Again, I write on Medium just to organize my thoughts. Some of you that follow me must think I lost my mind (which I may have). Some articles I haven’t finished, and I don’t curate my medium. However, it helps me when I put my thoughts into words.
WooTheFreelancer.com
Things that Worked (2022)
- Cold Emailing Translation Agencies
In 2022, a single cold email outreach to Alconost resulted in $5,300 in gross profit. An email to Homeland Language Services resulted in approximately $500 in revenue. Outreach via LinkedIn to e2f has resulted in a gig translating DataDog software into Korean. I’m currently pending a contract for approximately $3,600 … In Shallah (God Willing), I’ll get it.
2. UpWork outreach
By luck, UpWork outreach has resulted in approximately $14,000 billed for Shvets group, where I translated the website “refactoring.guru” and the book “Dive into Design Patterns” by Alexander Shvets.
Missed Opportunities
The following opportunites were not known to me and therefore missed:
- I didn’t know how to do cold email outreach to translation companies until August. So, I probably missed out on a lot of opportunity there.
- I’m not doing PPC on Google for my translation company. I should do it calmly.
- I should have reached out to around 50 Korean translation companies. GloZ will likely become a client.
- I should build a personal brand (YouTube) documenting my journey as an online entreprenuer.
- I didn’t know about job boards like ProZ or Translator’s Cafe.
2023 Changes:
- We will utilize ProZ, Translator’s Cafe and email marketing to the max.
- We will continue to take translation tests, even if there is no immediate result. You never know.
- We will set up a PPC campaign for WooTheFreelancer & take advantage/document the process a.s.a.p.
- We will make a list of 50 South Korean translation companies and reach out as soon as possible.
- We will get our ATA certification somehow.
- We’ll start connecting with LinkedIn leads asap, even if we don’t have PFL(personalized first lines) written for them.
- Like clockwork, we’ll edit 50 PFLs daily & send a new sequence daily. We’ll set up and implement something called the “Korean sequence” … or a series of job boards or sites we check to do outreach.
In Sum:
The following outreach/marketing efforts will generate business:
- Google PPC
- Google SEO
- Cold Email
- Cold LinkedIn
- ProZ
- Translator’s Cafe
In General (What Happened)
Let me reflect upon my year.
From January to March I have been studying JavaScript. I started, but I didn’t finish. Pathetic, I know. I did learn the basics though. I already knew Laravel and etc … but I didn’t feel like I got good enough to compete with the Indian software engineers on UpWork.
While I did that, I slowly applied to a few jobs on UpWork. and built up my profile. I got lucky around April and landed a gig translating a software engineering book called “Dive into Design Patterns” by Alexander Shvets. 20 translators competed for that position, and I won. The JavaScript I was learning, and the fact that I was a native Korean/English speaker with no accent in both, worked in my favor.
During the time where I did outreach on UpWork, I landed a gig doing paralegal work for an Immigration attorney in California. That made me around $1,000 at $37/hour.
In a previous life, I was a criminal law paralegal in New Jersey. So I put in some applications for paralegal work and realized that many attorneys were looking for cheap labor from the Philipines. The jobs that paid had stuff to do with corporate, real estate or etstate law … which I don’t have familiarity with. Since my account was based in South Korea, and could not bid only on U.S. only jobs, I decided I’d purchase a paralegal certification course for $1,400.
I’m ashamed to say that, although I’m 90% done, I still haven’t completed the course. It’s a disgrace.
Then I sent a cold email to Alconost. They ended up paying me $5,300 for a translation that took 2–3 weeks. So I decided to scale my efforts and send a bunch of emails via Lemlist.
I searched on YouTube how to send cold emails via Lemlist and came across experts like Alex Berman and Gordon Montell on how to mass send emails with personalized first lines.
I used that knowledge to land a small contract with Elizabeth Ji, Esq., doing digital marketing consultation for a Georgia based Immigration lawyer. I then did some work for trainingstore .fish writing an article using SurferSEO.
I then interviewed with a local digital marketing client. This client ran a luxury apartment real estate sales agency and wanted to expand. We agreed on a retainer, for running a cold email campaign targeting stateside real estate agents and running a social media marketing campaign for her.
I cut off an older female friend. Without mentioning names, she used to have a decent paying job, because she was sleeping with the boss. She had no college degree… yet made $70k+. When she got fired, she slowly declined. She sold her Rolex watch and refused to work low paying jobs. She eventually ended up homeless. I had to cut her off, because she was sending off a depressing, defeatist vibe. I tried to look out for her, but what eventually triggered me cutting her off, was when she said that she didn’t trust me. I think it was a good decision.
