My name is Charles Amat and I am 21 years old. I am working towards an AA degree in Information Technology at Miami Dade College. I co-own and run a product review blog called Yourwiseguy.com with my friend and partner, Joey Campos. My hobbies include programmin/coding, gaming, and tasing wine. I also very much enjoy hanging out with my girlfriend, Kelly =)
When I first created this Tumblr blog I didn’t really take it seriously. Not because Tumblr is a bad site, but because I just didn’t think I would be spending much time posting anything. Like when you created your first Twitter account 8 months ago, tweeted what you were doing, and never logged in again am I right? It just didn’t seem like something I wanted to keep up.
However, things have changed. I truly do enjoy writing about what interests me most (big surprise) and have poured more effort into my Tumblr blog than I previously anticipated. As a result, I have been making some big changes to my layout.
Every blog needs - and I can’t stress this enough - needs, needs interactivity and shareability. Facebook share, retweet, and comments are becoming the industry standard and everyone should utilize these tools on their blog if they want to be able to compete with the hundreds of thousands of blogs on the internet.
Sadly, many layouts on Tumblr do not come stocked with these tools. My first layout, which took me all of two minutes to find, was completely bare. All it had was a nifty background and some cool transparent elements. But a pretty layout isn’t going to get me anywhere and it certainly isn’t going to help you get the name of my blog out there.
The fb share button, retweet button, and discus comment system were all hard coded by me. I had to copy all of the script from the respective Websites and insert them into the HTML of my layout. This was fairly easy for me to do, being that I have been working with these Web design languages for quite a while now, but what about the average user?
Some people use Tumblr because it is so easy and there is no coding involved. I know that’s why I chose it! I code enough on Yourwiseguy.com as it is (although I never mind the practice)!
Sadly, the only solution is to just go out there and search. Find layouts with these buttons built in because they will really make a difference! I believe that there are some layouts with discus built in as well. If you haven’t heard of discus, you really should check it out because it will change the interactivity of your blog and really help you reach out to your user.
I will be searching for a new layout to fit my needs an I can only hope that these features will be built in. If not, I will have to open up the code and dig in.
Good luck and comment letting me know what you’ve found! Thanks for reading!
Ever since I started following Gary Vaynerchuk and read his book Crush It!, I have been pushing the significance of blogging to all of my friends and family. In his book, Gary discusses the shift in today’s business world. From newsprint and cocktail parties to blogs and twitter, new opportunities are arising every day for just about anybody who can work a keyboard and mouse. People are following their wildest dreams because the new age of internet is providing them with a means to do it!
Just imagine talking about your biggest passion, sharing all of your knowledge and meeting like minded people every day. You would be doing what you absolutely love to do and it would be your day job. This is exactly what the world of blogging offers!
The other day I asked my sister if she would be starting a blog anytime soon. She answered, “I’m a good writer but nobody cares what I have to say.” My first thought was, “who gives a shit?” But, thinking more reasonably, the second thought that came to my mind was, “You would be surprised!”
I’m no saint, cash is on my mind when I spend hours and hours slaving over my brand, Yourwiseguy.com. I love what I do but it would rock ten times more if there was some cash flow in the mix. If no one reads what you are putting out then there is no reason for you to believe that any company would want to pay you for advertising space. And adspace is where the money is at, right?
What you have to understand is that, as long as you are focused on what you know and love, and are being totally you, there is no reason to believe that people won’t want to hear what you have to say. Like I said, you would be utterly surprised at how many people might happen upon your blog and become full time members.
Let me give you an example to illustrate my point. Everyday I go to work and spend the majority of my time with a guy named Brian. Brian is a talker. He used to work as a used car salesman and, from what I hear, he was damn good at it. I know this because that is all he talks about. He tells me about the scams, the rebates, the funny stories, and all of the things that have to do with selling used cars.
Everyday he talks and talks and talks about being a used car salesman and I have never gotten bored of it. In fact, I find myself asking random questions that I would never think of myself to ask. I have absolutely no interest in the used car industry but, because he is so passionate and knowledgeable about it, he could hold my attention all day long!
The point is that people will love what you have to say because they will love you. Each and every person is unique and interesting in their own right and readers eat that up. If you are authentic and put out good content, you will have nothing to worry about.
Don’t get me wrong, you won’t gain a huge following over night. But it won’t matter because everytime you log into your blog you know you will be writing about something you love. It will be worth it, and when the viewers and opportunities to monetize start rolling in you will realize that you had been living the dream all along.
In the wise words of Gary Vaynerchuk, “Love your family. Work superhard. Live your passion.” Thanks for reading!
Today I was faced with two interesting opportunities that truly made my day. The first was when one of my employers handed me $600 and said, “go over to Best Buy and pick up a computer for me,” and the second was when Joey and I received an email from Cleavage Creek Cellars. They were emailing to inform us that they would be sending us free samples of their wine for the article I posted on Yourwiseguy.com.
Being a programmer, Website designer, and blogger, knowing the ins and outs of a computer comes naturally to me. I have built over a dozen PCs in my head and get excited about large sticks of ram - that’s what she said!
