ZekeArtZ

I have been invited by Aral Balkan to be part of the Singularity team as the Malaysian ambassador. Singularity is the first ever worldwide large-scale online web conference involving the top web visionaries, developers, designers, thought leaders, and celebrities throughout the world. This conference is scheduled to run from 24-26 October and this will be THE web event of 2008 so stay tuned! More details to come as the conference draws nearer.

On another note, I have also been invited to be one of the panel judges for the Blog-It Returns 2008 competition organised by Metropolitan college. The competition has 5 categories: Blog Writing and Blog-a-thon, Blog Design, School Blog, Photo Blog and Video Blog. I will be part of the panel judges for the Blog Design category. The Blog Design category competition runs from 31 March to 30 April.

The potential lead I had yesterday went cold. The company I was in contact with suddenly stopped replying my emails without any explanations. However, I also identified 8 other companies and 3 individuals yesterday to send emails to. So far I have received replies from 3 companies… 2 had just got someone to do the job, and 1 looks like a very positive lead. So far so good. If things work out well, the income earned will be reinvested to set up a more professional website. It would be a good idea to separate my personal site from a professional site. I have also figured out some ways to add value to the services that I will be experimenting with. Things are getting really interesting now. More to come!

I have yet to receive any reply from the company I was negotiating with for over 24 hours. Worst case scenario, I won’t get the job but thats ok. A very strange thing happened as a result of pulling the trigger. My mind seems to have gone on overdrive as I find myself coming up with more ideas on how I could generate income and starting businesses. Weird how God made the human mind to work. I have identified a few other companies yesterday and I was thinking of offering my services to revamp their existing site to create a new Flash site. However after thinking things through, I realised what I really need is a long term strategy that will result in recurring business. So here are my next actionable steps:

1. Identify 5 companies that have ideas and need my skills to make it a reality.
2. Identify 5 designers who needs a Flash developer to bring their ideas to life.
3. Send emails to those people describing my skills and services offered.
4. While waiting for a response, identify 5 more individuals and companies.
5. Create a 20 questions form for companies to fill in to better identify what they need.
6. Figure out how I can provide other value added services.

Time to take some action!

To get started, here are the deliverables that I have come up with so far.

1. Clearly identify goals and project requirements.
2. Information architecture planning based on project scope and requirement.
3. Develop UML diagrams and documentation.
4. Develop architecture for all Flash assets with specific naming conventions.
5. Compile all assets within Flash.
6. Programming navigation skeleton to visualise project flow.
7. Programming transition effects between different pages.
8. Programming form features such as text fields, check boxes, radio buttons, etc.
9. Programming customised features such as mini-games, drag&drop, clock, visual effects, music controls, etc.
10. Add tracking / analytics feature.
11. Local platform testing and debugging.
12. Optimize content for different browsers and user bandwidth.
13. Upload project to staging site for testing and debugging.
14. Make final amendments based on feedback.
15. Upload project to live site.

I drafted out an email to send to potential companies briefly explaining what I do. I separated my portfolio into 4 categories: Personal work, games, banner ads and websites. Initially I included a tonne of links but decided to reduce it to my top 3 projects in each category. Depending on the nature of the business, I added up to a maximum of 5 links for that particular category.

Next, I started off by identifying 2 companies and I just sent out a plain text email as suggested in Christine’s book. Less than 12 hours later, I received an email reply from 1 company. I did not expect to receive a response so soon. I’m not sure if my first contact will lead to closing a deal but it is very exciting to see things moving forward. I’m currently in the midst of negotiating my rates. Even if this doesn’t go through, thats perfectly fine, because suddenly my mind has been blown wide open to new ideas and possibilities. I’m feeling energised, excited and I can’t wait to close my first deal. Onward, to find a few more potential companies! Thank you Christine for your wonderful book!

After reading Christine O’Kelly’s ebook titled “How I Built a Profitable Freelance Business for Under $50 … And How You Can Too!” and reading Dave Navarro’s post ”
Christine O’Kelly, I’m Talking To You!” I was inspired to give it a shot too. I am currently working full time as a professional Flash developer / Actionscripter fore more than 5 years and I have been looking for means to earn a little extra on the side. My reason is simply this… I would like to have a little extra savings for my future and also to have extra cash to help clear my debts a little quicker. So over the next 30 days, I will attempt to follow Christine’s advice to see how well it goes.

Reading Alexander Kjerulf’s book 3 times made me feel like I’m on the verge of a breakthrough. Each time I read his book made me feel like this in his introduction.

Happy at work.

Happy? At work?

Happy… at work?

I really did wonder if it was possible to be truly happy at work in my own personal work situation. When I started reading, the idea of being happy at work sounded like another “be positive and everything will be fine” concept. While I agree that having a positive attitude plays a vital role, it is always easier said than done. When I started reading, I picked out the easiest and most practical things I could do at my work place. Check out chapter 2 on “What makes us happy at work?” and chapter 9 on “How to make yourself happy at work” for some ideas on how you can begin making a change.

Here’s a brief idea of what things were like before I read Happy Hour is 9 to 5. I work as a Flash programmer at an ad agency that has great benefits and pays really well. I say that because as far as I know, what I earn is easily 20-30% above market rate. I work with an amazing group of colleagues who are talented and passionate about what they do… and the results we produce are just astounding. They are the nicest people I know and always willing to lend a helping hand when needed. My role there is solely as an Actionscript programmer while doing a little bit of design and animation occasionally. However, about 6 months into my present job, I found that I was no longer happy with what I was doing. I thought something must be wrong with the company or my environment. So I started looking for faults and problems… thinking if I knew what was wrong, I could avoid it. The result? I was less unhappy… but I was neither getting happier nor improving my situation. This was clearly in alignment with Alex’s thinking about how happiness is something you need to do and constantly work at. Avoiding situations or tasks that make you unhappy doesn’t work… I’ve tried it and I know better now.

I was desperately seeking answers to improve my situation and came across Happy Hour is 9 to 5. After my first read, the first step I took was learning to be positive. I’m not a naturally positive person ( my wife can testify to that )… so the first step was definitely not that easy for me. I started by being thankful for what I currently had… a good paying job, nice colleagues, and very understanding bosses. I reminded myself to be thankful each day before and after work. Amazingly, things seemed to change gradually. I didn’t notice it but I was starting to feel happy before my work day started. What was interesting was that my work was also starting to improve. My efficiency improved and I got my work done faster than usual.

While feeling the excitement that things were improving, I moved on to step 2 which is to learn. While thinking about what I wanted to learn I discovered that I preferred to learn something other than programming. So I came up with a list of things I would love to learn in 2008. From learning to draw to watching training videos to reading books, I invested as much time as I to learn something each day. I found that I was more energised and felt happier after I had taken time to learn something I was genuinely interested in. So I spend my best hours learning new things and I had fun doing so. Of course, my priority was still my job and I would ensure things were still done in due time. Ok, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. I’ll share more about my experience on this new journey in my future post.