Saturday Evening Post

The time has come to exercise the theory of less is more, in a totally left-handed way. And from a natural lefty, it is not a swipe at those who are right-challenged. It is truly a matter of me listening to the inbox and the M3 Readers. So no one gets a complex…it is all my fault.

Over the last few months, we have gotten to know a little bit about one another and ourselves. No, I am not the do as I say, not as I do type… all the time. I admit my foibles regularly to keep me grounded. In the discovery, I have learned a few things about M3, too. A visit to Your Wish Marketing did not hurt anything either.

Lessons in Spam SEO

Waffling on about waffles.

M3 is one of those blogs search engines hate. The posts are not a monotony of 412 ways to look at waffles. I do not waffle on about waffling in a criss-cross waffly hatch pattern.

The categories are so far removed from one another they do not share keywords. I have recently gotten to saving the tag cloud to see how much it changes from week to week. Apparently, other than talking about myself, the posts have very little to do with one another.

M3 even has posts about the confusion it causes to search engines and spam bots just trying to do their jobs. How ironic is it the most common theme here is identity?

What’s in a name?

To be frank, far too many letters. M3 is so much easier to type, but Momma’s Money Matters is not too long to pop in a search box. Most of you had taken your Dramamine and were not nauseated by the move from WordPress to the .com. It was as close as we are going to get to shortening the name.

Point Me To The Steps!

Up at the tip top.

M3 has discovered the need for more than a dozen 12-step programs in the hunt for identity, its own and yours. This path led to the pages Story Time, The Map and The Office (look at the tip top for them). In the ever-expanding archive, some things were getting lost in the shuffle and others were being stolen.

Work With Me!

After being deemed a completely spammy site by Google and Alexa, some drastic changes were in order. A few are going to be a secret reveal when I rearrange the furniture the next time, but one is an ongoing project. The Green Room is changing the blogosphere.

Over the last few weeks, I have noticed an increase in the number of bloggers who are creating their own brand of The Green Room. Imitation is the grandest flattery, just in case you were wondering.

I encourage everyone who blogs to ditch the spamroll in favor of a DIY or YDI (you did it) page which serves as a hang out for your blogging buddies and a resource for you. I accept all pingbacks to Green Rooms on other blogs, WordPress, Weebly, Blogger/Blogspot, self-hosted…ping away.

If you are reading this and have not left a link to your blog in the Green Room, how, precisely, do you expect me to find your blog and send more people your way? Hmm?

Many thanks to the M3 Readers who have left praise for other bloggers in the Green Room.

Digest it.

All stuffed into one.

Many of the M3 followers have opted for daily or weekly digests. Some of you are a scream when you open your email. We play a game of Blog Trap. The virtual cat-and-mouse of me following you from post to post to comment back. Yes, it is as much fun as a Friday Folly hatemail.

I completely recognize each of you have some semblance of a life outside the blogosphere (and it is perfectly okay if you do not). Not everyone can stop by here everyday to see what is on the menu. When you do, I am amazed at some of the things you do whilst you are here.

Share it.

You pay me forward to your social networks. I cannot begin to adequately express how much I appreciate it. You give me some of the best tag lines when you share, too. Some of my favorites recently are:

  • Red Dwyerhttps://www.facebook.com/AuthorRedDwyer/ speaks out against litter and the environment.
  • Shopping until the end…
  • Red’s the Momma blogger!
  • Here’s to the irony of expanding self-awareness with a shrink, whether it’s just one, or a pair-a-docs.
  • Pay attention!

Yes, I gently ribbed the author of the first one… I am still the Grammar Nazi. If you haven’t shared some of my pieces with your social media, you just may be missing out.

One conversation following a Facebook share ended up with more than 50 comments from a group of friends who otherwise would never have gotten together to share ideas. Harness social media. Be more social.

3 - 1 = 2

Simple Mathematics

Subtraction

There will be some things missing from M3. You may have noticed something was missing today. It will also be missing tomorrow. I am officially cutting weekend posts to two on Saturday and Sunday. This is a personal, professional and creative choice.

Professionally: I have to finish two books. One is already sold to its target audience, but I have yet to finish the final edit on it. Since it will go to press in another 60 days, I really need to be proofreading.

I am also embarking on another venture. After much consultation, I will be producing ebooks from the posts on M3. Some of the bits which hit the editing room floor in the interest of a blog post less than 1,500 words (bet you never would have guessed they start out LONGER) will find their way back into the work. Even if you were here for the first run, you will find more nuggets to take away.

Personally: The little ones have just taken another four-hour bite out of my week with a new therapist. I am not willing to sacrifice what time I do own to socialize and sleep to creating even more content. This will negatively impact my current quest for a million, but in the end, I will be saner for it.

Creatively: Even though I am totally sick of calling it “Story Time”, I am on a quest to whip the story into shape. The football play of a diagram I have for the plot sequence has made for some difficult arranging to post it here, but it is interesting. At least to me, it is interesting.

Now, I happen to know there are a minimum of three people who have been following the story since the beginning… or have retro-read the story. I am still sitting by the inbox waiting for a suggestion for a title. Or do you all believe you have to know the end game to name it?

Questions

Always with the questions...

Always with the questions…

Recently, I have exposed you to one portion of what many others call my dark side. It is the poetry which is not lighthearted, not whimsical, not nature-related, not kind. In fact, it is apocalyptic, cruel, death-laden and at times outright frightful.

