Editing The Pen Addict 84/transcript (section)

== Pen Blogging ==


'''Ed Jelley:''' All right. Well, let's, let's get into the, to the nuts and bolts here today. Um, like I said, a little bit different, different topic and, um, we'll, uh, we'll let Myke, uh, pay some bills here real quick. And then, uh, Ed and I are going to get into it, uh, about, uh, pin blogging.

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'''Ed Jelley:''' All right, Ed. Let's get into this pen blogging topic that I've been asked a lot about. And we'll kind of see where it takes us. I've got some questions from people that they've wanted answered and some things like that. But let's start at the beginning and with you. And I'm a big fan of your blog and your style of blogging and how you do lots of different things. So that's why I wanted to have you on. But just kind of give us a refresher of how you started your blog and really probably more why you started edjelly.com and doing pen and paper and ink reviews.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, boy. Honestly, it kind of started out of just more than anything. It was just kind of something to do. I started, you know, I'm kind of a chronic doodler. I recently moved. So I was going through all my notebooks and pens and stuff. And, like, looking back at, like, my notes from college, it's, like, 90% like here's doodling and then 5% notes. And I'm like, this needs to be more focused. And if I'm already spending all this time doodling, I might as well put it to good use. So if you actually look at my site, the first review I did was on a Rodia dot pad that I did at school. And the photograph is from my phone on one of the tables in the school cafe. So it kind of, after I did a few of those, I'm like, this is not something that is up to my personal standards. And I kind of just started collecting my things. I'm like, I could review this. I could do this. Let me, all right, we'll do this. And then you kind of just work out, like, a formula and just get chugging, I guess, until you find something that evolves into what you want. So really it started, like, it was just, you know what, this is something I want to do and I'll give it a shot. Just like anything, really.

'''Ed Jelley:''' Yeah, yeah. Now, how do, tell me a little bit of, like, you said you started kind of gathering up some pins and some things you can review. And tell me a little bit about, like, how you decide to review a product or, you know, kind of what that review process is like. Do you have a bunch of pins, like, set aside or ink set aside, like, queued up to review? Kind of tell me how you set everything up on the back end. This is kind of like the inside baseball version of pin blogging, you know, take us behind the scenes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, at first it was like, let me just review everything I have. That was the goal. It was like, I don't want to go ahead and spend a ton of money real fast on stuff to review. So let me take my collection now, kind of spread it out a bit. And that was kind of the way, I thought that was the best way to do it, both from a financial standpoint, because everybody knows, probably most of the people listening know how expensive pens and associated goods can get so fast. Just so expensive, so fast. And I started out with, you know, reviewing the things I had and kind of built up a little base of reviews. And basically I'd have, all right, I'm going to, you know, I'm just going to do this pen this week. And, you know, it started off like whatever ink was in there, just here's a pen review. And then I ordered ink samples. I still do all the time. And that was pretty much the way to get a bunch of inks in my hand without buying full bottles and committing. So between the resources out there, I know Anderson pens and Goulet pens both have a pretty good amount of samples that you can buy. And they're cheap. You don't have to commit to a whole bottle. Load up a pen, get an ink review done. And then if you don't like it, flush it out. And if you do, just, you know, write it out until it's empty. But pretty much it was just, it started off with, let me do what I have. And then kind of branch out from there. As my collection grows, also my review base is going to grow.

'''Ed Jelley:''' Now, when you were starting, like, I don't recall. How long has your blog been out there? How long has it, Jellybean.com been around?

'''Myke Hurley:''' In its current incarnation, a year and two months.

'''Ed Jelley:''' Okay. So back in the beginning when you were starting it, did you just say, just kind of go full bore saying, you know, I'm going to buy a domain name. And, you know, I'm going to, you know, choose a blogging platform to work off of. How did you kind of decide the tools you're going to work with from a blogging perspective? Did you bounce over? Did you try a few different website styles and designs and platforms? And how did all that work out?

