New Blog Layout, Who Dis? (And Flowcharts)

Hey, new blog layout, who dis?

Honestly I’m not sure if I like it yet. It reminds me of buying new boots. Sure you need new boots — your old ones are falling apart and letting water soak into your socks — but the old ones are ever so comfy! The new ones are stiff, uncomfortable, and not very fun to wear. You have to suffer through the break-in period before they’re comfy. Given enough time you can adapt to nearly anything.

My old WordPress theme was the twenty-twelve theme, obviously a reference to the year 2012. The year almost ten years ago! I couldn’t shake the idea that maybe, just maybe, my theme was old and in desperate need of being updated. This new one is the twenty-twenty theme, only two years old if the implications of the name are true. I still don’t like it though. The layout, even on desktop, looks like it’s formatted towards mobile devices. I really doubt anyone uses PCs anymore unless you’re a ‘profressional blogger’ (the typo can stay) or part of the Gaming Master Race, so maybe the mobile-esque layout is fine. If anyone has any constructive feedback, positives/negatives to the layout, opinions, please let me know!

WordAds

Screwing around in the WordPress menus led me back to the old WordAds dashboard. I’ve already written about it so I won’t say much, but running ads on a site getting about 2,000 views a month is pointless. I earn $0.33 per month, and WordAds doesn’t let you cash out until your balance is at least $100. Time to do some maths! (100/0.33)/12=DRUMROLL PLEASE…

25 Years.

(Note: $100 in 25 years is less ‘real money’ thanks to inflation. Here’s a handy inflation calculator. $100 today is about $57 back in 1996. The $100 in 25 years is even worse when you consider inflation!)

I’m cancelling WordAds right now. I’ll sacrifice the BIG BUCKS so my site looks slightly better, even if the new theme detracts from the appeal. Once again, why’s it so hard to make money? Don’t answer that — I know why — I just don’t like it.

Google AdSense

Everyone on the blogging subreddit talks about this thing called Google AdSense. It’s straightforward enough; you can run ads from Google on your site and make BIG BUCKS with the caveat that you need a bunch of people to actually view your stuff. I meandered over there and it was easy enough to sign up for, then came the final step: add AdSense code to your WordPress blog. Okay? Okay, download this thing called Site Kit that automatically does this through the WordPress plugin feature and That’s gold, Jerry! GOLD!

Oh hey! The plan I’m on doesn’t allow for plugins to be added. But I can upgrade to the business plan for only $300 for the first year! The gears cranked in my head weighing my options. Spend $300 per year to run ads and hope/pray I can recoup even the smallest percentage of that in ad revenue? No, no way that’s going to happen. This blog isn’t a business. I have no grand goal or theme here — it’s just a bunch of random-ass posts — and I’m not tossing $300 away in a recurring fashion so I can make $5. I’m already proficient doing that in my investment accounts. Hell, sometimes I can toss $300 away to make $10!

Flowcharts!

If there is any point to this post, any statement I’m actually trying to make (there is none, but I’ll make one up), is how I’ve been viewing this process. It looks something like this:

Start Here! ► Upgrade to business plan ($300) ► Install Site Kit ► Run ads through AdSense ► ??? ► Profit!

Pretty basic and I’m no genius here, but why haven’t I been doing this a long time ago? In a few months I’ll have the “Why don’t I do the Google AdSense thing?” thought only to be slapped in the face with the plugin issue, and a nice little chart like this can act as a permanent reminder that I need to pay $300 before AdSense can happen. It also seems like it’d work great to give you a path through all of the complex goals you might have in your life. For example, going to college would look something like this:

Start Here! ► Decide on degree ► Research schools ► Fill out FAFSA ► Apply for school ► Take entrance exams (if required) ► Schedule Classes

You know what I’m going to do now? I’m going to sit down and make a flowchart like this for every possible thing I could want to do in my life. Chart out all the paths forward. See which path makes the most sense. Use it as a map from point A, to B, to point “X” in all the goals I might feel like pursuing.

You know what sucks about life? Choices. There are a ton of choices and nearly an infinite number of paths anyone can take, especially here in the developed countries. Want to go live in a tent in the woods? Go for it. Want to piss away eight years in med school to make THE BIG BUCKS? Fucking go for it! Want to be so paralyzed by your choices that you’re afraid to actually take any actions in life? That’s always an option, a sub-optimal option but it is one of the choices you can make. Given all of these choices, how does anyone really decide what they do with their lives? Like how do you know what to do?! Someone help me out here! There are too many paths to take! I don’t even know what I want for dinner tonight so how the hell am I supposed to know what career will make me happy in ten years?!

Excuse me while I draw a massive flowchart to give my life some direction. I probably won’t accomplish anything, and probably won’t even update the blog on my progress/lack of progress, but isn’t that just one of the paths I can take anyways? The slacker path? Saying I’ll do something and never actually doing it? Wish me luck people and thanks for reading! 🙏 

Ending Protip: There are a ton of flowchart generator tools online. I was going to link to one but since they’re so numerous feel free to Google to your heart’s content and find one that you like.

Check out my YouTube channel about off-grid green energy setups!

Or my Instagram where I post pointless artistic pics and shitty poems every whenever I get around to it.

Or my other blog where I sometimes post stories.