I pay a web host for my personal website, my private emails, RSS, and photo services. I pay to support the products I enjoy using and that promise to not collect or sell my information.
If it’s “free” than I don’t want it.
website
Personal Publishing Principles
When’s the last time you went to an actual website to read a real article written by a human, without being slapped in the face by pop-ups, cookie warnings, ads, and lead-generating magnets? It’s past time to get back to the basics of the WWW. So, here are a few thoughts on how and why this website and extensions of itself exist. First off- This is a one man publishing house. So no one else to blame but me.
My Personal Site
Can be the best place to build relationships and network.
This is where I can offer my thoughts products and services best.
When someone does a web search of me, I’d rather project intentional information that I am responsible for and not some random post on social media to be taken out of context.
This is the best spot to test all my ideas/projects/products that I come up with. Not all will work, but those that do not will see a proof of concept.
This is my place where I can express myself (see below for my blog principles.) The newsletters, micro posts, blog articles, e-zines, presets and more are offshoots.
My Personal Blog
This is my personal site. There are many like it, but this one is mine. The content and style are uniquely my own in its content and style. All articles are not to be reflective of anyone else but myself.
The most successful websites reach out and share with others. Online friendships and networking opportunities have come from twenty plus years of writing.
There is no competition.
Thinking out loud in public builds trust and shows progress towards a successful idea.
Long and short form writing on a personal website gives you an honest glance inside a writer’s brain.
Building relationships means you share stories. Stories solidify relationships.
This website has oscillated between a personal journal, to honest product reviews and networking with others. There is no intent to show that I am an authority to speak on anything, or I know more than you. I am too humble for that.
This website will always be anti-advertising, anti-algorithms and anti-tracking.
This website and its maintenance help my brain.
Perfection, consistency, and expectations die here.
Failure and success will both be public here. New things are tried, most fail, but an effort to be anti-boring is strong.
My Personal Newsletter
The free newsletter is an extension of my personal website. It promises to be easily digestible, free-spirited, informal and informational.
An attempt at consistency will be made because people enjoy their routines. I’m leaning towards Sunday morning deliveries, just like the newspapers of old. Remember those?
Obscure links to points of interest, fun, hand drawn or photos shared with interesting illustrations.
The newsletter makes $0 and is not intended to spam for any amount of money. All products I share are free to use and retain a Creative Commons license ©© with attribution.
The newsletter’s intent is to share, build relationships, network, share, etc. There are no pay walls. This is to gather an audience only.
It’s a private email list. No information will be shared. Ever.
I write for only two people: you and me.
I curate information that is of interest to me. Not only that, but I share, and sometimes people enjoy them.
The Internet Is Broken
Anyone else noticed that today’s WWW is insufferable? I don’t specifically know when it turned, or why most users became jerks, but I’ll go ahead and guess about 2010. Making money off of content became more important than the content itself. This is a long post, but in short, the best way to fix it is to write good stuff and to be nice to other people. As the WWW was intended.
In the past, we got to enjoy content-rich websites created by people from all walks of life. They built and hosted their websites and networked with others to share their stuff, and it worked. Internet = interconnected. We learned from others, and we benefitted from other’s unique knowledge. Nowadays, there are advertisements everywhere, clickbait headlines as well as the tracking and selling of your private data and browsing habits. Where did all that good stuff go? To Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. etc.
Content creators, webmasters, and anyone with a hobby blog generally gave up and went the easy route of 180 character tweets and generic posts about what they ate and where on Facebook. Boring. People used to write, or photograph, or paint stuff that others would want to read. People used to write blogs, whether they were read or not, no one knew. Aficionados of every imaginable topic would research and post their findings for all to see.
When the tech conglomerates started to gather and consolidate web properties, the content was squeezed out. These platforms were nicknamed Web 2.0 as if version 1 needed upgrading. Version 2 was not an upgrade in my mind, in fact, it made the internet worse.
Ad-driven content became a thing. You had to pay to play. The more eyeballs and attention on your stuff can be monetized to the widest possible audience. The internet became deceptive and, oddly, less social. Users became mean and divisive because now there was perceived competition.
It is almost impossible to find good content on the WWW now. Type a topic of interest on a conglomerate-ran browser, and you’ll have to sort through at least two pages of the search to get to anything that isn’t ad-driven and would be relevant to your search.
