DELANO T JARRETT
The Multifaceted Creator
2023
April
- Had a few ups and downs in my personal life that slowed growth.
- My phone was slowly becoming more unhelpful with the amount of screen burn-in it was experiencing.
- Ended up getting some funds from a relative and used that to purchase a refurbished iPhone and remove my credit card debt.
- Studied a few rich Twitter content creators and it became increasingly obvious that if I was going to survive the stress of putting out tons of content, I needed to design a system.
- Spent some time working on my productivity setup. Did some research and decided to utilize Apple Notes as a place to store my content and digital inspiration.
- Newsletter subscribers reached 780+.
- I may have to move my newsletter away from SendFox. I messaged them about how a large majority of my contacts are not confirming their emails. According to them, nothing in the system was broken. I made a couple of test signups and I didn’t receive a confirmation email or my automation email. If I do switch it will be an annoying setback as so far they have the best website signup form.
February
- I suffered a setback with a WordPress plugin I was using. The WordPress plugin creators completely changed their Gutenberg blocks plugin. This caused the styles of my blocks to malfunction. This ended up causing aesthetic issues to many of my sites and the sites of other creators and businesses. I had to spend a few weeks doing some redesigns and I took this opportunity to reduce my reliance on their plugin and make use of the default Gutenberg blocks.
- I simplified and streamlined the Contribution form for Dreams To Journeys.
- Sales reached ~$50 for freelofi.com.
- Redesigned Dreams To Journeys with a new layout and altered color scheme so that I could create a better division between the header area and resources. Due to the aforementioned Gutenberg blocks issue, I had to create a new resource page template.
- Redesigned delanotjarrett.com to make less use of the malfunctioned Gutenberg blocks.
- Newsletter subscribers reached 370+.
February
- Updated the changelog to have an accordion format so as to reduce the amount of scrolling a reader would have to perform.
- Tinkered with Pixelmator Pro to one day replace Canva.
- Redesigned Dreams To Journeys to create a better balance for providing value and monetizing the site.
- Updated newsletter welcome series and subscription landing page.
- Educated myself on digital business practices performed by successful entrepreneurs.
January
- Redesigned the homepage so that it uses tabs to prioritize quick links.
- Updated pages to prioritize screen real estate.
- Created a gear page and testimonials page.
- Fixed contact button hover color issues.
- Fixed ReCaptcha badge showing with some CSS.
- Setup WordPress site, theme, and plugins.
- Tinkered with ways to allow users to copy the thread emoji.
- Figured out CSS to create a custom copy emoji button.
- Setup WordPress site, theme, and plugins.
- Figured out CSS to create a custom copy emoji button.
- Due to Gumroad raising their prices, I conducted further research on other e-commerce solutions.
- Got a few sales from THE FREE LOFI MUSIC LIBRARY BULK DOWNLOAD.
2022
2022 was difficult as funds were getting low. There were a lot of personal trials I had to go through that impacted my mental health and motivation. As the year ended I refocused on applying disciple over motivation. I discovered that as a creator I have to make ensure my many ideas for products/services aren’t stopping me from executing. Having too many projects can hamper progress so establishing systems and schedules is vital.
December
- Redesigned website with a cleaner design.
- Created additional landing pages for common free music terms.
- Created THE FREE LOFI MUSIC LIBRARY BULK DOWNLOAD so that visitors may donate while benefitting from the convenience of a simpler music downloading experience.
- Created the FREEPD bundle to sell a public domain music bundle at a discount.
- Created a Twitter page for FREE LOFI and did some marketing.
- Received a few sales within the week.
- Purchased threademoji.com.
- Purchased thumbsemoji.com.
November
- Purchased copywritingcopy.com.
August
- Purchased delanotjarrett.com.
- Parked akadtj.com and forwarded to the new delanotjarrett.com domain.
- Converted the majority of my social media handles from akadtj to delanotjarrett.
June
- Marketed my brand on several social media services.
- Tested out the usefulness of certain services like Polywork and Quora.
- Realized that while I should have my name on every platform, some were better than others for engagement.
April
- Created several digital products.
- Tested out the pros and cons of using WooCommerce vs Gumroad vs Lemon Squeezy.
- I ended up choosing Gumroad.
2021
2021 was about making new discoveries and testing new skills. I learned a lot about websites, social media, writing, marketing, and photography. As I entered 2022 I ended my eBay selling and poured my focus into digital projects. Every now and then I would sell objects on Facebook Marketplace.
December
- Finished 2021 with ~$500 in sales.
May
- Tested out the service and spent a few months learning about newsletters.
March
- Purchased freelofi.com.
- Purchased music albums from Fiverr.
February
- Continued moving dreamstojourneys.com from Carrd to WordPress.
- I began to educate myself on hosting services, and the differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
- I also began to educate myself on WordPress themes, web design, and user experience.
2020
2020 was about entertaining digital side hustles but mainly focused on physical side hustles. With my restaurant and customer service background, I was used to the idea of purchasing and selling products and dealing with customers. I had knowledge in purchasing inventory, finding affordable deals and selling high. I had left my 9-5 employment due to their handling of the pandemic and worked on eBay while learning about the digital economy.
December
- Began moving dreamstojourneys.com from Carrd to WordPress.
- Finished 2020 with +$1300 in sales.
October
- Purchased dreamstojourneys.com.
- Purchased akadtj.com.
September
- Purchased a Carrd account.
May
- Opened an Etsy store and tried to sell digital greeting cards.
- The store was a failure but a good learning experience for Adobe software.
April
- Published Also Known as Life.
- The photography book was a failure but a good learning experience for Amazon KDP.
2019
2019 was the beginning of adopting a new mindset. I realized that if I was to remain in Canada I needed to be looking at additional forms of supplemental income.
December
- Finished 2019 with +$400 in sales.
May
- Started selling merchandise on eBay and Facebook marketplace.
- Signed up with Canada Post to get free packaging supplies.
- Learned about retail arbitrage: bought items on sale and sold at a profit.
- Sold a lot of unneeded items in my home like old devices and trading cards.
