You only live once. Do your own thing.
If the pandemic has taught me anything, it’s to be a bit hyper-aware about the future. And to that end I’ve been working hard to build this site. Two years and counting. But why?
Why?
To help prepare for the future, maybe? I wanted to build something that I could turn to if things went south. A business, perhaps. Or maybe it’s something else.
The something else.
In building a business I came to a realization. That the real building happened inside of me. All the things I’ve learned along the way, through all the headaches and heartaches, mistakes and regrets, it isn’t the business that I built that matters most. It’s that I built me.
You-as-a-Service
Would you like to build you? I want to share some tribal knowledge with you. Not as an expert, but as someone who’s made missteps along the way and wasted time chasing the dragon.
I want you to succeed and I want to arm you with the technical tools that have served me well. It all starts with your own server and a little bit of tribal knowledge.
Server, you don’t say?
More than a site. The word server keeps popping up more and more. Things like, “chat with us on our Discord server.” What does that really mean, though?
The skinny.
As an entrepreneur, especially one trying to build something from scratch. From the ground up. In a way that will protect them in the future and with that really awesome bonus of having learned a ton by giving it a try!
The control
A solid foundation for any online business is to establish the competency in managing your own server. We’re talking raw cloud computing space on the cheap.
We’re not talking about the GoDaddies of the world with predatory pricing that goes way up in a year just to host a website. We’re not talking about dumbed-down Wix or Squaresapace. We’re not talking about Microsoft, Google, or Apple trying to control your entire digital existence.
We’re talking about you learning how to host your own server. It may sound daunting, but it’s not really. Our service holds your hand and helps you with your server management.
About the cost
We want you to understand what you’re getting for $25/month. Raw cloud computing providers like Amazon Web Services, Digital Ocean, Microsoft Azure, etc have prices ranging from $15/mo on up. There are some other providers, particularly those in Germany, that have VPS servers as low as $7/mo (companies like Hetzner and Contabo). These are the best value depending on your needs and are the servers that we ourselves use.
Linux.
This was the most daunting aspect for me when I first got into hosting my own server. Linux. I was always scared of it. Still am sometimes!
We will help you navigate Linux, more in education about how it’s working, but also to demonstrate how you really do have the keys to the car!
We don’t spend much time in Linux anymore because we use various 3rd-party GUI applications that help us administer servers and sites quickly. This is how we were able to deploy a dynamic WorkMates marketplace (700 sites and servers).
3rd-party application layers sadly add to the monthly cost, in some cases doubling your raw server costs (so the $8/mo server becomes $16/mo and so on). I like to call these things out so that our customers are aware of how we arrived at our $25/mo price point and what the value-add really is by using a managed service like ours.
Light Marketing
Our value add is light marketing. Included in our single monthly subscription, you get the following benefits:
- A quick-start guide to the basics in whatever field you’re in.
- A website. You can choose from over 700 “.Live” sites, or you can bring your own.
- One monthly 30-minute call to discuss your objectives.
- Working hours chat access to our digital marketing team.
- Reach out with questions about web design, e-mail marketing, SMS and Twilio, and more.
- Your own VoIP number. Can use it for your business, for sharing to 3rd-parties when they ask for your number, to keep your personal number private.
- Basic server management including notifications, server health, server maintenance, and upgrades.
- Access to the entire WorkMates.Live network.
- And you can cancel anytime. Not a yearly subscription, this is month-to-month!
Thanks for reading. Please let me know what you think.
