Musings from Joel » Remodeling

Understanding the real value of a Blogging

montytx — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:47:42 +0000

I am a reluctant blogger. I always thought blogging was for people who had little better to do and no life. I am quickly seeing the light on one of my sites. I am a virtual real estate tycoon, if you will, I own over 80 sites and make a decent living off of advertising. But, most of my sites are small, around 10 pages and drive little traffic. I recently made a New Years resolution, I want to blog 3-5 post a day on my remodeling how to site and I want a dozen videos on my remodeling youtube channel. So I have pressed myself hard to do 3 blog post a day. I haven’t made it every day but I have maintained momentum. The results are very encouraging. Traffic has ramped up 4x from roughly 40 hits a day to approaching 200. My goal is a 1000 right now. Advertising is already up from almost nothing to something worth mentioning. Lastly, I have a manufacturer tweeting about my site to their customers. All of this in 30 days.

This all proves the theory that content is king on line and I am aiming to dominate the remodeling niche within a few years, see you at the top.

My new deck

montytx — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 13:11:53 +0000

While I enjoy being outside, my backyard has always been an issue for me. I had a patio back here with pavers for several years, but I really wanted to install a clean looking, simple deck. Last year after my Home Depot- purchased- giant -gazebo -tent collapsed under the weight of 12″ of snow, I decided to build a good sized overhang using corrugated steel roofing to provide a nice shaded area. All that was lacking was the deck.

Anyone who knows me, knows I like big decks. So, this year I decided it was finally time to build one. I ended up building a roughly 16′x16′ deck using pressure treated wood and stainless steel screws. There was a lot of screwing going on, more than 1000 screws and counting. I opted for screws over nails because I’ve seen those decks with the nails coming out after a few years in this ever increasing Texas heat. I knew my deck needed to last through the pending apocalypse so I screwed it down. It took a day and a half of screwing and likely two weeks of back recovery to get it done but the result has been worth it. The deck looks great and will look even better once I stain everything a redwood color. I also ran an electrical outlet and a water spigot with pex and sharkbite to the far end of the deck so I would have easy access to water and electric. Really all that is missing is a fridge and a john. I still have steps and a bench to build out, but the hardest part is done. Next step is to find some mosquito curtains, then I’ll have the perfect spot for a good card game.

Green Construction

montytx — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 23:00:29 +0000

I own and maintain another site about green contruction. I started this site becuase I am in construction and have noticed just how difficult it is to get good information about green contstruction products and techniques. You really have to look around and then some to find good information about products that are considered green. More interesting is the misconceptions that exist out there about what is and isn’t green. Anyway Please visit my other site if you are interested in those topics. I try to blog on that site often as I find things that are pertinent to that industry.