New blog: lovemysmartcar.com
I'm sorry I've been missing in action lately. Last you heard, I up-and-got-married, didn't I? Well, there's a reason. Several. One of which was that my budgie Tenno got sick, and I had to rush him back and forth to the vet so they could operate on his little feeties and remove some abscesss. (Cause: his refusal to eat anything but millet. Still fighting to get him to eat something different.) And then of course there was a long letter I had to write to the insurance folks to tell them I damn well need jaw surgery and here's ten reasons why (which I might post later for funzies). But one of the most prominent reasons for my scarcity would be my latest pet project, lovemysmartcar.com.
I spent Labor Day weekend laboring to finish it. It's a site where I can blog obsessively about every little trip I take, playlist I create, picture I snap and maintenance I perform. I even made a playlist for you!
I built it partly because I couldn't find any smart car experience blogs when I was deciding which car to buy. I thought, "Wouldn't it be great if someone got a smart car, then blogged about what it was like driving up mountains, getting the tires changed for winter, what it feels like in a storm." Then I remembered, oh yeah! I make web sites!
The blog has been up for a few months now, mainly because I wanted to generate content and get it listed in search engines before I launched, so I opted for a "soft launch," focusing on getting the content and core functions together before slapping the design on and releasing it with a big fanfare.
Another reason for posting to a half-baked site was that half way through the design process, my bird got sick just as a really stupid picture started making the rounds on Twitter. People would tweet, "Can you spot the smart car?" and link to the picture which was of a car crushed between two trucks. It wasn't even a smart car, so I knew I had to use my powers for good and set the record straight. I posted a big-ass, Search engine optimized rebuttal and percolated it through Twitter. Soon it rose to the upper reaches of Google's search results on all things "smart car crash"-related and the site landed 2700 unique visitors in its first month as people searching for the truth found my post. A week after my posting, Snopes posted the truth and the matter was settled, the pictures stopped being circulated, and all was well in the land of smart cars. I won't make any cash from this. It's more of a showcase piece than anything, a proof of concept that shows I can do organic search engine optimization and reach an audience through social media. A big part of me just wanted to show that my skills could compliment a product line like the smart car. I really flexed my muscles on this one, and I am pleased with the results.
That said, I'm open to your opinions and critiques. I want to come back to this in a month and improve it even more after I see how people use it.
I'm taking a break from personal site projects to do some more commercial freelance work, paint our new house (Ah yes, news! We close on the 10th!), and draw more art cards for my corrective jaw surgery donators.
So please, tell me what you think?