Announcement: Major Blog Changes

A Look at The Future of Black Mountain Analysis

Introduction

Hello Friends of BMA,

As already mentioned, I would like to tell you about some major changes at Black Mountain Analysis. I have been struggling for over a year with the issue of whether to continue with BMA or not. It has become clear to me that I need to change a lot of things. Why? Because I work almost 24/7 (don’t ask about sleep!).

Well, something needed to be done about that.

Personal Situation

In the next few paragraphs, I would like to share with you some personal information to describe my motivations for the changes that I am making to the blog, as well as to my work schedule.

I have decided on the following in order to enable myself a normal working schedule:

• I will continue to teach one subject per semester at the University.

• I will start my own consultancy next year. (In the past, I worked as a consultant for many years).

• I will dedicate a third of my working time to develop material on BMA. This is far more than I have ever devoted before. Hence, there will be more articles and these will be of better quality.

The following information will be deleted from the blog after a few days:

My wife is pregnant, and we’re awaiting our second child in March. That’s why I will suspend my work efforts in March. Moreover, since I am embarking on major work/life changes in order to have more time with you, my dear readers, I hope you will be supportive of me and my family.

Changes on the Blog

Basics

The most important point is that I intend to earn a living with BMA as we go forward. I left my main source of income in order to have more time with my family and to be able to provide you with more and better articles. Hence, I will need to somehow monetize BMA.

Readers who have followed me from the beginning know very well that I promised to never charge a cent for my articles. I want to say straight away that my usual geopolitics, war, and macroeconomic updates and analyses will always be free. I want to spread this knowledge and information, so I will not charge money for it. Hence, BMA will provide the same free information as before, but even more often.

So, what will change, and how will monetization work?

More Time

I have a lot of stuff to do and to prepare before I can start with the new system. A few of you have mentioned that I have written fewer update articles since I released Economics and Empires 5. The reason is that I have a tremendous amount of work to do with starting my consulting business and finishing a major scientific research project. It is taking all of my time and I am trying to do what I can to provide you with updates.

My plan is to finish everything by the end of March. (Starting my consultancy and finishing the research project). The baby will come, God willing, at the end of February. I won’t work for a month from that point in time. Well, actually I will completely re-engineer BMA during that time. The website will have far more functions and information.

From April onwards I will start the new system at BMA. Hence, I will try to publish at least two articles per week. I can’t promise that, but that’s my intention. Of course, it is possible that there will be more articles per week, but will I try to publish at least two.

New Product

Here is the first point of monetization.

One of two articles will be behind a paywall. The paywalled article will have nothing to do with my geopolitics, macroeconomics, and war updates and analyses. They will always be free.

I will introduce a new product at BMA which will be behind the paywall. I’m going to write about certain business news, technology, artificial intelligence (AI), management methods, soft skills, etc.

I will try to release such a paid update once a week. Again, I can’t promise that because at the same time I’ll be building a consultancy company. But the odds are very good that I will achieve that, since I will have significantly more time from April onwards.

Now I certainly think this is a very good incentive for you to buy a paid subscription😊, and thereby support me and my family. I have gained significant experience in many business areas and I am happy to share my experiences with you with this new BMA product.

Of course, I will take suggestions in the comments section of these paid articles and consider them for future articles.

To be clear, the well-known BMA analysis will always be free and will be released more often, and be better than before.

Remember, this system will start at the beginning of April, 2024.

Redesign

As already mentioned, I will redesign and expand our Blog. Mike and Piquet will have their own sections on BMA where they can post regularly. We are planning a lot of joint work.

Sponsor

I will try to find a sponsor for my newsletter. From March/April 2024 onwards, I will try to invest some time to find a sponsor. If you are a potential sponsor and if you are interested in a collaboration, just let me know at bmaaleks@gmail.com

Sponsorship should not change the overall experience at BMA, but it will hopefully be even better.

Black Mountain Talks

Basics

I plan to establish a YouTube/Rumble channel, where we will interview and talk regularly with well-known experts. Experts in economics, military, business, and technology. I want to name the show “Black Mountain Talks”. I’m in no hurry to establish it, but I’m missing one element. Mike, Paul, and I decided that we would like to invite a fourth member into our BMA team.

What does that mean?

It means that I’m looking for a moderator for this show. I could do it, but since I want to stay anonymous for the time being, it is really not professional or respectful to interview my guests with a turned-off camera. I don’t like that. Instead, I’m looking for a new member who would do that and organize the show independently but under my supervision. I would also provide, at least at the beginning, the questions. If everything runs well, I could delegate more responsibility.

Applications

Well… Here we go! We are hiring 😊

We are looking for:

• An educated person. Some backgrounds/degrees in Economics, Business, or Technology would be appreciated.

• You should be between 23-40 years young.

• You should be skilled in moderation.

• You should be absolutely fluent in English.

• A second language would be appreciated as well.

• You absolutely need to be ready to show your face online. Hence, you should have a good public appearance.

• This role is on a voluntarily basis. We can’t pay you but you will be able to collect donations on BMA.

If you meet these requirements and if you are interested, just let me know. Send me a mail: bmaaleks@gmail.com

Consulting

My consultancy firm will be available to BMA readers as well. I will have a section on BMA after I re-engineered my website next year, where you can find the details. Still, it will be anonymous as well. If you want to work with me and have me in your projects, we will need to sign a Non-Disclosure-Agreement. We will provide the following services:

• Management Consulting

• Product Management Consulting

• Risk Management and Assessment

• Digitalization of your processes

• Machine2Machine communication projects (called Industry 4.0 in some countries).

• SAP-Consultancy

• Project Management

Our primary focus is on central Europe, but we are also open to projects worldwide. Our team is fluent in Serbian, German, and English.

Of course, you can always contact me via email to talk about business inquiries: bmaaleks@gmail.com

Yes, you can work with me personally, in this case.

I’d like to ask everyone who could possibly need any services of my firm to vote in the following poll. This is important to me to get a feeling about potential engagements from BMA to be better able to plan my capacities. Please only vote if you really could be interested. No votes just for support, it won’t help me.

Book

Piquet and I will start writing a book. We will re-write the Economics and Empires series in a well readable book with a very interesting and coherent storyline. Hence, we won’t simply connect the six installments of EaE into a book. No, we will actually compose the information into a coherent book. We will start with the work next year, and we will keep you informed if there are any updates.

Note of Thanks to my Readership

I want to thank all of my readers for participating in my blog. Some, even from the beginning. You encouraged me to change my whole working life and to use my skills to place useful information in the public domain. I feel very good in this role. I couldn’t do that without all of you. Thank you very much!

To my paid subscribers, I want to express the biggest respect and say thank you very much! I appreciate your support so much. You are supporting me through all these times, even though I’m so time-restricted. I can only tell you that in the future, you will get even more of my work. I only hope that you can be patient with me until the end of March. During this time, I will release at the usual pace or a little slower. After that, I will have the much-needed time to write far more often.

Many thanks to all of you who are part of the BMA family!