Blogs and Blogging
A blogger's update
16/10/08 22:03 Filed in: Blogs and Blogging
It’s time for a geek’s update of technical progress here. This website was launched in prototype form on April 28th and went live on May 9th. It’s five months old as of last week.
Here’s what’s happening:
1. Daily visitors to the site including feed-burner are about 66 now (Just under 2,000 per month). 33% of these come from BlogCatalog, another 31% come from Google search, about 6% come direct and the rest come from various other referrers including individual web-sites. In all, about 62% of traffic comes from referring sites, 33% comes from search engines and another 5% comes direct.
2. New visitors are the majority at about 52%
3. USA accounts for most visits – 37%, then France – 35% then the UK – 10%. Over the past five months, the site has drawn readers from no less than 55 countries.
4. Most popular content was Geoffrey’s Farrago – 16%, then Love’s Passage 13%, then Falling Forwards 12%
5. Most bizarre search phrases:
- Sexual titillation in social networks
- Underwater pigs in Liverpool
- Consensual autocrats (Eh?)
- Penis, love center of the brain (Is that a "dickhead", as we say in the UK?)
- Sexual love between siblings and foreplay (Enough!)
6. Current rate of growth in number of visitors = 30% to 50% per month over past three months
7. Total number of blog posts = 66
This site is still very new. Overall, I’m happy with progress! Search engine page rankings are not great, but I’ve concluded that, in part, may be a result of how I’ve constructed the site. They are improving at least.
Until the next time…Au revoir
Here’s what’s happening:
1. Daily visitors to the site including feed-burner are about 66 now (Just under 2,000 per month). 33% of these come from BlogCatalog, another 31% come from Google search, about 6% come direct and the rest come from various other referrers including individual web-sites. In all, about 62% of traffic comes from referring sites, 33% comes from search engines and another 5% comes direct.
2. New visitors are the majority at about 52%
3. USA accounts for most visits – 37%, then France – 35% then the UK – 10%. Over the past five months, the site has drawn readers from no less than 55 countries.
4. Most popular content was Geoffrey’s Farrago – 16%, then Love’s Passage 13%, then Falling Forwards 12%
5. Most bizarre search phrases:
- Sexual titillation in social networks
- Underwater pigs in Liverpool
- Consensual autocrats (Eh?)
- Penis, love center of the brain (Is that a "dickhead", as we say in the UK?)
- Sexual love between siblings and foreplay (Enough!)
6. Current rate of growth in number of visitors = 30% to 50% per month over past three months
7. Total number of blog posts = 66
This site is still very new. Overall, I’m happy with progress! Search engine page rankings are not great, but I’ve concluded that, in part, may be a result of how I’ve constructed the site. They are improving at least.
Until the next time…Au revoir
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Not quite the Oscars!
14/10/08 10:23 Filed in: Blogs and Blogging
I have been very slow in passing on awards! Today is the day! It’s Geoffrey’s blog Oscars. Like all Oscar ceremonies, I do expect overlong, sycophantic, tear-filled acceptance speeches from the recipients with votes of thanks to dogs, cats, budgerigars and the odd few glasses of red wine. (If you want to send whole bottles, e-mail me and I’ll give you my mailing address.)
Some of these awards are memes apparently. I do not know exactly what a meme is, only that is pronounced memm and not me! me! According to my dictionary a meme is “a unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another.” That sounds a bit dodgy to me!
I’m going to give some awards to bloggers who I know will not necessarily display them for personal or aesthetic reasons. To me, that’s less important than the act of recognition. It’s the thought that counts, right?
The first award I have to bestow is the Arte Y Pico award.
Thanks to Tamera for this award.
The rules are:
1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language
2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.
3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.
Okay, so here goes:
For the best blogs EVER, I would like to give this award to:
Timethief’s “This time, this space”
Timethief is one of the seven wonders of the world to me. Her command of subject matter is dauntingly impressive. Her research of subjects is rigorous and comprehensive. Her writing is intelligent, incisive, accessible and clear. What’s more, it’s a darned good read!
