I like walking alone. Ideally, I would like to walk on empty streets. That mostly happens in winter and especially on very cold days. But since it's 2020, I don't have to wait for the temperature to drop to sub-zero. This year I get to enjoy my solitude in much warmer weather.

Today I drove to the city's waterfront right after the night-time curfew. And as expected, streets were silent before the sunrise.

Yet, sometimes I get to walk along people that also enjoy being alone. My parents. I suppose the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Under current circumstances, we prefer meeting outside instead of home. It's the safest way to talk to them in person, and it's going to be for a long time. Besides, I get to exercise even for a bit.

These days I'm watching The Queen's Gambit on Netflix. A series about a girl that is obsessed with chess, like some of us were with poker. Episode 5 starts with this quote:

The strongest person is the person who isn't scared to be alone.

Stay strong. Stay safe.

I wrote just yesterday that blogging on the Ghost platform not only makes me want to write more but also to take photos more often. Thanks to how galleries are integrated into Ghost, I don't second-guess why I am taking a picture. Now, I know that I'll post it to my blog here.

So, after weeks of not taking a single photo, my camera's shutter button was pressed again this morning. This happened in ten minutes I went outside.

As I am simplifying my process in writing and working on my personal brand online, I am also optimizing my workflow when it comes to photography.

As a blogger, I used to write on Google Docs or Microsoft Word. Sometimes I used the Hemingway app, and every document was then edited in Grammarly. The final draft was uploaded to WordPress, where I had to edit it further, add quotes and images where necessary.

Now I write directly on Ghost with Grammarly's keyboard. That's it.

Likewise, in photography, once I edit a photo on Adobe Lightroom, I find myself lost of where I should share it. I have an Instagram account, Flickr, 500px, and SmugMug accounts. I recently created an Unsplash profile as well, as people recommended it to me on Twitter. I probably forget a few others. Unsurprisingly, I also have a Google account, which leads me to Google Photos.

Google Photos: The Perfect Archive System?

Many people are using it to store their photos. Quite often, in total ignorance.

That's because when they got their Android phone, in one of those "click next to continue" screens, they accepted to auto-backup their photos on Google's cloud. When they got a new phone, their pictures magically remained intact and ready to be accessed in the new device as well. All they had to do is open the "Photos" app. Voila.

We've come to a point in technology where only a few question how's that possible. In fact, most expect their photos to be on their phones nowadays. Forever. Despite the fact they are changing phones every year.

When I tell them their photos that they took many years ago can also be accessed from any browser at photos.google.com, they come face to face with reality.

Oh no! I don't want my photos to be online! What about my privacy? Can everyone see them? How did that happen?

Hopefully, you are more tech-savvy than these people.

I do not back up my photos to Google Photos. I used to do it, but since it automatically saves every-single-one photo the smartphone captures, it became so cluttered that it was unusable. I disabled the backup feature and deleted the photos taken with my smartphone.

Now, I use Google Photos to store my best, edited photos. All of my photos are saved locally and stored in an Adobe Lightroom catalog. I single out my favorite ones, edit them, export and upload them to Google Photos.

I created a polished photo gallery of my life.

I can have access to these photos from anywhere and scan through years of documenting my life with my finger. Long story short, my best photos are always with me to use however I want, either privately or publicly.

Unfortunately, when it comes to sharing albums online, there are better solutions out there.

Flickr, who?

I find Flickr just as pleasing to the eye as Google or Ghost's galleries. They create perfect collages of my photos, no matter if they have mixed aspect ratios (Facebook comes second). Yet, there are four issues with Flickr.

First, it's the thing about the money. Specifically running out of it. I would hate to see my thousands of public photos and hours of work vanished one day. In comparison, I don't see Google shutting down soon; still, it can shut the Photos section down, similarly to how they decided to terminate Google+. So much for my smart decision to build a brand there. It got even worse when I began creating collections on Google+! Total fail!

Lesson learned. While I do use Google Photos, all photos, including the mediocre and bad ones, are safely stored locally in my hard drives.

Second, searching for photos in Flickr doesn't come anywhere near Google. I have to add keywords to every photo before uploading to Flickr, add them to Albums, and even then, I doubt one can find a specific picture via the search bar.

I won't say much about Google search. Here's how my Google Photos looks like without entering a single keyword, tag, title, or description in any of those photos.

