Blogging – Jeffc.me

I Can't Stands No More

May 18, 2009 By Jeffro 5 Comments

Those of you who have been following my progress as a writer know that at about this time last year, I had a great opportunity come my way thanks to a referral from a friend where I was offered to write for Performancing.com. The pay was great compared to anything I’ve ever seen before. However, it didn’t take long to realize what I had stepped into. After working with Performancing for two to three months, I started to come up with ideas and ways to reinvigorate the brand/community/site. What I proposed was a radical change to the way things were done. I was filled with ideas and motivation to turn things around. My ideas were noted and passed around but progress was slow. While a redesign for Performancing has taken place on a platform that at some point the site will be migrated to, the site is where it was a year ago.

I wish I could just publish the email I sent this morning which clearly illustrates my frustration with the site but I don’t feel that would be in my best interest. However, I feel I can post a quote from it.

Ultimately, Performancing.com in its current iteration is a bottomless pit. Or an empty auditorium. I’ve been waiting for someone to bust my ass for lack of production or lack of enthusiasm but I’d pay to see anyone get enthused about this site now adays. Then I’d have to wonder what kind of shrooms they ate.

In my mind, Performancing would turn into an awesome site if there was a team of people writing for the domain. Each one of these people were so called experts are at least, in the know for a particular CMS/publishing platform of their choice. So, I’d fit the bill with WordPress, someone could do MovableType, someone could do Joomla, etc. Sure, it sounds like CMS Wire, but they do newsy posts. Our goal would be to help bloggers succeed using these publishing systems and doing this as a team. Think about the mini competitions we could have with one platform versus another. I think their would be endless content creation opportunities and the audience I think would love it. Top it with a forum, a podcast, maybe some screencasts, and wow, what a helluva resource for bloggers of all types. That’s what I would turn Performancing into if I had the cash and know how.

There are plenty of lessons to be learned from Performancing.com, especially regarding managing a site. Because the site has exchanged hands at points in the past, has cared more about content generation versus all other aspects of the domain, and no continuous maintenance, we now have a site with a huge six year archive, a bunch of spam user accounts, comments, and blog posts, not to mention stuff on the built in forums all of which make it difficult to do anything with the site. It’s one of those situations where I’d like to just reformat and start over but you can’t because the archive is the only saving grace of the domain.

I know they are currently in the migration phases to move from Drupal to WordPress and that will most likely solve half or more of the problems associated with the site, just as long as most of the crap is not migrated over as well.

It doesn’t matter how much you pay me to write on your site. If 90% of comments are junk, I have no idea if someone links to the post or not, I’m stuck with a platform that sucks, there is little to no way to build community or loyalty around the site, eventually the writer is going to burn out and wonder what the hell is he doing wasting his time going upstream rather than with the flow. I’ll no doubt miss the $1,000.00 a month in pay but being able to bust my ass and reap the rewards which is more than just cash coming in is worth more to me in the long run.

Now can someone point me to the soup line?

Filed Under: MyThoughts Tagged With: Blogging, management, performancing, writing

Always Two Days Behind

January 1, 2009 By Jeffro 6 Comments

What a difference it is to blog for yourself rather than for others. When I look back to when I started Jeffro2pt0.com, one thing that pops out immediately is the satisfaction I felt by writing about the things I was interested in without a deadline. Back then, I could (and did) take hours to write up a comprehensive review or I could spend 15 minutes writing about a news blurb. Getting comments on those articles and being able to move on to the next one is refreshing compared to what I do now. Granted, I didn’t have any blogging related income at the time, I think that being paid to blog is a restriction in and of itself. Although for the longest time, I felt that if someone could just pay me to write on my own blog, on the topics I find interesting with no restrictions, I would be in blogging heaven. That will never happen since understandably, it is a risky investment. Not that I would want that to happen anyways since the purpose of Jeffro2pt0 has changed since then.

