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Steffi Lewis | Blog

Turning coffee into code since 1993 ...

sBlogIt! Version 2 Is Officially Signed Off As Done!

Steffi Lewis

CREATED BY STEFFI LEWIS

Published: 16/05/2025 @ 09:00AM
#sBlogIt #DoneForYou #BloggingPlatform #TestTweakTwiddle #UpgradeCompleted

The long, hard slog is over. I've finished what I call the Test, Tweak and Twiddle phase of sBlogIt! V2 and I'm very pleased to sign off my upgraded done-for-you blogging platform as completed, once and for all ...

sBlogIt! my thoughts flow, Words dancing on the screen, A digital world

sBlogIt! my thoughts flow, Words dancing on the screen, A digital world

Let me tell you a little of the history of sBlogIt! (what I call sBlogIt! Classic) It all started back in 2011 when a small business owner I knew asked if I would blog for her business. I'd written a simple blogging system for myself when I was in the USA, and continued in one form or another when I returned to the UK and was doing rock photography, so talking about the gigs I attended and including photos.

It was awesome that she saw the potential of what I was doing, and even more so when she offered me money!

At the time, I was working on a long-term web project for a company which I'd actually finished, but they then made unreasonable demands on me to create the next version, which was actually a complete ground-up rewrite that I wasn't prepared to do. I'd already been contracting for them for 3 years, it was time to move on.

I quit my contract and used my savings to fund myself while I developed the early version of sBlogIt! Classic. I started networking, met other business owners, and they saw the potential of what I was doing as well, so I added more and more subscribers, then built in more features like social sharing and blog mailers. I was very happy with my platform and just used it for the next decade because it just worked! I'd reached 25 subscribers (5 blog posts per day) before the pandemic hit us and shut everything down.

I'd been working more and more with Artificial Intelligence and having to use external AI platforms, create stuff, then bring it into sBlogIt! for inclusion in my subscribers' blog posts was time-consuming and a real pain. After a conversation with my mum (yes, mum - I'm giving you credit for that final push I needed), I started working on V2 at the end of February.

As with all my web projects, I tend to 'plug myself into the matrix' and just code and code and code until it's done. My bestie didn't see me for weeks on end, I never bothered changing out of my pyjamas, I ate a lot of junk food and chocolate and just got on with it.

It's how I've worked for decades, though now I'm older I can't pull all-nighters anymore, I need to remember to move around regularly or my right knee will seize up, and I do need to stop coding at least 3 hours before bedtime or my brain won't stop churning and it takes ages for me to fall asleep.

But now it's done. Developed, tested, tweaked
and twiddled, signed off!

It took 2 months of relentless coding to create (a lot of the classic code-base was still useful), then another 2 weeks to TT&T, and I can finally sign it off as completed. I feel rather proud of myself because what I've created is amazing.

The biggest takeaway for me is that it's now a pleasure to create blog posts again. sBlogIt! Classic was tired and slow and had functions I'd written years ago and either abandoned or never truly used ... but the code was still there, slowing it down. It became frustrating to drag through the workflow time and time again.

sBlogIt! V2 is smaller, faster and better in every way, and the whole creation process is so smooth now it's unbelievable. And of course, I've built in the very latest AI models for words, images and audios, so my subscribers' blog posts read, look and sound great too. I just click buttons and cool AI things happen now. I even asked ChatGPT which SEO tweaks and structured data I could include to improve rankings, and that ended up being a very deep and profound conversation, let me tell you.

So all my subscribers have been converted from sBlogIt! Classic to sBlogIt! V2, blog posts have been created and published, shares have been done, and mailers have been sent. I've even added in some 'nice to haves' which help the workflows run even smoother. Everything is functioning within normal parameters ... and so it's done, done and thice done.

So what's next?

Well, I want to take the rest of May off (from coding) so I can just be an entrepreneur again and get out there, networking and running demos. I have some things I need to tweak with YourPCM, one of which is a very specific (not often occurring) bug I need to take a look at, and at the same time, I'm having a think about YourECHO, which is 'a chatbot that believes it's you'. I've already written 90% of it, so I need to refine it and decide which direction I'm going to take with it. 

Is it purely for individuals to add their own thoughts and memories into it, or will I turn it into a commercial system that can become a support bot? Or both? And is it a one-off bot platform or can the subscriber create many? I need time to think, so a few weeks off from coding, then YourPCM fixes, then YourECHO. 

For now, my work here is done.

Love, light & logic ...

Steffi Lewis

STEFFI LEWIS
Independent UK SaaS Developer - Creator of YourPCM & sBlogIt!

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#sBlogIt #DoneForYou #BloggingPlatform #TestTweakTwiddle #UpgradeCompleted

About Steffi Lewis ...

Steffi Lewis 

Based in the charming village of Hanslope in Buckinghamshire, UK, I bring over 30 years of experience in web development. From creating my first website for the Open University in 1993, through being part of the dot com boom, to my explorations in SaaS and AI over the last few years, my journey has been a rich tapestry of web projects, big and small, both funded and bootstrapped.

Originally developed during the pandemic, at the start of 2025, I released the next iteration of YourPCM, version 2, which is all about 'Easy Contact Management for Small Business Owners'. Is it a CRM? Yes, but I don't call it that because people glaze over at the mention of such things. CRMs are boring, difficult to get to grips with, and it's a nightmare to get help when you need it. 

YourPCM is none of those things! It's simple to use, well-supported, feature rich and beautiful, right out of the box. It's available on a simple monthly subscription with no long-term tie-in. Book a demo or grab your own 14-working-day free trial and discover why YourPCM is all about easy contact management for small business owners. 

My head is in the cloud, my heart belongs to the web, and my soul is filled with such beautiful code 💗

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