That's Google Wizardry. Even if I spent endless hours tagging the photos and creating categories in Lightroom, I wouldn't end up with such a neatly organized catalog.

Third, apart from photographers and web publishers, who are looking for royalty-free photos to include in their publications, I seriously doubt people know of Flickr's existence and its purpose. I don't care about building a community or following there, but if I steer people towards a site to check out my pictures, I want people to be familiar with it. Everyone will feel right at home if they see my photo on Instagram. But no one will know how to share or comment on a Flickr photo of mine.

And fourth, I have trouble uploading photos to Flickr, which beats the whole idea of archiving my photos online. Every time I hit upload in Lightroom to send the photos to my Flickr albums, the process is interrupted, and the upload is half done. Sometimes, I end up with duplicate photos or missing geotagging data.

Oh, did I mention that Google automatically geotags my imported photos, as long as I enable the Location feature in my Android phone? It cross-references the phone's location and date data with the photo's data and makes a perfect connection. So, no need to have a GPS-enabled digital camera or put a pin on a map for every single photo in Lightroom, as long as I allow Google data crawlers to spy on me. Boo!

Thus, after being a paying Flickr customer for five years, I don't think I'll renew my yearly subscription that's conveniently due on October 18.

Yet, Flickr isn't the only outlet I'm quitting.

6 Reasons Why I Quit Instagram

I post on Instagram no more.

1. I hate being forced to use specific dimensions for my photos and crop my portrait, 2:3 photos.
2. I hate cropping all the photos I'll post in a carousel to have the same aspect ratio.
3. I hate to see my 16:9 landscape getting lost in a feed where 4:5 photos dominate the screen. Even Twitter allows you to post photos with different aspect ratios.
4. I also hate using hashtags, and I hated them more while following marketers' advice to find the perfect hashtags for Instagram and make lists of them. 😋
5. I hate not being able to add links to my captions.
6. I hate creating content that isn't crawled or indexed in Google's search engine.

The only thing I like about Instagram is the profile page. I'm keeping that.

Writing and Publishing Photos on the Blog

So, I use my personal blog for everything. I write and publicly share my photos here. Every word and photo of mine is beautifully presented to my audience, in the exact way I want. I am the one setting the rules.

That was my goal months ago when I began brainstorming a content strategy. No more creating content on rented land. Everything goes in here. I create content here and publish it directly. Social media is only used for marketing. For driving people to this blog's original content, by repurposing the content I have already created here.

The only exception? Twitter. And YouTube, but I can't upload a video to a blog, can I?

It's been two days since I migrated this blog to Ghost from WordPress. It's seemingly quicker, offers SEO and image optimization out of the box, and I can run a newsletter by myself. But what I found most exciting is the fact that it makes me want to write more.

In these two days, I learned how to write articles in markdown. Right now, I'm writing these words in Ghost editor using markdown language. This means I'm formatting these very words in bold as I'm writing! And I don't need to open Google Docs, Notion, or another writing app to put my thoughts on digital paper!

Yes, I could write like this in WordPress. But I never did during the ten years I'm running multiple WordPress blogs. With Ghost it feels natural to do so.

Simple is usually better.

And that's what this content management system is all about. Having said that, I wouldn't say setting up a blog in Ghost is tailored for a beginner web developer or blogger.

I spent hours to understand how Ghost works; to figure out that I need to change the theme's files in order to change how the blog functions. And I still haven't quite grasped the meaning of handlebars.

Yet, here I am, fully transitioning into Ghost.

Why I'm migrating to Ghost

For a couple of reasons, sorted by importance to me:

1. Galleries. Previously, I had limited options in WordPress when it came to arranging photos in a gallery inside a post. Having grown a significant interest in photography, I didn't particularly appreciate how WordPress showcased my photographs. Now, I just have to throw up to nine photos in a gallery here, and everything magically works to create a beautifully crafted gallery with a lightbox effect (you did notice those 4 pictures in the beginning, didn't you? It only took me 10 seconds to do that!). As simple as that. In fact, that makes me grab my camera and shoot more photos now!
2. Native newsletter support. Alright, I was never a big fan of newsletters, both as a reader and a creator. I have started one and quit a couple of times. Recently I gave it another shot with Revue. Meanwhile, Ghost allows me to send any article I write to my subscribers, whenever I feel like it. Not only that, but I can restrict access to those articles to my subscribers as an incentive to subscribe and have a paywall for others, turning my blog into a business! I have already noticed more people are subscribing. So many options and benefits!
3. Looks. I get it; looks are subjective. But I liked the built-in Ghost support for table of contents and AMP, natively improving my chances for better ranking in Google. Admittedly I was already delighted with how my WordPress blog looked. I had poured my soul in that, making it look and feel exactly how I wanted it. Ghost doesn't fall too much behind, although working with their themes are a lot more cumbersome compared to WordPress templates. But galleries and native image manipulation make up for it.

