I have tossed and turned with this site for longer than I care to admit. It originally began as a need when I was podcasting, during that time I also fell in love with blogging, which eventually turned into a full-time job for me. That is the good news, of course that meant little if any time was ever left (or made) to keep this site up and active.

Since then I have tried several times to restart and rebrand it to better suit what I was doing as a professional blogger (full-time freelancer) but it has never felt right, mainly because I did not make the time and keep making progress.

With that, I have chosen to officially kill of this blog with this final post.

Of course as a full-time blogger (freelance writer) I cannot stand the idea of being without a place to journey my experience and tell my tales.

I have had my robertnelson.com domain for a while now and always used that as a landing page of sorts, but never as a blog. I kind of like it that way and plan on keeping that the same. However I have in the past used the phrase “this is me” and now that I have my robertnelson.me domain that phrase sort of fits in perfectly.

With that, I have chosen to start blogging personally about my journey and experience as a full-time blogger (freelancer) over at robertnelson.me/thisisme.

I think it fits a little better, but more important it gives me a clean start with a new blog. Of course for the time being, (until I can get something better and custom designed) I am keeping the same template.

So, I now have a new site and new feed. A completely fresh start. Now I have to prove myself and build a community. Time to get to work…

The answer of whether network blogging is good or bad is not one that I can really give you. I would say that being a network blogger has some good points and some bad points and in order to make sure its right for you will depend on how you feel about those points. For me the good outweighs the bad, but at the same time the bad is something I try to keep fresh in my mind.

Some bad

First and perhaps most important, you lose some ability of control because it does not always matter how good you are, but how good the overall team is. Meaning that you can be writing great and drawing in the readers, but if the rest of the writers are poor then the site will suffer overall. And once the site begins to suffer, everyone both good and bad can see the effects.

Another downfall is that you have no (or little) control over how the blog operates and could be left hanging if the blog owner flakes out or even if they decide to sell out. This means that you could fire up your web browser to find the site has gone down to never return, or open your email to a bit of bad news and find that you have gotten a pay cut or worse, a new owner has come in and your services are no longer needed.

Some good

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I am not sure if its the excitement that I am still feeling from BlogOrlando, but I am thinking I may want to speak at the upcoming Tampa Bay BarCamp.

Of course that is easier said than done. You see, there are two things that are holding me back on giving a 100% go ahead on speaking.

• 1. I am not sure what I would or could speak about that would benefit others…anyone have any ideas?
• 2. Perhaps this point is holding me back a little more, but I will let you in on a not so well kept secret. I have a huge fear of public speaking and suffer from social anxiety. It bothers me just to speak with people I do not know, much less getting up in front of a group.

But the bottom line is that I am passionate about blogging and furthering myself in this industry. I know that speaking could always help me out in that respect, or more important (assuming I could get over the fear and come up with a good topic) my talk may be good enough that someone else could get something to take away from it and possibly help them move forward.

I am a professional blogger and blog for other networks, so maybe I could speak on something along that line. Maybe my experience in general and how I got into the blogging world. From finding my first job and moving on from there.

The thing is that I have never attended a BarCamp and I am not sure what kind of crowd to expect and what level they will be at. Meaning I am not sure if my knowledge will be able to help anyone at this type of event. I do have stuff to share, good points and things that I have made mistakes with.

With BarCamp coming up fast, I have plenty of thinking left to do…

The “cloud” seems to be the hit item lately, there are plenty of options for online storage, web apps and much more. It seems there is so much available at this point that many users could have a super small hard drive, just running a basic operating system and keep most if not everything off your computer.

As many that follow along here already know, I work from home as a blogger and you would think that as a home office based worker that most of my data would be locally stored. But thanks to some new (and old) programs I have found myself storing quite a bit of data in the cloud. Now don’t get me wrong, I still have most of this data also stored locally, but the cloud storage allows me to access this on multiple devices.

At this point I am using:

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begin note
This post is actually a little old at this point, I had started it as a draft a while back and just let it sit. You can see my few previous posts if you need any idea of why it was never written. Anyway, I still wanted to post this because even though I wrote it based on a now old comment its still relevant.
end note

begin post
Sarah Perez posted a message, well actually a question on Twitter and it really got me thinking…

“I still care about what mainstream web users think and feel…do you? Or do you think we should just leave them all behind?”

After giving this some thought, lately I feel like I am leaving people behind, and when I try to figure out why I cannot come up with an answer.

To give some background, I am a full time tech blogger, which means that the latest story is the hottest story and it gets old quickly, actually very quickly and we need to stay on top of what is going on. I have gotten so used to that with my online life it has started to spill out in the real world for me.

Giving it some thought, I am not sure what it really means, logically thinking is it really that exciting to know that a new (enter product name here) is coming out in (enter future time here)? Or can I be just as happy to know the details when its actually available?

