May 15th, 2008

Jarkko Laine dot com Turns One

It seems that this is your first time to my blog. Welcome! In this blog I will share my ideas on how you can make a living in a way that feels good to you, your family, your environment and everyone around you. If you want to know more about me and this blog, check out my about page. And if you want to stay updated on my new posts, subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for stopping by!

With one year of blogging behind, I’m now taking the first steps into year two. But before that, today is a perfect day for taking a deep breath and looking back to everything that has happened during these past 367 days.

If you are waiting for the first post in my new series, don’t worry, it will go live in a few days. But first I want to take a few moments for nostalgia, thanking everyone, and sharing some future plans.

First, let’s take a quick look at each month and how this blog has grown from a small experiment to an important part of my online presence and my life plans.

May 2007

  1. Start Your Day on the Right Foot: my very first post (May 13th) described a rather exciting morning habit that I had adopted around the time of starting my blog. Only six days later, my son Oiva was born, and after a few weeks of not getting enough sleep, the morning ritual had to go. I still think about restoring it though, maybe this summer…
  2. When starting the blog, I thought I would be writing mostly about learning: learning tools, cultivating curiosity, and using software for learning.

June 2007

  1. In June, I started looking at productivity: more specifically at how to get things done with a baby in the house (check out also part 2 from July 2007).
  2. I also brought in articles about software development, as that is what I do at work. Although some of my software development posts were rather popular, that direction didn’t inspire me enough to turn Jarkko Laine dot com into a software development blog.
  3. Another direction I tried was that of workplace happiness and career planning, and liked it. Although my blog has later evolved into something a bit more specific, many of my posts still touch these topics.
  4. June also marked my entry to the realm of blog posts about business: How showing your values creates loyal customers

July 2007

  1. Continuing on the workplace happiness theme from July, I wrote a new post on losing the office: Who Needs an Office Anyway.
  2. Why Your Work and Values Need to Match was one of the first posts showing a guiding idea that was going to rule Jarkko Laine dot com. If you go through most of my posts, you’ll find that I write a lot about doing the things you value, and doing the things that make you tick.
  3. And my all time biggest hit: Never Work Overtime Again.

August 2007

  1. On August 3rd, I celebrated my 27th birthday.
  2. The day after that it was time to start thinking more about why I started this blog, and what I was trying to achieve through it. Some of the rationale has changed during these past months, but the key points remain: I’m still serious about the blog, I think this is a learning experience for both me and you, and a way to connect with all of you.
  3. Some quick picks from August: Super Easy Inspiration, Don’t be a Programmer, Why Risk Management has to Start From Us
  4. In August, this blog reached 100 RSS readers. I was so excited!
  5. My first series on building a side business: How to secure your life with additional income sources, Earn money from your additional income sources while not working, Show me the money: 7 ideas for getting additional income, The seven deadly sins of a side business entrepreneur, You can sell anything. Just do it.

In general, August was one of my most productive months so far, with pretty much one post every day. And most of the posts were pretty good actually, now that I look back to them.

September 2007

Dubbed the “Insanely Interesting September“, September was the month when I started moving more to the direction of becoming the blog about being insanely interested in everything. To celebrate curiosity and being insanely interested, I ran a series of interviews with people interested in different things:

  1. Kim and Jason
  2. Kevin D. Weeks
  3. You
  4. The Coffee Sage
  5. Petri Purho

Some of my other favorite posts from September include “5 Small Lessons Learned From Carrying a Notebook Everywhere“, “8 Places to Make Your Work Worth Living“, “Ask and You Shall Receive“, “How To Win America’s Got Talent”

October 2007

  1. In October I returned to the topic of getting things done with a baby in the house saying that you can actually get some things done if you really want to.
  2. I also published my 100th post and changed the blog looks to what they are today.
  3. And a lot of other posts: 21 Every Day Ways to Manage Risk, How We Fight for Your Attention, My Sourdough Recipe

In general, I concluded that October was a month of standing still and holding back and decided to work harder and make the blog grow in November.

November 2007

In November, I wrote about dreams and taking risks to achieve them:

  1. What Is Your Dream Job?
  2. Bloggers Living Their Dreams
  3. A Dream Job - My Definition
  4. People in Movies Don’t Play For Keeps
  5. 20 Companies to Inspire You Today

December 2007

Seven Signs That You Might Be Insanely Interested in Everything was another step towards making this blog more and more about the tag line - and ultimately the blog about being insanely interested. And all of the sudden it was already Christmas time.

At the end of December I posted a big list of 303 links to check out during the holidays.

January 2008

I continued the series of survival strategies for the insanely interested with an article about blogging.

Some other articles from January:

  1. Why Would You Need An Office?
  2. How I Almost Invented Social Bookmarking
  3. On Asking Questions
  4. Expert Advice On Picking The Right Projects
  5. Warning: Being Insanely Interested in Everything Can Be Bad For Your Career - And a One Line Comment From Seth Godin

February 2008

I started February with a bold claim that I read all the time, and you can too. Well, I don’t really read all the time - I also eat, sleep, and work. But I do read a lot, and I still think it’s a good idea!

