I have tossed and turned with this site for longer than I care to admit. It originally began as a need when I was podcasting, during that time I also fell in love with blogging, which eventually turned into a full-time job for me. That is the good news, of course that meant little if any time was ever left (or made) to keep this site up and active.

Since then I have tried several times to restart and rebrand it to better suit what I was doing as a professional blogger (full-time freelancer) but it has never felt right, mainly because I did not make the time and keep making progress.

With that, I have chosen to officially kill of this blog with this final post.

Of course as a full-time blogger (freelance writer) I cannot stand the idea of being without a place to journey my experience and tell my tales.

I have had my robertnelson.com domain for a while now and always used that as a landing page of sorts, but never as a blog. I kind of like it that way and plan on keeping that the same. However I have in the past used the phrase “this is me” and now that I have my robertnelson.me domain that phrase sort of fits in perfectly.

With that, I have chosen to start blogging personally about my journey and experience as a full-time blogger (freelancer) over at robertnelson.me/thisisme.

I think it fits a little better, but more important it gives me a clean start with a new blog. Of course for the time being, (until I can get something better and custom designed) I am keeping the same template.

So, I now have a new site and new feed. A completely fresh start. Now I have to prove myself and build a community. Time to get to work…

As most people who follow me already know, a big reason for my not posting here on my personal blog is that I write as a professional blogger on other sites. Without going into full details, one network that I write for is Dabbledoo Media, which includes Gadgetell (who I write for) along with Appletell and Gamertell.

So, getting back to the title; Wanna win some FREE stuff? Of course you do, everyone loves some free goodies. With that, both Gadgetell and Appletell have some stuff for you to win.

• Gadgetell Black Friday Giveaway: Win 1 of 10 Seagate FreeAgent 1TB + 500GB Drive Bundles
• Dirt Devil 12 Days of Cleaning Sweepstakes, brought to you by Gadgetell
• Win $6000+ of computer stuff with the HP Magic Giveaway
• Appletell giveaway: 40 Mac OS Classic games (and something to play them on)

Well, what are you still doing reading this, click on the links above for your chance to win!

Well, my last “Black Friday” sale post did not seem to work that well…so off to eBay it is. If anyone is interested (or know someone who is) then feel free to bid, or Buy It Now.

All items are up for auction, and have a nice (fair) buy it now price. They also all come with free shipping. All items are in excellent (like new) condition, you will not be disappointed!

Asus Eee PC 701

Everex Cloudbook (CE1200V)

Apple Bluetooth headset

Aliph Jawbone Bluetooth headset

Plantronics Explorer 370 Bluetooth headset

I have some items that I have been to lazy to really deal with sitting here, now the time has come to simply get rid of them. So what better way than to offer them at a nice price on an already hot shopping day.

Asus Eee PC 701: $150 Looks like new! Will ship in original box, with all included accessories. Also included is an auto-charger. This netbook has also had the RAM upgraded from the original 512MB up to 1GB.

Everex Cloudbook: $150 Again, this looks just like new! It will ship in the original box with all included accessories. This netbook is running Ubuntu 8.10 instead of the default gOS. I have included a recovery disk for gOS, just in case you wanted to run that, but Ubuntu runs much nicer.

HP Mini-Note 2133: $625 In like new condition. This is the top of the line Mini-Note. It is running Windows Vista Business and has a 1.6GHz processor, with 2GB RAM and a 120GB hard drive. Also included is a Waterfield Design sleeve case. This netbook is in perfect condition and was originally purchased for $750.

Apple Bluetooth Headset: $50 This is in like new condition and will ship in the original box. The headset was used (at most) 5 or 6 times. Looks and functions just like new.

Jawbone Bluetooth Headset: $50 Similar to the Apple headset, this will ship in the original package and has been used a handful of times. Looks and functions just like new.

Plantronics Explorer 370 Bluetooth Headset: $30 Used at most 2 or 3 times. This headset does not have the original package, but will ship with the headset, charger, lanyard and instruction manual.

Nero 8 Ultra Edition: $30 Never opened, never installed.

Skullcandy Smokin’ Buds ear buds: $10 Never opened, never used.

All prices include shipping, keep in mind that I will only ship to the US though. If you are in Canada, we can talk, but I may need a little extra to cover some of the shipping. As for payment, PayPal is the method.

If you have any questions, just send me an email. areyouageek (at) gmail (dot) com

The answer of whether network blogging is good or bad is not one that I can really give you. I would say that being a network blogger has some good points and some bad points and in order to make sure its right for you will depend on how you feel about those points. For me the good outweighs the bad, but at the same time the bad is something I try to keep fresh in my mind.

Some bad

First and perhaps most important, you lose some ability of control because it does not always matter how good you are, but how good the overall team is. Meaning that you can be writing great and drawing in the readers, but if the rest of the writers are poor then the site will suffer overall. And once the site begins to suffer, everyone both good and bad can see the effects.

Another downfall is that you have no (or little) control over how the blog operates and could be left hanging if the blog owner flakes out or even if they decide to sell out. This means that you could fire up your web browser to find the site has gone down to never return, or open your email to a bit of bad news and find that you have gotten a pay cut or worse, a new owner has come in and your services are no longer needed.

Some good

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I am not sure if its the excitement that I am still feeling from BlogOrlando, but I am thinking I may want to speak at the upcoming Tampa Bay BarCamp.

