      "to": "dlkr"
    }
  ],
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "timestamp": "2019-02-24T04:15:48",
  "trx_id": "643e90dcdda299542ce3df25229dd332e1bc6f0a",
  "trx_in_block": 18,
  "virtual_op": 0
}

{
  "block": 30424759,
  "op": [
    "account_update",
    {
      "account": "dlkr",
      "json_metadata": "{\"profile\":{\"name\":\"DLKR\",\"about\":\"Visual arts hobbyist learning as I go and sharing my creations. Hope you like some of them. Let me know your thoughts. | [email protected]\",\"website\":\"https://dlkr.art\",\"location\":\"Tokyo, Japan\",\"cover_image\":\"https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQma8iBa1TiVi3xF6XvEjmwn98joeJxzzgqSUs1Jp4kFzUk/Cover_Creative.jpg\",\"profile_image\":\"https://i.postimg.cc/q7mYDTGL/Profile-Photo.jpg\"}}",
      "memo_key": "STM5CUjyXZtunTAEKqJhmPBskTqCAYjCmNLoQ7YETwquou6Y6np8m"
    }
  ],
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "timestamp": "2019-02-17T11:02:39",
  "trx_id": "1611cbba14e22fe293f87d68a9069b164b3e7d08",
  "trx_in_block": 8,
  "virtual_op": 0
}

{
  "block": 30390441,
  "op": [
    "account_update",
    {
      "account": "dlkr",
      "json_metadata": "{\"profile\":{\"name\":\"DLKR\",\"about\":\"Visual arts hobbyist learning as I go and sharing what I've found. Hope you like my work. Let me know your thoughts. | [email protected]\",\"website\":\"https://dlkr.art\",\"location\":\"Tokyo, Japan\",\"cover_image\":\"https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQma8iBa1TiVi3xF6XvEjmwn98joeJxzzgqSUs1Jp4kFzUk/Cover_Creative.jpg\",\"profile_image\":\"https://i.postimg.cc/q7mYDTGL/Profile-Photo.jpg\"}}",
      "memo_key": "STM5CUjyXZtunTAEKqJhmPBskTqCAYjCmNLoQ7YETwquou6Y6np8m"
    }
  ],
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "timestamp": "2019-02-16T06:25:42",
  "trx_id": "30c4e6d587c9ea0b4a8f8a667d9e1046e8a614eb",
  "trx_in_block": 18,
  "virtual_op": 0
}

{
  "block": 30184489,
  "op": [
    "account_update",
    {
      "account": "dlkr",
      "json_metadata": "{\"profile\":{\"name\":\"DLKR\",\"about\":\"Digital art hobbyist learning as I go and sharing what I've found. Hope you like my work. Let me know your thoughts. Feel free to ask any questions. http://DLKR\",\"website\":\"https://www.dlkr.art/\",\"location\":\"Tokyo, Japan\",\"cover_image\":\"https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQma8iBa1TiVi3xF6XvEjmwn98joeJxzzgqSUs1Jp4kFzUk/Cover_Creative.jpg\",\"profile_image\":\"https://i.postimg.cc/q7mYDTGL/Profile-Photo.jpg\"}}",
      "memo_key": "STM5CUjyXZtunTAEKqJhmPBskTqCAYjCmNLoQ7YETwquou6Y6np8m"
    }
  ],
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "timestamp": "2019-02-09T02:40:36",
  "trx_id": "b164832a9b6596ebc63598eb2903c97d980fce4c",
  "trx_in_block": 19,
  "virtual_op": 0
}

{
  "block": 30022759,
  "op": [
    "account_update",
    {
      "account": "dlkr",
      "json_metadata": "{\"profile\":{\"name\":\"DLKR\",\"about\":\"Photography hobbyist learning as I go and sharing what I've found. Hope you like my work. Let me know your thoughts. http://DLKR.photos\",\"website\":\"https://www.dlkr.photos/\",\"location\":\"Tokyo, Japan\",\"cover_image\":\"https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQma8iBa1TiVi3xF6XvEjmwn98joeJxzzgqSUs1Jp4kFzUk/Cover_Creative.jpg\",\"profile_image\":\"https://i.postimg.cc/q7mYDTGL/Profile-Photo.jpg\"}}",
      "memo_key": "STM5CUjyXZtunTAEKqJhmPBskTqCAYjCmNLoQ7YETwquou6Y6np8m"
    }
  ],
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "timestamp": "2019-02-03T11:45:54",
  "trx_id": "165c31240f67b7503f762140588c805dfdd2a38e",
  "trx_in_block": 17,
  "virtual_op": 0
}

