This week was a bit on the "blah" side of things. Mostly because I'm exhausted and still fighting allergies. However, there were a few high points to come out of the last seven days, and we're still pushing forward.
Looks Like Fridays Are Good for Podcasts
The test video on Wednesday worked out well...ish. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to run everything, and we kind of have to go on the cheap side of things. We don't have the money to dump into $1000 setups just for the podcast.
Nonetheless, we are a go for starting the "After Hours with WriterSanctuary" podcast tonight at 7:00 PM Mtn time (-7 GMT if you're outside the US).
I'm still looking for a podcast host and have found quite a few decent platforms. But, at least we can start doing the videos live for the moment.
The podcast is going to be the same laid-back format I have for Monday night live streams. Though we'll try to focus on being creators and writers, I'm fairly sure we'll go off on a tangent now and then.
Fixed a Problem with Adsense
One of the issues I had recently was seeing a severe drop in ad revenue ever since installing AMP on a couple of my blogs. Come to find out, I wasn't done with the setup.
When you install AMP, it removes traditional Adsense elements from the blog posts. So, none of my mobile viewers were seeing ads at all. For WriterSanctuary, I use the Advanced Ads Pro plugin, which automatically converts Adsense ads to their AMP-compliant variant. Luckily, I had this box checked, so WriterSanctuary never saw a loss of income.
But for CrossingColorado, where nearly 60% of visitors are on mobile, it cut the income by more than half.
For the time being, I was able to enable AMP ads in Google Adsense in the control panel. This ensures that all of my sites using AMP can now show ads. And, the income came back overnight.
I'm still working on a more viable solution for those who don't have Advanced Ads pro or want to enable AMP ads in Adsense across the board. As soon as I figure it out, I'll have a blog post and video about what I did.
Allergies Suck
I am prone to allergies twice per year. And you guessed it, this week was exceptionally bad. Not only are my eyes itching, but I developed a slight sty, headaches, a cough, and am extremely lethargic.
There's a weed in my backyard that I didn't have before. It smells weird to me, and I think I might be allergic to it. It has pretty purple flowers, but I'm not a fan of feeling like burnt garbage all week.
And that's to say if it's even this weed that is affecting me.
At any rate, having allergies this bad makes it very difficult to work. I'm feeling much better today as I've been taking 24-hour relief pills. Still, the damage was done and I've fallen a bit behind.
Need More Sleep!
I think I got less sleep this week than I have in a while. Having allergies didn't help, but I've also gone to bed after midnight only to get up early.
It's been a mixture of stress and not paying attention to the clock.
I need to start remembering to drink my tea when my 8:45 alarm goes off. Sleepytime Tea does a pretty good job of wiping me out.
And the type I get, Complete Care, would probably help out a lot with my allergy problem.
Falling Behind, But Not too Bad...
So, this week was kind of a slow burn. I'm falling behind a bit, but not too bad in the grand scheme of things. I plan on blogging this weekend to catch up on the time I lost from allergies. And I want to get a video or two out for YouTube.
The trick, though, is to not stress out. Yes, I want to get all of the blogs on a regular posting schedule. But not at the cost of me burning out.
Even though this week had a few setbacks, at least I was able to figure out why my ad revenue dipped.
Ya gotta keep an eye on yer blog!