I know David Peralty of BrandingDavid.com feels the same way I do and I’m sure many others do as well where we wake up each day feeling like we’re two days behind. A post needs to be written for this site, that site, our own site, and once those are written/published, you start over and do it again. This feeling of always being behind sucks as it takes its toll on the human mind/emotions. After awhile, blogging isn’t fun anymore at least blogging for others. Now, I should make the point that writing for others is not that bad when you are writing about your passion and working with great people but as an individual, when you are spread out amongst 3-5 websites, the quality of writing suffers, it’s not fun anymore, and I feel as if I gain nothing by subjecting myself to that kind of lifestyle on the web.

I made the decision a long time ago to write/work for others instead of myself because I have no interest in the advertising side of things. With WPTavern, that mindset has changed and now I am really looking forward to getting back to writing about my passion along with the things that interest me with the only restrictions being the ones I put on myself. I only hope that this can pay the bills or else I may find myself back at square one.

What about you? Do you ever get that feeling of always being two days behind? Even on days when you “catch up” and do things ahead of time, the feeling of accomplishment appears to be short lived. How do you handle that feeling? Better yet, how do you avoid feeling that way?

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: Blogging, freelancing, writing

People Call Me WordPress Guru

November 18, 2008 By Jeffro 4 Comments

Or, WordPress community superstar. At any rate, these are all names given to me, not names I have chosen. But, as long as its not derogatory, I’ll take them. Mayank of BlogDesignStudio.com has published an interview he conducted with yours truly. In it, I confess about my fear of roller coasters, provide insight into my blogging opportunities with BloggerTalks and Performancing, and at the end of the article, provide a number of tips in one paragraph related to blogging/freelance writing.

Go on over and check it out and let me know what you think.

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: blogdesignstudio, Blogging, interview, jeffchandler

Difference Between Blogger And Publisher

November 8, 2008 By Jeffro 5 Comments

What is the difference between a blogger and a publisher? Have the lines between the two blurred so much that there is no difference? Some say that the difference between labeling someone a publisher or a blogger is size. The size of what though? The site? The amount of content they produce? The type of content? Lets talk about it.

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: blogger, Blogging, publisher, question

What A Busy Week

November 1, 2008 By Jeffro 3 Comments

I am pretty excited to know that I am almost finished with my 32 hour work weeks at the grocery store. At least, for the time being and everything continues to go well with freelancing. The grocery store will serve as a crutch in case things in the freelancing world cave in. This past week, I published an interview on BloggerTalks.com with Steve Hodson, published a great post that was welcomely received by the Performancing community called 7 Tips On Building Relationships Through Blogging, produced a fun open mic edition of Perfcast and to top it all off, produced an hour and a half WordPress Weekly with Jane Wells were we covered a ton of ground related to WordPress 2.7.

WordPress 2.7 Beta 1 is out and ready for the publics consumption. November 10th looks like the date for a release candidate while the end of November is aimed for the actual release of 2.7. I am going to bite the bullet and work on getting my content from my Jeffc.me domain and the content on Jeffro2pt0 back into one file and then import that into a new installation of WordPress, that being 2.7 beta 1. Then, I’m going to work on slimming down the theme and installing one plugin at a time and get back to the basics.

One of the subtle changes I am going to make is to remove the FeedBurner graphic. I was having a discussion with Andrew Rickmann on the WordPress Weekly after show and I was talking to him about going back to the basics and how I am getting to the point of doing things my way instead of the popular (what the rest of the blogosphere is doing) way. So, I’ll remove the graphic because I don’t care to see it everyday. I’ll check in from time to time but it is not a priority for me anymore. My priority is to clean this place up, highlight my freelancing work and then publish content on a regular basis by treating this blog as if it was my Tumblr account. That means, publishing links to articles that interest me, sometimes I’ll write a long form article, opinionated pieces, bits of my personal life, random thoughts, etc.

I just feel that it is time for me to reclaim this blog as my own and no one else’s. While I enjoy writing content for people, I always enjoy writing content for myself and getting my thoughts from my head, out into the open. I want to get back to the point in time of where I can freely express myself without thinking about the boundaries I have placed on this blog by writing for others.