'''Myke Hurley:''' The domain itself I had for actually a while before I started the website. It was one of those things where it's like, buy your name, domain name, before someone else does. It'll come back to bite you because that's what everyone always said. So I did. And I had it. I'm like, ah, I can't really think of anything pen related that I like enough to go out and buy a domain for. And I have this one here already paid for. So I kind of just fell into that. And then, honestly, I think that might have been a little bit of kind of a mistake. Probably wasn't the best idea to put it in my name.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But, you know what, it ended up, it's still there. It works. I'm okay with it. But maybe a bit of advice would be just try not to use your name because if you want it for something else, then you have it kind of locked into this pen site. Not that I want to use it for anything else right now. Just in general, like, it doesn't really, I don't know, it doesn't really help one way or the other.

'''Ed Jelley:''' I kind of thought about that at first when I first started mine. Not that I was going to use my own name, but that I guess when I started out blogging, I guess I wanted to just keep that anonymity. Am I saying that right?

'''Ed Jelley:''' Anonymity. Anonymity. Aluminium.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Anonymity.

'''Ed Jelley:''' Anonymity. Yeah, so I didn't want to necessarily put my name on it, but that's changed over the years. And actually, I've never really thought twice about edjelly.com being anything else but a pen blog. But I guess your point is well taken that, well, down the line, if you want to use that for something else, you're kind of stuck into the blogging thing. But I think actually for the pen blog, it actually works out fine. But I guess that's probably just because I'm used to it at this point.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I'm not complaining now, but if you're starting off, maybe think about it real hard. Are you going to want to commit your name to this for however long?

'''Ed Jelley:''' Yeah.

'''Ed Jelley:''' You can go. I'm sorry. I do think buying a domain is important. If there's one thing you spend money on to start a blog, you can start on a platform for free, WordPress or Tumblr or Blogger or any of these that don't charge. And you can repoint your domain name. I'd spend the $10 on a domain name if you're not going to spend anything else. That seems to be easier. I started mine on a blogger blog. I had, I think, penaddict or thepenaddict.blogspot.com. And, you know, that's just a pain to move, you know, a year down the line when I decided to purchase penaddict.com and, you know, have to mess with all that. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Plus, people can't find you. It's difficult for people to find you.

'''Ed Jelley:''' Yeah. Yeah. So that's one thing I would recommend. And, you know, I don't think you should spend a lot of money up front, but I do think you should just go ahead and pony up for the domain name. Just buy it for a year. See if it sticks. You know, if it's not, you're out $10. You know, you can change the platform easily, but the domain name, I think, is a good thing to have.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I also feel like people take you more seriously if you have a .com or a .net. It's not like, you know, not that there's anything wrong with having a edgeelly.tumblr.com. It's just, I think it looks nicer if you drop out the, you know, the Tumblr or the blog spot. It just, it looks more professional and it is a good $12 to spend.

'''Ed Jelley:''' Yeah. And like Myke said, it's easier to share, easier for people to remember. You don't have to say, you know, remember to put, you know, the blog spot in there or whatever in the address. So, yeah, that's a good point. And, you know, another thing you mentioned already that I wholeheartedly agree with, and this is where a lot of people get hung up in the emails that I get, review what you have already. You know, that's how I started mine. You know, I just took, you know, all these pens I had from, you know, Staples or Office Max or Office Depot and all these different papers that I had collected over the years and these various pens and, you know, just started reviewing them. You know, reviewed what I had. Then I kind of figured out, okay, what do I want to do next? And then I spent a little bit of money, you know, picking up some new items to acquire. But a lot of the emails I get are, you know, how do I get pens to review? And that's kind of the wrong way to approach it.

'''Ed Jelley:''' You know, so start with what you have. Go from there. Kind of build a base from that. You know, see if you like it for one. You know, see if other people like it, you know, for two. You know, if your style is a good fit and things like that. So I think that's a very, very good point, especially in the beginning. Now, one of the things you do that I'm very jealous of, and I'm jealous of a lot of people's photography.

'''Ed Jelley:''' Tell me about your photography setup. That's one thing that's been, you know, regardless of your initial few posts, that's one thing that's been pretty consistent over the years. You pretty much nailed the photography for as long as I can remember. I just really like how you shoot your reviews. So tell me a little bit about your setup, and let me see what I can learn from this.

