Catharsis of the Bogue

Oddities, Profundities, Profanities and Dad Stuff

Category: Blogging (Page 6 of 26)

Time is up! *&%$ or get off the pot!

May 27, 2014 / / 6 Comments

Well folks the time is here and I don’ tknow if my ass is getting worn out yet or it is just the chair.  It has been 5 full months now that I have been posting on this blog and playing around.  I am getting ok traffic and it is time to start charging for each blog post!

No of course I am kidding.  My posts on here and for fiction Saturday will be free forever.  But today I want to talk about money and how to separate people from it.  I have been listening to Nathan Hangen’s podcasts in bulk lately and he has inspired me to get something going now.

What I am looking for today is some input.  The time has arrived that the new baby is imminent and I need to get some cash in to cover the bills.  I am trying to come up with a product that is not just another e-book for people to file away in the dusty recess of their hard drive and never read.  I have too many of those myself.  I want something to make people say, “Yea, that is good.  Hey Steve, have you seen this?”

So here is a question.  I want to ask something like what do you think of a stay at home dad membership site or mentoring thing but then I think how many stay at home dads are out there that actually would be willing to pay money for a site like that?  Maybe an ebook would be better.

I have a couple of books that I am working on, but one is fiction and one is about my daughters kidney disease.  I keep trying to figure out what exactly I have to offer besides writing, that people would be interested in.  I haven’t started yet, but I am going to have audio versions of my fiction stuff available in the near future and I don’t see how I could charge for those, at least until the ebook comes out.

Anyone need a partner for a JV?

So, any ideas that people need tackled?  I am just confused again at what kind of a product that I can offer that will be of value to people.  I am not sure now what is important to share.  I am working on a groovy workbook for kids on roadtrips.  That will be a good one to get out.

Anyhow, what do you guys think?  I expect comments on this one folks!

until later

Justin

The Bane of Real Work vs. Fake Work

May 27, 2014 / / 4 Comments
The Twitter fail whale error message.

Image via Wikipedia

You can fool yourself into thinking you are actually being productive.  In all of the fanfare of super connectivity and internet everywhere I at least get stuck in the ruts that we are not supposed to get stuck in.

Social media and email are the worst offenders in my world.  I know you are not supposed to look at twitter or email but some days that is all I get done in my business world.  It is pathetic but nevertheless true.  And I know, I know that I am not supposed to be looking but I am hoping that so and so replied to my comment or someone cool is following me on twitter.
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February, Fishing and my Alexa Ranking.

May 27, 2014 / / 5 Comments

Good February everyone!  I can’t believe January is over already.  It is moderately cold here in Utah right now but not snowing.  I am not sure if I like that or not.  It seems like winter should either get with it and snow for more than 15 minutes (like it has the past couple of nights) or turn into spring already.  I got the spring yard clean up/landscaping bug this weekend while watching some home improvement shows on HGTV.  I can’t wait for the ground to thaw!

I keep hearing about this Alexa thing that apparently is important to be on the high side, in the top 100,000.  So I decided to look up where my site is.  On Saturday Jan. 30, I was at 12,829,290.  All I could do was laugh.  This morning, February 1, I was almost shocked to see I had DROPPED to 12,850,206.  I dropped nearly 21000 spots in 2 days.  I am not sure what this means but I will keep looking at it.  At least it is better than the other website that I run with my wife Brendasquiltshop.com.  That site doesn’t even have a ranking so 12,850,206 must be ok.  What does it mean?  I need to get out there more and not worry too much until I get some more incoming traffic.

And finally I so want to go fishing.  Not ice fishing which should just be called “freeze your butt off while sitting on the ice” fishing but real fishing.  From the bank, from the boat, standing in the stream I don’t care.  Winter gets long some days and my gear calls to me.

Last fall our family went to Kidney Kamp.  It is sponsored by the National Kidney Foundation and the Great Salt Lake Truck Show and it lets families of people with kidney disease and or kidney transplants a chance to go to camp.  I am glad my 3 year old is in the latter category now.  For 2 years that was the only camp we could do because they had facilities to do dialysis.

I digress yet again.  This camp has a very small pond that they stock with fish and let the kids check out poles to fish with.  Me, I keep a travel fly rod in the car and wanted to practice.  But they only want kids to fish so I recruited my 9 year old and told her it was her first training session.  We didn’t catch anything that day, the fish were more interested in the gummy bears that the kid across the pond was using for bait than a natural looking fly.  Hmm, that is another post idea, Seeking out the flash we want instead of the stuff we need.

The lesson here is I will try to find a way to fish anywhere I can, even if it requires my kids to do it.  I just want to fish.  Anyone want to come with?  My wife will be having our 4th child this July so I know my fishing outings will be limited, but I will still go some.  Not actually going fishing will leave me time to work on my e-book about beginning fly fishing.  I am reworking and updating a website I made in one of my college writing classes to work as a book.  I should take pre-orders to force me to finish by my St. Patrick’s Day deadline.

Anyhow, Life is Great when you are satisfied with it.  If you are reading this, You Are Awesome. Thanks for your support.

Justin

Bloggywood Squares!!!

May 27, 2014 / / 2 Comments

Hello there loyal readers!  I am really cheating today after spending all day yesterday working on my other site that I hope to get launched on Saturday.   It is our family business that we started a few years ago and have hit off and on.  Last year we did pretty well selling handmade quilts, table runners and casserole dish holders.  I am totally redoing our old site and bringing it onto a WordPress platform.  It should work really well and keep us from getting screwed by eBay’s fees.  More on that tomorrow.

Today I am posting the e-mail that I sent out yesterday to my small but loyal e-mail list.  This is something fun, and will only be available next week.  So I am promoting it!  Please consider signing up for my mailing list here. I promise not to sell your email address or trade it for cookies.  Or to send you a bunch of garbage.

You have enough to read, so you will only hear from me for big announcements and *fingers crossed* monthly newsletters.  Please sign up, it may not be the best thing you do today, but it won’t be the worst either! Plus there is a free e-book on writing tips for authors just for signing up.

I want you to know about a fun new Internet Game show called Bloggywood Squares.  If you have been cruising the blogosphere for a while, you probably have heard of Mike Cliffe-Jones and Nathan Hangen.  Or even their product, Beyond Blogging. You may also know Jordan Cooper, professional funnyman and owner of Not A Pro Blog.com.

They have teamed up for this new game show with some “celebrity” guests.  It will be a fun watch over the next week at 7pm EST.  The winner of the show will get a free membership to the beyond blogging sessions which are cool in and of themselves.  You can also win a membership just for signing up for the sessions!

So head over here: Bloggywood Squares (affiliate link) and sign up for the fun!

have a good one.

Justin

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