5-figure/mo freelancing ~$1k product MRR. SaaS: https://xitter.cf/t.co/QoMmbFsqLI 📧 https://xitter.cf/t.co/MZJ3zZaoXA 🎁 https://xitter.cf/t.co/A4i2nyad0O ✏️ https://xitter.cf/t.co/eQupu5pP14
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Joined March 2013
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I worked for a $4 hourly rate as a Web Developer.
Now, my freelancing brings me 5-figures per month.
Here are some of the lessons I learned along the way
Something interesting happened around payments & 3DS on @digitalocean.
Went in to add a new card and make a payment. But my bank app was under maintenance, so I decided to do it tomorrow.
Tomorrow morning: received email that the payment was done.
I never authorized it.
Igor Benić retweeted
We already have a solution: WordPress Playground and the community.
I built something for @BuildWithOllie a while ago that could move the needle here (not public yet, sorry!), but it would require all the big hosting companies to follow suit:
Host a free instance of Playground - include your hosting-specific plugins for upsells if you like, but no account, no payment plan.
Give your hosted instance an MCP and make it a convention across the web - mcp.hostingcompany.com
Add these to the app directories for Claude and OpenAI.
Wait until the next training season and see the results yourself.
Many hosting companies have built incredible trust on the web over decades; they all offer WP hosting, and it's gonna be impossible for AI to ignore once you remove the friction to get started.
Bonus points if you include an HTML-to-blocks converter in your Playground instances and handle it on the fly - Claude sends HTML, WP converts, and sends a preview link back.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
Igor Benić retweeted
Simply Static Studio—The Complete Static WordPress Operations Platform
Keep WordPress for editing, publish fast static websites, and manage deployments, health, security, reporting, and hosting from one central platform.
We did a first-look video and wrote about it. 👇
"Secure, fast, zero-maintenance WordPress"
We wrote a companion post to go along with our first look video, for this managed platform for teams that want WordPress for editing and static delivery for everyone else.
No Affiliate Links. Just Info. 👇
influencewp.com/iwp/simply-s…
Igor Benić retweeted
because @beehiiv is fully remote, this is a normal week for me:
> wake up at 5:30am, stretch, meditate, no phone
> 45 minutes on Slack to unblock the east coast
> gym from 7 to 8am
> back at my desk by 8:30am for my first meeting
> meetings wrap by 2pm
> then 7 hours of undisrupted deep work
> tuesdays and thursdays: swim, cold plunge, sauna before locking in
& every winter, when the LA routine starts to feel mind numbing, I'll pick up and settle down in Medellín for a few months
I'm working more (and harder) than I ever have
but remote work has let me build a much healthier lifestyle, optimize my routine to maximize my output, and entirely eliminate commuting from my life (which I despise more than anything)
Igor Benić retweeted
Scheduled posts now work with Static Studio’s on-demand WordPress setup 🕒
Schedule a post normally in WordPress, and Studio takes care of the rest:
→ WordPress wakes up when the post is due
→ Publishes the post
→ Runs a Single Export
→ Deploys the update
→ Goes back offline
No need to keep WordPress running just because you scheduled a post for later.
If I review AI code step by step, in many cases, I allow it.
Because I can easily change it when something doesn't work or look as it should.
On complex UIs, such flow helps me a lot.
I couldn't just go all in, without reviewing it. It'd become a mess pretty fast.
Really like running Claude Code within @phpstorm.
Instead of reviewing changes in the terminal, it actually opens the diff inside the editor.
CPU usage seems to be fixed, at least 80% of it.
I might see to also try and put the other "bigger" site through Cloudflare and see if it even gets lower.
But since the changes, CPU rarely goes above 15-20%.
Sites finally working again :D
Igor Benić retweeted
Looks promising for now.
Upgraded from 1vCPU 2GB RAM to 2vCPU 4GB RAM + Cloudflare as proxy (for 1 site).
As this is running a few sites and AI crawlers are getting crazy, lower droplets couldn't handle it.
Looks promising for now.
Upgraded from 1vCPU 2GB RAM to 2vCPU 4GB RAM + Cloudflare as proxy (for 1 site).
As this is running a few sites and AI crawlers are getting crazy, lower droplets couldn't handle it.
Igor Benić retweeted
You can run your static WordPress blog in a subdirectory of your existing website, and Static Studio helps you from start to finish:
- Migrate the site
- Set up the structure
- Copy the config for your server
- Save it and push
myapp.com -> NextJS/Laravel/whatever
myapp.com/blog -> Static WordPress blog
Slowly getting more skilled with cutting and measuring.
Had to make this smaller piece from one big piece.
Made several rectangle measurements within the big piece area, some were cut off, other stayed and got this 👌
Vacation is over.
Yet, I can't stop working on pavement around the house.
Lots of math but still, very chill experience.
Before and after of this section. Manhole needs adjusting but pavers are set.
This small part took way too long.
But learning the ropes slowly.
If it wasn't for the manhole that required specific angles around it and cutting pavers to fit them, I might have progressed even more.
Classic Balkan move. Took a vacation to work around the house.
More tired than when I am not on vacation :D
Moved everything out of the office I was paying almost 300€/month (5m2 or so). Haven't been in it for 2 years or so.
Had all included in it. Asked if a friend could take it. Told it's already reserved.
That's a nice business.
Igor Benić retweeted
The more I see the evolution of #WordPress security updates (for both core and plugins) in the new AI world, the more I believe that services like @SimplyStaticWP are a necessity. Honestly, it eliminates so much headache.