State of the Durosian Union
As is too often the case, I'm getting off to a late start in the new year.
The good news is, this time around, it's because I've been busy and distracted with mostly good stuff.
But now, just over two weeks into not only the new year but a whole new decade, it's time to look back a little and forward a lot. Especially in all things Durosian.
For those of you just joining us, "Durosia" is this whole virtual "empire" of mine. I've been building it on and off for the better part of 15 years. First as little bits of free webspace here and there in college, then as it's own piece of Internet real estate. Durosia.com is the capital, all of my other blogs, social networking pages, and side projects are semi-autonomous provinces, some more lively than others.
As of right now, these are:
- Active Blogs
- Active Social Networking Contact Points
- Inactive areas
- Dragon-Pen.com
- Various other quickly fading social networking sites
In Review
The past year hasn't seen a lot of movement or growth in any of these. There have been many distractions, and many more excuses, for things not being updated regularly (or at all). Without a doubt, 2009 was not the year of growth I had planned for the Durosian family of sites.
But, all was not in vain. Many of the "distractions" brought me into contact with people who produce fantastic bits of content on their own. There have also been some interesting projects that were begun during the past year (none of which will be fully finished until sometime this year).
One of the biggest things is Browncoats: Redemption, a fan film for charity set in the same universe as Joss Whedon's Firefly television series and Serenity feature film. The film shot over the summer and will be released at DragonCon 2010. It's really something to look forward to.
Another project that started last year and just recently saw the light of day was my Blogging 101 Workshop. Through the DC Bloggers, I had the opportunity to put on the first version of the workshop on January 9. It wasn't quite all I wanted it to be, but was good enough to get some people interested and on the right track. Later this year, I hope to have a revised version to present to the public.
Pretty much everything else stagnated over the past year. The blogs saw sporadic updates, moderate traffic growth, and some decent comments (some even from people I didn't know then). Perhaps worst of all, there are a couple of outstanding freelance-flavored projects that are well behind where I wanted them to be. (Those will be tied up and delivered before this month is out.)
Looking Ahead
This coming year is going to be the growth year that last year was supposed to be.
Already, with the Blogging 101 Workshop in progress, I'm ahead of where I was last year at this time. Expect more growth in the area of blogging and social media as the year goes on.
The major focus this year is going to be on How to Crush Without Being Crushed. Of all the properties, I think it stands the chance for the best wide-spread interest and greatest growth. Durosia.com is the secondary focus (because, after all, the capital should look pretty good, should it not?).
As part of that, there's a planned redesign of both of those sites. That should be done by the end of March at the latest.
While that redesign is going on, there is still a solid goal of a sustained 300 visitor per week level at WithoutBeingCrushed.com (currently bouncing between about 40 and 150 visitors per week for the past year). With some well-placed marketing and more regular content updates, that shouldn't be too much of a problem.
There's also going to be a little bit of a push for gaining a few webhosting clients. I've got webspace to sell, I just need to nail down my pricing and services offered.
Overall, it would be nice if between the blogs and the hosting clients, my webspace paid for itself and maybe kicked me back an extra few bucks a month.
So, that's things here in a nutshell. Here's looking forward to some serious growth in the coming quarter.
