It seems like an eternity ago that I started my Sex, Bombs and Burgers blog, even though it's only been about a year and a half. My intention at first was to have an online presence where I could promote the book in advance of its launch by posting items related to it on a daily basis. I didn't know what to expect, but suspected I might eventually shut the blog down once the book had run its course. After all, how long can one continue posting daily without any real compensation, especially on such a specific topic? It's a lot of work.
But these things rarely turn out as you expect them to. In the first case, traffic to the blog has been growing strongly and steadily. In my first month, March 2009, I had about 500 visitors - now I'm averaging about 5,000 a month. That's not astounding traffic compared to bigger sites, but it's also not too shabby for a relatively new, independent blog. On the basis of that momentum alone, I have enough justification to keep it going.
Also, there's really no such thing as a book "running its course," like a movie or music album might. Sex, Bombs and Burgers saw its release in Canada, Australia and New Zealand back in March, and it's coming out next week in the United Kingdom and at some point soon in South Korea. The big U.S. release is still to come next year, plus there's the Canadian paperback version in March. Obviously, I have lots of reasons to keep writing about war, porn and fast food.
Moreover, though, I also have my upcoming freelance career to think about - only one week to go at the CBC! In this day and age, it seems pretty foolish to me for anyone who works for themselves to not have an online presence.
In that vein, although Google's Blogger service has served me well for a year and a half, I thought I would move onto something a little more robust. After weighing some options, I decided on Wordpress, which is similarly free and relatively easy to use, but also offers significantly more features than Blogger.
I've set up a brand new website, WordsByNowak.com, which is live . The site has quite a bit more information on me, including a section with some of my previous work, as well as links to and appearances. It's not meant to be an ego shrine, but rather a full repository of stuff I can point editors to as I inevitably beg them for work. (I've freelanced before... it's not always glamourous!)
I'll be blogging as usual, and concurrently, on both the new site and SexBombsBurgers.com until at least the beginning of December, at which point I'll be redirecting all traffic from the old site to the new. There shouldn't be any hiccups, but if you've got the old site bookmarked you may want to update to the new. It looks like all my archived posts imported okay to the new site, with the exception of some messed-up video links (which I'll be fixing).
And, as I mentioned before, I'll still be blogging about war, porn and fast food, but I'll be expanding my newfound freedom to writing about other stuff too. I hope to see you on the new site, and thanks for reading!
But these things rarely turn out as you expect them to. In the first case, traffic to the blog has been growing strongly and steadily. In my first month, March 2009, I had about 500 visitors - now I'm averaging about 5,000 a month. That's not astounding traffic compared to bigger sites, but it's also not too shabby for a relatively new, independent blog. On the basis of that momentum alone, I have enough justification to keep it going.
Also, there's really no such thing as a book "running its course," like a movie or music album might. Sex, Bombs and Burgers saw its release in Canada, Australia and New Zealand back in March, and it's coming out next week in the United Kingdom and at some point soon in South Korea. The big U.S. release is still to come next year, plus there's the Canadian paperback version in March. Obviously, I have lots of reasons to keep writing about war, porn and fast food.
Moreover, though, I also have my upcoming freelance career to think about - only one week to go at the CBC! In this day and age, it seems pretty foolish to me for anyone who works for themselves to not have an online presence.
In that vein, although Google's Blogger service has served me well for a year and a half, I thought I would move onto something a little more robust. After weighing some options, I decided on Wordpress, which is similarly free and relatively easy to use, but also offers significantly more features than Blogger.
I've set up a brand new website, WordsByNowak.com, which is live . The site has quite a bit more information on me, including a section with some of my previous work, as well as links to and appearances. It's not meant to be an ego shrine, but rather a full repository of stuff I can point editors to as I inevitably beg them for work. (I've freelanced before... it's not always glamourous!)
I'll be blogging as usual, and concurrently, on both the new site and SexBombsBurgers.com until at least the beginning of December, at which point I'll be redirecting all traffic from the old site to the new. There shouldn't be any hiccups, but if you've got the old site bookmarked you may want to update to the new. It looks like all my archived posts imported okay to the new site, with the exception of some messed-up video links (which I'll be fixing).
And, as I mentioned before, I'll still be blogging about war, porn and fast food, but I'll be expanding my newfound freedom to writing about other stuff too. I hope to see you on the new site, and thanks for reading!
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