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Recently I have had one hell of a wake up call, I've be incarcerated in the dreaded Facebook Jail. On the 14th of January I tried logging in to Facebook for the day only to find that my account had been disabled. Facebook wanted to verify my identity with an upload of photo ID.

Having been through this process a couple of times before, and the fact I wanted to log in, I obliged. After uploading a copy of my license I was notified that Facebook would be in contact soon. Soon is indefinite, and as such I still have not heard from them.

This was worrying, as I have clients who are relying on me to run their ads, and whilst not being able to log in, I was unable to uphold my end of the contract. I had to find a plan as after 3 weeks of not hearing from Facebook I had to do something as a back up to losing my main source of income.

How to Survive Facebook Jail

Since 2010, I have been living full time with the income I have generated from big blue. I owe my life to them, I love them as does my Family. I am very fortunate to live, for the most part, on my terms working relatively few hours compared to the mainstreamers. As in 3 hours a day is generally all I need to work. However, when it rains it pours, and I will often work well into the late hours of the evening to back it up early the next morning.

On the 14th of January a stark reality set in. In the 7 years of relying on Facebook I had failed to realise that at some point I needed to diversify my income if I was to remain what most would call an online entrepreneur (I hate that word as I don't believe I have had the success that should warrant such a term to be used). I am unemployable, I don't want to be employed, I want to be rich, not only in money but in life.

What to Do When Facebook Disables Your Account

To keep me sane I had to have a plan of attack and not sit on my hands while in Facebook jail. So, on the 15th (it was a Monday) I stumbled upon the idea of starting a blog. Which in part was helped by having a look at Pinterest and seeing how fast stay at home mums were scaling and living off their blogs.

I figured if they could do it without a network or expertise in any particular field, then I sure as heck could provide massive value by accessing my network, and providing incredibly valuable content to the ecom crowd.

In the words of Zig Ziglar, “If you help enough people get what they want, you will get what you want.”

I set a 13 week goal (because that's what you do when you use the Best Self diary) of having 50 articles written by the 29th of April. I am on track for this, as of writing this post I am at 16 articles, this will be the 17th.

The launch target of February 14th is to have 25-30 of my own articles written, that's not including all the contributors who have agreed to also add articles to Store Hacks.

Maybe Then…I Don't Want to Be Back on Facebook

That's kind of a lie, but for the time being (apart from the fact I have clients that rely on me) having the focus 100% on Storehacks is incredibly powerful.

Each day I set my goals of achieving 1 new article delivering massive value and connecting with 1 more expert in my network to also contribute.

It's been very fortunate to have a solid focus and solid goals to achieve in the time away. If I didn't have something to achieve in this time I'd be an anxious mess…particularly with a family to provide for, bills to pay and everything else that the security of income provides.

Facebook is a massive distraction, even when you have a goal of launching a certain number of products or setting up pages or any number of other jobs. The newsfeed gets in the way (unless you're incredibly disciplined) and you find yourself reading about Aubameyang's training regime at Arsenal. While to me it's fascinating, it serves no long term purpose.

The Purpose of Store Hacks

Store hacks was born out of opportunity, certainly not desperation, although sometimes being desperate creates amazing opportunities.

I have built an incredible network over the years off the back of my own success and I would encourage you to do the same. There will be vast amounts of expertise you can provide others, and I have approached every relationship with the hope that I can provide something of value.

When you live your live as authentically as possible and willing to be genuine in your interactions good things will and do happen. I am constantly blown away by the people I am lucky enough to chat to as not only peers, but as friends.

I have a billionaire friend, another is pushing the $100,000,000 mark, another just sold his business for $15,000,000 (he sent me a screenshot of his bank balance as he was that excited) and that's only the success of the individuals I know of.

Serendipity is at Play

Now is the time for a news site like Storehacks, we have been involved in and around this space for many years and never really had a depository for all the expertise that is within my immediate circle.

Storehacks will provide that, and it is my hope that you see massive value on this website and start sharing articles with your friends, in groups or to your email lists helping others with the knowledge that's contained here within these 1's and 0's.

I believe Storehacks will be big, if not from organic traffic then through my motivation to see it succeed and pass on that success to so many people who so desperately need it to improve the quality of their lives.