…Ahem, being as excited about computer hardware as I am, I rarely get to actually indulge myself in it. I have never purchased or built a custom computer in my life. My macbook was a Christmas gift from the folks and my desktop is an emachine frankenstein. The only custom things about it are it’s graphics card and power supply (which it can barely handle as it is).
You can imagine my delight when my boss, who has hired me to redesign his company’s Website, handed me a wad of one hundred dollar bills and told me to find the best computer I could find for a decent price. It was like Christmas morning! I hopped into my little car and rushed all the way to Best Buy. After about 45 minutes of spec and price comparing, I had a brand new emachine and Asus monitor.
I tell you it was like a dream come true, and it truly was the first time I had ever gone out and bought a computer like that! And from now on I will be using it to build the Website I have been hired to redesign.
The second unique opportunity I was faced with was an email from a representative of Cleavage Creek Cellars.
On Saturday I wrote an article on Yourwiseguy.com about vineyards using their profits to fund charities. Cleavage Creek Cellars sends money from their wine profits to various breast cancer research centers. They print pictures of breast cancer survivors onto the labels of their wine.
Anyway, I featured them in the article and had Joey email them just to make them aware of it. We weren’t asking for anything, just putting it out there.
In response to the article they have offered to send us some samples of their wine so we can review them on Yourwiseguy.com and spread the word! How cool is that? Needless to say, Joey and I are extremely excited!
Today was packed and I couldn’t have been more busy (as a matter of fact I still have tons to do before I can call it a day) but these two little events have made it all worth while. Doing what I do, going to school, working hard on Websites, and blogging for my brand and myself are all worth while because they are what I love to do!
I tell you, though, Yourwiseguy.com can still be a pain in the ass sometimes… Thanks for reading!
Personal Blogit is! Based on the sole comment I received on this subject, from Misschelle, I have decided to use this blog as my own personal Blog. I will be writing about things that happen to me and things that spark my interest.
For those of you who don’t know - yesterday I put up my first post, in which I asked what I should write about on this Website. The subject options were personal, catsitting, and wine. Three odd choices, I know, but if you read the post right before this one it might make more sense.
Anyways, I was hesitant at first to create a personal blog because of how wide the range of posts could be. Who would want to read about what I think of Avatar one day and then read about where I took my girlfriend to dinner the next. I’m not exactly a celebrity.
However, I have decided that if I carefully select my topics I can steer my blog down a narrow path and keep my general reader base fairly interested. I will try to focus on certain aspects of my life that flow and connect to my main interests. I will leave the randomness to Twitter, so if you’re interested in where I am taking Kelly for our three year anniversary you will most likely have to catch my tweet about it.
And if anyone is interested, I will definitely be posting about Yourwiseguy every now and again. So, as usual, thank you for reading and please come back soon!
I have been wanting to start a personal blog for quite a while. It seems like most of my free thought has to do with a blog I could start, what I could write in it, and how I could promote it. Off the top of my head my three main ideas are a cat sitting blog, a blog that chronicles myself learning about wine, and a plain and simple personal blog, where I would post my thoughts.
You should probably know, if you don’t already, that I already have a blog called Yourwiseguy.com. My friend Joey and I post review videos about video games, apps, wine, and pretty much anything else we want to review. While it is a blog centered around my own thoughts and opinions, I am still limited to what I can post about.
Since the brand of the blog is Yourwiseguy, and not Charlie, it would be unfair to Joey and my brand to just post random crap about me me me. I would expect the same from Joey. If I logged into Yourwiseguy and saw that he posted about how his car broke down and he ended up being late to class I would be like, “What the heck, Bro?”
To be completely honest, I was going to wait a while before I created this account. I would much prefer to post videos. But I wanted to wait until I got an HD camera and until I built up my Yourwiseguy.com brand a little more. But the fact of the matter is that all of my friends are creating blogs on Tumblr and the only way for me to follow them is to make an account.
So here I am, with a blog that I’ve been dying to make, but haven’t decided on it’s topic yet. Maybe someone out there will stumble, or tumbl, upon my blog and will be able to help me. What do you think I should write about? Should I create a…
Personal Blog - Where I would post about building my brand, going to school, and living my life.
Catsitting - Where I would share about my experiences and tips about catsitting, dogsitting, housesitting, and sitting in general.
Wine Journey - Where I would post about my journey into the wine world. The books I read, things I learn, and the experiences I have.
Before you decide let me quote one of my idols, Gary Vaynerchuk, when he says, “Think about it; it’s not just car buffs who listen to Car Talk’s Click and Clack, who have a weekly radio show bu also a podcast on NPR. They’re so funny, charismatic, and knowledgeable they could talk in those Boston accents about nothing about carburetorsall day long and keep people’s attenion”
I could think of 50 topics to post about the top three ideas I just offered. They would be filled with information and content and I think they could be equally enjoyable.
That being said, let me know what you think! And as it will always be: Thanks for reading!
