I sure HOPE you notice the biggest change here – the simpler and to-my-eyes much prettier design by Julia Holland. The design covers both my old blog and my two-year-old website coz the website (static pages) has been moved to WordPress where I can fuss with it much more easily than I ever did using Dreamweaver templates (ugh!), which are so outdated it’s hard to find people to help with them anymore.
Financial News
And while Julia and I tried to find the perfect, unobtrusive ways to display sponsor logos, I started losing faith in the whole sponsor idea altogether, and decided to discontinue the practice. The scheme just wasn’t bringing in enough money to justify the effort, especially the effort to have enough traffic to impress sponsors. Don’t worry; I won’t be junking up the place with Google ads – they’re also too much trouble (and reader annoyance) for so little income. So now the graphics in the sidebar are all unpaid-for – yay!
(Damn, what am I saying? It’s not like I have a fat pension or health insurance paid for by someone else.)
But (finally) I have regular income from garden writing – for garden centers – and have even felt secure enough to – wait for it, family members who’ve expressed concern for the state of my home – hire a maid! Yeah, I can hardly believe it either. Ditto hiring someone to move 7 cubic yards of mulch for me (more on that soon). And even went to the Healthy Back Store and brought home an expensive but super-comfortable chair because hell, I’m worth it! Oh, yeah, I’m living the high life here.
What’s missing on Ye Olde Website
PHOTOS! I won’t bore you with HOW it happened but dozens of photos were lost in the move. They’ll be found and replaced when I get around to it, frankly. (I need a break from website-fiddling).
But on a happier note, with no sponsors I see no need to continue my monthly newsletters, which took 6-7 hours to create, test and send. Anyway, lots of short news items that I used to save up for the newsletter are now being Tweeted relatively quickly, and that seems like just the right place to use them.
Speaking of Social Networking
Figuring out how to use Twitter is a challenge, though. Sure, everyone says you absolutely have to Tweet if you expect any career success, ever (yes, almost that dire a command) but what to do if you really don’t enjoy it? I’m taking a cue from the journalists I follow and Tweeting mainly substantive, on-topic links. That’ll just have to suffice.
I love Facebook, though, and credit it with all sorts of reunions with college boyfriends and just this week, a friend from kindergarten I hadn’t seen since the ’70s. Also, people don’t update nearly as often on Facebook (thank you!) and the updates aren’t jam-packed with symbols and abbreviations (#@RT; need I go on?) And it seems tailor-made for following my Left-Coast relatives and friends I like to hear from occasionally, just occasionally.
{ 5 comments }
Could use some space on the left edge — It’s right up against the border on my firefox browser window…
Susan – your website looks good (and I’m not having any problems with it but I use IE). Congratulations on your regular writing gig. Must be a nice feeling to have something like that. I’m with you about Twitter vs FB. I haven’t figured out how to effectively use Twitter yet and I find FB more interesting.
Susan,
Congratulations on your writing and the new website. I like the new design and I have a few comments about …
Ads… I gave up on the paid and affiliate ads last month when my Google income finally hit $100 after a few years of putting up with those things. I provide “courtesy links” only to those kind folks who have given me plants, seeds and such. And, I link to some of my writing because, like you, that’s really how I make my gardening money and those links are like a resume.
Twitter… I quit Twitter last fall. I tried. I had thousands of followers. Some, I enjoyed. Some were spam and selling, selling, selling. Too much maintenance on blocking the truly obscene followers, too. I just don’t want to be tethered to an electronic device all day to participate. Too much like being under house arrest! LOL
Facebook… I haven’t gone there, yet.
Cameron
I like the new design…and it looks just fine on my computer and I use Firefox.
Susan, Your website is very attractive and reader-friendly.
I follow your blog with my RSS feeder. I would love to see your “Previous Post/Next Post” links at the top of the posts or before the comments. With young children I sometimes get a few posts behind and only have quick minutes to read what’s new. Following comment conversations are a bit of a luxury! Happy to hear you’ve found the security to drop the sponsors.
-From Zone 2b just outside of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, – Erin