So I feel like I do one of these posts every few months, especially recently. It’s kind of just a call to order. Where am I at? What am I doing? What’s going on with the website? I’m fully aware that no one cares, and that no one actually reads these. You’ll be shocked to learn that a post about “What is Michael’s latest fumbling?” doesn’t bring in the readers. However, for me, I need to do this at least one more time. So here we are.

There, and back again

So what’s going on? Well, I’ve been debating that, trying to figure out not only what I wanted this website to be, but where I wanted to spend my time, how I wanted things to be. And I’ve gone back and forth a great deal on how and what I wanted Fatherhood: Reloaded to be. It kind of started as a personal blog thing, and then it evolved to add reviews and random things, even housed the short-lived podcast for a bit. A fact probably no one is aware of. So this site has always been in fluctuation, and that’s part of the problem and part of why I think the website in itself struggles to get anywhere.

So I’ve really debated. I even at one point recently was debating on just shutting the whole thing down. But I’ve shifted things, moved things around, and currently, I think I’m in a good spot with websites and blogs. (Feel free to tell me I’m wrong, however!)

When you get online and search, you find the “experts’” opinions, and what people say helps drive traffic and help make a successful website—three, four, five posts a week, quality content, cross-platform Stuff, just the whole SEO thing. If you base it off that and where that falls, the truth is I am never going to successfully have a commercially viable website again.

That’s just it though—I don’t do this for that. I don’t run ads. I don’t have AdWords. I don’t do affiliate links. I don’t do any of that. I do this, all this, for me.

So again, what does that mean for you? What does that mean for the reader, the visitor, the random person who unfortunately falls into this reading, or anything else I post? This is what it means. It means that I have streamlined and narrowed down the scope of what this website, Fatherhood: Reloaded covers. I have deleted. I have purged. I have moved posts to other domains. Whereas Fatherhood: Reloaded started as a kind of personal thing, as my outlet, I now have those outlets elsewhere. Now, Fatherhood: Reloaded can truly become what I’ve always said it was. My problem is, that as an outlet, this site for the past few years has shouldered other things that I should have never been putting on here. The only thing I accomplished there was to muddy the water.

So if you browse the site, you will see reviews. You will see articles from me, guest authors, and more covering parenting and random life things. I will continue to cover technology and entertainment, but it will be stuff I feel fits within the actual scope of this website. There’s still a bit of my nostalgia and callbacks to things, things that I feel fit not just me, but may be of interest to people that are similar to me. So yes, we’ve got a He-Man post, or a random TMNT post, or even covering the latest Ghostbusters trailer. It’s going to be sprinklings of that. And then more coverage of kids’ entertainment, Bluey, Peanuts, and Disney Channel. It’s not going to be a wide scope. It’s going to be a very narrow scope, but it will still be a scope, nonetheless.

So I’m hopefully driving and pointing this site in the direction that it should have been from the beginning, how it initially started, and honestly how I’ve tried to always describe it. So what does that mean for everything else? Well, I’ve pulled back on most of the personal stuff and put that back where it belongs. Yes, there are still going to be a couple of posts about my kids, about arthrogryposis, about things that we go through because that is still parenting. That is still part of the fatherhood experience, but the more personal things that I have previously written and posted here are now split off into two outlets.

The Greene Affect

I have kept The Greene Affect separate from the very beginning from when our son was born with AMC. That is still going to maintain its presence. It’s more for family and friends. It’s not a website I worry about ranking in Google or traffic or anything like that. It’s just a website. It’s a blog where I write out posts and share updates that we share on social media. That’s what The Greene Affect is. You’re more than welcome to go over there and check stuff out, but it’s very kind of just bland. It’s like extended, expanded social media updates more than anything else.