I think I can describe this with a statement, although to be honest I am not sure it makes sense, but here goes…

I feel like I am living a virtual life in a real life world.

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Things have been changing lately for me, I had questioned my desire to keep blogging full time a little while back. Since then some positive changes have taken place, I have taken a few days off and I now have a few things in the works that look good for the future.

The roles that changed have given me some more freedom to come and go, which is why I began blogging in the first place. I can now write as I want and need, but do not have to be available 24/7 any longer. That is good news to me!

As for my few days away, they have done wonders for me and once again I have a refreshed feeling and I am ready to begin writing again. Its strange because when I was getting real burnt out I found myself resorting back to my old life and actually handed out a few business cards as a mortgage broker. While I still maintain my studies with that and keep my license active with the state and a company, its not a path I want to pursue full time at this point. Also, if you have seen me in real life or in pictures you can most likely tell that I am not really a corporate type of guy.

During my few days away, I have kept tabs on a select few of my favorite sites, just to stay somewhat in the loop and it looks like that may have been a good move because another opportunity seems to have come up for me. This latest will hopefully allow me to reach another audience and hopefully grow further as a writer and blogger.

As of now I am hoping for the best and still looking to further myself in the blogging world. Although I have a hard time telling people what I do for a living, as most do not seem to understand, I am proud to be earning a full time living as a blogger. Of course there is always room to grow and better myself.

In the meantime blogging will retain my full attention and as far as being a mortgage broker, that will remain on the back burner and I will pick up a deal here and there just to make some extra money.

I have long struggled with this site, over the years it has gone through several focal points and numerous designs. Bottom line is that I have never really been able to post with any consistency and even when I manage to get a few posts out I am not really sure where I want this to go in the long run.

I have at least figured out part of my problem, and it is actually pretty dumb. I tend to avoid posting here because by the time I write everywhere else (for sites that pay the bills) I generally just do not feel like writing anymore.

Granted I have things to say, but most of the time they just go unsaid. Talk about being a bad blogger. Even though I realize by me posting here I can only further myself in the blogging world, it is still hard to find make the time to actually put my thoughts down.

I need to get passed that. I has settled on a theme for this blog, and it would be to basically just talk about my experience in blogging, things I have found interesting in the online world and want to share, but generally speaking I consider it my “journey through the internet.” Now I just need to get it through my head that just because I am not getting paid to write here that I am doing it for free.

I guess this is a drawback to being a network blogger and not working entirely for yourself as an owner/blogger.

Sure, most people think that blogging, or more specifically bloggers in general are really social people, but I tend to think that at least for some it proves to be quite the opposite. Of course a lot of this depends on whether you are talking about being social online or in the real world.

I am pretty social online, I chat throughout the day with other bloggers over Skype and Google Talk, and send more than my fair share of emails, but at times I can go days without dealing with a real person outside of my family.

While there are different styles of blogging, I will focus on what I know and what I do, tech blogging. Few will argue that its a hard field to get into, and a very competitive field once you are in.

This makes it difficult to break away from the computer, there is always that new idea that pops into your head for a post, or that new breaking topic that you want, or just feel the need to cover.

But that is the issue, there will always be that one more. Of course, when you are putting your all into succeeding its hard to make a break and say enough is enough, at least for a while.

Hence the reason I just finished writing 3 posts, and editing 3 others and am still working on this one at 10:33 on a Friday evening.

This is something I obviously still need to work on, knowing when enough is enough.

I have come to realize that this is not healthy, don’t get me wrong, I am healthy physically, but need to make an effort to break away to stay healthy mentally. Long story short, its time to take a break.

Strangely enough this post began as a recap of a recent local blogger meetup and my upcoming conference plans, that said I am going offline for a while.

Honesty disclaimer: I think that was the most difficult post that I have written to date, and it really has me struggling with what is right and wrong. It also has me worried what may happen should I push this dream to far.

I have dreamed, worked and achieved my goal. I am now living 100% off income from blogging. Well that in addition to my wife’s income, but my income from blogging, although it could always be higher, is at the goal point that I set for myself and it is where it was when I left my 9-5 job two years back.

I will say that my income is far from a six-figure blogger, but it’s enough to give me freedom from a 9-5 office job, along with some flexibility.

Based on that I should be happy, hell I should be thrilled, but I am having seconds thoughts as to the path that I have chosen, and sometimes dream of just how easy I had it when I had a real/office job. I must also say that I am not ready to go back to that path, not yet anyway.

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Not much to really write about, I find these office tours are much better if done with video. This particular video was shot using a Flip video, so I apologize in advance for any lack of quality. If you have any questions or comments about my setup, post away below. In the meantime I hope you enjoy seeing where I spend majority of my day, and sometimes nights.

You can also check out the full version of the above image on my Flickr photostream.