Will I still talk about WordPress and Web 2.0 and all that other stuff? Of course I will, as I see fit, but don’t expect this site to be an authoritative figure in any subject. I want to converse with people and discuss things, concepts, ideas, whatever. So, that will be the focus of the site after I have reformatted it. Along with the reformat, I plan on doing a redesign but it will not be anything drastic. I’m tired of spending 17 hours each time I redesign the site. I’ve always been a fan of forests and so, that is the theme I am going to head towards with the redesign.

For those that will continue to ride the train of life and blogging with me, its time to move on to the next stop. For everyone else, you can get off here. But don’t forget to send me a postcard

Filed Under: MyThoughts Tagged With: Blogging, Personal, redesign, reformat, Wordpress

Plants Can Blog To

October 27, 2008 By Jeffro Leave a Comment

Watch the video to find out how.

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: Blogging, blogs, plants, potplant

Taking Over For BloggerTalks

October 21, 2008 By Jeffro 17 Comments

BloggerTalks logo

Thord Hedengren who did a wonderful job with BloggerTalks.com, a blog exclusively focusing on interviews with other bloggers has moved on to greener pastures. Guess who has taken his place? Me.

Each week will feature a new interview. These interviews will mostly be text based but don’t be surprised to see an audio interview mixed in as well. This is a cool position for me because I enjoy interviewing people as I treat interviews as one on one opportunities to learn. I’m a curious guy who always has a series of questions to ask and although mainstream media loves to ask softball type questions, I’ll ask any question I see fit.

So far, I am making an average of $1,200 – $1,400 per month of blogging income. This is almost as much as I made working full time at the grocery store with the exception that the grocery store provided medical benefits. Something bloggers don’t tend to get unless you work for a major blogging network or corporation.

Starting November 1st, I’ll be working weekends only at the grocery store and will be using the time during the week to pump out content on the sites I write for and try to make even more money in this game known as blogging.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: bloggertalks, Blogging, income, update

Blogging Is A Juggling Act

October 5, 2008 By Jeffro 7 Comments

As I reach ever closer to my goal of being able to use blogging and online activity as my primary source of income, I am finding it increasingly difficult to manage my time to accomplish tasks from day to day. I’m currently bringing in around $1,300.00 a month from my blogging ventures but that cash is spread out amongst 3-4 different jobs. On top of this, I work 32 hours a week from 9PM-5AM and that doesn’t seem to make things any better. I’ve also noticed that my sleeping pattern has changed to the point where I am really sleeping in instead of waking up at a decent time. This is leaving me with even less time to get things done and it is driving me up the wall.

I’m really thinking about cutting myself down to weekends only for a little while to see if I can get my life back on track. I envy those like Lorelle and others who seem to write mile long posts and publish things on time. These folks make it seem easy although I doubt it really is.

Kudos to those out there who are making a living online by creating content while also maintaining a social life as well as a second job.

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: Blogging, juggling, management, time

Time Keeps On Ticking Ticking Ticking…

September 29, 2008 By Jeffro 8 Comments

I hope I don’t get sued by The Steve Miller band for using that lyric for my post title. Anywho, it’s been awhile since I’ve published anything here at my home away from home and with good reasons. Of course, you have the obligatory statement about how there has not been much time for me to publish anything and in this instance, that is true. I’ve been really busy between getting WordPress Weekly back on track, maintaining Perfcast, contributing on a daily basis to Performancing.com and then there is that crappy night job I have which always seems to ruin everything. In a nutshell, that explains why there hasn’t been a post published on this blog in awhile.

Back when I redesigned this site, I did so because I wanted to dive into experimenting with monetization techniques while also narrowing the site down to just a few categories. I’m still not interested in monetization right now so that idea has been tossed aside. As for slimming down the blog, I have to admit that I feel stupid by transferring all of my personal posts away from this site onto its own domain with its own blog. I thought I was doing a good thing by doing this but now, all I have accomplished is providing yet another site for me to update. I should of just kept everything under one roof and told people that if they don’t want to read my personal mumbo jumbo, to just subscribe to the categories they were interested in as I see each category being its own blog. I’m not sure yet if I will re-import my personal musings back into this site so the verdict is still out as to what I am going to do.