Moving away from WordPress feels bittersweet

I had worked my arse off with my WordPress blog. I had optimized every line of code; I had customized every last JavaScript and CSS bit; I had tuned every little plugin.

Ghost isn't that much quicker than my fully optimized and managed WordPress blog. Ghost isn't more secure than my WordPress blog that was safeguarded by WP Engine. I had enjoyed automatic daily backups, staging, and development instances to test out things and automatic updates. My blogs were running the latest PHP version at all times, and CDN and cache management were taken care of; for a price. And images were optimized and served by a third-party service (ShortPixel).

Again, I'm paying for most of these things via Ghost (Pro). And there are things and functionality that are missing. But I couldn't have done it in another way. Win some, lose some.

In the end, everything comes down to priorities.

Do I sacrifice easy coding in favor of beautiful galleries? Do I opt for native newsletter support, at the expense of a fully managed WordPress environment?

For me, that is a resounding yes. Yet, I'm still not 100% convinced. Besides, my WordPress blog is just a DNS record change away. Till then, I'm more than happy to publish with Ghost in 2020 and will let you know how things work out. After all, writing feels gratifying once again!

I take walks listening to movie soundtracks. I find them uplifting as if I am going to conquer the world. Well, they do make me walk faster, more confidently. They also make me work more by the time I get back home.

I used to listen to classical music, but I’ve found it less energetic. Usually, it made me sadder than I already was. Of course, it depends on the track, but I’m a sucker for depressing themes.

Lately, I also listen to soundtracks while taking photos or videos in the city, among the crowd. It helps me isolate myself and not care about other people. That’s a powerful skill that I sadly still lack.

And finally, I listen to them while I’m writing. So, here’s the track that plays on my headphones while I’m writing these very words. I suggest you listen to it as you’re reading. It’s what I’m listening to nowadays whenever I find myself alone outside.

Do what makes you happy, but first what makes you money

Time for another entry to my journal. I enjoy writing these posts, despite knowing that they won’t rank to Google; that people won’t find by mistake; that only my blog’s loyal visitors get to read.

And that’s ok. Not everything we do in life has to have a profound goal, as long as it makes us happy.

Now, if you can make money from that, you found the Holy Grail.

But usually, mundane, repetitive things will be the wheels of your money-making machine. For me, that’s managing websites that I’ve built and run as a web publisher. They make me money to provide for my family, and I can enjoy writing and using my cameras with less stress. But I certainly don’t enjoy emailing or hiring people; two essential aspects of running any business.

In contrast, I always enjoyed writing, especially in English.

Back as a teenager, I attended English classes to learn the language. Writing essays was what excited me the most. But not all kinds of essays.

The teacher would give us a sentence instead of a topic. We had two options for this exercise: either start or finish our essay with that sentence.

For me, the choice was easy; I always finished my essays with the given sentence.

It made me write essays that had the reader wondering how I would turn the story around and finish appropriately. I still remember the day that our teacher, who had studied in the USA, started the lesson by saying:

Today, I have to read to you the essay Jim wrote. You HAVE to listen to it. This is fantastic writing.

It wasn’t because my grammar had been excellent or of my impeccable syntax. There were red strikethroughs and marks on the essay, proof that I had made mistakes. But it was the story that made my teacher read it aloud in the class.

I had already won that day. No matter the marks, no matter my mistakes, no matter if my classmates would hate listening to my essay. Never before our teacher had read us an essay. And never would he again.

“Winter of 96.”, he said as he started reading my essay. “Now, THAT’s a GREAT way to start an essay.” he continued. I remember I talked of snowflakes hitting the window in the first paragraph, but I’m afraid I no longer have those essays. And it’s a pity as he allowed us to write and deliver them in Word format (such a breakthrough idea back in 1991!). I’ve looked at all of my 40MB, 120MB, and 500MB Marvell hard drives, nowhere to be found. Those marvelous stories of mine, gone, forever.

