In my previous “inaugural” blog post, I talked about my previous attempt to build WordPress themes for sale. Read the article to see why it didn’t pan out and what went wrong.

The upside to having your dream project crumble in front of you as a result of your own crippling fears and insecurities is you can learn some valuable lessons along the way!

This time around, I’ve learned from my mistakes and I plan to do a few things differently…

Moonlighting All the Way

As a career freelancer, I have the luxury of a flexible schedule. The first time I went about this, I took a month off from my freelance gigs. I saved up my living expenses, cleared my schedule, and notified my clients I would be unavailable for 30 days.

Not only did I have to use my savings to get by, I would have a month without any income generation at all! Voluntarily! It was a lose-lose situation. Not to mention it added pressure for the project to be a success as now there was quite a bit at stake.

This time, it’s moonlighting all the way. Evenings, weekends, wherever I can shoehorn in some time I will. I am estimating 20 hours a week outside of my regular freelance work. It will mean a longer timeline, but that’s better than an unfinished one.

Treating Myself as a Client

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am a fairly reliable hire for my clients. Over the years I have adopted various systems to hit deadlines for my clients that work for me. It has taken years of trial and error on what works for me and my weirdo brain, but now I can confidently take on multiple or larger scale projects and see them to completion on a deadline.

In my previous attempt, I didn’t give my own project the same respect as I do my clients. The whole experience was very haphazard, really. But that’s about to change.

This time, I’m treating myself as a client. I can expect deadlines, milestones and scheduled to-do lists coming my way real soon! I hope I’m not a jerk to work for!

Doing This for Me

Since I left this unfinished business on the back-burner for nearly four years, I have had the opportunity to acquaint myself with the feeling of this project never seeing the light of day. There was a long time where I had accepted that it will never happen and I gotta say, that did not sit well with me.

This being a “second chance” of sorts, I have different expectations. Yes, it would be nice to be a contender in this field and it would be great to make a Benjamin or two along the way, but that’s not really why I’m here right now.

I’m doing this for me. Because building websites is one of my favourite things to do in the world. I love the whole process from wireframeing to seeing my creation come to life in the browser. The thought of finding an interesting niche and creating a WordPress theme for that niche truly excites me. I’m a freak, I know.

This time, I’m not worried about potentially creating a flop. It’s not about that. It’s about the experience and joy of building something from nothing and seeing where it goes from there.

This time, it’s for me. This time, it’s personal (I have always wanted to say that).