Asides from all of that, I am inching closer to finally being able to cut myself down from 32 hours a week at the grocery store to perhaps weekends only. There are some changes afoot over at Performancing. There are also some other opportunities opening up within the SplashPress network which may help me accomplish my year end goal of only working at the store on the weekends while blogging full time. With all of this going on, I am throwing away most of my living space and will be purchasing some equipment to transform it into an office. I’ve seen some nice looking furniture at Officemax which would look even better in my room. I feel I’ll be much more productive with an office environment compared with what I have now which is more of a mashup of a work space.

The leaves are starting to change color here in northern Ohio while Fall is definitely in the air. I have yet to have my annual fall picnic with my girlfriend but that should be coming within the next week or so as the leaves reach their peak color. Soon enough, it will be Winter time. The time of the year where there is not much to do besides blog. How are the leaves in your neck of the woods? Looking forward to Winter?

Before I let you go, I have decided to bring WordPress Weekly back online. Starting this Friday at 8P.M. EST, I’ll be broadcasting live with my Canadian co-host all things WordPress. The anticipation has been building and I am looking forward to interacting with members of the WordPress community yet again.

Last but not least, I have removed the URL field from the comments here on this blog. This means I have also disabled the CommentLuv plugin. This is only an experiment for the month of October as I want to see for myself what happens to not only the volume of spam, but which types of spam I receive. To read more into why I am performing this experiment, read this post on Performancing.com.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Blogging, fall, performancing, podcasts

Back To The Beginning – Then And Now

August 9, 2008 By Jeffro 2 Comments

Then And Now Life sucks without the Internet. So to kill time, I’ve been going through my backup files to figure out which ones I feel I can definitely live without. While organizing my backup files, I came across a text file which contains all of my posts from my blogging venture over at EFx2.com. What an interesting read. What I call my very first blog post in 2004 contained an abundant amount of typos with no regard to grammar. As a trip back in time and for archival purposes, here is what my very first blog post looked like.

General: Something Fresh
Wednesday, November 17, 2004 05:52 PM

Well I’m pretty new to the blog scene when it comes to having my own. I have read over the years about blogging, and I have seen many many weblogs that just end because well I guess they get boring and people don’t want to update them anymore.

I will try not to let that happen here. I am currently pretty involved with Photoshop and graphics design. Recently I have developed some skills related to Cinema4d, a 3D rendering program. Using this program allows me to create some cool renders that I have been using for some of my abstract wallpapers.

I hope to see you around and go ahead and leave a comment in the shoutbox. I will be at work turning this blogging site into a spiffy graphical wonder in the next few weeks or at least see where my limits are with this system.

General is the category while Something Fresh was the name of the post. You know, I think I remember that day in November when I hit the publish button for the first time. So what have I learned since then?

Spell checking is a godsend.

I’m a much better writer, now that I have blogged for such a long period of time. I’m getting better with each post.

Blogging is still fun when you write about the things that interest you.

Comments are still one of the best things I love about blogging.

The friendships I have made over the years through blogging have been wonderful.

Back in 2004, there was no Web 2.0. It seemed like blogging was much simpler just four years ago. Now a days, you have videos, screencasts, podcasts, audio posts, images, galleries, massive interaction, and everywhere you look, there is something embeddable. I may sound like an old fart reminiscing the good ole days, but I’m simply comparing two different time periods of blogging. I’m sure those who started blogging back in 2000 have much more to say in regards to then and now.

What I’m interested in, is hearing your history of blogging. Create a blog post and link back to this one if you must or simply leave a comment. When did you start blogging? What changes have you noticed between then and now? If you feel a little daring, you can also share your thoughts on the future of blogging.

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: Blogging, efx2, past, present