During the wedding ceremony I performed at Ross Self Storage last June, the groom gives me a high-five.

I’ll give you this: Me owning a self-storage facility is not exactly what I envisioned as a child when I thought of professions I might like to pursue.

Might seem my destiny was already somewhat sealed when Mom and Dad bought the nearly one-acre sized property in Butler County on the site of the former Meadowbrook Inn (now the Meadowbrook Banquet Center, owned by Hilvers Catering). In reality, though, I think the thought of owning a storage facility appealed to me more originally than running one. That being said, I feel that over the past 12 months or so I have begun to really grow into the role of “self storage facility manager” and the enthusiasm that got me here in the first place (i.e. taking this over from my parents who started it in 1981) has returned. I can see again where this is all going and see its potential is pretty amazing. A turnaround in the economy, a little bit of a housing boom in southwestern Butler County (as was expected in pre-recession) and I can see big things in the future.

Even without an amazing economic bounce-back, I think things are going to be pretty good for a while in the self storage industry for a variety of reasons. Seems that storage is one of those things that people need when times are good and when times are bad. It’s a viable alternative for all sorts of situations all sorts of people find themselves in all the time. Helps that I have the latitude to be very competitively priced and have a location in an area that is still growing.

The short-term good news is small, but good. Every tenant is paid up for the first time in a long time, expectations have been clearly defined, I have only a couple empty bays (and a third giant one where my father kept his stuff that needs some finishing touches before it can be rented) and a growing group of outdoor parking space renters (with plenty of room for more). And it’s Spring – a time when people start deciding it’s time to get storage. Phone lines are open.

With all that in mind, I am happy to report I finished a complete re-design of the Ross Self Storage Web site just a few minutes ago. I did it myself (‘cuz I like doing these things) and am kinda happy with what I accomplished (though I realized I really need to get out there and shoot some better art for the site – those photos are awful).

Tomorrow begins another first for me: a Google AdWords campaign. I am using a $100 coupon I was sent from Google and thought I would give it a spin. The set-up was pretty interesting, a partial look under the advertising hood at Google. Those bite-sized ads provide the means for all the applications that Google provides – and I happily consume in mass quantities (I’m a bit of a Google fan boy). Though typically I would tell any consulting client a Google AdWords campaign is wholly unnecessary in most instances, I say this without actually ever having tried one. The coupon gives me a great opportunity to try the service without spending any cash. And I will get the added benefit of being able to speak from experience next time I tell someone it’s a waste of money.

Plus, the $100 is roughly equivalent to the amount I was going to spend in April on a newspaper ad in the Venice Cornerstone, the monthly local newspaper in Ross. This saves me from that – possibly – and also helps me bolster my argument that newspapers (and their Web sites) continue to miss the boat on a viable revenue model. I built a very un-savvy landing page, which, I think might be too overdone. My friend Krista Neher gave me one teensy bit of advice when I was thinking about my ad campaign earlier in the week: “Have a call to action.” I think I managed that OK. Call me, dammit, is my call to action. We’ll see.

I plan to report back here later on how the experience goes with Google. It should be interesting, to say the least. This is, after all and by many accounts, the future of advertising and the savior for us all (i.e. journalists who care about the content). Stay tuned…

Anyone have any suggestions for good themes? Also, locations on the Web for instructions on how to change a theme without going mad with frustation? Or better yet, is anyone even reading this?

I’ve been browsing dozens of congressional candidate/incumbent campaign web sites and was stunned to realize that apparently the Founding Fathers’ vision of non-partisan elections had been achieved! Why I could hardly find a single “Democrat” or “Republican” running for office or re-election anywhere in America. I thought “It’s a miracle! Surely this means the 111th Congress will be a utopia of respect, compromise and accomplishment. It will be made up almost entirely of non-aligned candidates!”

Open Left:: An Election Without Parties.

Though I was only there for about an hour and fifteen, I really liked the experience. I have found out recently that I rather enjoy geeking out with the geeks.

And today, Mr. Messick so politely sent us a list of all conventioneers replete with links to their respective blogs. So, here I post.

5CHW4R7Z (http://www.5chw4r7z.blogspot.com/)

Bad Pitch Blog (http://badpitch.blogspot.com/)

Building Cincinnati (http://www.building-cincinnati.com/)

Buy Cincy (http://buycincy.com/)

CETconnect (http://cetconnect.blogspot.com/)

Cincinnati Area Commercial Real Estate Trends (http://cincicommercialrealestate.blogspot.com/)

Cincinnati Blog (http://www.cincinnati.blogspot.com/)

Cincinnati Dealer (http://www.cincinnatidealer.com/)

Cincinnati Locavore (http://cincinnatilocavore.blogspot.com/)

Clark Street Blog (http://clarkstreetblog.blogspot.com/)

Die Fladermaus (http://mattvant.blogspot.com/)

ENCORE (http://encorecincinnati.wordpress.com/)

Girlfriendology (http://girlfriendology.com/)

Gonz O’Lager (http://gonzolager.blogspot.com/)

Hello, Gerard (http://hellogerard.blogspot.com/)

Joe Wessels (http://joewessels.net/)

