Do you think a significant amount of your traffic is using blockers? Do you intend to block them or put more of a friendly "if you find this useful please disable blockers"?

Thanks for the thorough reply! Your approach does seem very intentful and indeed informed by experience :)

Today being my first official freelance day, I'm taking it slow and deliberate after reading and reflecting on this. Bills will get paid, but life has to be lived!

I'm in the same boat as you. The advice I'm going with so far is go with more volume in one space instead of going wide with Twitter, youtube, etc.

So focus on posting and engaging (and getting more engagement) on one platform at a time before expanding.

I recently asked this same question in my local tech community, and largely the response I got was that a lot of freelance developers, especially if solo, will mostly get work through their professional network. That's been the case for me and others I know.

So on top of social media/content marketing, are you building your network as well? Start locally in your region and expand outwards.

Hard refresh solves it for me. I'm on FF too.

Maybe some Purchasing Power Parity discounts for members outside the first world?

Related to the other fee topics but IMO separate enough.

I agree, one-off fee for community access is a lot more palatable personally. I only fully joined NomadList when Levels tried a one-off fee instead of recurring.

Recurring USD subscriptions can get pretty heavy outside of the "global north". Here in South Africa the currency generally trends downwards vs USD, so subscriptions get more expensive all the time. Really have to be minimalist with what we subscribe too if it's not a core direct benefit or business requirement.

I don't know about others but the other benefit with one-offs is that it's easier to be in multiple places. I like being in many communities, but can't afford to pay for every single one.

Not sure if it's a bug or something else going on, but sometimes when I navigate to my Notifications page I start getting audio coming from I think Hangout?

Love this response, thanks. I've felt like I've had a perpetual busy season for the last few years. I still need to keep the work up for myself, but I've neglected other aspects for too long. That's why I'm leaning to be stricter with keeping the work inside the work - especially if I'm working for myself, so similarly to you with a service business + other projects. If I'm working fully for my own benefit instead of someone else, I need to be able to do so in a reasonable frame.

I like the macro balance concept, that's a good idea.

A great read on this idea is The Three Marriages by David Whyte.

I've been unbalanced with work for quite some time. Arguably I need to be so right now more than ever, but at the same time I never see this phase ending. So I need to put the brakes on manually.

I agree with this. Targetting an audience where your work is a commodity limits its value to them. It's a hard cycle to break out of because often times that tends to be your own niche.

Basically, don't expect much pay if you're targetting people with your skills as clients.