When you do come across an interesting link, you are bombarded with sneaky and not so sneaky tactics to get your attention and your data. Web windows will pop up blocking the content, asking you to submit your personal info and subscribe. Pleas to purchase something that is offered. Advertisements litter the site with most, overwhelming the content you want to see. “Like me on Facebook”, Comment! Subscribe! Retweet! That is just what we see, but goes unseen is the amount of personal data that is collected and distributed to the tech conglomerates. Did you do a search on a medical symptom? Well now, the next website you visit will have a pop-up advertisement on a specific cream to help remedy that. It’s disgusting, invasive, and intolerable.
Where are people writing now instead of their own homegrown webpage? Social media. If you write on Facebook or post images to Instagram, the only people who can see it our the users on the platform. Have a business and your “website” is only a Facebook business page? Half of your potential customers cannot see it unless they are a Facebook user. No, thanks. Instead, people are writing out their limited thoughts on a limited platform that does nothing to further a conversation. That is, if you can actually see it on the FB platform. Facebook’s algorithm guarantees your content will be buried in favor of something they claim is more interesting (read that as attention-getting and therefore more potential ad revenue for them.)
I won’t continue on about how the political and social media outlets combined are divisive and spiteful. I stopped both after the 2016 election, and I am blissfully ignorant.
All this wasted time, effort, content, and energy spent on these proprietary platforms do nothing for the individual except to make themselves money.
What’s the fix?
Create your own website. WordPress has free (with ads) hosting options as a start. Or you can use WordPress on your own hosted site. Web hosts and your domain name makes it yours and on the cheap.
Write or post anything you’d like. It’s yours to do with as you please.
Network. Reach out to other like-minded people and build each other up.
If you must use social media, put your content on your site first, then distribute to those outlets. Add a link back to your website and point potential followers there instead. POSSE: “Post On Site, Syndicate Elsewhere.”
Send the website owner an encouraging email.
Comment on a post of theirs.
Subscribe to their RSS feed and don’t miss a thing.
Use ad-blockers, browsers that promote privacy and mean it, and a VPN.
And finally, make good content to share for anyone who may take an interest and be nice to others.
The Cult Of Mac
Yours truly was recently featured on a prominent website again. In the article, David was kind enough to feature the tools of my trade and how crucial a clean, minimal, dark and dedicated workspace enhances productivity and focus.
Special thanks to David Snow and the Cult of Mac publishers for showcasing my recent home office workspace, “Dark Mode.”
You can read all about it on their website. While you are there, check out their insightful articles and maybe even grab a few of their books too.
The Ideal Life
Lately, I’ve been thinking of the optimal lifestyle and how to get the best out of life.
How can I better my existence?
An ideal lifestyle is one you have to define for yourself. So if I wanted to focus on creativity and photography, I will need to build this up for myself. Surround myself with the proper tools and investing into this lifestyle. I currently have a great home office, but I need a studio in which to set up and host portraiture somehow. Something simple, minimal and easily accessible. For now, it isn’t feasible, but it is certainly a goal of mine. Truth be told, I really want to double down on this idea, but unsure of how to progress towards it.
I need to be active. To create, act, explore and this involves time outside my home office, whatever that looks like such as- on the streets, at the pub, hiking, road trips, etc. I am at my happiest when I am out and about with a camera, trying to maximize fitness at the same time. Everything improves for me with this, including more thinking, more problems-solving and more idea creations. The more mobile for me, the better.
Now and in the future, I need to invest in myself. I can invest in the future, but what about right now? What can I do to make my world better today? What can I attempt or pursue today that will pay off immediately, as well as the future?
I must become more focused on the self and prioritize my needs and wants before it is too late. I’ve been focused on pleasing others that I may be missing out. Time to make myself and my creativity a priority.
For years, I have been sharing and publishing my craft and my words to the WWW, with varying results. In the past, there was interaction and engagement but with the invention of social media, the interaction has been limited. Weird how that works – social media without the socializing. I need to find a way to bridge the gap and start interacting with others again. There are three ways I have created here that can do just that – subscribe to the newsletter (see below), subscribe to the RSS feed and email (say hello@chrisdenbow.website)
Take Charge
“Nothing about the Internet is fixed, permanent, or inevitable. It is malleable, shape-shifting, and constantly evolving. And it increasingly comes with more responsibility and risks for guarding our own data and taking charge of distributing our words and images.”
EI Skyers
This sums up nicely what I’ve been referring to when it comes to owning your platform. Build a blog, delete your social media account(s), dump Google mail and get your personalized e-mail address, and distribute your words and images your way.
