Blogging – Jeffc.me

I've Made The Move

July 27, 2008 By Jeffro 6 Comments

Hello there. Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. Just wanted to pass a note along that yes, I am still alive and kicking. Working for Performancing has been an eye opening experience in more ways than one. Especially the business side of blogging. Working with the people involved with the site as well as participating in the community has shown a completely different side to blogging that I was once accustomed to when I blogged solely on Jeffro2pt0. Things such as monetization, social media marketing, and all that other jazz that goes along with it.

The great news is, a lot of the content I have published on Performancing.com has been submitted to StumbleUpon and other social media outlets without help from me. That has to be good for something, right?

I also wanted to say that I finally made the move. The move from being a full time employee at the grocery store to being part time (maximum of 32 hours per week). I have made the decision to try and improve my writing skills while also making headway with my job at Performancing. I enjoy blogging so much more than stocking shelves which is why I have made the move. Although I will lose my full time medical-dental benefits package, I feel like I am in a position to take a risk and see where this goes.

In the meantime, I am also trying to set my schedule up to give me more time to publish content on this blog. I miss the days of publishing 4-8 times a day and then coming home from work to see 5-10 comments. I’d like to get back in that groove and publish content that I want to write but just haven’t had the time or will power.

I was thinking the other day about how I discontinued the podcast at a bad time. WordPress 2.6 was released as was the theme repository shortly after the podcast died. This has got me stoked for Perfcast in September where David Peralty will most likely be my regular co-host which should be fun.

Other than that, I plan on cleaning this place up a bit, rearranging things and trying to get a posting schedule set for this blog. Now before I let you go, I’ve mentioned that I missed posting on the blog but what I am wondering is, do you miss me to?

Filed Under: MyThoughts Tagged With: Blogging, jeffro2pt0, performancing, personal perfcast

ScribeFire Reviewed

July 22, 2008 By Jeffro 11 Comments

Well, this would be my second screencast produced out of Camtasia Studio 5 and I’m learning more and more that screencasts are the not the easiest things to create. I’m also trying to learn the magic recording/producing formula which will net me the best results on sites such as Viddler. It sucks to create something that looks so good on my local machine, only to have it look like crap on Viddler. But I think I’m getting closer to the magic bullet.

In any case, Brian asked me about ScribeFire and what it was all about. This screencast aims to answer that question while also providing an in depth review as to what this extension is capable of.

To get the best quality, select the option to watch the video at FullScreen.

Filed Under: Reviews, Videos Tagged With: Blogging, extensions, firefox, performancing, scribefire

Is Content The Only Thing That Matters

July 4, 2008 By Jeffro 7 Comments

My experience in blogging as part of a blogging network is very limited but based on what I have experienced thus far, there is a very strong focus on creating content because the content drives traffic which in turn, drives advertising revenue. The question I have is this, is content the only thing that matters?

I’ve noticed publishing systems which have seen better days, publishing systems which are way out of date sometimes by over 4 version releases, things that are broken and after notifying the guy up above about the problem, the broken thing is still there after 7 days, front end designs which could really be improved to not only highlight what is going on on the website as a whole, but increase accessibility of the backlog of content these blogs provide. Hell, some of these sites don’t even have a proper archive setup. Does none of this matter?

I realize that most technically savvy people browse sites now a days through their favorite RSS reader, but people still come to the site itself and I don’t understand why more emphasis is placed on the frontend and backend of a particular site along with the content that is published on it.

Are any of the things I mentioned above money makers or potential increases in revenue if the improvements were to be done? I would think with an archive page, it would make it easier for people who actually visit the site to find stuff in the backlog. With a focus on community through a recent comments block, you tell visitors that people hang out here and actually discuss things, with a related posts block as well as an area which highlights 5 or so random posts, you give visitors a chance to see something ELSE that might catch their eye, keeping them on the site longer and perhaps turning them into a subscriber if they weren’t already.

As a blogger, I could just as easily do things on my own. But my own blog doesn’t rake in any money and I have no experience or desire to mess with adwords, adsense, sponsored posts, text ads, direct advertising, and all of those other methods of monetization. So I write for others. As I have found out, it is tough to write for sites which in the back of your mind, know they could be so much more than what they are or have been in the past but because of ownership and the way things work, things just don’t work that way.

I guess the bottom line which I have had to cope with is this. The blogs I write for are not mine. I am hired on to write content for the blog, not much else. I can give suggestions, critique, comments, or whatever else, but I must not make demands and just because I say something, doesn’t mean it will happen. Writing for someone is not like Burger King where you can have things your way. It’s their way or the highway. I respect that, considering it’s not my site, but I wish it wouldn’t boggle my mind how making improvements to a brand or website and trying to take the site to it’s fullest potential would be pushed aside because none of those things make money. Sure, they don’t make money DIRECTLY, but I think I could make a strong argument for changes like what I described above to make money INDIRECTLY.

Has anyone else here ever written for someone else? Either an individual or for a blogging network? I wonder if you have gone through the same situations as I listed above. If so, how did you deal with those?