Of course that is easier said than done. You see, there are two things that are holding me back on giving a 100% go ahead on speaking.

• 1. I am not sure what I would or could speak about that would benefit others…anyone have any ideas?
• 2. Perhaps this point is holding me back a little more, but I will let you in on a not so well kept secret. I have a huge fear of public speaking and suffer from social anxiety. It bothers me just to speak with people I do not know, much less getting up in front of a group.

But the bottom line is that I am passionate about blogging and furthering myself in this industry. I know that speaking could always help me out in that respect, or more important (assuming I could get over the fear and come up with a good topic) my talk may be good enough that someone else could get something to take away from it and possibly help them move forward.

I am a professional blogger and blog for other networks, so maybe I could speak on something along that line. Maybe my experience in general and how I got into the blogging world. From finding my first job and moving on from there.

The thing is that I have never attended a BarCamp and I am not sure what kind of crowd to expect and what level they will be at. Meaning I am not sure if my knowledge will be able to help anyone at this type of event. I do have stuff to share, good points and things that I have made mistakes with.

With BarCamp coming up fast, I have plenty of thinking left to do…

The “cloud” seems to be the hit item lately, there are plenty of options for online storage, web apps and much more. It seems there is so much available at this point that many users could have a super small hard drive, just running a basic operating system and keep most if not everything off your computer.

As many that follow along here already know, I work from home as a blogger and you would think that as a home office based worker that most of my data would be locally stored. But thanks to some new (and old) programs I have found myself storing quite a bit of data in the cloud. Now don’t get me wrong, I still have most of this data also stored locally, but the cloud storage allows me to access this on multiple devices.

At this point I am using:

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I am really excited, today I am making my way over to Orlando. Its a relatively short drive, just a little over an hour and I am sure the drive will be worth it. The event I am headed to is BlogOrlando and from the looks of the schedule it is going to feel like information overload.

This should be a good day, a day that I can get out of the house and out of my home office and just enjoy learning and meeting some new people. Of course the learning part is fun for me, the meeting new people is going to be a little harder. I guess part of the reason why I enjoy blogging so much is that it can be very virtual and I can avoid the awkward social face-to-face meetings.

But with that, I do realize that I also need to network in real life to make progress in the pro-blogging world.

I was registered and intended to go to IzeaFest a few weeks back, but my wife ended up having surgery a few days before and it just was not a good time to leave, after all family comes first. Then after BlogOrlando I will also be attending the first Tampa Bay BarCamp, which is on October 11 and 12th.

That should be interesting in itself, I am planning to attend the party the night of the 11th, which begins at 5:30 and then the full New Media day on the 12th. I say that it should be interesting because I am running a 50k trail run on the morning of the 11th and will most likely be pretty sore and tired. But overall it should be another great event for me to learn and do some more networking and hopefully work to get passed some of my social anxiety.

begin note
This post is actually a little old at this point, I had started it as a draft a while back and just let it sit. You can see my few previous posts if you need any idea of why it was never written. Anyway, I still wanted to post this because even though I wrote it based on a now old comment its still relevant.
end note

begin post
Sarah Perez posted a message, well actually a question on Twitter and it really got me thinking…

“I still care about what mainstream web users think and feel…do you? Or do you think we should just leave them all behind?”

After giving this some thought, lately I feel like I am leaving people behind, and when I try to figure out why I cannot come up with an answer.

To give some background, I am a full time tech blogger, which means that the latest story is the hottest story and it gets old quickly, actually very quickly and we need to stay on top of what is going on. I have gotten so used to that with my online life it has started to spill out in the real world for me.

Giving it some thought, I am not sure what it really means, logically thinking is it really that exciting to know that a new (enter product name here) is coming out in (enter future time here)? Or can I be just as happy to know the details when its actually available?

I think I can describe this with a statement, although to be honest I am not sure it makes sense, but here goes…

I feel like I am living a virtual life in a real life world.

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Things have been changing lately for me, I had questioned my desire to keep blogging full time a little while back. Since then some positive changes have taken place, I have taken a few days off and I now have a few things in the works that look good for the future.

The roles that changed have given me some more freedom to come and go, which is why I began blogging in the first place. I can now write as I want and need, but do not have to be available 24/7 any longer. That is good news to me!

As for my few days away, they have done wonders for me and once again I have a refreshed feeling and I am ready to begin writing again. Its strange because when I was getting real burnt out I found myself resorting back to my old life and actually handed out a few business cards as a mortgage broker. While I still maintain my studies with that and keep my license active with the state and a company, its not a path I want to pursue full time at this point. Also, if you have seen me in real life or in pictures you can most likely tell that I am not really a corporate type of guy.

During my few days away, I have kept tabs on a select few of my favorite sites, just to stay somewhat in the loop and it looks like that may have been a good move because another opportunity seems to have come up for me. This latest will hopefully allow me to reach another audience and hopefully grow further as a writer and blogger.

As of now I am hoping for the best and still looking to further myself in the blogging world. Although I have a hard time telling people what I do for a living, as most do not seem to understand, I am proud to be earning a full time living as a blogger. Of course there is always room to grow and better myself.

In the meantime blogging will retain my full attention and as far as being a mortgage broker, that will remain on the back burner and I will pick up a deal here and there just to make some extra money.