{
  "block": 30022715,
  "op": [
    "account_update",
    {
      "account": "dlkr",
      "json_metadata": "{\"profile\":{\"name\":\"DLKR\",\"about\":\"Photography hobbyist learning as I go and sharing what I've found. Hope you like my work. Let me know your thoughts. Feel free to ask any questions. http://DLKR\",\"website\":\"https://www.dlkr.photos/\",\"location\":\"Tokyo, Japan\",\"cover_image\":\"https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQma8iBa1TiVi3xF6XvEjmwn98joeJxzzgqSUs1Jp4kFzUk/Cover_Creative.jpg\",\"profile_image\":\"https://i.postimg.cc/q7mYDTGL/Profile-Photo.jpg\"}}",
      "memo_key": "STM5CUjyXZtunTAEKqJhmPBskTqCAYjCmNLoQ7YETwquou6Y6np8m"
    }
  ],
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "timestamp": "2019-02-03T11:43:42",
  "trx_id": "7f1bfe98e2b2e8a307704d20c7b96070af28ace3",
  "trx_in_block": 1,
  "virtual_op": 0
}

{
  "block": 30022708,
  "op": [
    "account_update",
    {
      "account": "dlkr",
      "json_metadata": "{\"profile\":{\"name\":\"DLKR\",\"about\":\"Photography hobbyist learning as I go and sharing what I've found. Hope you like my work. Let me know your thoughts. http://DLKR.photos\",\"website\":\"https://www.dlkr.photos/\",\"location\":\"Tokyo, Japan\",\"cover_image\":\"https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQma8iBa1TiVi3xF6XvEjmwn98joeJxzzgqSUs1Jp4kFzUk/Cover_Creative.jpg\",\"profile_image\":\"https://i.postimg.cc/q7mYDTGL/Profile-Photo.jpg\"}}",
      "memo_key": "STM5CUjyXZtunTAEKqJhmPBskTqCAYjCmNLoQ7YETwquou6Y6np8m"
    }
  ],
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "timestamp": "2019-02-03T11:43:21",
  "trx_id": "cd3375e998850e844e7846b59001872860fbf72d",
  "trx_in_block": 19,
  "virtual_op": 0
}

{
  "block": 30022687,
  "op": [
    "account_update",
    {
      "account": "dlkr",
      "json_metadata": "{\"profile\":{\"profile_image\":\"https://i.postimg.cc/q7mYDTGL/Profile-Photo.jpg\",\"cover_image\":\"https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQma8iBa1TiVi3xF6XvEjmwn98joeJxzzgqSUs1Jp4kFzUk/Cover_Creative.jpg\",\"name\":\"DLKR\",\"about\":\"Photography hobbyist learning as I go and sharing what I've found. Hope you like my work. Let me know your thoughts. http://DLKR.photos\",\"website\":\"https://www.dlkr.art/\",\"location\":\"Tokyo, Japan\"}}",
      "memo_key": "STM5CUjyXZtunTAEKqJhmPBskTqCAYjCmNLoQ7YETwquou6Y6np8m"
    }
  ],
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "timestamp": "2019-02-03T11:42:18",
  "trx_id": "0f11d2eaec0a2f3656ef5155456bc96c247c5a67",
  "trx_in_block": 9,
  "virtual_op": 0
}

{
  "block": 29039563,
  "op": [
    "account_update",
    {
      "account": "dlkr",
      "json_metadata": "{\"profile\":{\"profile_image\":\"https://i.postimg.cc/q7mYDTGL/Profile-Photo.jpg\",\"cover_image\":\"https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQma8iBa1TiVi3xF6XvEjmwn98joeJxzzgqSUs1Jp4kFzUk/Cover_Creative.jpg\",\"name\":\"DLKR\",\"about\":\"Get my latest photo essays with original pictures and links to download free hi-res versions which you can use for any purpose - signup via my website!\",\"website\":\"https://dlkr.me\",\"location\":\"Tokyo, Japan\"}}",
      "memo_key": "STM5CUjyXZtunTAEKqJhmPBskTqCAYjCmNLoQ7YETwquou6Y6np8m"
    }
  ],
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-12-31T07:37:45",
  "trx_id": "d4a2c545732c13d7f9a2c946e6de527ee02ec6bf",
  "trx_in_block": 15,
  "virtual_op": 0
}

