Actually, the phrase should be, "What a Past Few Weeks!" I've been MIA on the blogging for two weeks now, where in that time I've turned 25, have quite possibly put my business on track to double last year's revenue (is it big shot to be able to say that February), and won my first online poker tournament (okay, it as a $15 win, but I bested anywhere between 164 and 324 people, which is an accomplishment no matter what the final prize is). I stopped blogging because I was really tired after hard week, too tired to write anything. I've started up again because a friend said that my blogging was amazing and wanted me to continue blogging. So, with a two week hiatus (which will be factored into the quarterly blogging analysis), I will restart this blogging case study of mine. I have one loyal reader out there, and that's good enough for something.
Not Without Hiccups
Of course, these past two weeks haven't been without their share of problems, even with the good things that are happening. I have a client who was trying to backup his Wordpress site, and now nothing happens when you want to add a photo, or change the publication date, or fix the widgets, or add tags to a post (can anyone tell me how to backup a Wordpress site and whether its worthwhile. I would think investing in Wordpress security is a better option, but oh well.) This started two days ago and it's still not working, which means there's not much I can do with it.
The Internet has improved at the coworking space, but it has been a bit choppy this afternoon. Watching video is still difficult, which makes me sad because I can't watch live poker when I eat lunch. Nothing like Monday or last week, but it's still no one hundred percent. I think the space got its own network yesterday, which should be fully functional tomorrow. Hopefully.
Managing Your Online Reputation
I also earned the ire of an "investigative blogger", who wrote a disparaging article about my company and how we provide awful advice to citizen bloggers regarding the first amendment. Fortunately, that's all that's happened, since this particular person has previous history of buying domain names and writing all sorts to stuff to trash your online reputation. It's also fortunate that both me and my company have maintained a strong online reputation, where one post isn't going to ruin our search engine results. I want to be as vague as possible about this, because this person hasn't made the connection between me and my company, and the last thing I want is an online cat fight or to have to defend myself against really odd claims. However, the article can be found on page two of results when you search for "Stirring Media, LLC", if you are interested in a laugh or some weird insight into the crazy world of online reputation management.
But, as the saying goes, "if they're shooting at you, you must be doing something right."
I'm Blogging Again, I Promise
This isn't some weird fluke to entertain a friend and this isn't some stupid "update post" where I apologize for not blogging for two weeks only to not blog for two more months and then apologize again in two months. I'm back in the swing of things, with good ideas to discuss! Tomorrow, I'm going to go over building a personal brand and answer a few questions to build my own personal brand (will do the same with my company's branding, but will answer completely different questions). This weekend is Mardi Gras in St. Louis, and I might have a few things to say about that (not sure if I'm going or not). I'll also do some blogging from Las Vegas, when I go in about a month. Plan to play a whole bunch of poker tournaments in the casinos. Crossing my fingers I can announce a few cashes!
The past two weeks may have been hectic, but I'm looking forward to the next two months, that's for sure!