Part of the reason for that is that I found myself flooded with ideas, but no real direction on what I wanted this site to be. In it's previous form, it was a business website for my consulting practice, also called HelpfulAdvisor. But honestly, because I didn't spend much time on the marketing aspects of the site, it didn't really serve as a good hub of information for my prospective clients.
I knew a change was needed, because at the heart of all this, all I really wanted to do from the beginning was write. What I found, however, was that I was spending a lot of time tinkering and tweaking the back-end of my content management system, and therefore was being robbed of the energy I needed to simply write.
So, I decided to move away from a content management system that needed care and feeding and moved instead to a system that would allow me to write from my computer, post from my phone, and well, just write.
Ok, so who am I? My name is Jay Medina, and I'm a lifelong technology professional. I've been in the IT world for all of my adult life, and I'm absolutely in love with what I do. I'm also passionate about technology and addicted to it at the same time.
I'm hoping that perhaps my passion for technology and my lifelong learning can translate into something helpful and useful for you, my dear reader. This blog is kind of my way of giving back, but it's also a sort of a message in a bottle. In other words, I'm glad to impart knowledge, ideas, and even opinions, the question is, is anyone actually reading it?
My new blog is both an outlet and an experiment to find out if anyone is out there. In fact, to add a little spice to things, I'm going to make it even harder on myself by ignoring all the rules, complications, tweaks, and tricks that are supposed to take place when trying to get a blog noticed.
Yeah, it's called SEO and I plan to ignore all the rules regarding it. Instead, I prefer to focus on my writing, and to helping you, should you be one who reads my blog. I'm not going to employ any tricks or tactics to get people to find me on the web. My feeling is that if my content is good, entertaining, helpful, and solid, people will find me somehow.
So, as I'm not deliberately trying to get people to my site, that doesn't mean I don't want anyone to actually read my blog. In fact, the opposite is true. I plan to write from the heart, about topics that are somewhat technical, but helpful to the average reader, across varying skill levels. From the complete novice to the seasoned expert.
Hopefully there's something for everybody here, and if there is, that is how my readership will grow. I'm counting on someone just like you to let others know about this blog.
So now, in an effort to be completely open and up front, let's talk about links and products and recommendations. This blog is not a fake marketing piece for some company or entrepreneur posing as some guy who just wants to write. Well, the some guy who just wants to write part is true, but the fake marketing thing just isn't the focus of this blog.
With that said, there may be instances where I'll recommend a product, will mention a product, or even suggest that you have a look at a product yourself and see if it meets your needs. If I do that, there may be some products that are free, and some that you pay for. Some times, I may have an affiliation with that organization and some times I may not.
For the times that I do have an affiliation with the company or product I'm writing about, I'll be sure to place a link to that product with the words "My Affiliate Link Is Here:" for you to see clearly. The reason I do that is because if you do click an affiliate link of mine, I'll get some sort of compensation from that company or person with whom I'm affiliated.
See, I told you, I'm breaking all the rules here by not hiding my affiliations. The reason I'm doing that is because even if I have an affiliation with that company, I don't want to hide that because if I am recommending something or making you aware of it, I may or may not have used that product. So, I want you to decide for yourself if it is worth it to you to click a link and investigate for yourself.
My recommendation or mentioning of a product is not driven by the few cents I would make on a commission if the product is actually purchased, it's recommended by whether or not that product, whatever it is, would actually be useful to you in some way.
It has to have context, it has to have meaning, it has to solve a problem and it has to be useful. It can't be and won't be some random product that has nothing to do with the discussion taking place on this blog.
Well, as I've said before, usually this is the least read page of any blog. Hopefully you've taken the time to read it, so that you can get to know me a little better, and I can perhaps inspire you to look around, read some postings, and engage in some discussion.
Thank you for taking the time to read, and if my message in a bottle has been received, let others know, engage in discussion, and most of all, just say hi.
Best regards,
-Jay
