Half a decade ago, I took this website down with the intention to cull some of the archives – – keep items I thought were important to me and lose the rest, and then redesign it and relaunch it. I stopped blogging here in 2010. I never got back around to it. I mean, I tried a few times. I pulled a backup and transferred it to my new hosting account and started weeding out the crap that I wrote on my blog since 2001. I always got stalled and distracted by other things.
Let’s face it, I write a lot. I’ve been writing books on WordPress since 2006. Over those 12 years, I’ve probably published 15 books in total – – most of them newer editions of my earlier titles – but it’s still a lot of writing and a lot of time. The thought of keeping a personal site up to date with stuff was too much. So I never came back here.
That is, until recently. 5 years later, someone somewhere in my publisher’s office made a comment to someone about how the domain that is littered throughout a lot of my published works doesn’t exist anymore, which sparked a conversation around why. OOPS! Instead of making my excuses, I figured it was just easier to get it back up. I’m also in the midst of an extremely crazy deadline for my latest book, and what you’re reading here is an example of my procrastination. I have procrastination down to a science – if you ever need any tips, hit me up. I’ve got you covered.
None of my archives exist here, at least not yet. I don’t know that I’m going to commit to putting them here either. I have them, but maybe that is enough. It’s ironic that my entire career revolves around online publishing for both business and pleasure, and yet I don’t find that to be a priority for myself. I often feel that it’s not necessary for me to add to the noise on the internet. Although that doesn’t stop me from being somewhat prolific on Twitter, particularly around topics such as politics and Packers football, so I guess that argument is out the window.
There exists a necessary narcissism in performance, it’s a basic requirement. Blogging is performance art, just like it is for actors, musicians, authors … there is an inherent sense of vanity and ego that says “HEY! I HAVE SOMETHING TO SHOW YOU AND I’D LIKE YOU TO PAY ATTENTION MAYBE!“
I struggle with the concept of publishing my thoughts on the web as if the world needs them to be ‘out there’, adding to the noise. Something beyond marketing product or service, which I have done a fair amount of during my time on the web. In the 5 years that I’ve enjoyed the peace of not having a personal website to maintain, I’ve enjoyed a great deal of that time working with clients and helping them find their voice to enable them to own their corner of the web. I’ve learned a lot around running a business, working with people, employing people and balancing life demands with work demands to gain enough understanding that work demands ARE life demands, at least they are when you run your own gig.
I’ve learned a lot. Loved a lot. Lost a lot. I’ve failed some, I’ve succeeded some. 5 years is a long time, actually – so, just for now… hello, again.
Welcome back Lisa!
Obviously I am quite a procrastinator, too, as I have not cleaned out inactive feeds from my feed reader, though it took a minute or too to remember who you were. 🙂
I’m glad to hear that you’ve been so successful with your writing. While I don’t buy self-help books of any kind any more, your book on WordPress that I bought years ago was extremely helpful. My wife and I both continue to blog, she daily and me quite sporadically. Karen has a fairly dedicated following — a few years back during the height of fall colors, a lady approached her and asked her if she was a quilter; turned out to be one of her readers!
West wishes for the revival of your blog!
Hi Mike – it’s funny because my homepage doesn’t indicate anything about having a blog here (yet), and I thought the only traffic to any blog posts I make will be search engine bots and anyone who might still have me lingering in their feeds, and here you are! haha
Glad to hear the book on WordPress was helpful, thanks for reading!
Welcome back! I was just reading thru Feedly, for the first time in a few weeks, and saw your post.
Cool!
Maybe you could post some of your thoughts about the Packers season here. Or thoughts about Danica Patrick. She was quite good at wrecking things when she was in NASCAR…
Anyway, you’re still in my feed and I’m looking forward to reading more.
(And maybe I’ll finally get around to finishing my own site and start writing again.)