It make take awhile but when I make a mistake I will eventually admit and correct the error of my ways. Half a decade ago, I turned my back on supporting niche websites and focused all my effort in creating a new multi-topic website which you now know as socPub. As counter-intuitive that it sounds, the more diverse and interesting topics we published under this website, our number of loyal visitors to the website decreased in numbers. I found this analysis to be alarming and discouraging.

The mistake wasn't taking new risks by rebranding and building a new website but that I did so by closing down CMS Report, the most successful niche website I ever created. In retrospect, I should have maintained the original CMS Report with its focus on content management systems while exploring the creation of original new websites.

In my defense, the prior year I had found myself exhausted juggling the roles of editor for a popular CMS website, family life, and a demanding full-time career as an IT professional. For my mental, spiritual, and physical health I needed to step away and create new moments for me and my family. Plus there was an exit strategy, I saw the opportunity to make some money by selling CMS Report to another business.

At the time of all this self-doubt, I had a buyer willing to pay top dollar for the site. Everything looked to be a win-win for both parties but at the last minute, I didn't allow the sale of the site to go through. Why? I discovered that the would-be buyer wanted to fill the website with spam-linked articles and abuse the site's mailing list in the same manner. My core values screamed this was sale would be wrong. I found I needed to be loyal to the site's core audience in the same way they had been loyal to me. I said no to the deal and kept the CMS Report domain for myself.

So that's how socPub came to be. socPub has had some success but the topics covered historically have been too diverse to create a good identity for the website. The site never really cemented a loyal audience like CMS Report once did. So after some careful thought, I decided it's time to narrow the scope of topics covered at socPub and support some additional niche websites.

CMS Report

Embracing niche sites once again, CMS Report is returning with it's focus on content management systems and content strategy. The environment for creating websites and managing content has changed significantly since the original site was in production. I'm no longer considered a CMS guru by others (although I never considered myself one yielding to those better than me). All these changes in the CMS space though is intoxicating as it sets the stage for me learning what's new in content management along side of the reader. We've also given the site its own Twitter account at @cmsreport that I encourage you to follow.

The URL for CMS Report is: https://cmsreport.com

After Work Pub

While we spend an average of 6 hours (be honest folks) to 10 hours a day working, we have the opportunity for personal time for the remaining hours of our day. When you end your work day, it's time to invest in your other life with your hobbies, activities, and other interests. Off-topic discussions such as maintaining weather stations, collecting vinyl records, camping, hiking, smart homes, lawn care, and motorcycle riding have always been awkward articles to post at CMS Report and socPub. These articles have been moved over to our new site, the After Work Pub.

The character Jack Torrance from The Shining was absolutely correct when he typed "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy". You know how it ends, don't be a Jack Torrance. Instead seek us out for fun off-hour ideas, products, and activities. While we haven't yet established any social media accounts for this website, I'll be discussing many of the articles from this site on my personal Twitter account at @brubyusa. 

The URL for After Work Pub is: https://afterworkpub.com.

socPub

Our "flagship" website, socPub, will remain focused on information technology from an information system perspective (IT and IS are not the same thing folks). How do we make an IT product or IT service better? How do we better connect with our users, workforce, and customers? What goes into the workflow and business processes to make this all happen? Where is the magic?  Answering these questions takes a village of good people that we associate with whether they be the developers, analysts, marketers, creatives, or the business leaders in our industry.

socPub has always been a place to post articles covering these business-minded topics. What the future likely brings is less articles on CMS but perhaps from a customer outreach perspective we'll talk a little more about social publishing  and social networks then we have in the past. We've also established a new Twitter account for the site at: @SocPub.

The URL for socPub is: https://socpub.com.