Juliet & Juliette (http://julietandjulietteblog.com/)

Kate’s Random Musings (http://www.katesrandommusings.com/)

Keeping it REAL Estate (http://livingcincinnati.com/)

Kelly the the Max! (http://kellyhudson.blogspot.com/)

Live Green Cincinnati (http://www.livegreencincinnati.com/)

Liz Wu Music (http://www.cincychic.com/component/option,com_mamblog/task,show/action,user/id,808)

Make Cincinnati Weird (http://www.makecincinnatiweird.com/)

Mommy Bits (http://www.MommyBits.blogspot.com)

Cincinnati Women Bloggers (http://www.CincinnatiWomenBloggers.blogspot.com)

My Wine Education (http://www.wine-girl.net/)

Not Really a Book Blog Blog (http://nrabb2.blogspot.com/)

Permasmirk (http://permasmirk.com/)

Prospective (http://prosepective.blogspot.com/)

Queen City Survey (http://queencitysurvey.blogspot.com/)

Queer Cincinnati (http://cincywestsidequeer.blogspot.com/)

Soapbox (http://www.soapboxmedia.com/)

Strategic Public Relations (http://prblog.typepad.com/strategic_public_relation/)

The Journey is the Reward (http://blog.morristsai.com/)

Turning the Page (http://www2.cincinnatilibrary.org/blog/)

Urbanophile (http://theurbanophile.blogspot.com/)

Wine Me Dine Me (in Cincinnati) (http://winemedinemecinci.blogspot.com/)

With my attendance at the aforementioned convention and the frequent comment I heard being, “You need to post more often,” I have decided that I will. Now, I’ve decided this before, so we’ll see how it goes. But I have now reasons (more than just the nice requests for more Joe-tent) to do the bloggy thing. I will expound later on. Meantime, enjoy some of these wonderful Cincinnati blogs!

The earthquake woke me up so I decided to get on the computer and start blogging. Within 10 minutes I had made my first post and updated with more for the few hours after that. So, I got a barrage of Google hits on the subject. That was pretty cool.

Also, I’ve added a few widgets to the sidebar. A while back I added a Twitter widget (to go with the Flickr widget). Just a few days ago I added the Google Reader shared posts widget.

Twitter, if you haven’t discovered it yet, is a cool little application that asks the question: What are you doing? I update it as much as I can through my cell phone (either by sending text messages or using the phone’s Web browser) or by going to the Twitter Web site. Or my new toy: Twhirl.

The Google Reader is an RSS feed reader that allows me to read text (or a summary) and see some photographs from several Web pages at once in a single Web page. It also allows me to hit a “share” button that puts up the blog posts I think are worth checking out, which then appear on Report This! I highly recommend the reader – and checking out the posts I share.

I also added some Google ads to the sidebar as an experiment. I more or less just wanted to see how it worked and how quickly pennies added up. Turns out the only people making money off this blog is Google! Expect the ads to come down soon.

By the way, I have to tip the hat to the developers of WordPress. The new version is really nice and has added some very nice features. Plus, it appears to have taken a way a lot of the clunkiness that existed in prior versions. Thanks, guys! This Internet thing is kinda cool

Now you can find updates on the “Published Works” page, including my recent Cincinnati City Hall and Hamilton County goverment coverage for The Cincinnati Post. There are also links to two pieces written in the last few months for Cincinnati Magazine.

To boot, I also have added a ton of photos taken in the last few months. Enjoy!

As Blogs take more and more hold on the mainstream media landscape, I often wondered how my experience of determining what and what not to write about on this Blog corresponded to others who were writing on a Blog, especially those who now did as part of a new job requirement. There’s also a fair number of journo-Bloggers in my Blogroll who just do it because they want to.

So, it was good to run across this article from Poytner’s Chip Scanlan which pretty much sums up why I Blog. Reading it I thought I almost was reading my own reasons and I began to feel more comfortable about what I was doing here. Report This! is an experiment, to say the least. One that scares me half the time (for fear of which future editor might be reading it), and delights me the other times (because I can express myself and, according to my hit counter, somebody actually reads it).

So, I thought I’d share this. I appreciate Chip for being so frank in his reasons and helping me realize they are some of my own. Lowered expectations, my ability to see something, then write about it. Freedom, ah, glorious freedom. And I can get un-stuck from my doldrums and write about something I care about and get it out of me. Then, I can move on. This Blogging is cool stuff.

After much thought and prolonged discussion (years, really), I have finally revamped my Web site. Where’s the goat? He’s gone. Miss him? You can still view my Web site, as it was last updated by adding “old” in front of my old domain name. For example, to get to the old main page go type “old.joewessels.net” without the quoatations marks into your Web browser’s address bar.

I’m really excited about what I have accomplished here. There will still be a few noticiable changes in the Blog over the next few weeks, and likley into the future. But this will put everything about me in one place, elminating the need to have a seperate Web page, Blog, etc. I will now stop updating my old Blog and everything from that site has been imported here. I will be working on updating links on this Blog to my old personal Web site. Some may not work right now, but remember add “old” in front of any link (where the “www” would normally go) and it should work.

Thank you for taking the time to stop by. Check back soon for new updates and new changes.