'''Myke Hurley:''' My setup is definitely less than traditional. I have a Micro Four Thirds camera. I don't use a DSLR. The difference is the Micro Four Thirds is in a smaller platform. It's more portable. It's not a big thing. There's no giant lens on it. It's basically kind of the step in between point-and-shoot camera and a fully-featured DSLR. And pretty much using that, you just play with it. Don't just sit inside and take pictures of pens. It really helps to go out and understand how a camera works, and then you can get it to do what you want.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Play with lighting.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Just pretty much learn the basics of photography, and then you can really start applying it to pen blogging or whatever you want to blog about. But really, it helped me immensely to learn the basics of photography and then apply those principles to the blog. But I have my camera, and a lot of my reviews, I use natural light. So I'd usually just set up most of them. You know that brown background I use with all the lines on it? It's a bathroom tile. It was $5. It's a $5 bathroom tile that I put on a speaker stand and shove up against the window and just wait for some nice light to come in. That's really it. That's all you need. You don't have to spend money on this huge rig and this huge setup. But I really enjoy using that for photography. Also, I'm lucky enough, at my job, I have this full 5000K lighting, white, seamless background that I do use. But I don't find it any better. I use it for photographing things for my job. I didn't buy it specifically for pen blogging. It's just one of those things that it's nice to have there, but it's totally not necessary.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And once I take the photos, I use Aperture 3. I know people just take straight from the camera and upload. But those little straightening adjustments, the crops, they all make a huge difference in terms of how a picture ends up looking at the end of the day.

'''Ed Jelley:''' Yeah, so it's kind of interesting that pen and paper blogging is kind of a visual medium. It's like you have to show as much as you tell about, you know, I think all the best blogs have some of the best pictures and show, you know, various, you know, angles of the pen, how the pen writes, how the ink performs on the page, you know, what the paper looks like, what the paper, how the paper properties handle inks and stuff like that. It's a surprisingly visual thing. And I think, you know, having good photography is always something I've been challenged with. It's just not something I've taken the time to fully embrace. And it's not a, you know, a second nature type of thing for me. So, but I think it's still probably one of the most important things because it's going to draw the people in. And you don't have to have, like you're saying, you don't have to have a big setup at all. You know, probably these days, you know, with the advances in phone cameras, I mean, I'm sure there's plenty of phone cameras that can just work and make these crystal clear pictures. But, you know, have at least a little bit of a nice, you know, nice photographic setup. And it just really makes your blog kind of pop and kind of stand out from the crowd a little bit, if you will, if you're trying to get noticed in the realm of pen blogging.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like I said, it doesn't have to be crazy expensive. I think I have an older model of my camera. It's an Olympus Pen EP3. And you can get that now since the new one came out for like a couple hundred bucks. Or even check eBay. You know, there's nothing wrong with, if you want to bump it up from like a cell phone or from a point and shoot, you know, buy something used. There's nothing that says there's anything wrong with that. And just do some research on learning how to use it properly. And you can get some crazy results with a bathroom tile and light from the window.

'''Ed Jelley:''' That's awesome. Now, how often are you posting on your blog? I mean, it seems to be at least a couple times a week. Do you try to keep a fixed schedule or how do you work through your blog schedule?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I find I kind of go and like, I'll just like, I'll bang out like ten reviews like written. And then I'll photograph them all. And then I'm like, oh, I'm overwhelmed. Let me, I'll post one now. When I get around to it, I'll post another one. I usually try and get like three posts a week. And pretty much I'll just get a bunch of them done in a row. And then worry about getting them all typed up and formatted after the fact. But usually I try and do three weeks. Sometimes it's more. Sometimes it's less. It really depends on, you know, if I'm busy or not really.

'''Ed Jelley:''' Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But, you know, I do place a priority. Like I don't want to let a week go by without a post. Because you don't want people to, you know, you want to keep traffic coming in. You don't want to let people forget about you.

'''Ed Jelley:''' Yeah. How much time do you think you spend every week on edjelly.com, do you think?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Um, well, I'm constantly lurking it from my phone just because, I don't know, I find analytics to be incredibly fascinating. I like that. I use WordPress, by the way. I don't know if he touched on that. Yes. That's my preferred platform is WordPress. And their built-in analytics are just crazy. Like I like, I can see where all my views are coming from. I can see what country they're coming from, my top posts for the day, who's clicking on what, where my referrals are coming from. And it's just like that's something that I check just as often as I check Twitter just because I think it's fun.