First, check out our new presence on Google+.  Not much going on there yet, but everything has to start somewhere.  Also note our presence on Facebook and Twitter.

Anyway, I wanted to update those following WebCommons’ activities about some stuff going on lately.

• We’re continuing to get the word out about our quick survey at MetroIssues.com.  Please encourage your friends, family and colleagues from around the United States to check it out.  More info about what we’re doing is here.
• We’re gearing up to do more regular posts here.  When the company was a web development practice, we didn’t have as much wherewithal to post, but now that we’re transitioning into a media “empire” (ha), we will become more likely to post, and post more frequently.  We have lots of ideas for posts.  Do you have any ideas for posts?  Please leave a comment.
• We’re making technical updates to this site, to improve performance and aesthetics, and display ads (I know, yuck, but this is a biz, kiddos).  At least we’re lazy loading the ads so that pages load as speedily as possible.  A few more changes are coming as well.  Do you have any ideas for improving the looks and performance of this blog/site?  Please leave a comment.
• Speaking of advertising, WebCommons now has its own little ad server, and so we’re exploring possibilities for displaying local ads on Louisville History & Issues.  Any advice for how to bring in local advertisers?  Please leave a comment.

Thanks as always for visiting our little media hub!

New Metro Issues USA main site

The excitement is building!

Our flagship website for open, constructive public discourse, Louisville History & Issues, is only the beginning of websites for local issues discussion.

Recently, WebCommons :: Media (luckily!) acquired the domain MetroIssues.com, and within weeks of migrating LouHI (our shorthand name) to the new domain, we are now announcing a new Metro Issues USA main site (see image to the right).

On this new site, by filling out a simple survey, you can suggest your (or your favorite) metropolitan area to be the next American locale to be served by a Metro Issues USA discussion space.  You may use this form more than once to suggest as many metro areas as you like, although we do ask that you only suggest metro areas that are the highest priority to you.

In this blog, we will return from time to time to let you know which metro areas are getting the most suggestions.  Of course, the number of suggestions plays only a part of our decision for expansion, but we think it will be fun for everyone to see what suggesters are suggesting.

Note: We reserve the right to discard any suggestions that appear rigged to skew the results.

Thank you very much in advance for your participation!

On edit: I updated the Metro Issues USA site image, as it recently got a minor redesign.

The new WebCommons :: Media logo, in full

Well, I finally did the logo change and cleaned out the web programming services content, leaving pretty much a clean slate to cover our media development endeavors.

Look for more content to come about what WebCommons :: Media is up to.

This change has had me wrenching for months, but I’m finally going to do it.  I am transitioning my web programming business into a media business.

The rationale for me doing this is really mostly personal, but I’ve discovered over time three things:

1. Web programming, as delightful as it is when it’s just the design and programming work, is a horrible business for a small outfit like mine to engage in for myriad reasons.  One of the biggest horrors I have is simply being able to keep up with all the different ways to develop a website and the technologies, and that’s just within the PHP/JavaScript universe.  Also, I have come to the hard conclusion that it’s become too prohibitively difficult to find the paid projects I can handle from very difficult-to-identify customer sets.  Marketing and handling inquiries has become pretty much become an impossible chore for this line of work.  And I detest impossible chores — they deplete my passion.
2. Because of #1, revenues have been way too uneven, and this has dissatisfied me to no end.  I need to have income that is more regular.  I’m sure everyone can sympathize here.
3. Developing my main media site, Louisville History & Issues, has become an increasing labor of love to the point of addiction, and I also have another media project in development that has me increasingly excited, if not riveted.  Strangely enough, the first web project I ever tinkered with in the mid 1990s was a media site, an e-zine to be exact.  So this is my first love, and I would like to make a go of it as the WebCommons business.

So, as of now, WebCommons :: Web Programming Services becomes WebCommons :: Media.

Since I am spending most of my time working on developing the media sites, this company site will be changed slowly.  I haven’t even decided on my new company logo yet. 

Further, I fully intend to take care of existing web programming customers, and perhaps even take on media-related projects that you may have (e.g., blog/sites).

The biggest thing spurring this change is my deep desire to concentrate on building a media business, and this includes running Louisville History & Issues as a commercial public service (kind of like a newspaper) for the first time — up to now, it has been run as a fully non-profit service.

As for the specific changes to Louisville History & Issues, I will post more about that over there soon.

Big thanks (!) to everyone, including my customers, for bearing with me as I make these changes.

Well, the move into a new house is finishing up, with most boxes opened, stuff placed and misplaced, and most of the house set up for living and business. Whew! This has been a lot of work — how come nobody warned me? But it has definitely been spiritually uplifting, even while physically depleting.

The last impediment to me working on any significant or new WebCommons business is some electrical work that needs to be done in the office, and that will take place on Monday, June 14. So given that goes well, I’ll be back in business on Tuesday, June 15.

And it will be great to be back! My batteries are recharged, and with expanded office space, I’ll have even more capabilities than ever before.

So, as of Tuesday, re-commence sending me your project ideas and inquiries!

On edit: WebCommons is no longer in the business of doing web programming projects for clients.

I just wanted everyone to know that because I will be moving in June, I will not be able to take on any significant project work in the first half of June. This is a major move that will be a major drain on my time, and thus I will not be able to concentrate on project work the way it deserves.

I hope that this doesn’t cause any issues. The good news is that outside of the actual two moving days, I will likely have time to work on minor maintenance, so my existing maintenance customers can breathe easy about that.