Based on its revelation and the increasing amount of discomfort being expressed by the M3 Readers (and hatemailers), I am currently considering splitting M3 into two different blogs which will both live on different pages: One for creative work and one for informational posts.

Things you should not consider in helping me choose:

  • The amount of work to reroute the posts into different blogs
  • The convenience of fewer categories and a smaller tag cloud
  • Smaller archives
  • Less content

Since my most faithful bloggers and readers are the ones who stuck with it long enough to be reading this question, please tell me what you think of this idea.

Until next post,

Red Signature

PS I need to recognize a few blogs who have stepped into the comment box since the last round of awards. If this award is new to you, learn why I award it. Some of them are not the award-accepting type, but once you visit their blogs, you will understand why I appreciate what they do. In alphabetical order…

Christy ~ Poetic Parfait

Derek ~ No Throw Aways

EG ~ Guapola

Mike ~ Saturday Sunshine

SIG ~ Refrigerator Magnate

Tony ~ Powered By Mental Pills

Bloggers, please take your awards.

The Red Educational Shoe Award

Honorable Spam Mention: Bot # a983058f with its comment: I’ve said that least 4523877 times. SCK was here


© Red Dwyer 2012
Reblogging of this or any other post on The M3 Blog is expressly forbidden.
Copyright and Privacy Policy available in The Office. 

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56 Comments

  1. A noble venture, this downsizing. I will be following with great interest.

    Reply
  2. Awe thanks Red, I just saw the ‘pingback’ on my blog and swung right over. Your thank-you with the award means so much to me. Hey and it’s a stylish one to boot! Well actually it’s a heel but…

    Reply
    • Those are entirely sensible shoes 😉 Which, incidentally, have a lot of miles on them. Very comfy! And you deserve it.

      Reply
  3. Yes two blogs, with all the dark and
    wicked stuff in one easy to find location…

    What a great idea Red 🙂

    Androgoth XXx

    Reply
  4. authormjlogan

     /  February 18, 2012

    First, Thank you.

    Second, I think two rooms, one for creative work and the other for coffee is a great idea. I’m starting out that way and it is a little harder to get going, but worth it in the long run.

    Reply
    • With the massive amount of cross linking I have, it will be something I will have a brain hemorrhage over logistically, but I have an idea I may be able to pull off in the end.

      Reply
  5. I’m reminded of an old Chinese proverb: Simple is Difficult.

    Simplifying, consolidating, and spinning off other blogs, all while you are in the midst of publishing a few books, and starting up a new enterprise? I will admit you have a truckload of ambition, Red. I also will admit that you may be just the one to pull this off. I’ll continue to be a fan, no matter what you decide. Good luck!

    Reply
    • I have to do something to keep busy…my imagination is a scary place to be left to its own devices 😉

      Reply
  6. Hi Red! You lured me over with a mention of Your Wish Marketing. (Sweet!) So you’re re-organizing things, making changes, writing books and thinking about setting up a second blog. With the amount of creative energy you have, I think it’s a fine plan, It might even set you free. Perhaps you’re holding back a bit on the darker side… or that voice is somehow skewed by proximity to all the other content you write.

    Something else to think about is that cross linking between blogs would benefit your SEO.

    By the way, I love the fact that you use the word indubitably. It is one of my favorite words!

    Reply
    • It is one I toss about quite a bit. I know the cross threading value…ugh. After I get Nick to move everything, I will probably power up the new one. Until then, things will like stay the same…or not.
      Red.

      Reply
  7. Thank you for the recognition. I will find a spot in the trophy case for the shoe. Well, seeing as I don’t have anything else in there, I guess it will provide a nice start. Also- Good luck with the whole simplify thing. Sounds like a lot of work, but I think it will be helpful to you and your readers.

    Reply
    • I hope so. Looking to make things more comfy for everyone…and reduce some of the email on the outbound. My luck, everyone will subscribe to both blogs 😉

      Reply
  8. I wonder, how will managing two blogs affect your time?
    Of course, if anyone can do it, it’s you!
    Though I kind of like that it’s all in one place. I never know if I’ll get moving poetry, or hilarious spam feeds or a thoughtful or educational piece about…well…anything, really…
    Either way, looking forward to everything you’ll write, wherever you put it….
    Wow, I really didn’t answer the question. Quite eloquently. I oughta go into politics…
    And thank you so much for the shoe! But I’m not shaving my legs when I wear it.

    Reply
    • I still have a burning need to fulfill my lifelong dream of becoming a salaried sleeper, but the paperwork for the grant was such a nightmare, I decided to become a writer instead…less writing.

      No politics…but, like you, the jury is still out. I have broken every single blogging rule ever created and have truckloads of rubberneckers fans who are going to be watching no matter where I put it.

      I have already moved us whilst no one was looking. But even if I do not make really strict boundaries, I am going to house all of my books here. So, the jury is still out on the split and I have some really good advice on both sides of the fence so far…including yours.

      You do not have to shave, but I do not suggest fishnets…they will hurt the balls of your feet and make the hair all stick out.

      Reply
  9. You talk about your darker side a lot, Red – why not name the two rooms “Light” and “Dark”?

    Reply
  10. I like the idea of splitting it off into two; it’s a great way to identify who’s reading you for what. In the end it will probably double your readership.

    Reply
    • That is a wonderful thought. I know about 500 or so of the people who are here every week (which is an amazing feat I may blog about). Some of them are only here for one piece all week long. Demographics. It is a hobby.

      Reply

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