I have often wondered what her first name is. I may have even asked her. I know she prefers privacy and anonymity here although I suspect though that she may have one of those names from a past era to which she is reluctant to admit, like Doris, Agnes, Ethel or Gertrude. So what do you think?
Melindaville
This blog is simply amazing. It plots the life journey and brave struggle of Melinda, who now lives on both sides of the American continent and works as a psychology professor. Melinda has in her time suffered massive child abuse and consequent heroin addiction from which she is now fully recovered. She has worked as a rock singer with the evocatively named band, the wild women of Borneo, a high class call girl, an exotic dancer and a Shakespearean actress. Her journey of recovery and success is as impressive as she is. This is a must read blog. Oh! And by the way, I have very good reason to believe that her real name is Melinda, and not Doris!
My third and last, favourite is one of the most inspiring blogs I know:
It’s Robin Easton’s Naked in Eden. So much has been written or said about this amazing woman who currently has two books approaching publication. I have little to add, other than, “Just go there!” and “Robin, let me know when your books are published so I can go buy them!” Simply brilliant!
Two more:
Best newcomer blog
Jackie Smith’s Jack Mandora
Jackie’s place is full of the sounds and life of Jamaica. A teacher by profession, her subjects draw on literature, poetry and life in the Caribbean. What’s more she is a very warm, engaging and interesting person! Great blog, Jackie!
Best art blog
This place I love. It’s Eddie’s photography blog the Cliff Walk. I can’t praise this blog highly enough. Eddie has a fantastic eye for a great shot. His images have humour, human interest, creativity, social commentary; every one has something to say! Based in the Pacific North west, his work reminds me of the famous French photographer, Henri Cartier-Bresson and that alone is praise enough. He has a really superb eye for the moment that is best summed up in the words of Cartier-Bresson himself, "There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative," he said. "Oops! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever." Eddie frequently captures that creative moment. Well done, Eddie!
Two more awards that were passed onto me by the very funny and entertaining Jane “Mrs T” Turley, crazy housewife from the English Home Counties :
First is the “Honest Blogger Award”. This is not a meme and no special conditions apply. I want it to be special, however, so I am going to limit this award to two blogs only. I am going to award an area that some may think is wildly out of character for me. It’s not really. Who I would like to recognise is two young mothers who I feel are doing an exceptional and outstanding job in motherhood and upholding healthy family life in very difficult times. On reading both their blogs, I had a single overwhelming reaction. It was, “Cor! I would have loved a mum like that…how special these young women are.” Yes, I know. I'm a softie!
So here you are, my special awards for happy and healthy motherhood go to:
Julia at MidWest Moms
And Elaine at My Life as a stay at home Mom
Next…!
The “Brillante Weblog 2008 Premio Award, (for which the same conditions apply as for the Arte Y Pico Award) goes to:
Melindaville
Jackie Smith’s Jack Mandora
Henry at SoulMerlin’s reflections
Henry at SoulMerlin’s Almanack
Henry, your blogs are amongst the most peaceful places I know on the net. I love all four of them. It was hard to choose these two!
Jennifer’s Writing to survive
I’m looking forward to your “writing to thrive” days, Jennifer! I know they will be here soon.
I’ve had a lot of awards gathering dust in this cupboard of mine. This next award is not a Meme and again I wish to bestow it with some meaning that is special to me. Thank you to Shirley of Proof Positivity for her butterfly award. “A butterfly goes through a cycle of life. Starting from something that may not be so pretty to something beautiful and majestic. A butterfly is inspirational. It gently glides through the wind as if music plays under its wings.”
Here we go:
I wanted to get this one here in somewhere. I know her website is already so weighed down in awards that I fear another may cause it to sink! Someone who really is a butterfly to me is the very lovely Tamera. What I love most about this site or more particularly about Tamera herself is her boundless warmth, compassion, kindness, positive energy and generosity of spirit. I know she’ll call me an old flatterer or some such thing, but my words are heartfelt. I’m glad that Tamera is in this world.
Ahem! Now I’m not sure I can call these next two butterflies. But in the spirit of bringing something positive into life, they both do it for me. What they bring into the world is laughter and they do it in abundance. Why these blogs are special to me is that I live overseas from my home country and sometimes I feel isolated and long for English humour. If ever I feel down, I visit their sites and generally come away with a smile on my face. They are the two best humour blogs I know:
Jane Turley’s diary of a mad housewife
Master Sy and his dead hamster. It’s bonkers!
