Meta Update: Changes, Feedback, and the Future
Originally Posted: May 6th, 2020
Meta Update: Changes, Feedback, and the Future
Hi. My name is Evan McCann. I am a network engineer and a nerd.
It’s an older head shot, but it checks out.
I mainly write about my two favorite subjects — networking and Apple. I try to share the things I know, and help people learn and understand. My goal is always to be helpful and accurate. I welcome any and all suggestions, comments and corrections. I’m not perfect.
I have been working on this website since July 2019, when I truly did not know what I was doing. Since then I’ve refined a few things, and improved a few areas. There is still tons of work to do. I feel like I’m just getting started.
Recent Changes
Recently I made a few changes, including what I write about. I have focused more on reviews and guides, and posts that will help people. Less on rumors, speculation, and opinion. This seems to be better for everyone, and that’s something I will continue to adjust.
I also updated a lot of style-related things. I updated the logo and layout, and adjusted font colors and sizes. My goal was to make it easier on the eyes and more readable. Hopefully that is the case. I am open to suggestions, but you can pull the orange headline color from my cold, dead hands. If the look of my site isn’t your bag, try reader view, or catching my posts in your RSS reader of choice.
Domain Change
Previously, I was using eva.nmccan.net as my domain, and I thought that was really clever. That domain allowed me to create an email address of ev@nmccann.net, but it also created a few issues with subdomains and redirection.
I have moved to evanmccann.net, and that is now the default domain. Ideally no one should notice. All existing links should continue to work, and you should be redirected. If you have any problems, please let me know.
Feedback
All feedback is welcomed. The best way to contact me is to fill out the form on my contact page.
I have had a lot of people ask me about my posts on UniFi equipment, and I have tried to answer them all as fully as I can. I don’t know how well that is going to scale. I will try to be helpful if you email me or leave a comment, but I will turn frequently asked things into posts. This should be better for everyone.
At first, I was surprised that anyone wanted to read what I wrote. As time has gone on, I’ve had more people contact me to say thanks, or ask a question. I’ve appreciated every one of them, especially the corrections and constructive criticism.
Full Disclosure: Ads and Affiliate Links
I have a full time day job, and I work on this during my spare time. This website is not a real source of income for me, but I have been paying for my hosting via Google Adsense and Amazon affiliate links. If you appreciate my writing, please consider whitelisting my site in your ad blocker, or using my affiliate links when you are making a purchase. Amazon affiliate links do not change the price you pay, but they give me a small percentage of the sale.
For now, those two things have been enough to keep things running. I am looking into other ways of supporting the site, because I hate the look of ads on my pages.
Full-er disclosure: I never see my own ads because of 1) Pi-hole and 2) Ad blockers. If you do the same thing, I will not blame you. I appreciate you being here, whether I get a few cents from it or not.
Humble-brag Time
I have a hard time bragging about myself. Confidence doesn’t come naturally to me. If you’ll allow me to indulge that side of myself for a second, I have gotten an uncomfortable amount of attention on this site.
I’m not sure if it’s luck, skill, or a bit of both, but some of my posts are highly-ranked in search engines. I’m not some SEO guru, trying to get the most links and clicks I can. I will never ask you to like and subscribe. However, I have been featured a few times on Google News, and in the Chrome discover tab. I had one of my favorite Apple news sites quote and link to my post. Combined with the clicks from search results, a lot of people have been sent here. If that’s how you found this site, thank you.
Sometimes I look at analytics and am blown away. For example, I have had visitors from 196 countries. Shout out to my 2 readers in Djibouti.
I have had a few conversations with international readers, exchanging emails or messages with the help of Google translate. The other day, I noticed someone on a Dutch language forum pointing out a mistake I made. I was able to create an account there and ask them what I missed. Technology is amazing.
It’s all been very humbling and at times, overwhelming. It has taken some adjustment.
Platform For The Future
I am currently using Squarespace, and it’s less than ideal in a few ways. I have considered switching to WordPress, or some other solution, but that’s going to be a heavy lift. That is something I may look at harder in July, when I am due for another year subscription.
My Apple News channel has been neglected lately. Honestly, it’s a pain in the butt to recreate link-heavy articles there. Their publishing and editing tools aren’t the best, either. I may shift to treating that more like an RSS feed, and skip making the Apple News format posts altogether.
It’s hard for me to predict what is going to happen. All I know is that I want to continue to write helpful things. I have a ton of things I want to write about, and a half dozen or so posts in various stages of being written and edited. I want to create and write more, but I also want to do it in a sustainable way that doesn’t lead to me getting burnt out.
Thanks for taking the time to visit. See you around.
