ReveNews
Time To Move On, Time to Get Going
I’m stepping down as the Publisher of ReveNews.
I’ve been commanding the helm of this ship since last April (April Fool’s Day actually) when Wayne, Vinny and I first announced the merger of ReveNews and CostPerNews along with the new owners of ReveNews. It was no joke despite the date.
Over that year, we made serious advances in taking this site to the next level.
1 ) We cleaned up the back end (which was no small job, believe me),
2 ) Created a new theme that is reflective of the heritage of the site but also looks to the future.
3 ) Moved to a new host (LivingDot)
4 ) Reengaged our audience. Look to the comments here in the last few weeks if you need proof.
5 ) Reactivated bloggers who hadn’t posted in years
6 ) Brought in 9 new bloggers
7 ) Moved from MovableType to Wordpress.
8 ) Oh, and we’ve tripled RSS subscribers and are closing in on a million page views a month.
Not too shabby in one year’s time.
I saw “we” because it has been a joint effort with you (our supportive readers), our bloggers, our designer David Lawson, the persistently patient ear of former publisher Jim Kukral, the unfailing gadfly-like help of Carsten Cumbrowski, and our incredible Wordpress development team, ContentRobot (seriously, if you need any sort of help with Wordpress, contact them).
So, why leave now?
Good question. Jim did a much better job at explaining this sort of thing than I could ever do.
In a nutshell, it feels like the right time for me to move on. This past year has been an exhausting and emotional year for me personally. My wife and I welcomed our first child into the world in October. Just two weeks later, my cousin (being an only child myself, I considered him my brother) was killed while serving on active duty in Afghanistan (leaving behind a new bride and a one month old infant) … plus I’m turning 30 soon. Those events were definitely “wake up” calls for me.
In other words, there are miles to go before I sleep (God willing) and I must start taking my own business and affiliate/social marketing consulting career seriously. I am at the point in my life (which I use interchangeably with career) where I must focus on my family and build for their future. While being Publisher here has been a blast and I would love to stay in this position forever, the lack of a regular paycheck and the incredible amount of time involved in keeping all of the machines greased and working are not in my cards at this point in my life.
Although I’m going to be focusing on my business, I will certainly continue to blog at CostPerNews and my personal blog as well as continue my daily podcast at Affiliate Fortune Cookies. Of course there’s also GeekCast. My phone number stays the same (803-413-6834) and you can reach me via email at me@samharrelson.com and my Twitter account if you’d like to stay in touch (which I hope you do).
Without going too “Tom Petty” on you, I’ll just say thank you for helping to make this past year so challenging and so rewarding. Your expectations, praise and readership have meant so much to me. You are what keeps this machine humming. We’ll all find out what happens next from Vinny and Wayne. In the meantime, keep on reading, learning, educating and sharing…
Sam
[…] Tip blog. Subscribe to my RSS feed or enter your e-mail on the top right to get updates by e-mail.Sam Harrelson has announced that he is stepping down as Publisher of the affiliate marketing group blog, […]
Sam, although it’s too bad you’re stepping down here, I know you’ll still be around, so it’s not so bad. Best of luck in your future projects, whatever they may be.
[…] Harrelson dropped a bit of news on Revenews tonight, that he’s stepping down as […]
You’ve done a great job here at Revenews. Good luck with future endeavors.
Good luck Sam. Why is this all so familiar? Oh, wait. Yes. Next?
Good luck with your new adventures. You will be missed at Revenews.
Best of luck with your future endeavors. Thanks for all the work and commitment to the industry.
Continued success to you Sam! You will be missed.
Sam, you have done an awesome job. Keep up the good fight.
Play it again, Sam.
No really - just one more post before you turn the lights out!
it’s been a year already? wow .. time totaly flies!. Best of luck! I’m glad that you have decided to remain active in the blog/podcasto-sphere.
You definitely have left Revenews better than when you found it, it must feel good to leave something that you know will be in good hands
Sam,
You did a great job! I’m very sorry to see you go. You’ll certainly be missed. Best of luck with your other endeavors. I’m glad to hear you won’t be leaving the community.
It’s been an eventful year for you, Sam, and one filled with joy and sorrow. Thank you for sticking through to see things through. You will be missed on this blog; however, I know that there is a time for everything and new opportunities await you. Best wishes in your future pursuits.
Sam,
The ContentRobot team certainly enjoyed working with you on the big ReveNews conversion. We are sure we will cross paths again. We hope the new team is excited to continue the great relationship you forged with us.
~ Karen and Dana
[…] part of my settlement after leaving ReveNews, I get to retain the ownership of […]
Wow, big news Sam! Sorry to see you go…
Vinny, pay the man!!!
Best of luck Sam!
You did an awesome job here Sam. Looking forward to seeing your new ventures.
Sam you have done an awesome job. Keep up your strong presence and viewpoints.
Eureka. TY Sam.
30? Well we are humans not numbers anyway right! Sam you have done a fabulous job and I wish you and your wife congratulations on the baby and best of luck to you!I am hoping you will still be writing occasionally for Revenews?
Peace! ->X<-
Thanks so much for the kind words, everyone
@Heather - yep, I’ll still be dropping by here occasionally, but I’ll be doing most of my affiliate and online marketing blogging over on CostPerNews.
Sam
30! I never would have given you so much respect if I knew you were only a pup! Damn kids can’t stay in one place for more than a year or two anymore.
Good luck and to a great future.
[…] Sam Harrelson stepped down just last night as publisher of ReveNews, a group blog about online revenue news. I’m bummed as I just started reading and I quite enjoy Sam’s take, but I know I’ll be keeping in touch with his endeavors via Twitter and FriendFeed and some other venues. Good luck, Sam! […]