That’s it. Thank you all.
Some of these awards are memes apparently. I do not know exactly what a meme is, only that is pronounced memm and not me! me! According to my dictionary a meme is “a unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another.” That sounds a bit dodgy to me!
I’m going to give some awards to bloggers who I know will not necessarily display them for personal or aesthetic reasons. To me, that’s less important than the act of recognition. It’s the thought that counts, right?
The first award I have to bestow is the Arte Y Pico award.
Thanks to Tamera for this award.
The rules are:
1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language
2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.
3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.
Okay, so here goes:
For the best blogs EVER, I would like to give this award to:
Timethief’s “This time, this space”
Timethief is one of the seven wonders of the world to me. Her command of subject matter is dauntingly impressive. Her research of subjects is rigorous and comprehensive. Her writing is intelligent, incisive, accessible and clear. What’s more, it’s a darned good read!
I have often wondered what her first name is. I may have even asked her. I know she prefers privacy and anonymity here although I suspect though that she may have one of those names from a past era to which she is reluctant to admit, like Doris, Agnes, Ethel or Gertrude. So what do you think?
Melindaville
This blog is simply amazing. It plots the life journey and brave struggle of Melinda, who now lives on both sides of the American continent and works as a psychology professor. Melinda has in her time suffered massive child abuse and consequent heroin addiction from which she is now fully recovered. She has worked as a rock singer with the evocatively named band, the wild women of Borneo, a high class call girl, an exotic dancer and a Shakespearean actress. Her journey of recovery and success is as impressive as she is. This is a must read blog. Oh! And by the way, I have very good reason to believe that her real name is Melinda, and not Doris!
My third and last, favourite is one of the most inspiring blogs I know:
It’s Robin Easton’s Naked in Eden. So much has been written or said about this amazing woman who currently has two books approaching publication. I have little to add, other than, “Just go there!” and “Robin, let me know when your books are published so I can go buy them!” Simply brilliant!
Two more:
Best newcomer blog
Jackie Smith’s Jack Mandora
Jackie’s place is full of the sounds and life of Jamaica. A teacher by profession, her subjects draw on literature, poetry and life in the Caribbean. What’s more she is a very warm, engaging and interesting person! Great blog, Jackie!
Best art blog
This place I love. It’s Eddie’s photography blog the Cliff Walk. I can’t praise this blog highly enough. Eddie has a fantastic eye for a great shot. His images have humour, human interest, creativity, social commentary; every one has something to say! Based in the Pacific North west, his work reminds me of the famous French photographer, Henri Cartier-Bresson and that alone is praise enough. He has a really superb eye for the moment that is best summed up in the words of Cartier-Bresson himself, "There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative," he said. "Oops! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever." Eddie frequently captures that creative moment. Well done, Eddie!
Two more awards that were passed onto me by the very funny and entertaining Jane “Mrs T” Turley, crazy housewife from the English Home Counties :
First is the “Honest Blogger Award”. This is not a meme and no special conditions apply. I want it to be special, however, so I am going to limit this award to two blogs only. I am going to award an area that some may think is wildly out of character for me. It’s not really. Who I would like to recognise is two young mothers who I feel are doing an exceptional and outstanding job in motherhood and upholding healthy family life in very difficult times. On reading both their blogs, I had a single overwhelming reaction. It was, “Cor! I would have loved a mum like that…how special these young women are.” Yes, I know. I'm a softie!
So here you are, my special awards for happy and healthy motherhood go to:
Julia at MidWest Moms
And Elaine at My Life as a stay at home Mom
Next…!
The “Brillante Weblog 2008 Premio Award, (for which the same conditions apply as for the Arte Y Pico Award) goes to:
Melindaville
Jackie Smith’s Jack Mandora
Henry at SoulMerlin’s reflections
Henry at SoulMerlin’s Almanack
Henry, your blogs are amongst the most peaceful places I know on the net. I love all four of them. It was hard to choose these two!
