Blog Post Roundup #1

 I wrote a post that was a roundup of links to other people's websites before, a "Link Roundup". I wrote that because I had recently found some interesting stuff across the web and I wanted to quickly share it.

This roundup post is going to be different than that previous link roundup because this roundup will be of only blog posts on this site.

I have written, at the time of writing this blog post, 86 blog posts. Some of those are doing decently well. I believe the article on my site with the highest number of pageviews has just over 3000. I have several posts around 1000 total views. Many in the 300-700 views range.

But I've also got lots of posts which have very few pageviews. Like in the 10-30 views range.

They are good articles. The content is useful and interesting, and I believe they should be getting seen more often than they are. Less than 50 views is too few views.

So this roundup post is intended to give a little extra attention to those underperforming posts. I want to call out these posts that seem to need a little boost to get going.

Other than that as the unifying theme, these posts might not have much else in common, but that's okay. Peruse the list, and if any strike you as being right up your alley, click the link and give them a read.

Nobody Wants To Return To The Office - Employers Need To Stop Insisting They Do

This is an opinion blog post in which I talk about how most employees do not want to go back to work in an office, even after the pandemic is over and it might be safe to do so.

Many employers used to say that telecommuting, or working remotely, was not possible and that the concept would not be considered. But the pandemic forcing shutdowns and stay-at-home orders made companies reconsider.

In order to remain open at all, they now had to let workers do their jobs from home. And it worked incredibly well.

Employees were able to be very productive from home. And now workers realize that it is possible to do their jobs from the comfort of their homes. They realize they can spend more time with their kids and their pets. They realize they can avoid the wasteful commute to the office.

Now that workers have had a taste of just how great a work from home arrangement can be, many are refusing to return to the office. And employers don't really have a leg to stand on here. They are trying to insist that people need to return to offices, but they can't come up with any good reasons to justify it.

On the opposite hand, employees have loads of great reasons for working remotely. And if a thing is what the supermajority of people want, and it is better than the alternative, it seems evil to be pushing for the opposite. Employers who are trying to make workers do something they don't want to do, which will decrease the net benefits to everyone involved, are definitely on the wrong side of the issue.

Should You Donate Plasma?

I used to donate plasma regularly while I was going to college. I did so because it was a pretty easy way to make money, and I needed money to afford rent and food while attending school full time.

I have since stopped donating plasma. The two main reasons I stopped are that my full-time job now pays enough that it isn't really worth my time to sell plasma anymore. The other reason is that I moved and the plasma donation center closest to me isn't as pleasant or clean as the one I used to go to.

This blog post describes the process of donating plasma and explains why you might want to do it.

Very roughly, you visit a plasma donation center, they do some medical screening to ensure you are healthy enough to donate, then they take you to a donation table. 

You lay down, a phlebotomist puts a needle into the vein on your inner elbow, and a machine collects your whole blood and separates out just the plasma portion.

The collection process takes around an hour to complete, and at the end you are paid for your time. Usually it is around $20 per visit.

I had a very positive experience donating plasma, and while you need to decide what is right for yourself, I would recommend you give it a try if you are at all curious.

Is The Offbeat Life Podcast Any Good?

I wrote a blog post reviewing The Offbeat Life podcast, which is an interview style podcast with people who make their income remotely.

The episodes I'm most interested in are the ones with bloggers who are able to make a full-time income from writing on their blogs. Unfortunately, those are a minority of the episodes.

There are also interviews with people who simply do their jobs remotely. One I can recall is of someone who teaches English to children around the world by video call.

Another was with someone who coaches people on their business by video call.

Many of the people the host of the podcast, Debbie, interviews, choose to do their work remotely because they enjoy traveling, and such a business or work arrangement allows them to travel more often.

I really enjoy this podcast. The stories of the guests are usually very inspirational and help motivate me to continue writing on this blog. My only recommendation to the host of this podcast would be to feature more guests who make their living from their blogs.

Remote Workers Should Move To Small Towns

There's a blogger named Nat Eliason who wrote about a concept he called Creator Towns.

The idea is roughly that people in big cities where the jobs tend to pay more than in other places sometimes have the freedom to work remotely.

For those people with larger incomes and the ability to move to wherever they want and keep their jobs, it could be fun to coordinate with others and move to a small town.

In those small towns, the large income from the big city job would go a lot farther than it does in the city. The cost of living is so much lower in rural towns.

With the surplus money from a lower cost of living, these creators or remote workers could build businesses in these towns which would provide them the things they liked in the big cities they left, but which the towns don't have.

These businesses would benefit everyone. The creator would start a business which would hopefully make money, and they would be adding something to their town that they would like to have. And the people who already lived in that town would get access to something new and hopefully useful.

The process of outsourcing of jobs and of big box stores like Walmart moving into small towns destroyed small local economies. Many of these small towns are shrinking. The kids that grow up there leave for cities with better job opportunities.

With fewer people staying in the towns, the economies shrink. But the idea of Creator Towns is a project of revitalization. The main reason young people were leaving the towns was because of a lack of job opportunities.

But if you can have the job from the city and still live in the small town, the quality of life in the small town might be better, and there would not only be less reason to leave, but more reason to move to a small town.

It is a very cool idea, and I wish I was in a position to participate in that venture myself. I believe Nat gave it a try, working with some friends to move to a small town, purchase some real estate, and build some businesses.

I don't think it ultimately worked out. He said that there were too many obstacles, the costs were greater than he expected, and that the process just took too long. Hopefully the idea lives on and works in some places.

Category Pages

Before I bring this roundup article to a close, I wanted to bring some attention to a couple of my category pages. I currently have 6 category pages which try to organize the content of this blog into some general themes so that people can more easily find the content that interests them.

I think in time I might end up adding a couple more category pages, but 6 works for right now.

I'm just going to mention a couple here, not really for any particular reason. Just because.

One of the category pages is all about my Business and Economy related content.

The other category page I will mention is about my Travel related content. Not all of my travel content is from times I was on vacation. Much of it is stuff from around the area I live. What all of the content has in common, though, is that they are place related. They have to do with physical locations. The content is organized by place.

Thanks for checking out this roundup! Hope something mentioned here sounded good to you. Was there one that stood out to you? Is there something else on my blog you think would be worth bringing to people's attention in a future roundup post? Let me know in the comments!