robglazebrook.com

So… what’s been going on over here? Long time, no see! Glad to see you’re all still hanging around. Although I’m starting to worry you only exist when I’m directly interacting with you. And that in turn makes me feel guilty for ignoring you for so long. And my ~guilt~ in turn makes me want to ignore you all over again. It’s a bit of a vicious cycle, people.

Life is pretty busy over on this side of the computer monitor. Amanda and I are still trying to sell our house, though it’s not going as well as we had hoped. I think we’re going to have to drop the price of the house a touch in order to get the sort of traffic we need to get it sold. This here economic crisis thingy isn’t doing us any favors, I can tell you. Part of our problem, I’m guessing, is that our home is well-suited for first-time buyers, older buyers on a fixed income, and young families — and those are the exact people that are going to have a hard time getting approved for a loan right now. Luckily, Amanda and I have really good credit, and we’ve already been pre-approved at several banks. But we have to sell this place before we can move. Anyone looking for a solid lil’ house in a quiet neighborhood?

I’m also currently teaching my web class again through Des Moines Public Schools, which means my Tuesday and Thursday evenings are filled from now (well, starting two weeks ago) through mid-November. The class is going really well this time around; students are asking lots of questions, which means we’re falling behind, but it also means they’re interested in what I’m teaching. And that makes up for any scheduling hassles it might cause. I was planning on this being the last time I taught this class, but I’m enjoying it enough this go around that I might sign on for another tour of duty.

CSSnewbie still helps to keep me busy when I’m not otherwise occupied. And I’m happy to report that I’m inching ever closer to being able to give the site a complete facelift, which I’ve been itching to do since around late February of this year. My designer friend Jeremy had some free time (or at least made some free time) for me, so we’re hashing out a new design now. He and I are also throwing ideas back and forth for a web-based business I might start up on the side that has me pretty excited.

Other than that, I have a group-type meeting (Des Moines Web Geeks) every other Monday evening, an exercise class after work on Wednesdays, and social stuff most weekends (Amanda and I were in Minnesota for a wedding two weekends ago, and we had engagements Friday, Satuday, and Sunday nights this last weekend). So what I’m saying is, if you would like to catch up with me in person, you might want to somehow be associated with one of those things mentioned above. Or schedule several days in advance: I already have tentative social plans for this coming Wednesday, Sunday, and Monday evenings, and a possibility for a Saturday evening thing, but Friday is currently free as far as my calendar knows. Call now! Operators are standing by.

Oh, and one last thing: today is the Two Year Anniversary of me buying my house! :) And since I won’t be around tonight (see above), Amanda and I celebrated last night. We made pulled pork burritos with slow-cooked onions and green peppers, refried beans, Spanish rice, and salsa verde. We also topped off the meal with a ~fantastic~ bottle of Bordeaux we brought back with us from Paris. And I have to say: it was the best Mexican-American-French fusion we’ve EVER made.

CSSnewbie has now been in operation for a full 1/3 of a year. And, as I stated last month, I’m no longer looking at specific variables so much as general trends. But that having been said, I’d still like to keep up with the monthly updates, at least for a while longer. They help keep me motivated.

Traffic was more steady this month than most, and although the graph looks far less interesting than last month’s, traffic was almost identical overall, with less than .5% change.

I’m going to consider this a good thing: I didn’t get nearly as many links in this month as usual, mostly (I think) because I was writing more beginner-level stuff, and that isn’t as exciting to other CSS-related websites. However, my search engine visitors have continued to grow, from an average of around 88/day in April (with a high of 130) to an average of 165/day in May (with a high of 286). Thus, most of my growth came from work I’ve already done. And that’s pretty rewarding.

Subscriber growth remained steady. I started the month with around 580 subscribers, and ended it with around 950, which is decent. If this growth continues, I should reach 1,000 subscribers late this week or early next. And I’m pretty happy with the idea of having gathered 1,000 subscribers in four months of writing.

Sadly, my revenue was down pretty significantly this month: it was about half of what last month’s was. I lost one big advertiser and wasn’t able to replace them before the month ended. I’m still convinced that a redesign will help revenue generation a bit, so I’m looking forward to being able to redo the website in the relative-near future. I’m also still looking at various ways to maximize my revenue potential without making my website ad-centric. For example, I’m currently looking at ways to incorporate a few ads into my RSS feed, as it’s currently generating no income.

And… that’s that. My goals remain the same this month: grow my subscriber count, figure out a useful revenue stream, and pound out a redesign at some point.

Oh, May… where have you gone? You were a busy lil’ month while you were in your prime, but now look at you. Reduced to a few measly days strung out at the bottom of the calendar, clinging to a page whose 44,640 minutes of fame are nearly over.

Erm… so yeah. I’ve been keeping busy, is what I’m saying. Work has been pretty darn busy, and June is looking even worse in that regard – workfriend Jeremy is moving on to greener pastures, so I’ll be picking up a little bit from him. And at the same time, they decided to ramp up the number of email promotions they send out. Brian is looking to hire a full-time email person to free me up a bit, but he’s out for a while because his wife is having twins tomorrow and he seems to feel that somehow involves him. So I expect to be pulling double-duty, in a sense, for at least the next month. I just hope it doesn’t turn into the six months of double-duty I had before we hired Jeremy.

However, I’ve finally got my evenings free again! Last Thursday was my last web class of the season. I’m not teaching anything this summer, so that’ll give me a few months off, at least. I’ll probably teach the class again in the fall, though, to help justify the time I put into the course packet and planning. So now that my evenings are free, I’m already looking for ways to fill them back up again. I swear: I’m the busiest lazy person I know.

CSSnewbie is still keeping me busy. You’ll be getting a 4-month update soon, but I’ll give you a sneak peek: numbers are about the same across the board, but I made less money again. Uhh… go me. Right now, I just have to tell myself that this is a long-term thing. If I keep at it, I’m sure there will come a time a year or two from now when I’ll look back and wonder what I was so worried about. Right now, though, it’s hard not to wonder if I’m not just filling my time with poorly-paid busywork.

Amanda and I spent our Memorial Day weekend in the backyard, cleaning things up. We borrowed a wood chipper from a work friend and spent one evening last week chipping up the last of the brush that was left over from our great de-Privet-ing adventure last summer. Then this weekend, we took our two wood piles (used for our wood-burning stove, theoretically) completely apart and reorganized them into one pile in one location (right behind the garage, for those that know the geography). It looks a lot nicer now, actually. And we have the concrete slab back there open now. I plan to build a compost bin on half the slab in the near future. Then I can clean up our very literal compost “heap” laying next to the slab — which is built on top of river rock, no less, which should make cleanup a joy.

So what’s the moral of the story? Well, that I’m pretty whiny, I guess. :) But also that I’m keeping busy. And that’s gotta be good. Oh, and I promised Amanda that I’d finally get around to putting up Europe photos in the near future, so that’s something to look forward to.