Daily Cup of Tech

I’m going to file this under “F” for Failure.

The purpose of me asking for donations to cover my one day a week job was to see if there was a commitment to Daily Cup of Tech that equaled my own. I thought that if I were to be willing to dedicate one solid day a week to Daily Cup of Tech that the readers of Daily Cup of Tech would be willing to support or fund that.

Apparently, I was wrong.

In fact, I was so wrong that my obsession with positioning Daily Cup of Tech has led me away from my original reason for setting up the blog.

So, here are the changes that you are going to start seeing:

1. I will be removing the Become My Boss section in the sidebar and replacing it with a Support DCoT section which will essentially just be the Tip Jar.  I will not be asking for donations but I will be leaving it up to people to decide if what they have gained from the blog is worth supporting financially.
2. The weekly “donate” posts will simply be thank you posts to those who have supported DCoT over the past week.
3. Once the logo contest is over, I will add a DCoT Store section in the sidebar that will have products with the logo available for sale.
4. I will continue to write about blogging (as this is one of the things that I like to do) but the posts will not be about how to make money or drive traffic to your blog.
5. I will attempt to write a larger number of technical articles that include more of my opinions and perspectives on technology.
6. There may be larger gaps between posts as more technical posts take more time and effort to generate but the hope is that there will be more quality in these posts.  My aim is for a more quality instead of quantity post.
7. I will continue to work on the DCoT Tours so that new users can find related posts better.
8. I will continue to post Tumblog posts as these will hopefully bring information to people’s attention that I may never get around to writing about.

I am working on a couple of posts that I will hopefully get out by the end of the week but I need to step back a bit and take a breather.  I am disappointed over every aspect of how this whole thing went and it is going to take me a little bit to get remotivated again.

Thanks to  AlDyIDrmAbtSoccr, Chris R., and JC for your open and frank opinions.

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2007/08/13/dcot-new-directions/trackback/

Thanks to everyone who contributed their time, effort, and talent to the Daily Cup of Tech logo contest.  We received twenty entries and there is some fantastic work that has been done.

Now, the hard task is put to you.  Go over to the official voting page and pick the logo that you like best.  I have put all of the logos on one page so that you can easily compare the ones that you like most.  There are at least three or four that I really like and I know that I would have a real hard time selecting my favorite over all!

But give it a shot and see what you think!

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2007/08/13/logo-contest-voting-begins/trackback/

I want to start this post by putting out a huge “Thank you!” to:

• Amy V.
• Robert C.
• Gord N.

These three people stepped up to the plate and donated their hard earned money toward Daily Cup of Tech. If we are going to get me working that one day a week exclusively for Daily Cup of Tech (we are a bit behind for the month as we should be at about 36% but we are actually only at about 4.23%), this is how it will be done: through donations!

In many ways, I really hate asking for donations because it feels like begging or panhandling. This is not what I want to be. If that were the case, I’d put up one of those “Give Me a Dollar” websites which I completely abhor.

What I do want is to be able to spend as much of my time as possible giving you the readers what you want and I can not do this alone. I feel your support by all of the traffic that you send my way and your participation in the comments but I also need your financial support.

One of the great things about Daily Cup of Tech is that we are an ever expanding and growing group. And there is strength in numbers. If every single person who subscribed to the RSS feed were to donate one dollar per month, not only would I be able to quit my one day a week job, I’d be able to work on Daily Cup of Tech full time!

So, I am asking you to please, if you can afford even a dollar or two, please consider using the Tip Jar at the top of the page to improve Daily Cup of Tech. Of course, I will also accept larger donations! Go and do this right now before reading any further!

I also received a really good idea from Andrew who suggested that I should set up a regular automatic monthly withdrawal so that people do not need to remember to donate monthly. This is an awesome idea and I just need to get all of the kinks worked out before I implement it.

A big thanks also goes out to AlwaysWebHosting for their continued support in hosting Daily Cup of Tech. Not having to worry about a monthly hosting bill makes a big difference. Thanks, guys!

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2007/08/11/more-help-needed/trackback/

Entry 18

Good morning, everyone.  With only about 18 hours left in the logo contest, we are still getting some really quality entries coming in.  Entry 18 is yet another example of this.

Now, here is a last minute concept idea.  What about a cartoon mascot as a logo?  I know absolutely nothing about marketing or graphic design but this was just an idea that popped into my head!

Anyway, if you have been working on a last minute entry, make sure it is in by midnight tonight (central time).

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2007/08/11/logo-contest-entry-18/trackback/

Entry 17

Yet another cool entry. You guys are going to have a pretty tough time next week picking the winner!

Keep up the chatter in the comments as well. I have some people making changes are resubmitting entries because of comments made in the comments!

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2007/08/10/logo-contest-entries-17/trackback/