It’s all about the contrast

This week it was the first time I went for a walk since we returned from Skyros Island. Once again, I found myself in the local marina, walking by sailing boats and small yachts, being lost in my thoughts.

Still, I noticed an old lady pushing her wheelchair all alone, wearing a mask at all times. Meanwhile, ten or more people about my age were sitting down altogether, having a laugh on the grass. Imagine the contrast. Different priorities.

Then three little girls passed me by with their bicycles. Seconds later, their dad appeared out of the bushes, running towards them as they were quickly approaching the sea dangerously. Right next to the sea, another man had just got off his brand new, white motorcycle and was about to take photos of it as the sun was setting.

Both proud of their accomplishments, but so much different how these men achieved them. Such a different life and one that can’t understand unless you experience it. Another contrast.

I recall watching a YouTube video, where the creator argued that one should look for contrast in photography and filmmaking. It can be anything. From the contrast in colors to contrast between the shot’s bright and dark parts or the contrast in feelings—the contrast of how you make the audience feel when moving from one scene to another. Every good image, every good story has contrast.

If you are writing, taking pictures, or making videos, look for contrast.

People are running away from their problems; I’m walking

Notice how many people are running outside? Twenty years ago, running wasn’t a trend. Can it be that everyone around me became more health-aware? I was still curious how running became so popular until a friend of mine explained it to me.

His midweek schedule requires him to be away from his home. He spends three days in hotels before returning to his family for the weekend. He signs off work at 7 PM every day and returns to his hotel room. But his supervisor doesn’t.

His supervisor, a 50-year-old dad, goes for a 2-hour run after a 10-hour shift. He didn’t use to run at all ten years ago and now takes part in marathon runs! And he’s not the only one! I have heard of other friends and even relatives doing the same.

“How come isn’t he tired?” I asked my friend. How does he find the strength to run?

“Are you kidding?” he tells me. If he doesn’t run, he’ll be in trouble. Much trouble. If he doesn’t run, he’s taking pills. Pills to fight depression.

Suddenly, everything made sense. It’s now clear to me why so many people were anxiously awaiting the lockdowns to be lifted worldwide and go for a much-needed run.

It wasn’t because suddenly everyone cared about keeping fit. So I thought. It was because they were feeling even more depressed, constrained at home. People are sad. The solution? Running away from their problems. Or hitting the gym and forget.

Spending two hours running and an hour for preparation and a bath sounds way better than three hours, thinking of the mistakes you made in life. Or three hours spending with a nagging, complaining family. Running is better than feeling a ton of regrets. Regrets that will be waiting at the death bed, nonetheless.

Until then, going for a run is liberating, not to mention beneficial to health. Win-win!

I’m sticking with walking. And listening to soundtracks.

So, here I am in a ferry boat for yet another summer. Still, considering it’s 2020, someone could argue that’s close to a miracle!

Yet, another miracle did happen. The fact that I managed to put all of our stuff in the car.

Every year I visit the Greek island of Skyros with the family having one and only goal: to keep the passenger’s seat empty. This year, I failed once again.

Yet, I did pretty well in the back seat row where there weren’t any complaints. Additionally, for the first time, the mother and daughter didn’t sleep during the trip until the port of Kymi, where we would board the ferry boat. It was certainly a pleasant change for me.

Friends, who have made the same trip wonder how come we make the whole trip without a single stop.

When my daughter was younger, she used to sleep three out of the six hours of the trip, so we had to keep her busy for just three more hours. Of course, for as long as she was asleep, the car needed to cover as much distance as possible. Every minute was important.

The older she becomes, the less she sleeps. So, nowadays, in 2020, she stayed awake during the whole trip. I have to admit that my young kid hasn’t caused any trouble during these long-distance trips for so many years even this year that she didn’t sleep. Of course, her mother is sitting right next to her, while I am driving.

The trip from Thessaloniki to Evia’s Kymi is 550km. Google Maps estimate that we need 6 hours to cover that distance which has always been on point. Even before they completed Tempi’s tunnels.

That got me thinking since I never needed more than 6 hours for this trip. To arrive in Lamia, it always took me three hours, either before the tunnels were built, or after. I’m curious, do we save time thanks to these tunnels, or are we just avoiding the dangerous, old road of Tempi’s valley?

Whatever the case, the road to Evia’s Kymi is very easy. However, that convenience doesn’t come for free, as I pay about 25 euros for tolls.

