Changes to the Blog – Sort of, Changes to Life, Return of the Vlog?

Changes to the Blog – Sort of.

Problem:  I keep saying I need more writing customers.   What I’ve got now isn’t bad, just doesn’t put me on as solid footing as I’d like.

Problem 2:  I’ve got a company website.  However, it’s geared towards my other field, video game development.  It’s rather hard to sell services for something serious when your website is centered around what’s considered to be a non-serious subject.

Solution:  Well, I own more than one website, why not leverage one a little differently?  MidnghtRyder.com will remain the company site for video game development, and MidnightRyder.org (this one) will transition over to marketing for writing.

What changes are required?  Well, no real changes are going to happen to the content.  It’s still going to be the same thing it’s always been:  my outlet for stories, life, thoughts, and general blather.  That part doesn’t change.  Even the overall display format of the site isn’t going to change.

What will change is the addition of a couple of pages to the site:

• Links to writing samples
• Links to samples of the books in print
• Information on Writing Services
• Contact page for Writing Services

And, I’ll need to change out the haphazard SEO setup I have now, and replace it with something a lot more powerful.  After that, set up all the SEO keywords for articles.  There’s half a million words worth of posts and pages on here – that shouldn’t take too long, right?  OK, so, that part will be a long-term project.

But, there’s also going to be the addition of a banner ad at the top and bottom of the articles.  No, not big flashy graphics (I hate those), but something a little more subtle that states- obviously more eloquently – “This writer for hire.”

Over the years I’ve tried many times to leverage Midnight Ryder’s Book of Many Things for a useful purpose beyond simple blogging, and I’ve always fell flat on that.  Maybe this time I’ve finally found the right service to go with it.

Though, it’s going to be a bit before I start implementing the changes.  Right now, I’m without Internet access at the new place, and when I do get it back full time, I need to jump on top of a couple of projects first.

Changes to Life

At the moment, I’m sitting beside a server in Haven, Kansas, configuring it to replace a dying server that’s 11 years old.  While not important to the overall story here, it’s important in the respect that I really had planned on being home by now, and finishing up my new office.

The move as been fun.  Not everything has gone according to the plan in my head (does it ever), but some of the little trip ups have been interesting.  Our move-in date got moved twice (and the time got moved once), though the move in date getting moved was for a good reason (the place was having issues with one of the two air conditioners in it.  They finally replaced a good chunk of it.)  I moved on Thursday, but Internet isn’t being turned on at the house until NEXT Thursday.  We discovered gas wasn’t turned on – which is fine for things like cooking, etc., but not so good for hot showers, since that uses gas.  Oops.  That gets turned on tomorrow.

And, while I’ll post more extensively about the new living arrangements again later (particularly, about my office), I gotta say:  I’m loving it so far.  I’ve now got a queen sized bed to sleep on again (when I post pictures, you’ll laugh.  It takes up nearly the entire width of the bedroom!)  I’ve got a separate room for an office.  I’ve got enough storage space to actually work with.  I have my computer in a separate room from my bed.

Because I don’t have Internet access at the moment (and can’t work on some of my projects – there’s a couple things I can do off of my laptop, but most things have to be done from my desktop machine), I’ve had the time to actually arrange and sort things, so when I’m done it’s not only clean, it’s attractive (well, depending on what you consider attractive.  It’s actually got thing set up for display, for instance.  It’s not all utilitarian.)

But, that’s not the end of the changes.  I’ve been trying to pick up some part time work, though that hasn’t been as successful as I’d like.  I may be teaching at Butler as an adjunct, but that won’t be until next semester. Meanwhile, the hunt continues.  Though, I’m going after things in multiple directions.  I could just hunt for a part time gig, or I could try and expand the writing services.  So, I’m going after both at the same time.

Return of the Vlog?

At one point, I was doing a video blog.  I quit doing it because of various things ranging from not liking the tech I was using to lack of time.  I’m giving serious consideration to returning to doing to video blog, though I think it’s going to be a bit more “short form” than before, and a bit more focused (mainly dealing with game development and writing.)  Now that I’ve got a cleaner, more attractive office setup, it seems like a cool idea to bring it back.   If I do it, it’s probably only going to be once every week or two, and probably cap out at about 10 minutes per entry.  We’ll see if it actually happens, though:  there’s a number of other things that have to happen first.

But, it was sort of useful at one time.  I was getting viewers, even if not tons, and if I’m going to expand out writing and game development, I need to be doing anything I can to get more eyes on what I’m doing.

Blog image by NOGRAN s.r.o on Flickr