Reinventing The Carlton Zone Blog?

CARLTONZONE CONTEMPLATES BIG MOVE & NEW DIRECTION

Ladies and gents, I've been contemplating making some big changes on the blog site, both in content and where it is being hosted. It's gonna be a rocky road for the next couple of weeks, but I think I will prevail.

Look out for a new homepage coming your way, and a "new look" blog site. The company I am currently hosting my website with is not able to deliver some of the things that I would like to do with my blog, namely Amazon product integration.

Something that people don't consider much is the cost of running a blog site. You have to pay for a domain, someone to host your site, and also someone to host the actual blog "engine" if you don't want to do it all on your own. We won't even consider the cost in hours of research and writing to keep the site going.

I started partnering with Amazon.com last year around this time, and I have really delved deep into promoting different products and services in various ways in order to produce a revenue stream that would cover the costs associated with keeping the blog site running.

I've had some great months, and I've had some seriously slow months where I have only made pocket change. But I have to focus on the most efficient ways of monetizing my site in order to justify the time in keeping it fresh and building my page rank.

This post is being written using my potential new host and provider, SquareSpace.com. They offer a lot of service for the money, and at about a third of the cost of what I am paying with my current blog engine provider. Plus, they have a lot more creative ways that I can integrate Amazon products into the site.

I'm very proud to promote Amazon on my site, because it allows me to pass on great deals to my friends and family members. When they save money, they are happy, and I've gotten a lot of positive feedback for passing on good deals from Amazon, so I'm going to go forward with using them as my main monetization partner.

Right now, I am hitting a brick wall on how to convert everything from my current host to my new provider. It's looking like I will not be able to automatically export my blog's content and place it on the new server site. Therefore, it presents an awesome opportunity to just clean up my site and start from scratch.

I haven't been tremendously focused on one particular topic, and I still haven't decided what that overall focus should be. I'm an avid writer, keynote speaker, seminar trainer, business marketing consultant, business owner, and complete gadget geek. Somehow, I need to whittle this down to a more focused list for the site.

One thing that I have been given a lot of feedback from is the fact that most people have no clue regarding all of the details and specifications on smartphones, tablets, computers, laptops, and other gadgets. They come to me for the most basic of information and advice, and would like me to focus on writing blog posts to the "everyday person" that is not so technically inclined.

Honestly, there are plenty of specification-quoting techno-babbling writers out there. But there aren't many who can boil it down to something that the average person can understand. And what most people want is just enough information that they can make an informed buying decision. No more, no less.

In the coming days, I'll be thinking about where I will take the blog site, and what my focus will be. Hopefully it won't be as disorganized and running all over creation like this blog post has been. Got a suggestion for me? Let me know!

Do you think I should focus on writing about gadgets? Making money? Marketing for a current business? Or how about audio podcasts? Perhaps more video content? You make the call... I'm all ears.

Carlton Flowers
ADD/HD Blogger Supreme