Continuing on the theme of being insanely interested in everything, I interviewed the fellow blogger, Jonathan Fields about running many businesses at once. It also was becoming clear to me that being insanely interested in everything definitely has something to do with being an entrepreneur (more on this later, as we go into defining the insanely interested, later this month).

March 2008

My second series on running a side business started at the end of February and continued for a big part of March, with the following articles:

  1. How a Side Business Forces You To Balance Your Life
  2. Dream Big, Set Goals and Make Things Happen
  3. Side Business, Smart Business
  4. How To Triple Your Week Without Anyone Noticing
  5. Finding Balance: Make Plans But be Quick to Act
  6. Planning Your Life, Business and Everything

April 2008

In April, I decided to start working a bit harder towards my goals, and officially joined Mark Hayward’s Make Money Online challenge. This feels like yesterday, and I’m still putting the pieces together in getting this challenge off the ground. Although at times I have my doubts, I still believe that this is going to turn into something big - and if not big, then at least something interesting.

I couldn’t stop thinking about side businesses, so I wrote the posts:

  1. Are You Running a Side Business Without Even Noticing?
  2. How Similar Should Your Side Business and Day Job Be?

May 2008

That’s now. And we’re just about to start a series on focus. The first part will be about finding and maintaining the big picture, but before that, tomorrow we’ll talk a bit about the future of Jarkko Laine dot com, and your role in it (while waiting, check out my new web store for a sneak preview to what we’ll be talking about).

It has been an exciting year full of learning, communication, and experimentation. Thank you for being a big part in it, and making my dream come true!

The story continues.

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10 Responses to “Jarkko Laine dot com Turns One”

  • Joshua Clanton Says:
    May 15th, 2008 at 6:59 pm

    Congratulations on your blog’s first birthday, Jarkko. I know that I’ve learned a lot from it since I started reading. Thanks for sharing with us!

    Joshua Clanton’s last blog post: Vitruvian Theme Preview

  • Deron Sizemore Says:
    May 15th, 2008 at 8:07 pm

    Congratulations Jarkko! Welcome to the one year club. You’ve definitely accomplished a lot in your first year. Your blog is something that I (and others) can definitely aspire to be like going forward. As I read over this post which included articles from the past, I found some that I hadn’t read and a couple that actually sparked some ideas for my own blog (much needed by the way).

    Here’s to year number two!

    PS: Do yo use Google Talk?

    Deron Sizemore’s last blog post: Random Jabber Turns One Year Old!

  • Bitten Says:
    May 15th, 2008 at 8:09 pm

    Congrats.

    Your new web store looks nice. I’ll be waiting for new, insanely interesting products! (I already bought the rockstar freelancer book from you.)

  • Jarkko Says:
    May 16th, 2008 at 5:28 am

    Thanks, guys!

    @Deron: Well, I have it in Gmail, so when I go check my e-mails I sometimes see you there… But I don’t really use it :)

    I have you also listed on my AIM buddy list - do you use that?

    @Bitten: Thanks for buying the book! Do you like it?

    My plan is to first add “X Marks The Spot” so that I’ll then have all the books I had here on the blog listed in the store, and then start adding new products.

  • Deron Sizemore Says:
    May 16th, 2008 at 6:52 am

    Yeah, I have AIM but I use Meebo.com too chat with it so it’s all web based and a lot of times I forget to browse to the site and log in. Google talk is a downloaded application and is always logged in. ;) Maybe I just need to download AIM. hehe

    Deron Sizemore’s last blog post: Random Jabber Turns One Year Old!

  • Timo Says:
    May 18th, 2008 at 2:11 pm

    Congrats! It’s always a joy to visit this blog, whether via RSS reader or browser :)

  • mark @ mytropicalescape Says:
    May 19th, 2008 at 12:55 pm

    Jarkko - CONGRATULATIONS!!! I am not sure why (maybe the high quality of your posts) but I thought you had been blogging for years.

    I am looking forward to your blog’s next year and reading about your progress and the new site looks fantastic.

    mark @ mytropicalescape’s last blog post: Read This NOW and Learn From My Mistake: The Idiot’s Guide To Google Analytics

  • Jarkko Says:
    May 19th, 2008 at 3:30 pm

    @Deron: Or I need to download Google Talk. ;)

    @Timo: Thanks! That means a lot to me!

    @Mark: Thanks! It’s great to hear that I sound like a long time blogger :) I hope I can keep it up in the future as well (now that everyone knows that I’ve only been blogging for a year)

  • Kim of Kim & Jason Says:
    May 19th, 2008 at 6:53 pm

    Congratulations, Jarkko!

    You’ve got a GREAT thing going here! Can’t wait to see what the next year brings!

    Kim of Kim & Jason’s last blog post: Tip of the Week: Taste Bud Conspiracy

  • Jarkko Says:
    May 20th, 2008 at 12:56 pm

    Thanks, Kim! I can’t wait either ;)

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