You may have noticed I haven’t been blogging much on Sugarrae.com in the last year or so. There have been several reasons for that and I’d like to address them before telling you that “I’m back” [resists urge to sing "I'm back in the saddle again..."] and getting back to semi-regular posting (I never have been one to post unless I actually have something to say)…
Why the blog has been “dead”…
Personal issues
The past eighteen months were rough ones for me on a personal level and unfortunately, I wasn’t working at all much for the last twelve months or so as a result – much less blogging on my site. I think “burn out” is the best way to describe it.
Luckily for me, I’d busted my ass for almost a decade prior, so I had a setup that allowed me to take some personal time without killing all that I’d built up over that time. I’ve never been one to get personal online, so I’m leaving it at that. But I’m happy to say that I’m in a great spot now and the time off was exactly what I needed to get all of my ducks back in a row.
Technical issues
The blog has been in some dire shape on the back end for quite some time. I think the old adage is “the cobbler’s children have no shoes.” What little time I had spent working in the last eighteen months had to be spent on my various companies… which meant I had no time to fix the issues the blog was having (it would randomly delete comments, posts… and every WordPress update was a nightmare).
After bitching about it for the zillionth time, my friend Zane skyped me that he would be glad to help out with the technical issues. Since I’m back at it full time again now, I had the time to clean up the content issues on the blog and make the changes I wanted made on the front end while he cleaned up the technical issues. (Thanks again Zane!)
Changes in the blog
Comments are gone
Yep, and they ain’t coming back either. Sorry. For many of the same reasons Michael cited, I’ve killed all comments on the blog and closed commenting on all posts – past and future. The sheer volume of comments I had to dig through (if I didn’t check for two weeks, I’d come back to thousands of comments in moderation) made maintaining this blog an absolute hell I dreaded every time I logged into the admin panel. It was either allow comments and never blog, or blog semi-regularly and kill comments. I chose the latter.
Dead weight deletions
Some posts that I felt provided no real value are now gone. Most of the posts remain, but you might find a few of the categories no longer exist (either due to the posts within them being deleted or restructuring of where blog posts “live”). Additionally, I believe I made my point to the girls of Zaaz, so that post has been removed and their exact match domains have since been redirected. The WordPress plugin section has also been deleted. My attempt to offer up some free plugins brought me ten times the grief I’d ever expected and I’m over it.
General site changes
Aside from that, I made some general changes and updates to the sidebars etc. as certain items (like the YouTube videos) were killing the page load times. The tabs up at the top have also been changed up a bit. My about page has been updated as well. I doubt any of the other changes (if I’m missing any) are noticeable enough to mention.
Updates on what I’m up to
MFE Interactive
The last few years have been great ones for MFE Interactive. We’ve built some quality affiliate sites, have created a few awesome affiliate brands (we showcase a small selection of them on our website) and the natural next step is creating more. We moved into a new office recently, I have an awesome staff and they are all dedicated to MFE and seeing it grow… so I look forward to what the next twelve months holds.
Outspoken Media
If you’ve been under a rock for the last eighteen months, then you may not know that I started an Internet marketing firm with Lisa Barone and Rhea Drsydale (I never made an official announcement about it on the Sugarrae blog until now). It’s been an amazing eighteen months for the company and it continues to grow at a wildfire pace and I’m armed with a match and some kerosene to make sure that trend continues.
Sugarrae
I continue to make personal affiliate sites in addition to all the “corporate punk” stuff above and the Sugarrae blog will once again be seeing some posts on a semi-regular basis (I’ll never blog daily folks…) so if you’ve missed me blogging here, you can look forward to new reviews, new information and new rants.
Cheers.
About the Author
Rae Hoffman-Dolan aka "Sugarrae" is an affiliate marketing veteran and an (extremely) occasional Houston SEO consultant specializing in SEO audits and link building strategies. She is also the author of the often controversial Sugarrae blog and the SVP of Marketing for Speedy Incorporation Services. You can connect with Rae via Twitter and Facebook.
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Sugarrae runs on the Thesis WordPress Theme
If you’re someone who doesn’t understand a lot of PHP, Thesis will give a ton of functionality that you wouldn’t be able to obtain otherwise with a simple control panel instead of having to alter code. For the advanced, Thesis has incredible customization possibilities via Thesis hooks.
For those "in between", like myself, I’ve created "dummy" guides for Thesis hooks that allow us to make more professional customizations than we ever deemed possible. The theme is not only highly customizable, but it has allowed me to run Sugarrae more professionally, with a much more targeted focus on monetization than it ever has been able to achieve before. You can find out more about Thesis below:
- Thesis Website and Demo
- Thesis Theme Review
- Thesis Tutorial: Hooks for Dummies
- More Thesis Tutorials on Sugarrae
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