Last updated: December 9, 2022 at 14:58 pm

 Update 9 December 2022 

 Posted 3 December 2022 

I have no doubt that regular visitors of Be Brilliant have been wondering what I've been up to lately, so I thought it might be good to write an article about the project that I'm currently working on and am very, very busy with.

I'm in the process of building a Shopify store called Connected Life Today and this webshop (which also has a blog) is the next step in the evolution of my projects under the randythym.com umbrella after Be Brilliant. There are A LOT of people who wonder how I know what I know , and with Connected Life Today (CLT) I take my astronomical knowledge and skill set to the public. You might call it my "IPO" without the listing on the stock exchange. 

I'm currently very busy with designing and building the store and thought it would be nice to blog about the store's progress, so future customers can read back and see how Connected Life Today came to life. It might also be interesting for people who want to look into opening their own Shopify store after they've seen my store on connectedlife.today.

First and foremost, I have to say that Shopify is an amazing SaaS (software-as-a Service) e-commerce platform with a wealth of information for entrepreneurs. I decided to build a Shopify store because, as you can read in the article I linked to, Shopify takes responsibility for monitoring and ensuring site security as the service provider. Most importantly and especially when it comes to handling credit card information and payment processing. I use Shopify payments for Connected Life Today, as Shopify Payments is PCI compliant and supports 3D Secure checkouts. 

I registered the domain name connectedlife.today on October 27th, 2022 and made a YouTube channel for the store on October 29th, 2022. Shopify handles the store's online security but I also registered my shop at TrustedSite.com as they actively monitor websites for security issues as well. You can check the results of the latest scan on the connectedlife.today certification page at trustedsite.com.

TrustedSite.com sends a postcard (that I haven't received yet) to verify the business address which is why that field is still pending.

I am going to register Connected Life Today at the Dutch Chamber of Commerce on December 22nd, 2022 and you can obtain an extract there to review the company's details. The store won't go live until Q1-2023 (..and it might be later) because I'm also going to apply for the Dutch Small Business scheme (KOR) to be exempt from having to charge VAT, which requires processing time at the tax authorities.

The domain name was connected to the store yesterday and the SSL certificate has been activated as well, so as far as domain settings go Connected Life Today is good to go! Yay! 🙂 A special thanks again to Rey at the Shopify Help Center for double-checking the DNS settings.

I intend to run Connected Life Today as a global "small neighborhood shop" and due to my availability there is a limit to the number of customers that the store can take on. Just like Be Brilliant I will run it myself from front to back.

Integrity and Privacy are at the core of my business, and as I want to know who my customers are I will not accept anonymous orders or do business with just anyone. Your intentions have to be on the up-and-up and I can smell a troll a mile away so don't even try. Once the store is live you are welcome to browse around, but you MUST book a one-time Intake and Pre-Read session before you can place an order.

Below is a sneak preview of the Featured Services page on connectedlife.today.

I blog about the store's progress on the Connected Life Today blog (..which you will be able to read when the store goes live) and the majority of the text in this article will become the About Page for the store.

Also, just as an fyi, I will not write a post about the Mauna Loa eruption on Be Brilliant because – and pardon my French – I already f-ing SAID in August 2021 that if Humanity doesn't course correct, The Planet will, and Mother Earth-Gaia is coming through loud and clear. If The Planet had a face she would look like this:

Unfortunately this beautiful little statue can only be found on Amazon so I bought it there earlier this year. 

That's it for now with regard to the announcement for Connected Life Today, and I'll finish the article by reminding you to Respect Yourself, Respect Life, and Respect The Planet You Live On.