About

A simple guy, with a curious mind (someone said)

DetoxingI’m Daniele, an Italian dude based in Amsterdam and making money online.

I consider myself pretty lucky because I found my passion and I have a lifestyle that I enjoy.

 

My Story

I born in Albiate, a small village of 5,000 souls near Milano in Italy, few hours before the mid-summer celebrations of ferragosto started.

At age 24 I got almost married, but then my girlfriend and I started dancing Salsa and our plans fell apart.

One year later I got a fantastic job opportunity in Amsterdam where I started a new life as a lucky expat in one of the coolest European cities.

What happened next in my life is the story of many people I met in the last years.

After 10 years working as an engineer in the network security industry I lost passion for what I was doing… sounds familiar?
At first, I felt guilty and I thought that there was something wrong with me.
It took me three years to rethink my life, realize what’s important for me, embrace frugality and find a new passion.

In April 2012 I quit my job and started a new adventure as a self-employed web entrepreneur.

It’s not easy but I love it, and it gives me the freedom to be location independent, travel more and manage my time and energy.

I’ve been investing in buying established websites and optimizing them. This is referred as “website flipping” or “virtual real estate” or just “website investing”.

More recently I started a WordPress Support Service, WP-OK, targeting the Italian market.

While there’s no shortage of web developers, I see a shortage of people with technical knowledge combined with real experience running online businesses.

I like open and genuine people, while I grow tired of the “online gurus” with plenty of ideas but short in substance.
This was one of the reasons why I started publishing my online income reports, sharing the passion for online businesses and monetization strategies (and the many lessons along the way).

 

Why this blog

I started blogging in 2006 after moving to Amsterdam. It was the simplest way to keep friends and family updated and I soon started liking it.
It started in Italian but soon after I started writing also in English.

As time passed, this blog evolved into my digital diary of the experiences I like to share with others but especially with myself: I really like the fact that now I can go back reading what I was thinking and doing a few years ago. My memory is bad and without this space so many things would be gone forever!

At this moment this blog is a way to reach out and try to connect with like minded people, that can relate to my experiences and find useful what I’ve written here.

Thanks for reading this page, and do feel free to get in touch or drop a comment!

 

4 commenti

  1. Complimenti per il blog, soprattutto per come si presenta (io non sono proprio una specialista in materia). Anche i contenuti mi sembrano molto ben presentati e veritieri, senza stupidi stereotipi o lamentele del tipico emigrante nostalgico. Per il resto io conosco bene Amsterdam e l’Olanda, ci ho vissuto e lavorato per quattro anni, mia madre era olandese ecc.ecc. quindi niente di nuovo, ma solo tanta nostalgia!! Soprattutto ora che vivoin Africa …

    1. Ciao Francesca grazie!
      Vedo che sei in Ghana, sicuramente una realtá molto diversa.
      Seguiró il tuo blog e se vuoi una mano con la presentazione fammi sapere 🙂

  2. Hello Daniele!

    I use to be a salsa instructor in the US and am traveling to Istanbul in 2 weeks. I was looking for places to go salsa dancing and found your site – thank you for the information! Any time I travel, I look for salsa clubs and check out the salsa scene. I always meet friendly and fun people.

    I’m also starting to research making income online (posting video tutorials), so your blogging on it is very interesting. I might have some questions once I return from my vacation, if you would be okay to answer them.

    Good luck w/ all your adventures!

    Hollie

    1. Hi Hollie,
      Thanks for the message, yes let’s stay in touch, feel free to join the newsletter so I’ll popup every now and then in your mailbox 😉
      Enjoy Istanbul and the good Salsa scene over there!

      Ciao

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