Here’s the deal, kids. We’re moving from the free WordPress blog to our own space on a server. Theoretically, you shouldn’t notice that many changes. But it will be enough for you to come back to us on Monday, look around and say something like “kids, I told you not to throw any parties while I was gone. But there’s a beer bottle on top of that bookshelf you missed. Also, when did we get a 3rd bedroom?”

You didn’t even know YoungNotions HAD a logo, did you?

We started YoungNotions almost 2 years ago. I had been toying with the idea of a website where Bill and I could both promote shows, promote our comedy, promote ourselves, and work on mutual projects together. When Bill and I talked about him staying home to focus on comedy, one of my stipulations was that he would write everyday. Be it a script, a blog post, or what have you, I wanted him to write daily.

We set up YoungNotions to fulfill all of that. And for a while, it did what we needed. Bill was posting every day. Well. Most days. Some days I would fill in. But mostly it was Bill writing. We had our performance calendars, I had my acting resume, we had Bill’s stand up clips, and we had our shared projects all under one website. It was our promotional tool, our fun daily performance, a few jokes tossed out for people to enjoy mid-day.

A few months ago, Bill got a day job so I could stay home and pursue facilitating my son’s education. And helping start up a theater production company (Fearless Comedy Productions. Maybe you’ve heard of them). And do some other theater things in the area and still have time for my son. When we made this decision, we had a long talk about what to do with YoungNotions. What role does it fill? What role *should* it fill?

The thing is, both Bill and I love writing for this blog. But it’s not really much of a blog in the way it was originally intended. Instead of being some dude’s random thoughts, we’ve become much more satirical and observational in our focus. We’re both writing now, and very little of it has to do with our home life anymore. And we no longer use it rto promote ourselves.

I took our calendars down months ago and none of you said anything. I also got a haircut and no one noticed. I’m very hurt.

Thing is, we’re not a blog anymore. YoungNotions has become its own comedy site. We went from getting excited over 50 hits in a day to our highest blog post getting over 2,000 hits in one afternoon. We get thousands of hits in a month, from all over the world. We’re regularly getting shared on reddit, digg, stumbleupon, and at least once a month, something one of us does goes viral on Facebook.

I’m not saying that we’ve hit the big time. Far from it. As far as comedy websites go, we’re pretty much the bottom rung of the ladder. But we aren’t “blogging” anymore. Bill isn’t talking about his day job unless there’s a joke to be had. I’ve talked up a couple of charity events lately, but it was obvious that this is not the place for those things anymore.

You kids have come to expect daily noontime jokes to break up your day. And we plan to deliver. Hell, we’re even working on YoungNotions shows outside of the website. Not just Bill and Jena, but YoungNotions shows. As YoungNotions. It really has become its own thing.

So we’re moving to a hosting service. This will allow us to do a couple of things. First, I’ll be able to do more and better customization for the site. That menu thing that’s always bothered me where the spacing was off and the items ran together? I can fix that now. It wasn’t worth it to pay to fix it when we were living in a rental.

And that’s the second thing. Moving will allow us to monetize. Not a lot. Hopefully enough to cover the cost of moving to a server. But those awkwardly placed ads in the blog posts? Well, now I can put them where it best makes sense, and instead of that money going to WordPress for the free hosting, it’ll now go to us to pay for the hosting.

We’ll also be able to set up our CafePress shop so you can purchase cool YoungNotions swag. I’ve already got some YoungNotions logo items available featuring that swanky logo I posted earlier. The thing is, we’ve had that donation button up there for months now, and we’ve received one donation (which, seriously- thank you). But I don’t blame anyone for not donating, because what do you get out of it? Now, a part of the proceeds will go toward YoungNotions, AND you get something for your money. And who doesn’t want a YoungNotions thong?

Soon….

Did you just picture Bill in a thong? Oh, well NOW you did… Ugh. This is horribly awkward.

The point is, this site is no longer going to be about us. It really hasn’t been for quite some time. We’re just trying to keep up with the growth of our little baby blog.

Awe, look at it. All growed up and moving out.

There might be some bumps along the way. I believe what I’m doing will preserve subscriptions, but if you don’t see us in your email or feed on Monday, please let me know and/or re-subscribe. I promise we’ll be here, and with 20% less narcissism.

And the awkwardly placed ad is VVVVVVVVHEREVVVVVVVVV I mean, part of the post or no?