Dawn of the Geeks

Time to start focusing. Until two weeks ago I was perfectly content where I was. I have a nice job that pays the bills and doesn’t demand I actually follow a strict work schedule. But now it’s time to finally graduate from Arizona State University. I’ve been going to college since 1998 having a good time just taking classes that I enjoyed. In 2002 I decided maybe I should try to get a degree in Computer Science. Two years later I decided what a bad idea that was and switched to secondary education. I started at a community college and spent way more time there than I realized. I was there for four years. I had just gotten myself into a rut. I had no drive to go anywhere. I just wanted to have fun. But then one day I woke up and realized I needed to advance and get somewhere.

For some people, sitting in front of a computer 8 hours a day or more is good for them. For me, being a computer geek for my whole life, that seemed like a logical choice as well. But eventually I learned that people are more important. I can’t have such an unsociable job and be happy. I don’t care how much it pays. I need a job where I can be around people. Where people are what the job is about. Not technology.

I like technology in sofar as it can kill time and make me some money while I work on getting a job doing something more important. This web-site, for example, this month is looking to return triple the $28 it costs to run. I think it can do better. I can’t think of any good reason why this site couldn’t bring it at least $100 in ad revenue every month. People try to charge $2-$3 a ringtone and I give away over 50,000 of them and I can’t pull in decent ad revenue. There’s something wrong here. People will pay rediculous amounts for something but if you give it away they have a hard time doing anything that might reimburse the provider for the service.

Awhile back I installed the javascript check. JS enabled users went from about 46% to nearly 57% now and climbing. Ad revenue also is going up. It’s probably not so much that people don’t want to reward those who give them free stuff, they just don’t think about it. Because obviously, when people are reminded to turn on JS they do and then they see the ads and decide that maybe they are worth checking out.

My plan for the school year is to post some blog entries and some wiki entries but as far as major updates, there won’t be any. It’s back to school and time to focus on moving my life forward. I don’t have any plans to ever pull this site down. It’s just going to continue evolving into a different kind of site.