Bustin' Out: Blogging Full Time
We’ve been mumbling for some time now about quitting our day job to devote ourselves full-time to blogging. Well, by this time next week, that dream will be a reality. For a variety of reasons, we’re going to have to keep a low profile for a few more weeks, but we’ll be throwing a coming…
We’ve been mumbling for some time now about quitting our day job to devote ourselves full-time to blogging. Well, by this time next week, that dream will be a reality. For a variety of reasons, we’re going to have to keep a low profile for a few more weeks, but we’ll be throwing a coming out party by house tour season for sure.
So what does this mean? In addition to no longer dreading getting out of bed in the morning, we’ll have a lot more time to focus on building the content of the site. The first sign of this will come on March 1 when we launch a new Contractor Ratings feature (hey, at least the brokerate.com software was good for something!). We’re looking for a few beta testers in the meantime, so if you’ve had occasion to use a GC, plumber, carpenter, etc. in recent months and wouldn’t mind spending a few minutes uploading some info and kicking the tires on the new site, please drop us an email at brownstoner@brownstoner.com. We’re also about ready with some new slide show technology that will let us start doing more interiors and renovation features. In addition, we are already working on some off-line events for the Brownstoner community (more on those later).
Until now, there has not been a lot of pressure for the site to generate income, a luxury which goes out the window with this move. Obviously we think the trade-off of a few more ads will be more than worth the benefit to the site of our full-time attention. And although we don’t think Brownstoner’s going to feel any more commercial going forward, we are going to spend some time trying to increase the number of direct ads on both this site and Brooklyn Record, as Google ads won’t exactly pay the mortgage. The one thing we would ask of our readers would be to please participate in the reader survey we’re going to put up in the next few days. While it’s primarily to help us get a clearer picture of reader demographics for the purpose of selling ads, we bet there are more than a few of you who will be curious to hear the results.
In the meantime, we’d like to thank everyone who has sent us tips, participated in discussions and contributed content over the past two years. The next two should be even more fun!
Cheers,
Mr. B
Hey Mr B
Mr Doran here from the times
the most unreliable blogger in the known universe!
I too am busint out of Murdochrity and have some very exciting news, but alas, the email i send to you are now returned from Brownstone Brothers removals????
Please get in touch my name at gmail.com
Welcome to the Pajama Game! Glad you listened to the Voice of Binky (a Roz Chast reference, that) and are getting out of that day job…good luck making ends meet. Note: Store-brand mac&cheese is not quite as good as name-brand Kraft, the 25-cents-a-box savings tends not to be worth the accompanying blow to one’s self-esteem; any other self-employment tips you need, just holler.
GPT, CLEARLY you are not as clever as Mr and Mrs Brownstoner… or you would be giving your notice today to work from home as well! He manages to do it, ethically I am sure- on lunch, etc, and I am so glad they get to do this full time from now on! Right on!
Hmmmm 12:49, has it ever occurred to you that sometimes money isn’t the most important thing in life? I’ve seen people take a 100% paycut to pursue their passion…
i am very happy for you.
good luck.
GPT, I’m sure that Brownstoner writes all of his posts in his free time at home in the evenings, and posts on this site during the day only when he has spare time. Aren’t you sitting at your desk reading this blog while you are at work? Does that mean that you are committing salary fraud?
Each employer establishes their own rules for web surfing and email use during the day. I’m sure he is allowed to check and respond to emails, and occassionally logs on to his site to make a small update or two. It’s my guess that even though what he has been doing is technically permitted by his employer, he didn’t want to give any appearance of impropriety, and thus kept his identity a secret.
I used to work a 9-6 job with an hour commute each way while owning and managing a few rental properties. Most of the time, my property management job could be done at night and on weekends, but occassionally I had to use my lunch break to coordinate things with a contractor, etc. When it started to get in the way of my work, I resigned. I’m sure that’s what Mr. B is doing.
Sweet. I’m with yente and NewStoner on the ad thing. Congratulations and kudos to you.
I am THRILLED for you both! That is just wonderful, this site is amazing, and you paid your dues. HERE HERE to you both!!
Come on ‘Stoner, fess up what you really do on Wall Street…”Wall St” covers a lot of things from M&A stud monkey to backoffice ticket processor…I think some people have the impression that you are a “master of the universe”…me’thinks if you were you would not be quitting to run a contractor rating system…