Filed Under: MyThoughts Tagged With: Blogging, content, management, networks, publishing

Blogosphere Can And Will Influence

June 27, 2008 By Jeffro Leave a Comment

I invite all of you to partake in a discussion I started on Performancing.com in relation to the influence of the blogosphere. In this post (5 Events The Blogosphere Influenced) I highlight five seperate events in which the blogosphere played a major role in the outcome. While performing research for this article, I discovered that politics and blogging appear to be the most widely used method of measuring influence. Another thing I learned is that, in this realm of blogging, the Army Of One attitude need not apply. It doesn’t matter who you are, what you do, if the blogosphere decides one way or the other, thats just the way it’s going to be, no questions asked.

Imagine being on the receiving end of a blogosphere ass whooping!

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: Blogging, blogosphere, influence, performancing

Happy Birthday Jeffro2pt0.com

June 4, 2008 By Jeffro 10 Comments

Thats right folks. Today is this blog’s birthday and what better way to celebrate than to look back on the past 365 days this blog has been online.

Jeffro2pt0.com Birthday

For those of you that are wondering, the first post published on this site occurred on June 4th, 2007 New Fan Of Tumblr. Since then, I have provided a number of reviews on different sites and services, offered tips on blogging, covered various news items and a whole lot more.

Instead of rehashing the story, if you would like to know how this blog came to be, please read my About page which goes into detail as to how this blog came about.

For those of you familiar with the story, let’s take a trip down memory lane together to review some of the highlights of this past year of blogging. [Read more...]

Filed Under: MyThoughts, News Tagged With: birthday, Blogging, blogs, jeffro2pt0

Performancing Trial Run

May 29, 2008 By Jeffro 7 Comments

Performancing.com Logo

Today was quite the surprise for me. When I woke up, I had an email in my inbox from James Mowery, a contributing editor for Performancing.com letting me know that a position had opened up. I don’t know the entire set of circumstances involved, but Raj Dash has decided to step down, away from Performancing. Just a few days ago, I sent off an email to James inquiring about some specifics regarding his job their. I asked if he thought I had what it took to write there and he believed I did.

Thanks to James and his references to me to the manager for Performancing, I was able to talk with Ryan Caldwell today and learned that I will be able to do a one month trial run to write for Performancing.com during the month of June. I’ve talked with a few people already about the position and they all agreed that it was a good position to take, considering how large of a site Performancing is, along with the amount of traffic the site receives.

So starting Monday, I will be writing for them. I will still do WordPress Weekly and I plan on publishing posts on this blog whenever I can, mostly on the weekends. If all goes well for me during the month of June, I’ll be writing for Performancing with James full time. James and I have talked before. He and I have quite a bit in common and I think both of us writing on the same site at the same time could only produce great things.

So thats the update from me. Stick around and see what happens as I take advice from my own blog post about creating opportunities through blogging.

Filed Under: Personal Tagged With: Blogging, jamesmowery, performancing, splashpress

Describe Your Groove

May 21, 2008 By Jeffro 6 Comments

My Blogging Groove The other night, I was listening to my favorite talk radio program, Coast 2 Coast AM and George Noory took a phone call from a guy that was a professional bowler. During the phone call, the caller described a famous bowler who described the feeling of being in the groove, also known as being in the zone. This famous bowler described the feeling of being in the groove as a warm, fuzzy feeling in his chest.

Anytime this bowler would experience this feeling, he would bowel a perfect game. I have noticed myself during a few blogging sessions of feeling like being in the zone. During those times of feeling like I’m on top of the world has produced some of my best writing. It’s almost a natural high feeling, making me think I am invincible or something.

At any rate, what I would like to know from you is what it feels like when you catch yourself in the groove. What sort of emotions or physical feelings do you attribute to this feeling and what were the results of your work after the feeling goes away?

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: Blogging, groove, inthezone, writing

What A Weekend

April 15, 2008 By Jeffro 5 Comments

Anhosting Problems

Oi, what a weekend. After having to cancel my show on Friday evening because of a very sick Lorelle and tornadoes knocking at my door, I discovered on Saturday that I couldn’t access my very own blog nor could I access my email. During the day, I noticed that other people were able to browse my domain. In fact, it looked as though everyone EXCEPT me could browse my domain. After submitting a support ticket to AnHosting, I went through the run of the mill trouble shooting process. At one point, they told me it looked like my public IP address had been blocked by their firewall. After giving them my IP address and having it removed, the problem remained.

Sunday rolls around and my problem is yet to be resolved. On a whim, I decided to contact the LIVE web chat that AnHosting provides. After talking to a representative for awhile, I was told which server my account was on and that I was not the only one having problems. Apparently, AnHosting’s upstream provider was having a routing issue which was causing some clients not to be able to connect to the site at all while others were able to access the domain.

