This post brought to you by Dad-Blogs' FatherHood Friday. Be sure to swing by for all the other great Dads and Moms who love to share their lives online!

I’m not going to lie. I started this blog to try to make money.

A year ago, I discovered guys like John Chow and Shoemoney. I saw sites like Problogger and thought, ‘Man, I could do that! Let me at it!’

A year ago this month I started the Howefitz blog, and I have not made one cent. In fact, I’ve lost a few. (I’m lookin at you, aweber!)

But the fact remains that my blogging intensity has increased during the course of the year, and I have no intentions of stopping, because this is fun!

If you go back to the beginnings of this blog (and I highly recommend that you do NOT) you will see that I had no direction. I was looking for ways to build readers and make CASH! I was reading all the pros tell me to build networks and find other bloggers and SEO and blahblahblah.

Who wouldn't want to blog moments like these?

My wife kept saying, ‘Well, it looks like the guys that are making money on the internet are blogging about how to make money on the internet.’

Right. And you should always write what you know. And I (obviously) do not know how to make money on the internet.

Then, as these things go, I discovered dad-o-matic, and then dad-blogs.

(Sound of needle being yanked off a record) Wait. Wait one minute. There are dads. Dads on the internet. Dads on the internet blogging about their families.

…

And…

…they were interesting!

These weren’t boring home movies of someone else’s vacation or their kids taking their first step, this was all about the emotions of having a family. This was about supporting each other and giving each other advice.

All kinds of dads: stay at home dads, gay dads, married dads, single dads, divorced dads…

All these dads were rising to the challenge of trying to put into words their thoughts and feelings about being a dad and all the challenges that come with it!

I sat back in my chair and exhaled. This was something I could talk about! You never run out of material from your family! There’s always somebody saying or doing something funny or heart warming! I love being a dad! I can do that!

So I haven’t made a dime. As you can see, the google ads are gone, there’s very little in the way of advertising here. I occasionally review a book or movie and try to hock it through my amazon associate account, but nobody ever buys.

What I’ve earned through this blog is more important than any monetary gain. It’s become a writing exercise. It’s become a way for me to put words and thoughts together, sometimes coherently, in a way to elicit an emotional response from others. But mostly, it’s made me a lot of friends.

Ron Mattocks, author of the blog Clark Kent’s Lunchbox and the upcoming book Sugar Milk said it best recently:

The thing about blogging that makes it so different from just writing is that it’s about community, and community requires interaction. … The blogging community has become very real to me, almost as real as calling up people that are physically in my area, and meeting them for lunch; in some cases I interact with blogging buddies more than my own extended family.

That community is what has made me not only blog my heart out whenever possible, (Mainly when everyone else is asleep, like right now…) but what has also inspired me to write the sporadic column ‘Kids Play On The Net‘ at Dad-Blogs, among other unpaid projects I have in mind.

Plus, I absolutely love having a venue where I can show that I have the Greatest Family On The Planet™.

So, I would like to thank you all for the continued support, and hope that you like hearing about my life as much as I enjoy living and sharing it!

Here (in no particular order) are some friends I’ve made through blogging and their blogs:

Eric Bolton of Juggling Eric and Marvel Off the Clock

PJ Mullen of Real Men Drive Minivans

Apok of Knee Deep In Kids

Mocha Dad

Ron Mattocks of Clark Kent’s Lunchbox

Ciara of Ciara’s Ramblings and Whatnot

Weasel Momma of World of Weasels

Dad Unmasked

Melisa with one S of Suburban Scrawl

Jason of The Devoted Dad

Kevin W. Grossman of Get Off The Ground

Surprised Mom

Bella Daddy

Mr. Man of Dear Mr. Man

Thanks a lot guys, I’m just reeling this list off the top of my head, if I missed you, hopefully you’re on my blogroll on the sidebar. If not, let me know!

***Sidenote***

Today is the last chance to enter my Paying Forward A Random Act Of Kindness Giveaway! For details, simply click the link!

In posts such as last Friday’s ‘Fatherhood Friday‘ post that I called ‘…And They All Lived Happily Ever After…‘, I’ve talked of my family and all the blessings that they bring to my life.

Then I thought of other blessings:

I’m healthy. I’ve never taken a puff from a cigarette and don’t drink. I enjoy a glass of red wine every now and again, which can actually support fat-loss, so no worries there. (See Tim Ferriss‘ blog post, ‘How to Lose 20 lbs. of Fat in 30 Days… Without Doing Any Exercise‘ for more information on this and a great diet routine.)

I live in the mountains! I’m not much of a skier, but it’s there if I want it. I am a backpacker and enjoy the cool Rocky air as I hike places that a majority of the world don’t even get to see.

I have a reliable car that I wrote a check for! A couple years back I earned a pretty fat bonus from my job, and I was able to buy a car with a check. No payments. It’s mine. One of the best feelings you can ever have.