{
  "block": 29039558,
  "op": [
    "account_update",
    {
      "account": "dlkr",
      "json_metadata": "{\"profile\":{\"profile_image\":\"https://i.postimg.cc/q7mYDTGL/Profile-Photo.jpg\",\"cover_image\":\"https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQma8iBa1TiVi3xF6XvEjmwn98joeJxzzgqSUs1Jp4kFzUk/Cover_Creative.jpg\",\"name\":\"DLKR\",\"about\":\"Get my latest photo essays with original pictures and links to download free hi-res versions which you can use for any purpose - signup via my website!\",\"website\":\"https://dlkr.me\"}}",
      "memo_key": "STM5CUjyXZtunTAEKqJhmPBskTqCAYjCmNLoQ7YETwquou6Y6np8m"
    }
  ],
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-12-31T07:37:30",
  "trx_id": "79ba283cf770e80f3712ab6a2e54869d22a0ae1e",
  "trx_in_block": 11,
  "virtual_op": 0
}

{
  "block": 29039506,
  "op": [
    "account_update",
    {
      "account": "dlkr",
      "json_metadata": "{\"profile\":{\"profile_image\":\"https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmNaxk2uPusYhiWFfSVLf8fpdzr2dYc9iS7PYxVhmQ7yMS/Profile_Photo.jpg\",\"cover_image\":\"https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQma8iBa1TiVi3xF6XvEjmwn98joeJxzzgqSUs1Jp4kFzUk/Cover_Creative.jpg\",\"name\":\"DLKR\",\"about\":\"Get my latest photo essays with original pictures and links to download free hi-res versions which you can use for any purpose - signup via my website!\",\"website\":\"https://dlkr.me\"}}",
      "memo_key": "STM5CUjyXZtunTAEKqJhmPBskTqCAYjCmNLoQ7YETwquou6Y6np8m"
    }
  ],
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-12-31T07:34:54",
  "trx_id": "709461a9ace210be9e6a9767c510102ec366a220",
  "trx_in_block": 0,
  "virtual_op": 0
}

{
  "block": 29039445,
  "op": [
    "account_update",
    {
      "account": "dlkr",
      "json_metadata": "{\"profile\":{\"profile_image\":\"https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmNaxk2uPusYhiWFfSVLf8fpdzr2dYc9iS7PYxVhmQ7yMS/Profile_Photo.jpg\",\"cover_image\":\"https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQma8iBa1TiVi3xF6XvEjmwn98joeJxzzgqSUs1Jp4kFzUk/Cover_Creative.jpg\",\"name\":\"DLKR\",\"about\":\"Get my latest photo essays with original pictures and links to download free hi-res versions which you can use for any purpose! Signup via my website!\",\"website\":\"https://dlkr.me\"}}",
      "memo_key": "STM5CUjyXZtunTAEKqJhmPBskTqCAYjCmNLoQ7YETwquou6Y6np8m"
    }
  ],
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-12-31T07:31:51",
  "trx_id": "53d573afcd3822b3abe28dee9772d5d8f2b44b41",
  "trx_in_block": 9,
  "virtual_op": 0
}

{
  "block": 29039323,
  "op": [
    "account_create",
    {
      "active": {
        "account_auths": [],
        "key_auths": [
          [
            "STM6oATYVKpiTgahejYoZVByD68fBp8Au2stzGUMNm7B1JqSahy9q",
            1
          ]
        ],
        "weight_threshold": 1
      },
      "creator": "steemcreate",
      "fee": "3.000 STEEM",
      "json_metadata": "",
      "memo_key": "STM5CUjyXZtunTAEKqJhmPBskTqCAYjCmNLoQ7YETwquou6Y6np8m",
      "new_account_name": "dlkr",
      "owner": {
        "account_auths": [],
        "key_auths": [
          [
            "STM872Hs4gaN5CHxEk3SGZMu9VnhtWvz21nDSEPxkk8wGNf4VYkoS",
            1
          ]
        ],
        "weight_threshold": 1
      },
      "posting": {
        "account_auths": [],
        "key_auths": [
          [
            "STM8TpXRUmJRYkoXzDsAeBD96beL1YN7ormtnWVDsXhrLpUGUFWDL",
            1
          ]
        ],
        "weight_threshold": 1
      }
    }
  ],
  "op_in_trx": 0,
  "timestamp": "2018-12-31T07:25:45",
  "trx_id": "26380b1998077f64604732c1123f312c8ae3f684",
  "trx_in_block": 9,
  "virtual_op": 0
}