Taking a Hiatus.

I’m taking a break from blogging, this is going to be the end for now. Lately I’ve been tossing around the idea of doing this, I even jokingly mentioned doing it in a previous entry. The problem is my free time (that was once used for blogging) in a given day is becoming more and more restrained, and when I do have some extra minutes on my hands I want to do what I want to do. I have other projects I’m working on, a lot of them, and I want to watch TV before bed, I want to get back into online gaming with friends, I want to return to being more involved in my favorite online community, and most importantly I don’t want to feel obligated to anything with my spare time because I have to deal with so many obligations every day.

It’s not that I don’t have anything to write about. I get ideas for good quality writing constantly, my little notebook is filled with good ideas that may never manifest into anything. But quality blog entries take time, even this one is going to take more time then I’m willing to spare in one sitting. But I’ve had some very cool, very popular articles and reviews on this website of mine, and I’m proud of them.

I get good traffic too, I’ve never been real impressed with my readership and feedback, but my traffic is at all time highs right now. Despite the fact that my Google PR was recently (and unwarrantedly) spanked once again, I pulled in a mind blowing 13,531 unique visitors last month, 15,870 page views in 30 days. For a little blog like this that’s impressive. It’s impressive enough that I’ve had and still receive all sorts of advertisement offers and emails from people wanting me to link back to them. I was paid $300 cash for a single entry I did this year, I won nearly $400 in prizes from a blog entry I did last year, and the handful of Google ads I run on this website pull in enough money in just a couple months to pay for any costs my website(s) may incur in an entire year.

I’m not afraid to admit that I’ve written entries for money, or I’ve blogged for something that was in my or someone else’s best interests. I’m also not afraid to admit that I enjoyed every bit of it, I enjoy all of it. I enjoy writing reviews for things, talking about technology, posting stupid videos. It’s great. But it takes a lot of work to keep things fresh and popular, it takes a lot of effort and I’ll find myself wondering if these efforts could be put to better use somewhere else. One thing is for sure, if and when I do get into blogging again it will be for a niche demographic. I’ve learned so much from my own blog that the next time around I’ll be a regular professional, I’ll know what I’m doing from the start. Maybe I’ll start up a new blog or maybe I’ll become a guest blogger somewhere else, maybe I’ll just take a vacation from this one… I’ll keep you kids posted.

So what’s going to happen to everything you see here? Well, I’m not going to just throw it all away. I’ll continue to host my website as-is for as long as I want. I guess it will serve as an archive for the last 4 years of my life. I was going to forgo the whole “I’m not going to blog anymores *Wah* *Wah*” drama post and just leave it, but I’ve seen countless blogs where the author simply stops writing for no apparent reason, just nothing more than an abandoned wasteland slowly deteriorating into an ocean of spam-comments and outdated design. I’ll still stop by for routine maintenance from time to time - it will be like a museum!

So that’s it. I hope you enjoyed the blog over the last few years. You can exit the website through the links on your left - make sure to enjoy some free refreshments before you leave. Also, we will be giving our visitors a chance to meet the author in a Q&A session that will be taking place later this evening (well, not really).

Thanks for coming.