I’ve started to un-hide (is that a word?) some of my older blog posts that have been marked private.  I’d like to say I’m doing so to help anyone reading this or searching for the items I wrote about, but the truth is I’m just filling empty space…

That’s how long it’s been since I last wrote on this blog.  A lot has changed since then, good and bad.  I originally started listing out all the failures and missed goals from this period of time, but decided it wouldn’t be beneficial.

So what have I been working on?  I’ve been working with a great group of local journalists for the past two years in building The Dagger, a hyperlocal news site based here in Harford County, MD.  Don’t worry, I leave the reporting to the pros.  I’m responsible for the designing and coding of the site.

Man, I love WordPress!  I’ve experimented with Drupal and Joomla, but keep coming back.  The flexibility and ease of use has paid huge dividends for the site.  Especially the new custom post type feature (as can be seen in The Dagger’s Cartoons section)

I’ve also been thinking about how I can help out local businesses on the social web.  It’s easy for a company to set up a blog, create a facebook page or twitter account, and declare yourself to be a social media expert.  But are they really seeing a ROI?  Are they converting?  Even if so, can they do better?  What are your thoughts on how local business can succeed online?

Until next time…I promise it won’t be another 1300 days.