I own a computer and have access to the internet. Aaaaah, what blogger wouldn’t add this to the list of his blessings! Not only do I have access to a wealth of information on the world-wide web, but this gives me a place to express myself, to air my grievances, and to list my blessings!

On that note: I have a fabulous, growing number of visitors and readers to my blog that only spurs me to prattle on! (and on and on and…) 

These blessings, and many more, coupled with the fabulous family I have surrounded myself with, only helps me to embrace the positive that much more.

As John Chow said, we are already rich. As I think about this in my own life, it is that richness, and the rejoicing in it, that will only serve to make my life much more prosperous in the days, weeks, months, and years to come.

On this Fatherhood Friday, I invite you all to join with me in counting our blessings, here and on your own blogs. If you happen to blog your blessings, be sure to let me know here, so that I can add my comments and we’ll all share the wealth!

            Incidentally, Hulu is my current favorite site to stream television shows, though Joost has a lot of good stuff too.

            To get back to my story, AT&T sent me warning texts that I was ‘nearing my data limit.’ They then cut off the data on my phone and socked me with a phone bill of nearly $1,800! Fortunately, they found notes in my account that I was told that it was unlimited data, so my bill is back down to it’s normal, more reasonable $180. Unfortunately, they won’t turn the data back on until my next billing cycle, the 11^th of next month!

            So, since January 15^th, I’ve been in internet exile.

            I haven’t been completely silent, however. I did send an update through Twitter each day through text messages. If you didn’t know already, you do so by simply sending a message to 40404. This will send the update to Twitter just like you were sitting at your computer. I also had already set up Facebook to automatically update when I tweet, so I was able to essentially speak but not hear. What a very strange feeling!

            Now I’m back! I’m on vacation this week from my real job, so I’ll be using the library to blog until I get internet service set up at my apartment. I’m pretty excited about that, because I’ve never had a true DSL connection before. I’ve used my cell phone as my modem for years, with varying results.

            The good thing about not having internet attached to my hip at work or at home is that it gave me some time to reflect on the direction my blog is going. I try to include information that I think fellow bloggers/fanboys may enjoy, but I lacked any one clear direction.

            While in exile, I read John Chow’s eBook, ‘Make Money Online With John Chow’. I had downloaded it earlier, and never read it because I was always online! One of the things that John stresses is to build a brand. Now, I’m not expecting to make money just yet, but I do want to provide useful content for my readers, and I think that branding is important for that.

            So I spent the exile really thinking about what I want to do with this blog, and I thought really hard about what’s important to me. I thought about the blogs that I spend the most time reading. Lately, I have been reading the successful bloggers who are making money doing this, but since I’m not making money yet, I didn’t think that I would be very successful training others on making money online. I read a few news blogs, but I don’t exactly live in Washington. I’ve written a few movie reviews on my blog, but I don’t think anyone but a couple close friends really care what I think about movies. So I kept thinking about my passions, and all that other stuff faded, and one thing shone brighter than anything else: parenting.

            I love being a parent. I discovered that the blogs that I truly enjoy reading is Dad-O-Matic and Savvy Daddy. Not only do I learn from these blogs, but I’m entertained by them. I can relate to them. I would love to join their ranks.

            So, I am now announcing that howefitz.com/blog will become a ‘daddy blog’. Here, I will share what I learn in life and online, and tailor it to the technology savvy, online Dad. What resources are out there? Can you truly have a good, educational experience with your kids online? I’ll still share blogging tips that I learn and I’ll still share personal stories. I’ll even keep my tagline of ‘Family, Life and Technology and somehow making the pieces fit!’ Although, I expect as I get better at this, I’ll be able to drop the ‘somehow’! 

            And so, gentle readers, welcome to the frantic meanderings of a Digital Dad. I hope you enjoy it.

Today, I watched this video on johnchow.com:

Wow, this video makes a compelling case that “I’m drinking a cup of coffee.” Is something people might actually want to know!

Hmmm….

There’s only one conclusion.

If you want to tweet about your online business, do it.

If you want to share information you think is valuable, by all means.

If you want to tweet that you just let loose the juiciest fart of your life, absolutely, why not?

But…

I don’t have to read it.

Here’s the thing: I’ve seen a lot of people that don’t like Twitter because they think it’s a fat wad of wasted time. That’s cool. But, it is possible to use Twitter effectively. 

Tim Ferriss uses Twitter to post information, alert readers of his latest blog entries, etc. At the time of this writing, he has 13,605 followers. How many people does he follow? Zero. I’ve seen blogs that say this means he must be a spammer. This is absolutely not true. He’s using Twitter very effectively to spread information that he feels is important. But, he has different avenues of research, etc. so he doesn’t even want to wade through the endless tweets to find information.

Myself, not being a respected, published author who is perfectly at ease hanging out with CEO-types all day, I use Twitter and Tweetdeck to ask for/ferret out information. I find this useful, so I have cut down on my “I just blew my nose” tweets, and instead, post my latest blog entries, link to favorite sites, news stories, etc. Usually, if I can’t attach a link, I don’t tweet.

