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New Look and Feel
And New Features Too...
SunFyre has a new look. My web design
skills are gradually improving, and it's been nearly a year
since the last major change.
I moved in April, and haven't really touched
SunFyre much since then. For that I apologize. But
new house, new business, new support staff and a new life have
kept me busy. Now things are settling down, and I'm
getting the urge again.
Back Story...
I started SunFyre in August 2001, before the
term 'blogging' had been coined. I actually bought the
domain name for a friend, an artist and writer, who had the name
based on a character in a fantasy fiction story she'd written.
When the domain came up for renewal, I decided not to let it go
even though she'd never done anything with it.
For the first 18 months or so, I messed around
with it, but never knew exactly what to do. I started
reading an online web journal from a guy in Toronto, Canada
called Ajay. His website,
www.ajayonline.com
was an early blog, mostly about married life, the Toronto
Raptors, web games, his fascination with Britney Spears, and occasionally
some p0rn. (It eventually went totally p0rn, and today is
a generic flash games website.) Over four
years later, my little blog has grown and grown. My
brother-in-law, Vince, gave me the biggest complement.
He said "Your website is, like, a real website." His way of
saying it doesn't suck.
Let's look at what's new
and, hopefully, improved.
The layout was designed
in Photoshop. It's the first completely Photoshop layout
I've used on SunFyre. I'm far from an expert, but I like
the simple look and feel. You'll see more
advertising in the new
website. I need to earn a little. I estimate that,
when going strong, I spend 15 hours a week, and $500 a year on
SunFyre. The Google advertising and web searches have
earned me about $50 a month, so it's about break even on my
expenses. I like to get a little for my time this year.
As always, I'm very picky about my advertisers. I only
publish ads from website that sell real products that I will
stand behind. I'm planning on updating the
T-Shirt Shop more
frequently. About once a month I'll add a new shirt or
something fun and original. I'll be publishing more original content, much more. My goal is to
produce one article each week, sandwiched between short, but
insightful, journal entries. I'll borrow and steal content
occasionally, but only within the context of another original
article. Content is King when developing a quality, and
profitable, website. Photography has
always been one of my unfulfilled passions. In college I
played around, but couldn't use the dark rooms, and big clunky
cameras were all we had. With tiny digital cameras (that
actually take decent pictures) and Photoshop, I'm starting to
get back into it. SunFyre will have more original
photography than ever. Finally, I'm going to
swing the doors open, and let the writers come forward.
Last January I got the idea that I'd publish articles and
stories by other writers. Unfortunately, no one offered
much. One woman submitted several very bad stories about
being disabled. They were so full of cliche, I questioned
whether she was actually disabled.
This year I'm going to spend some time actually
recruiting. If you'd like to write for SunFyre, fiction or
non, get in touch. Meanwhile, I'll be scouring the net for
talent and inviting new writers to submit. I've even
created a revenue sharing system so good articles can earn a
little cash. Reader feedback has
always been important to me. I read every email, and
respond to most. (To the guy who keeps offering me replica
rolex watches, I prefer TAG Heuer, and to the woman who is
clearly concerned about the size of my manhood, I honestly don't
need your pills.) I keep publishing my email, and keep
getting more spam, but one or two each day are from readers.
Keep them coming. For those of you who want
instant gratification and public acknowledgment, I'm adding a comments link to every new post. Finally,
sharing SunFyre will be easier than ever. I'm adding a
feature to "forward this article to a friend" and creating
"printer friendly" pages that can be printed or downloaded and
emailed.
Thanks for hanging in there during my
hiatus. Hopefully by January 1st, this site will be
completely updated and on a roll with new writers and content.
Check back frequently, and don't forget to bookmark us.
SunFyre |
