Remote.ma: from a blog to a platform

It’s been two years since I started remote.ma, but I didn’t share why I started it before. So today, I’m going to share this with you. It all started when I wanted to work remotely:

The story

I applied to Automattic for three reasons:

• I wanted to work on something with an impact. And for someone who loves writing, working on WordPress is a dream.
• I wanted to take ownership of my tasks. I hate micro-managing.
• I wanted to work remotely.

Few interviews and code tests later, I got the job.

Up to that point, I had no idea how I was going to do this legally, but I knew there should be a solution. I’m not the first one working remotely from Morocco right?

So I did what every millennial do: I searched for answers on Google. And to my surprise, there was nothing! I couldn’t find a single blog post, article, or forum speaking about this.

It was that time when I decided that once I figure out how to do this, I’ll write about it. And that’s how everything started.

Few meetings with an accountant, and a few weeks of preparation, I got everything sorted out. That’s when I wanted to write about it. But I only had this blog.

At first, I was going to use this blog for them, but then I thought this should be a separate blog about remote work. There is none in Morocco anyway! And this is when I started looking for domain names.

I remember I was excited when I searched for remote.ma domain and it was free. I bought it right away. I also bought make.ma the same day.

That’s it. I got the domain and I started writing.

Fast forward to now, those legal blog posts helped a lot of people. I still respond to questions about them to this day. It’s crazy how an evergreen post can still serve years after its writing.

What’s next?

I have plans for remote.ma. Yes, it started as a blog, but it shouldn’t be like that forever. I want it to be home for anyone working from home. Remote workers, freelancers, entrepreneurs… There are few of them now, but I believe we’ll see a surge shortly.

remote.ma will be a platform for training, jobs, consulting, a closed community… Some of this is already live like the job board. And others are in the work, like the closed community.

Some of this will be surely paid to support the growth, but more on that later 🙂