I suppose the point of all this is that social media is what we make of it. I don’t tweet unless I can provide a link because that is the aspect that I enjoy. There’s not much you can say in 140 characters or less. You can, however, say just enough to entice readers to click on that link.

AND

If you find yourself following someone who incessantly tweets that they love pie, you can simply unfollow them.

Welcome to 21st century friendship!  ;p

You can find more useful videos like this one at commoncraft.com

As we look to a bright new year, many of us are looking back at the year we just had. Then we look forward to the year ahead. I am doing the latter with a vengeance. This does not come without the required retrospective, however.

The past year has been very busy for me. I moved twice, continued to try to sell my home in Missouri, worked overnight and days, considered a second job, started several blogs, discovered Facebook and Twitter while growing increasingly impatient with MySpace, and somewhere in there tried to figure out how to get family and ‘me’ time.

So, looking forward to a year of building my online presence and finding ways to escape ‘the old grind’, I decided to  call in a few experts. What follows are excerpts from emails I sent to several authors and bloggers to find out how they balance family, life, and technology. How do they make the pieces fit?

My first questions went to author and blogger Dayton Ward:

You maintain another job along with family and writing. How do you make
the pieces fit? Do you not sleep, sir?

I sleep more than you might think, but less than I’d like, or which some
folks might consider healthy. Between the dayjob, family, and writing, I
average between 4-5 hours of sleep a night during the week. On weekends, I sometimes am able to squeeze in another hour or, on very rare occasions,
sneak in a nap. It all depends on the schedules my wife and I are keeping
on a given weekend.

You also maintain a website and blog as well as MySpace and Facebook. How
many hours a week do you think you spend on those things?

I don’t really keep track of that sort of thing. I spend far less time on
MySpace and Facebook than I do my LiveJournal blog, which I try to update at least once a day. I have no real agenda when it comes to the LJ; I post about things I observe, things that piss me off, updates about my kids or the writing, or jokes and assorted detritus I find amusing. As for Facebook and MySpace, in all honesty, I only really maintain a presence there as a gateway to my LJ and website, but I’m also looking for ways to keep those pages up to date and relevant. I’ve set up Facebook to get feeds from LJ automatically, and I’m looking into doing the same thing with MySpace. I don’t really go in for all the little applications and little cutesy things you can do with MySpace or Facebook, but I do participate in some of it as time permits. The trick is to just not allow them to become bottomless pits of wasted time.

Now, if I may, I’d like to add a second voice to the discussion, Dayton’s partner on many works of fiction and commentary, author Kevin Dilmore.

You also use social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. How many hours a week do you think you spend on those things?

I spend time on FB and Twitter because it helps me a lot with my work. As a
writer and marketer for Hallmark, I absolutely NEED to know how people will
connect socially in the 21st Century. The future of my business depends on
it. So, I use them to learn about them.

Back to Dayton:

George Lucas said that there’s an old saying about how films are never
finished, they’re simply abandoned. Do you feel that way about your books
and stories?

I think every writer feels that way to some degree about at least some of
their past work. Aside from fixing obvious errors or things of that nature,
would I go back and correct, revise, or update everything I’ve ever
written, given the opportunity? No, but there are a couple of select pieces
I’d either refine or expand if I had the chance. In those instances, I’ve
reread the story and thought “Gee, I could have gone this way, rather than
what I did,” or “I should’ve fleshed this out more.” For the most part,
however, I’m okay with leaving my past work as is. In the case of one
particular short story, I became so enamored with what I considered to be
untapped potential behind it that I plotted out a novel-length prequel to
the thing. How crazy is that?

Kevin?

Hmm … actually, with the writing and rewriting and editing and re-reading
and everything, I’m pretty finished with them by the time they hit
print! >

Author/editor Kevin J. Anderson had this to offer:

The blog, the website presence, the e-mail accounts, they’re all like a hungry monster, always demanding to be fed. Authors are expected to have a web presence these days, but maintaining everything is a constant chore, taking away time that I really should be using to write. For the time and word count of the blog posts and e-mail I did last year, I could have written at least another novel!

I am extremely grateful to everyone who contributed to this blog. It’s nice to see that it’s not just we amateurs that struggle with this! I hope you have gleaned some insight as I have from these responses. I leave you with one final thought from prominent blogger John Chow:

“Family is the foundation of growth. No matter how hectic things may get, you must always take time out to enjoy what it most important.”

How many moments like this do we get in our lives, really?

—Who are these guys?—

Dayton Ward is the author of many media tie-in novels and short stories as well as original works. You can find his complete bibliography and other great tiddly-bits at daytonward.com

Be sure to read his LiveJournal blog!

Kevin Dilmore is also a media tie-in author and conjurer of worlds. Check out his stuff at amazon.com!

Kevin J. Anderson is an author/editor whose name has been associated with little known universes such as Star Wars and the Dune series of novels. Check him out at wordfire.com and dunenovels.com.

John Chow makes money online by telling people how much money he makes online. See how at johnchow.com.