Blogging is a journey, not a destination. On that premise, here are some of the steps we’ve taken recently to get The Computer Mouse off the ground.
Context
I haven’t been the brightest bulb in the pack. Instead of staying consistent over the years, I made the mistake of changing this site’s domain name a few times and redirecting the previous domain’s pages. Bing has had no problem with our changes; however, we’re having to steadily climb back up again in Google.
The past is the past
The original site’s more popular pages were all about custom ROMs for Galaxy phones. I compiled pages of up-to-date ROM lists and was a Recognized Contributor for a few years over at XDA Developers. As my need to customize smartphones waned, I decided to bring the computer content to the forefront. Going with the domain name, thecomputermouse.com, I felt it was time to stop focussing on the ROMs and put those pages in the Archives section.
The road ahead
There is plenty of stuff to do to get this blog into shape. Last year, after changing to this domain name, we switched hosts and finally changed to WordPress. We don’t intend to have unsightly ads here. However, it’s OK for writers to link to their app or author page if they want, plus include the occasional valid affiliate link to recommended apps, hardware, or services.
F5 – Refresh
Instead of posting a new post per site update, we’ll probably just be updating this page. So, if you’re curious about this old guy’s technical fumblings or what goes into setting up this blog, refresh or revisit this page, or bookmark this: Skip to most recent update
2021
With that trivial honesty out of the way, here are some of the things that have been going on here to get this blog off the ground.
- [January]
Bought and paid for legal documents
Blogs and sites have needed documents like a Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions page for years. I’ve had a couple of essential free legal documents in the past; however, it was time to stop being lazy, so this time, a kind legal professional via Fiverr.com drafted the ones here.
Bought Awesome Fonts Pro
We’ve happily used the free version of Awesome Fonts before, mainly depending on the WordPress themes we’ve experimented with in the past. In my quest to improve the page speeds here, I went with Pro to help keep the font collections small.
As it happens, though, we haven’t implemented Awesome Font yet. I’m still testing it and other options (SVG, other font families, etc.) from a page speed (and visual) perspective. Anyone who likes to test page loading speed knows that it can get quite addictive, even if it is rather pointless a lot of the time.
Bought WP Rocket
The WordPress plugin WP Rocket is a paid caching plugin that instantly improves page loading speed. See How to Make Your Website Faster! Before that, I used a popular free plugin to get reasonably good speeds, but as the saying goes, `You get what you pay for.’
- [March]
Uploaded a video
We uploaded a short and quick video, Building Computers – An Introduction for beginners (video montage), to complement our Building Computers page. We filmed it a long time ago but recently decided not to waste our filming efforts, and put it to good use.
- [April]
Introduced our Friends and affiliates
We don’t want to have unsightly random ads on this site, but we do like to introduce you to tools, apps, and services that we pay for and recommend, though. So, we have added a Friends and Affiliates page, to which we will be adding a few more essential partners over the coming weeks. So, stay tuned for those.
- [November]
We welcome out first writer, CJ Miller
We like writers to bring their enthusiasm, expertise, and personality here, and we offer them the freedom to write about their favorite and relevant topics. CJ is a fellow computer enthusiast with a passion for tech writing, especially in the world of Web 3.0 and Cryptocurrency.
We are on Pinterest
Thanks to the services of arditaardi (Link) we have a presence on Pinterest now.
- [The future]
We are looking for partnerships
Please get in touch with us to offer any apps, services, discounts, or giveaways to our readers. We love giving stuff away (especially to those involved in the comments), and we are sure you would like the extra exposure.
Always open to advice
We are always on the listen-out for advice. Even more so from a design or SEO perspective. Hence why we use Fiverr.com for some of our needs. You can help us out by leaving a comment here and there, or maybe you’d like to write a post or two. We will find ways to reward community members for their support.
Keeping things simple
One of the goals here is to have easy-to-see and easy-to-find content. Of course, that should be a goal of all sites. We do like to keep up on tech news, so we follow quite a few tech sites. We will only post types of info that you can apply or use right now, though. As we have mentioned, we don’t want posts to get hidden amongst a sea of affiliate links or ads.
Therefore, we will only have select ads on this site for things that we use and enthusiastically recommend.
Check back for updates
We should be updating this page from time to time. If you can offer any opinions or advice, feel free to leave some comments around the site. We will be giving away a few things to helpful contributors. Thanks for reading!
How’s your blogging journey? Share your opinions or advice.
I’m a longtime PC enthusiast. I love talking about computers and seeing other people enjoy theirs. I live in Japan as an English teacher (and vegetable farmer). When I’m not aspiring to be a better blogger, I play Apex Legends.