The highlight of the year may have been landing an exclusive digital marketing deal for X___ Distro (name redacted) which is a vape/e-cigarette manufacturer. We agreed on a $1,500/month retainer with 20% of the gross profits being mine. I am in charge of expanding their sales to the United States and beyond.
On October 31, I interviewed for this firm: one-400. I interviewed with their director of operations, named Landon Glover. Since then, while he said that his firm had unlimited work, he gave me one $10 task (I bid $10) … and today (December 12th) after following up on whether he reviewed my $10 blog post, he assigned me another post. I don’t know if they’re being insincere or … just busy, but I let them know, once again, I’m open to switching careers from translation to marketing.
This year I also learned how to cook some chicken. :D
I also learned how to use the Tinder booster, and I went on a few dates.
Things that did not go well
- I was scammed by this fella named “Fabian Tavarez.” I’m in criminal proceedings with this fella. I’m out $5,500. He was supposed to buy vertical doors from verticaldoors.com and an M Sport Upgrade kit. He didn’t buy the M Sport upgrade kit, and he bought a $250 vertical door kit instead of the $1500 vertical lambo door kit from above site. When I pressed charges, he disconnected the horn and cut some wires in the back so the radio wouldn’t work. He was also unscrewing the doors, when the police executed a search warrant on his apartment.
- My only regret is waiting too long to press charges against this fella. Now I have to destroy him.
- I wasted a bunch of my life watching YouTube. Most of my watch hours have been spent on: political news (U.S. and Korean), political commentators, TateSpeech on Rumble, Valuetainment, some animation channels and etc. I’m cutting all of that out in 2023.
- I didn’t know how to reach out to translation companies via email so I probably missed out on 10s of thousands of dollars.
- I wasted a lot of time chatting on WhatsApp. I should read messages and just not respond while I do deep work.
Vision: End of 2023.
By the end of 2023, we would have pressed charges against two blackmailers against me (male and female) and prosecuted them to the fullest extent of local + U.S. law. (In the U.S., I’ll make sure this blackmailer loses child support and custody of her daughter).
We will also have two cases initiated against Fabian and one against his son. (For scamming me for my car and blackmailing me). As a matter of principle, we’ll pursue charges against them.
WooTheFreelancer.com will have PPC ads running. We would have done outreach to 50+ South Korean translation companies. We would also be ATA certified.
Our car’s horn will be fixed, we’ll fix the radio, we’ll fix the dashboard and we’ll get the car painted.
We will have an award winning digital marketing agency called 4StepDigital. The website will have videos & tutorials, as well as case studies on the following:
- PPC (WTF)
- Media buying
- Cold Email
- SEO
- Copywriting
- Backlink Building
These case studies will come from our main client, the vape manufacturer. The website will also have a bloggging sytem as well as a recurring billing system. We will also allow mass emails. I’ll outsource development to codelab, a Pakistani company I’m cool with.
We are hoping that the agency generates $100k/mo, but we’re anticipating that it will generate at least $10k+/month by the end of the year.
Things we will do different compared to last year:
- Continue to take translation tests and do cold outreach to translation companies
There are over 100,000 translation companies out there. I really don’t know which one will give me a $5,000+ translation task.
- Do digital marketing, build experience, build case studies with the vape distribution company.
The $1,500/month retainer is more than enough for me to survive and flourish every month.
- I’ll spend at least $85/month on Tinder Boosters.
The one time I spent money last year yielded good results. I think it’s healthy for me to do outreach in this regard.
- I’ll cook some more chicken when my chef doesn’t work.
It’s a healthy way for me to get some nutrients in.
- I’ll follow Lex Friedman’s routine the moment I get out of the flu and regain my health.
Doing two four-hour deep work sessions (doing only one task at a time from start to finish) seems like the way to win.
- I’ll cut out all YouTube that’s useless.
This includes all political stuff (which angers me) in Korea and the United States, animated channels, entertainment nonsense.
- I’ll learn how to not respond to a WhatsApp message. Leave conversations open.
2023 Projections:
- We’re at least starting off with an extra base income of $18,000/year from the hookah distribution contract.
- We’ll get the digital marketing company built asap.
- The translation company will fund the digital marketing company.
- Next year will be more social, now that I have my car back. Less porn, more Tinder.
- We’ll destroy the scammer who destroyed my precious car, publicly. I’ll get famous in the process.
December 12, 2022
Cheers
Woo Hwang
