Wrote 1,000-Word Article Today

Today, I wrote slightly more than 1,000 word article for Booking.com on hotels in Veysonnaz, Switzerland. It is a curated article, meaning that research is required with pictures added for eye candy including the address, opening times, cost in USD and how to get there. It took me the whole morning till lunch time before it was completed and sent for submission. Today, I was surprised to see on Adwords, advertisements on Booking.com on 2 of the hotels that I covered and also on Facebook.

Writing to me is cathartic, and never a chore. Wait till you have to do hard core programming! I disliked programming in my university days and know very little about it. But now with a clear mind and peaceful heart, I bought a book on PHP and reading it in my own sweet time when I am in the mood. There is no more pressure anymore to perform unlike in the university days.

I have also registered for an online course to learn up for free some tips on PHP that was conducted by UTM – Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in Johor. The course was introduced by reading a book written by a Malay author that was bought in Kinokuniya bookstore at KLCC. Such is my determination to relearn what I need to know from my IT background. But I am more of an admin person working on Microsoft Office applications, editing brochures and typing quotations.

Once in a while, I will update the company website with reference projects that are completed all over Malaysia. Working and travelling is now part and parcel of my life. It is a blessing in disguise that I don’t have children to bog me down with chores, so that I can concentrate fully on my job at hand. Sometimes I will also freelance writing articles and do microjobs, take surveys, etc.

In the past, getting approved by Adsense was easy. But now with so many high quality websites and lots of content, I have to be more stringent and include more news about my working life and just about anything that comes to mind to be approved again. There is no free lunch in this world. You have to labour and work hard for it to save up for your retirement; so that it will be golden and not woeful having to beg in the streets on the extreme side by comparison.

I also need to change by complaining less to my partner. The Bible tells us this: “Be careful for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, lets your requests be made known to God”. Thus, I also spent more quiet time with God sharing my issues in life so that He can answer my prayers in His time. From experience, by complaining to fellow human beings, it only brings added pressures, stress and wrong advise that makes things worse than they are.

And the advantage is that, it is a secret. Nobody knows your issues in life and neighbours don’t have to know all your secrets. And don’t wash dirty linen in public. It only makes things worse where your home should be a sanctuary instead.