Jennifer’s Writing to survive
I’m looking forward to your “writing to thrive” days, Jennifer! I know they will be here soon.
I’ve had a lot of awards gathering dust in this cupboard of mine. This next award is not a Meme and again I wish to bestow it with some meaning that is special to me. Thank you to Shirley of Proof Positivity for her butterfly award. “A butterfly goes through a cycle of life. Starting from something that may not be so pretty to something beautiful and majestic. A butterfly is inspirational. It gently glides through the wind as if music plays under its wings.”
Here we go:
I wanted to get this one here in somewhere. I know her website is already so weighed down in awards that I fear another may cause it to sink! Someone who really is a butterfly to me is the very lovely Tamera. What I love most about this site or more particularly about Tamera herself is her boundless warmth, compassion, kindness, positive energy and generosity of spirit. I know she’ll call me an old flatterer or some such thing, but my words are heartfelt. I’m glad that Tamera is in this world.
Ahem! Now I’m not sure I can call these next two butterflies. But in the spirit of bringing something positive into life, they both do it for me. What they bring into the world is laughter and they do it in abundance. Why these blogs are special to me is that I live overseas from my home country and sometimes I feel isolated and long for English humour. If ever I feel down, I visit their sites and generally come away with a smile on my face. They are the two best humour blogs I know:
Jane Turley’s diary of a mad housewife
Master Sy and his dead hamster. It’s bonkers!
That’s it. Thank you all.
Addicted to Blogging?
13/05/08 19:56 Filed in: Blogs and Blogging
Addicted to blogging? Are you really? It was a question I asked myself this morning as I launched Google Analytics before breakfast!
I’m new to life as an independent Blogger. About nine months ago I joined MySpace and caught the blog bug. I enjoy writing. I loved the dialogue with others and sharing common interests with like minds. In no time at all I had a four-figure blog readership and some sparky debate going on. So I decided to declare independence and go it alone here.
I read all I could and joined the odd e-mailing list of seasoned blog practitioners claiming knowledge of how to do this blog thing right. Daily I receive exhortations on how to analyse, publicise, optimise and monetise my writing…sometimes written moneytize and usually spelt in dollars. I had to:
• Find a niche - Drat! Psychology is not a niche…better consider something like providing cognitive behavioural therapy to agoraphobic rabbits in distress! Poetry is not a niche either…neither is literature nor writing! Move on…
• Build credibility. As what, a human being?
• Boost my Google page rank
• Establish a web presence
• Not duplicate content (Wise words in hindsight!)
• Cover my pages with advertisements based on Google AdWords
• Make friends with zillions of other bloggers
• Publish something every day even if I had nothing to say
• Join every social network site and proselytise my words.
And then the world would be mine! I too could have over one thousand visitors in my first month. I too could earn a fortune as a rampant blogster on amphetamines!
The blog social networks are rife with people who have consumed and digested all this stuff. One can check out their pages with thousands of so-called “friends” images arranged like a gigantic stamp collection. How can anyone maintain friendships with three thousand people? But that’s not the point is it? It’s not about friendship at all. It’s not about dialogue, communication, community, sharing or exchanging thoughts, ideas, feelings, experiences or desires or any laudable motive like that. It’s simply a feeble attempt to capture a small market when it comes to the stage of moneytization. So what?
If one looks at a blog social network, like BlogCatalog, that I like, enjoy and where I have met some very interesting people, one can see the casualties of the catechism of the golden idol everywhere. There you can find twelve year olds from Diddly Squat, Ohio advocating the “seven steps to realising your full potential” when diddly squat is exactly what they know! There are people who have taken the “write something every day” rule to heart and write mindless twoddle every day. There are others who write frequently and write very well but they are the notable exception rather than the rule. I have met some of them. There are people who copy high-profile content mindlessly from all over the internet in order to gain a high Google page rank. But they all miss the point. (And this is all tongue-in-cheek by the way! Or is it really?).