Starting from Chalkida’s landmark bridge the road reminds me of… dare I say, Chalkidiki’s roads? Especially for those of you who are traveling to Sithonia, they do ring a bell. Ah, and given we’re on the subject, like Chalkidiki, it doesn’t have. 🙂 [Greek expression]

Slightly before Kymi’s port, the road reminds us of the rockslides that the place suffers from.

In the last few years, we’ve decided to travel on the last ferry boat at 9 pm. We find it way more convenient to arrive on the island late at night and go to sleep almost immediately. Previously we took the boat at 6pm, arriving in Skyros at the awkward 8 pm when we neither felt sleepy, nor did we feel rested to meet relatives and friends or make up the house.

As an added advantage, we enjoy the port on sunset.

In the beginning, I talked of 2020 that made us doubtful since March if we would manage to visit the island this year, because of the pandemic. The uncertainty still exists of course given the signs are present in everyday life. But for me, the part of this trip that set it apart was the 10-20 cars that were aboard the ship. At other times the cargo area would be so packed that to open the door I would have to wait until the cars nearby left or other times I would not be able to even reach it.

The next two hours on the ferry boat would certainly be a lot different than previous years!

And that’s how we arrived at Skyros island this year. Maybe it’s not the most popular destination, but for all of us who seek peaceful and relaxing summer vacations. I’d say it feels almost like paradise. Enjoy your summer, everyone!

A content creator can create that much content per day. In the battle for making the most out of our time, creating value can go that far. Every day we wake up and try to use the next 16 hours most efficiently. And when it comes to creating content for the internet, content repurposing is how you efficiently use that content.

Let’s say you filmed a 10-minute video for YouTube. That’s one piece of content. That’s the original content that you can extract many more pieces from.

First, you can get the audio of that video, make small edits and repurpose it as a podcast, as I discussed recently in another episode. Second, you can trim 1-minute clips out of the original video and create short videos for Twitter or other social platforms. Finally, get creative and edit 15-second clips out of that very same content to create Instagram stories.

Repurposing content doesn’t stop there, though.

Transcribe your video or do what I do. Before recording a video, write a script that will be used as a blog post on your website. I understand that not every video can be scripted, but I’m sure you can format your speech into an article somehow. Then, take your most valuable, short sentences out of it and add them as quotes on pictures of yours for branding. You now have several pieces of content for your Instagram feed.

As a perfectionist, I used to overthink about the quality before I created a piece of content. At the end of the day, though, I had created just a single piece of content that wasn’t promoted enough. And once that was done, I had to go back to overthinking my next piece of content.

By repurposing content, I can create a lot more content, based on the content I consider perfect in the first place. So, quality AND quantity. Win-win.

Podcasting isn’t something new. People are recording podcasts for years, but lately, their popularity has increased. As a content creator, you may wonder if you should spend time creating yet another type of content for promoting your work or business.

At least, I have. So…

Should I be starting a podcast?

Build on your strengths, avoid your weaknesses, they say.

If you are good at writing, you start a blog or write a book. If you are good at taking pictures, you dive into photography, and if you are good with video, you start a YouTube channel or a video production company.

A podcast is a natural choice for anyone good at speaking. I am not. But there’s a workaround, and I’m doing it all the time. It’s called scripting.

Although reading from a script may sound like cheating, it gets the job done. In the modern-day of marketing, quantity somehow wins over quality.

And if it works for you, who cares?

Yes, it may sound unnatural, but you can try as much as possible to be yourself. At the end of the day, people stick around because of what you have to say, not how you say it.

Besides, having a written script saves a ton of time for both the creator and the audience.

How many times have you watched a 10-minute video, only to extract value from a couple of minutes? Quite often, long videos can be summarized in a paragraph or just a sentence.

Concentrated information and value are hard to come by. A script accomplishes that, as the creator makes the most of their listeners’ time.

Most importantly, he or she respects their own time. That’s why I am considering…

Starting a podcast by repurposing content

In other words, by using this video’s audio to create my first podcast.

Distributing the same content in various formats reaches a bigger audience with less work. And no, it’s not cheating. Some prefer watching a YouTube video while others like listening to podcasts in their commute. Why not offer value in both formats? I’ll get back to the topic of repurposing content in the next episode.

For now, thank you for watching this video. Or listening to my podcast’s first episode!