This past year for Sleeping Geeks was in the wrong direction. Rather than taking 3 steps forward, we took one forward and two steps back. It was unfortunate and the team got carried away and lost interest due to the struggles we experienced both in the world of blogging and managing real life problems.
What Went Wrong?
We decided to build upon the success of the first year and move on to self-hosting rather than relying on restraints put upon us by WordPress. There were many ideas that we had brainstormed and to follow them through we needed a self-hosted site.
The decision was rash and all the pros and cons were not even considered when the decision was made. I have a habit of going by impulse rather than thinking things through and this can sometimes work great for me as it stops me from procrastinating but at other times it can come back around and bite me in the ass. This was one of those ass-biting moments.
Shop
We initially wanted to start designing our own t-shirts and there were plenty of ideas on paper but we couldn’t get a shop running despite the work we put into the process. The whole self-hosting experience was difficult as the coding and themes were a lot more difficult to manage than I first anticipated and the plugins would never run as well I would have liked.
Self-Hosting
I soon realised that sometimes keeping things simple is more effective but I had paid for a whole year of self-hosting and I had switched across all my WordPress followers so I did not think it was a wise idea to switch is all back. I felt it would cause the blog to decline ever more considering the original switch had changed all the site’s URLs and half of our previous viewer base was lost because of the switch.
Whoever is thinking about doing so, please make sure you know exactly what you are getting into as I had to learn it that hard way and the site had to suffer because of it. It’s important to reflect upon everything so that lessons can be learnt. Only through failure can one learn and progress for success does not teach you anything new. It only shows that what you are doing is correct so despite having experienced many failures over these past two years, I feel Sleeping Geeks has become a lot closer and stronger as a team.
Financial Issues
Last year I started working a lot harder as there were financial constraints on my life that have carried over to this year but hopefully that should all level out soon and things will become a lot easier to manage. During the summer I was working between 50-60 hours a week and as such I had very little time left to dedicate to the blog and the rest of the team had also just recently moved into their new jobs and could not contribute much to the blog either.
Now that everyone has settled in or is in the process of doing so, most of are getting better at managing an adult lifestyle and as such, we should be able to dedicate more time to Sleeping Geeks and make it the amazing source of anime and geek content for our readers.
Addiction to League
League of Legends is an online game that can easily get addictive if you are not careful and for the past couple of years I have grown to become addicted to the game. I have finally got over it now but that may be because the season has ended but hopefully I will stay away from playing SOLO QUE from now on.
Tai, Bronze and Lime have been playing with me for a while and now we’ve got Loki and Supernova join the team as well. With the 6 of us, we might start playing Team Ranked, which should be loads of fun as long as it doesn’t start taking priority over Sleeping Geeks.
All in all, last year wasn’t all too bad as the team has grown closer and we’ve even recruited a few more people in the form of Stinnettison and Quintessence. The interns Auzora and DefiantGlow have also been promoted to full time members. 2016 shall be the year for Sleeping Geeks, I have a strong feeling about it and my feelings can be very strong at times.
Sleeping Geeks 
I hope 2016 goes well for you all! I always enjoy reading the stuff you post and hope you all have a lovely 2016 personally and on the site!
It was messages that Desperado (as well as others) left on our site at the end of 2014 that kept me motivated through the year. Most of our year at BelieveinGeek.com has gone well though it ended quite sadly for me personally with people taking one of our blogs the wrong way and me becoming a meme of some sorts (I can’t find the humour in it unfortunately) so I hope that now you are all settled you can look forward to 2016 and get what you want done!
Always remember you should only look at the past to see how far you’ve come, 2016 is a new year so focus on making it great! Much love fellow Geeks xxx
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Thank you your warm words Anna. I’m looking at 2016 very positively. It’s unfortunate about 2015 but the past is in the past. 2016 will be our year. Happy Geeking and Happy new year.
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People make mistakes sometimes so it’s okay as long as you learn from it! I’m sure you and your team will be more experienced in managing the site from now on. To be honest, the last part of your post makes me reflect on myself too since I recently became addicted to Summoners War.
Playing SW made me blog less, both on my anime and poetry blog since the only thing on my mind has been the game. Nevertheless, happy new year and I wish you and your team all the best! 😀
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Addictions can be very problematic in getting things done. Hopefully we can overcome these gaming addictions and move on with our lives.
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Indeed!
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One blogger to another, I understand the struggle. About two years ago I started my first blog and gained about 67 followers, but the blog had no real focus and despite the number of followers I hardly got any comments. I stopped blogging for about a year. When I came back I decided to go a whole different rout and created a Wix site. Wix can be hard. I had to put my website building skills to the test. It’s also more geared to businesses than blogs, so I don’t have the automatic connections WordPress gave. All in all, there were a lot of cons about moving. But I did weigh it over and I think the pros outweigh the cons. I only have a short e-mail list but I’m slowly building.
I guess what I’m trying to say is I feel for you guys. Blogging is tough and you will have good years and bad years. Fingers crossed that 2016 is a good year!
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Yeah. It’s can be difficult to balance blogging and real life at times and just like with life, you make mistakes with blogs but some serious lessons have been learnt so hopefully we will have more luck on our side now. My friend Bronze always says, the more you practice, the luckier you get and I’ve been practicing for 2 years now.
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