Disconnecting the Feed

When I started this blog, I'd intended it to be a PR feed for all things pertaining to my writing career. I didn't have any illusions that progress was going to be so great that this was going to be a "must watch" space, but I'd hoped for a bit more than it has been. Life has a way of throwing up roadblocks and detours. Let's leave it at that for now.

The blog feed link is a nice feature on Goodreads. It lets authors keep fans updated without having to remember to cross post. But I really haven't been doing that. What this space has become is a repository of book reviews in case something goes awry with Goodreads. I post little else. I have conflicting ideas about privacy versus self-promotion. I also don't want to repeat the mistakes I made with my first blog.

Since my blog feeds into Goodreads, anyone following me there sees double of my book reviews in their feed. That could be perceived as annoying. So I'm disconnecting my blog from Goodreads. This will be the last post that appears there. If I've got something to say that isn't a book review and want it posted there, I'll just use the "general update" feature or their built-in blog.

On the social media front, I'm transitioning from Google+ to Facebook. It's still in the early stages. I have to study what other authors have done in separating the professional from the personal. I'm not posting a link from this blog to Facebook until I'm 100% ready to go. I realize that could be never.

I haven't ruled out other social media platforms, but besides finding the right fit, network size is a major factor in determining if it's worth the effort. At this stage of the game, I'm still unknown enough that I haven't ventured beyond square one. When Gateway is finished (currently about 50%), I'll have more of an impetus to drive social media and marketing. Right now, it's not worth the time or effort.

\_/
DED

Back to Blogger

I had a blog on Blogger back before Google bought them. It was called "The Dedly Blog." But instead of letting Google host it, I had it point to a directory on my web server. I don't recall the specifics, but that function went away in 2010. So I brought all the old files in house. That was a mistake. All of the xml and style sheet settings. Ugh. What a mess. After a while, I gave up trying to re-format it. I save all the old content. Maybe I can import them.

In 2010 I published my first novel, Armistice Day. Since marketing is a necessary evil, a self-hosted blog wasn't enough, and my social media skills were are lacking. Fortunately Amazon, Goodreads, and Smashwords all have a spot on author pages for adding a RSS feed. My webhost didn't offer that tech and wasn't friendly to third party software. So I started another blog on WordPress and made that the source of my RSS feed.

Fast forward to 2016. SiteLock, a new security partner for my webhost (Fatcow) starts sending me alerts that I have malware on my site. Unless I pay for their service—which ain't cheap—they don't do anything about it. So I resort to Fatcow tech service. They told me where the bad files were (in the WordPress directory), and I deleted them. Since then, I've received several alerts from SiteLock, accompanied with threats of shutting down my website, but tech service couldn't find them. Coincidentally, WordPress updates happened shortly thereafter.

WordPress is also partnered with FatCow, so I'm caught in the middle between two Fatcow partners butting heads. When I went to login to the WordPress control panel today to correct the latest complaint, I couldn't establish a secure connection, and Firefox freaked out. I'm tired of this bullshit, so I just FTP'd in and deleted all of the WordPress files.

And now I'm back at Blogger. Why? Too lazy to look elsewhere, and I know it works. Well, mostly. They did have a blogroll hiccup last year that was a pain in the ass to fix. If someone wants to try and convince me there's a better (free) blogger service out there, go ahead. I have to move my website anyway as Fatcow's rates have gone up. They were $99/yr as recently as 2010, but since then they've gone up steadily. This summer's renewal will cost me $179.40 if I want to stay.

Ok, I've blathered on long enough. I've got to reset those RSS feeds and start customizing the look of this place.

\_/
DED