Parsons Media

Parsons Media is a new personal website where. It is the place where I try to be open with thoughts and emotions because some days are better than others. Some days I struggle, and it just is what it is. Parsons Media is that website, that blog, that outlet. I will definitely be rehashing and resharing things that I’ve posted here and that I’ve posted on The Greene Affect in the past, but you’re going to know more about my feelings and my view. Because the truth is, most people they don’t care. They don’t want to read about emotions, especially from dads. They don’t want to read the bad stuff, the sad stuff, or the sappy stuff. They just want the rainbows and unicorns and the happy stuff. So if you want a bit more realism, a bit more unfiltered Michael, that’s where that is. That’s become my grouping of everything. I’m calling it my ‘cavalcade of chaos’. You do have my posts, and my personal thoughts, but there’s going to be more.

Along with my blog posts and personal insights, I’m sharing some of my graphic work. I’ve got my portfolio on there that I’m building up, and it’s the home to some of my random creations that haven’t felt right sharing elsewhere before. I also have a kind of personal project. A genealogy slash historical advertising project that I dabble in that I’ve decided to move there, too. It doesn’t take up everything. It’s just kind of tucked in its own corner. Honestly, it’s there more for me than anything, but it’s there free for anyone with an internet connection to find. Just like with The Green Affect, you’re more than welcome to check out all that over on Parsons Media, but if you don’t, that’s okay, too.

Geekasms

And then finally, the website that got me into websites. The OG of what started all of this online presence well over a decade ago. Covering pop culture, movies, and comic books, covering the geeky things that bring me joy and make me happy, and allow me to escape the harsh, mundane reality of the world.

I have moved all that stuff that had slowly started trickling onto this website over to Geekasms. It is not the website I used to have by any means. It’s at best a shadow of its former self, but it gives me joy to at least post something. You will probably rarely find in-depth information. It’s definitely a site for a quick browse if you want to see what the latest trailer or poster or something like that is. It’s just another one of my little getaway corners of the world that I’m not worried about if it gets two hits in a day and they’re both me. But I have moved a lot of stuff that was here on Fatherhood that probably didn’t fit over to Geekasms. Stuff that I tried to force onto this website I’ve moved over there now. So if you’re worried about the first look at the “Blue Beetle” movie logo or the latest trailer for “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire'” it’s over there.

So that is the layout, we’ll say, of everything. I can be found in four places within the interwebs. You have Fatherhood: Reloaded and The Greene Affect, which have been rather intertwined up to this point. And then the two new, kind of, sort of new kids on the block are Parsons Media and Geekasms.

Sounds like a lot of chaos, doesn’t it? Sounds like a bunch of scatterbrained stuff for someone who can’t pick one niche and stick with it. And you would be correct. Again, I have never used websites or blogs or the internet as a means of financial prosperity. It might be my fault. It might be a missed boat for me. But I’ve always used it as an outlet. And the past few years, I’ve needed an outlet more than not.

So there you are. Again, I doubt anybody’s going to read this post, and I get that. And I’m okay with that. And if you do read this post, and you are reading these words right this very second, I would love for you to scroll down just a second more and leave a comment. Just say hi. Give it a like. Do whatever. I would appreciate it to at least know it has existed beyond just me. But if it’s not, and I’m essentially just talking to a wall, it’s okay too.

So there we have it, the latest and probably (hopefully) the last “state-of-the-website” post for Fatherhood: Reloaded. The fourth anniversary of the website is coming up in November, and we’ll see where we are then. So thank you for reading. I appreciate you all. Again, feel free to leave a comment. Find me on social media. And if there’s something you want to check out, let me know. If there’s something you would like to write about yourself and you just need an outlet, I am more than happy to let people post on this site. No cost to you. If you have a thought, you have an experience, you have something you just want to get out, drop me a line. I’ll be more than happy to share it. And again, no cost to you and ultimately no benefit to me. So there we are. Until next time, thank you.

The post The End of Website Fumbling? (Probably Not, But Here’s an Update) appeared first on Fatherhood: Reloaded.