Blogging is Beautiful- Part II

Subscribing to my site guarantees you don't miss any new content. Choose either E-Mail Feed or RSS Feed. Thanks for visiting!

Back at the end of August I penned a column called Blogging is beautiful. I just went back and read it and had a chuckle at some of the things that I wrote back then.

A few things have changed significantly since then, and a few things remain the same.

For instance, after spending most of September away from the blog (mainly out of frustration), I was able to make a fair amount of headway in resolving many of the technical issues I faced.

Partly because I was able to teach myself a few things, but mostly because I hired an intern off of Craigslist that was more or less a Godsent. (second time I can remember using the word ‘Godsent’ in a post this month, hmm… interesting)

Out with the old, in with the new

My blog, in late August, was like a steam powered locomotive weighed down with passengers and tired old parts; and a conductor that was lost and didn’t know how to manage the dashboard.

My (new) buddy Harris came in and overhauled my entire system, taught me how to use an image editor, add plugins, and understand the basics when it comes to editing HTML, especially when it pertains to WordPress.

I was lucky to find someone, just in the nick of time, who is a quick thinker, has the technical know how and work ethic to help me take things to the next level.

RSS

We’ve made some layout changes. Subtle things that are not always obvious to friends of mine that I ask to give me their opinion. For instance, the ‘About’ widget on the right hand side has undergone many changes, the latest being the new shade of gray that houses the entire section and the RSS buttons added.

I just added the “What is RSS?” link. If you click on the link, it will take you to a cool YouTube video that helped me to understand what RSS was all about. It’s funny how a lot of people I know are not sure what an RSS feed is (I’m age 35) and almost all of Harris’s friends (age 22) know exactly what it is and all have fully operational Facebook profiles too.

More Capital Improvements

I’ve decided to add images to every post, most images being a tongue and cheek reference to the post itself. The logo area has seen many different looks since July.

I would obsess over it and spend days (sometimes) trying to figure out something more clever. For now, it remains as is, with a small land surveyor image, symbolizing another unofficial slogan of the blog… ‘helping to calibrate the future. ‘

All in all, I have learned a lot and continue to on a daily basis. It took me a while to find my stride when it comes to delegating the time needed to operate Chance Favors. I used to spend hours upon hours editing and re-editing posts. I was sleeping less and less every night.

I discovered this was not in my best interest or that of the blog. Although I want the content to sound (and look) good, I think if you spend too much time tinkering, in the end, it will lose the edgy real feel that makes this medium what it is.

Blogging resolutions

So for now, after I do the research for a new piece, I spend a maximum of 3 hours writing it. After that I get away from the post and do something else, reset my brain and then come back to it, spending about a half hour editing the piece. Thats it.

The next morning I’ll give the previous day’s post (if there is one of course) a 15 minute read through and make any minor changes necessary. So all in all, I want to spend a maximum of about 4 hours on a fact based piece. Now of course, something like I’m writing now should take no more than 2 hours total.

So far, since coming back in early October things have been working out pretty good. I’ve found my sea legs and have been sticking to the above time limits. Harris is still working with me and I plan on adding a lot more ‘Down Home’ content, as well as, podcasts, video slide shows, etc.

For now, one step at a time. And I almost forgot, blogging is still beautiful…

Tags: blogging is beautiful, blogging resolutions, rss feed