Monday afternoon comes around and the problem still exists. At this point, I’ve gone three days with no access to my inbox. Not having access to my inbox for three days really reminded me just how much I rely on email for communication, perhaps a little too much. Thank goodness for Twitter though as I used that to keep everyone up to date as to what was going on. I also used Twitters Direct Messaging feature to keep in touch with people.

It’s 3 P.M. Monday afternoon and I post a message to Twitter explaining how upset I am at the thought of having an inbox with 100 emails. As it turns out, not 5 minutes later did access to my inbox and my domain return.

So there you have it, thats why you might of come across the blog and noticed I was gone when in fact, everyone except me could browse the site. This has been the first major problem I’ve had with AnHosting so I’m not all that upset. In fact, this really reminds me that even though the internet is a chain, when one of those chain links break, it can affect everyone from that link on back and brings the question into mind, just how reliable is the internet as a whole? At any rate, I was pretty pleased with the support I received from the folks at AnHosting and I still recommend them to anyone who is looking for a good quality, reliable webhost.

On a very unrelated note, I went to go see a movie called Leatherheads starring George Clooney with my girlfriend Monday evening. If you’re into old time flicks mixed with a bit of comedy, I recommend checking this one out for yourself.

A romantic comedy set in the world of 1920s football, where the owner of a professional team drafts a strait-laced college sensation, only to watch his new coach fall for his fiancée.

Filed Under: Personal Tagged With: anhosting, Blogging, routing, support, trouble

Time To Go Old School

April 8, 2008 By Jeffro 7 Comments

Over the past two weeks, I’ve been thinking about how great it was when this blog covered everything of interest to me. Sure, WordPress is fun to write about but when I considered the fact that I get paid to write about WordPress for WeblogToolscollection.com and I have guest blog accounts on HackWordPress.com, WPCandy.com, RAProject.com and on top of all that, I have tried to turn this blog into a WordPress only domain, I am starting to run out of steam.

I’m not running out of blogging steam, but I hate being in this blogging cycle where there is so much to write about yet, I’m not sure whether to publish the post on my own blog, one of the other blogs, or for WLTC. It’s become a constant battle within myself as to who to write for. I also hate the fact that as I monitor Twitter and the RSS feed, I constantly get this feeling of OMFG I have to write about that, I have to write about this, OMG I can’t miss any of this. At the end of the day, I end up not writing anything. The constant weight on my shoulders of trying to play catchup sucks! If you have no idea what I mean, please read this excellent post written by the NYTimes which goes into some detail as to what it’s like to be part of the blogging Elite. It’s become increasingly apparent that blogging is a game of FIRSTIES. As the NYTimes article points out:

Speed can be of the essence. If a blogger is beaten by a millisecond, someone else’s post on the subject will bring in the audience, the links and the bigger share of the ad revenue.

But before I go on any more of a rant considering the state of blogging for big bucks, I want to get back on topic. I have decided that I am no longer going to continue to make this blog a WordPress centric site. I will continue to write about WordPress on occasion. However, I plan on getting back to my roots where I published opinions, share things I discovered, shared my personal experiences, or write up reviews or articles of things that I find interesting. The writing, discovery and the entire aspect of blogging just seemed to be better for me when that was my method of getting through the day. So then, I’m going back to what made this blog successful.

If you enjoyed what I have written on this blog concerning WordPress, I highly suggest you subscribe to my WordPress tag feed so that if I post something about WordPress in the future, you’ll be notified in your favorite RSS reader.

Filed Under: Personal Tagged With: Blogging, jeffro2pt0, oldschool, Personal, successful, writing

Blogging By The Numbers

February 12, 2008 By Jeffro 2 Comments

BlogHeraldLogo Anne Helmond of the Blog Herald has wrote an interesting article that questions whether or not, the number of blogs within the blogosphere still matters and if anyone out there is still bothering to count.

Anne asked a number of questions within her article such as:

Is the medium mature now? Is that why nobody seems to be counting blogs anymore? Do we no longer feel the need to count blogs because we have established their importance?

I think the reason why no one is counting blogs anymore is the simple reason that no one can come up with an accurate number. Using numbers that are published by Technorati should not be a single handed way of measuring the blogosphere. There are more blogs on the net than one could imagine, but there doesn’t appear to be a way to accurately measure the difference between a blogger, scraper or splogger. This problem of accurate metrics appears not only in the blogosphere, but it’s a severe problem within podcasting, advertising, and just about anything else dealing with the internet. Therefor, I think the problem is that no one cares how many blogs there are. No one cares how many of this or how many of that there are. How can they, when the numbers have no way of being proved accurate.

The comments that have appeared on this blog herald article are a good indication that people understand that this is a metrics problem, a problem that inherently has no single solution. There are so many variables to consider when trying to accurately determine the number of blogs on the net, that it’s mind boggling. Metrics is a science that we have yet to figure out. Until the problem of metrics is solved, I don’t see how anyone could take any numbers that are published without a block of salt.

Filed Under: MyThoughts Tagged With: anne helmon, blog numbers, Blogging, blogherald, blogosphere, statistics