I have this fundamental belief that has served me very well in my life and work and it goes like this: Success and money are essentially by-products of doing something well. If one really believes in something, one’s passion and enthusiasm will infect others and act as a catalyst in success. If one declares money-making to be one’s sole purpose, then occasionally if one is obsessed one might succeed in making money, but that is all. But in the accomplishment of the single goal of making money, one rarely finds true friendship or happiness. That’s what I believe.
So why do you do it and why do I? For me, some of the reasons appear on the home page of my website which says, “My real pleasure comes from sharing and exchanging thoughts, experiences, ideas, feelings and desires with others who have similar interests. Eventually I want to make this web-site a stimulating and thriving medium of communication…” There are other reasons too. I love writing and blogging can be enormous fun. I live in France where most people do not share the same language. But overall I enjoy the community, communications and dialogue with others and it’s great fun! I have no plans for immediate moneyfication (As Gee Dubbyah might say). Occasionally I make some small gain from my writing but that’s a by-product of something I enjoy doing. I love writing!
But what about you? Why do you do it? What do you want from it? Break the mould and leave me a comment! It’s a slow process out here alone on the world-wide-web. I’m not yet enjoying the success that I gained quickly at MySpace (where I have since deleted my blog content because of the issues around duplicate content!) Whatever you think or feel, I would love to hear from you. Have fun blogging!
I’m new to life as an independent Blogger. About nine months ago I joined MySpace and caught the blog bug. I enjoy writing. I loved the dialogue with others and sharing common interests with like minds. In no time at all I had a four-figure blog readership and some sparky debate going on. So I decided to declare independence and go it alone here.
I read all I could and joined the odd e-mailing list of seasoned blog practitioners claiming knowledge of how to do this blog thing right. Daily I receive exhortations on how to analyse, publicise, optimise and monetise my writing…sometimes written moneytize and usually spelt in dollars. I had to:
• Find a niche - Drat! Psychology is not a niche…better consider something like providing cognitive behavioural therapy to agoraphobic rabbits in distress! Poetry is not a niche either…neither is literature nor writing! Move on…
• Build credibility. As what, a human being?
• Boost my Google page rank
• Establish a web presence
• Not duplicate content (Wise words in hindsight!)
• Cover my pages with advertisements based on Google AdWords
• Make friends with zillions of other bloggers
• Publish something every day even if I had nothing to say
• Join every social network site and proselytise my words.
And then the world would be mine! I too could have over one thousand visitors in my first month. I too could earn a fortune as a rampant blogster on amphetamines!
The blog social networks are rife with people who have consumed and digested all this stuff. One can check out their pages with thousands of so-called “friends” images arranged like a gigantic stamp collection. How can anyone maintain friendships with three thousand people? But that’s not the point is it? It’s not about friendship at all. It’s not about dialogue, communication, community, sharing or exchanging thoughts, ideas, feelings, experiences or desires or any laudable motive like that. It’s simply a feeble attempt to capture a small market when it comes to the stage of moneytization. So what?
I have this fundamental belief that has served me very well in my life and work and it goes like this: Success and money are essentially by-products of doing something well. If one really believes in something, one’s passion and enthusiasm will infect others and act as a catalyst in success. If one declares money-making to be one’s sole purpose, then occasionally if one is obsessed one might succeed in making money, but that is all. But in the accomplishment of the single goal of making money, one rarely finds true friendship or happiness. That’s what I believe.
So why do you do it and why do I? For me, some of the reasons appear on the home page of my website which says, “My real pleasure comes from sharing and exchanging thoughts, experiences, ideas, feelings and desires with others who have similar interests. Eventually I want to make this web-site a stimulating and thriving medium of communication…” There are other reasons too. I love writing and blogging can be enormous fun. I live in France where most people do not share the same language. But overall I enjoy the community, communications and dialogue with others and it’s great fun! I have no plans for immediate moneyfication (As Gee Dubbyah might say). Occasionally I make some small gain from my writing but that’s a by-product of something I enjoy doing. I love writing!
But what about you? Why do you do it? What do you want from it? Break the mould and leave me a comment! It’s a slow process out here alone on the world-wide-web. I’m not yet enjoying the success that I gained quickly at MySpace (where I have since deleted my blog content because of the issues around duplicate content!) Whatever you think or feel, I would love to hear from you. Have fun blogging!