Server Issues
After an hour and a half with my server host, the connection issue to my Micro posts page was unresolved. I am trying to secure the web certificate so it reads as:
https://www.micro.chrisdenbow.comThe “S” in the domain name denotes a secure website. But the server hosts were useless and it took the site down completely. I finally restored it myself in the cPanel but not without frustration. Now I’ll just leave it alone.
I Did It Again
Here’s something about me: I’ll tweak and twerk on something until it’s molded into something I’m happy with. And just when I’ve got it down to what I want, I switch to something entirely different.
Example- I’ve been working with a fantastic site setup here in the past so much that it got to the point where all I had to do is…write. So I’ll write for a time and then I would tweak the web site again instead.
I can’t help it, because it’s fun. The tinkering allows me to think and do it just for the hell of it. Imagine a chef creating something from a recipe but in reverse order or adding/subtracting ingredients as needed. That’s where I am at.
These past few months I think I have finally settled on a solution I am proud of here. It’s functional, it looks great and everything makes sense. For the first time in a long time, I am content.
However, I do reserve the right to tweak and enhance the current set up.
Just for the hell of it.
I Want This
There are many things in my life that I don’t need. I don’t need half the technology I have, nor most of online services that I pay for. This includes the hosting for my website. I don’t need it, but it does serve a purpose deeper than the amount it costs me each year and gives me value.
My website(s) have been up for more than two decades (learning from a file error mistake, the earliest post I still have is from 2013) and it has been through various iterations. The most recent of which was going back to a personal web server host. The benefits and hours devoted to the setup and install outweigh the costs.
This website has been many things over the years such as, attempted portfolios, business ventures (photography) and a lot of design coding, but still provides an outlet for me. In reality, this website provides very little to me, it doesn’t receive accolades or followers as much as it used to, my life would remain unchanged if I didn’t have this outlet, but I still want one.
This is a journal, a hobby for sure, but writing gives me something that nothing else provides. I love networking with people and I enjoy journaling. Long form and short form both help me document my life as it is currently. Sometimes other people join me here and that is fantastic. Just because I receive nothing in return (on the surface), it doesn’t mean that this doesn’t have value. I believe everyone needs to have their own space on the world wide web.
No one or their website, should focus on follower count, advertising, tracking or page views. You won’t recoup your costs, let’s be honest. This is a personal website and are beholden to no one. You publish what you want, when you want and how you need to.
I don’t need this but I want this.
Writing on the WWW
Own your website. It’s important because you control the format now and forever if you want to. No social media because that isn’t yours. Your social media account is just renting space until you are evicted.
Buy a domain name, choose a blog host, install WordPress blogging software on it. Once you are about 50% content with the way your own site looks, move on to long form and short form writing, photos, drawings, whatever you fancy… because it is yours. Leave the final 50% for slow, and incremental enhancements along the way. If you’re wondering what style or format you should write, write as though if you were writing a friend in an email.
Categorize and tag your posts for future reference and easy search on a topic you wrote 5 years ago. You’ll thank yourself later.
While going through the downloaded archives of my old Twitter account, I realized several things which are going to shape the way I write on the web in the future.
The mundane rituals of the past will now seem fascinating in 10 years time, because you see that things have changed and have also stayed the same. Such as living in a different state(s), or you’re now with someone else. Taking a moment to capture your life as it is now helps nostalgia down the road.
2006–10–25 19:37:06 +0000 My obligatory first tweet here on TWTTR.
2007–12–07 03:42:50 +0000 still can’t get Photoshop working and now I can’t open the RAW images I took from my new Nikon D200 camera. @#$%@*&
2012–01–17 21:30:40 +0000 Relocating to Tulsa in T-minus 12 hours.
2012–12–07 13:50:58 +0000 Holy shit I turned 40 today.
Twitter: @mojodenbow
Those tweets are well and good for documenting the times but how much more valuable are they on your own website? Social media isn’t forever, they come, go and most will take all the effort you put into it with them. I can look back fondly on my brief flirtation with both Linux and Windows operating systems, or a photo of my daughter from 2009 easily.
JANUARY 1, 2013 / CHRIS / INFODENBOW
HAPPY GNU YEAR
I’ve taken on another project that involves diving deep inside the Linux operating itself. For a few years I’ve been using a dual boot hybrid desktop using Ubuntu and Windows 7. I’ve added the Fedora distribution inside a virtual machine inside Ubuntu and deleted the Windows partition. Oh, and GNU = “Gnu’s Not Unix”
So I continue generating text, photos, doodles and anything else I want. For me. This website is a kinetic journal and I plan to continue doing this right to the end. I suggest everyone create their own website here on the WWW.