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Looking Back at 2016, and Goals for 2017

January 02, 2017

2016 was a really great year. I continued to increase my JS skills, worked on a handful of great projects at work, launched a weekly newsletter for developers, got a dog, and had a pretty good year for DVLPR.

Made and launched GYF — GIF Your Face — iOS App

GYF was an idea my boss had created to make gifs from your computer camera in under 10 seconds. My company later decided that an iPhone app should be made. I had been teaching myself Swift and had worked on a client project using Swift, so I was chosen to create the GYF iOS app, which was awesome.

In addition to creating the app, I also created the backend API with node.js and Stream

I learned a ton in in creating both the app and the backend API. It was a great experience and I’m glad I had the opportunity to learn on the job, and to create an awesome app.

Launched DVLPR.news

A hand-picked newsletter covering the best web development links each week. The number of subscribers is growing, slowly but steadily.

It’s been a great project as it forces me to keep up with the never ending news in the developer scene, which is great :)

DVLPR

Increased DVLPR orders 165% Focused on Instagram more, grew account to over 6,500 Grew Twitter account to 4,800 Made a tiny site have you tried…

Personal

Continued to learn and become a better Javascript developer Celebrated my one year marriage anniversary Got a dog, Pixel

Pixel

2017 Goals

Personal

Lose 25 pounds I managed to maintain my weight throughout 2017, but that needs to change. I have been overweight now for a couple years, and I don’t like it. It’s time to change that.

Continue to increase my JS and ES6 skills

Increase my focus I like to read and explore all the new and shiny JS frameworks, I have ideas pop into my head for small products I want to make, I have my DVLPR side project, and I also want to keep bettering my JS skills.

Decrease my anxiety By increasing my focus, I should be able to decrease my anxiety. I get anxious and stressed when I don’t get enough done in one particular area. Whether it’s a side project idea that I let simmer in my noggin for a while with little to nothing to show for it, a framework I’d like to learn, or not being able to grow DVLPR to where I’d like it to be.

Increase my design skills

Learn better e-commerce marketing

Blog once a month I’ve always wanted to start writing more, but I have never made the time. This year I would like to blog at least once a month. Blogging will help me keep up with the new tech, and also help me learn better by hopefully helping others.

Read more My wife got me a Kindle for my birthday and I would like to start putting it to good use. I’d like to read more books, with a better balance of fiction and business type books.

Ship a small SaaS product I’ve had many ideas for a small SaaS product and have yet to ship one. Shipping a product will help me learn different aspects of code that I wouldn’t normally get to work on at work. I also enjoy seeing a product go from idea to being shipped, and all the non-code related work that goes along with it (research, marketing, growing a list, etc…)

DVLPR

Increase sales by 500% (1000 orders) In 2016 I took months off of focusing on growing DVLPR, and yet it still grew slowly which was great. This year I’d like to prioritize much more on growing it and making an actual profit.

Profit at least $7,500 after all expenses

DVLPR.news

500 Subscribers

Here’s to an awesome 2017!

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© 2021, Travis Werbelow

Have a great rest of your Sunday!