Author: Jeffro

Jeffrohttp://jeffc.meEnjoy writing about, talking about, and helping others with WordPress
Jeffro's avatar

Blogging Is A Juggling Act

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.

Which Video Game Was This Kid Playing

A seven year old Australian kid broke into a zoo and then decided to kill a couple lizards and then feed animals to the crocodile. Because of the laws within the region, the seven year old can not be charged however, the zoo owner is planning on suing the parents.

Embedded video from CNN Video

How long will it take mainstream media to tell us that prior to the incident, the kid was found to be playing some sort of violent video game and therefor, the video game is to blame, not the kid?

Time Keeps On Ticking Ticking Ticking…

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.

Join Me On Perfcast

Those of you who remember me from hosting and producing the WordPress Weekly podcast will know that I spoke of a new project in which I would be producing another podcast that dealt with everything blogging. That podcast is called Perfcast. This show covers some of the blogging news which happened within the past week, contains a blogging job of the week, initiates a blogging challenge of the week and most of all, is interactive allowing listeners and bloggers alike to chime in with their thoughts and opinions.

The show is hosted by Jeff Chandler (That’s me) and co-hosted by David Peralty of Xfep.com. The show airs live on Talkshoe every Thursday evening at 7 P.M. EST. Please read this post (How To Participate In Perfcast Live) on Performancing.com to find out how to participate live during the show.

By the way, we already have an episode produced. You can check out the show notes here or listen to the show via the embeddable Talkshoe player. Hoping you’ll stop by this Thursday for Episode 2 where David and I will be discussing WordPress 2.7, Blogging Through A disaster and a service called BackType.

Thank You Commentators

Just wanted to pass along a quick thank you to the top five commenter’s for the month of August.

  • Andrew
  • Sierra
  • Trisha
  • Ian Stewart
  • Justin Tadlock

I really appreciate you guys and gals for sticking around and being part of the discussions which take place on the blog. I can handle blogging into an empty chamber but having some commentary around makes blogging a much more fun, engaging experience.

This blog post was an entry in the blogging challenge created by the Perfcast Podcast.

Registry Scans On Skype

I woke up today and discovered that Mr. Registry Scan had contacted me over Skype. Apparently, Windows requires immediate attention and security center has detected malware on my computer. A funny joke considering that I bet it wouldn’t be discovered unless I clicked on the link provided within the message.

If Mr. Registry scan ends up contacting you through Skype, immediately block him and DO NOT click on the link provided within the message.

I hope I don’t have to look forward to being bombarded with messages from Skype accounts with spam. That would become seriously annoying. This is one of the reasons why I never use the SkypeMe! availability option.

Glogster Reaches Version 2

Glogster, the service that gives people a chance to create posters of themselves which I reviewed here (Glogster – You In A Poster) has announced that they have reached version two.

The new version now gives you a chance to embed YouTube videos, pictures and sounds from websites by URL. Also, not sure if this will be a buzzword that will catch on but you can now live glog. Those of you who have a webcam will be able to turn it on and stream live from your glog. Thus, live glogging. Doesn’t sound as good as live blogging but this is web 2.0, anything is possible.

Glogster has improved the galleries by means of introducing romantic elements. Now you can spice up your Glog if you’re into that sort of thing. Last but not least, Glogster has added a multitude of languages from which to choose from when adding text to your poster. This ends up giving Glogster a shot at an international audience.

To see the new YouTube feature in action, take a look at my latest glog.