Dec 05
The little things…
Just some adminstrivia…
Blogroll Now Imported
I have finally imported the blogroll from my old domain so the Read page is useful again. There are a couple of changes to the categories so unless the blog has a specific focus, everyone is listed as a Cerebral Type but I’ve divided them into boys and girls so they don’t get too bulky.
I’ve put a poll up on the page so I can make it as functional as possible. Help me out by answering my question.
I’ve also added a few new blogs today. They are…
- Airminded
- Enola
- Fantasy or Ria Ludy?
- Futility Closet
- Pomgirl
- Puntabulous
- Reader Appreciation Project
- Sephy’s Platzish
- The People Behind My Eyes
- The Rejector
- Web Designer Wall
- Write Stuff
Ranking & Social Networking
Not that any of it matters, but I just like to figure out how things work and things like SEO and social bookmarking aren’t (weren’t?) things I understood very well. I had all but given up on them, finding them spammy and ineffective as I’ve already said. Then somebody Stumbled me and suddenly I had visitors in the 300s instead of the 30s. It’s dropped back down again now, but it I discovered that I actually like Stumbling and have added the toolbar to Firefox.
I will be making sure I’ve Stumbled and Technorati fave’d all my favourite blogs over the next few days.
I also now have an Alexa Rank for the first time. It’s 888,749 and my site is reaching 0.00045% of the global web-surfing community. Very impressive! My Alexa Rank for Australia is 5,703, which I think is pretty cool and Technorati is slowly shrinking back to what it was before the move.
Thank You
I have two things to thank Megan at Imaginif for. The first is because she was the person who stumbled me and made my stats leap like a gazelle. The second is not only for her, but for all of the Imaginif team, because they gave away a prize of $250 recently and I was the winner! And Megan was so happy for me that I just want to hug her.
(Incidentally, the prize was drawn from a pool of people who participated in their Safety Talk Forum and they are running another competition this month.)
Also, thank you to Snoskred who has invited me to Get Out Of My Niche. I’ll be writing my very first guest post this week.
Apologies
There are a couple of things that I still haven’t got around to fixing since the move, primarily the display of tags and related posts etc, so I’m offering a quick apology because the navigation here isn’t quite what it used to be and things are a little messy. I could list dozens of things that need tweaking but it’s probable that no-one cares about it as much as me, so I’ll leave it at that.
I’m also struggling to stay on top of comments at the moment so I apologise if I haven’t responded to anyone who has left me a message, and also to those who have blogs that I usually comment on more. I’ll sort it out.
I feel like I’ve missed a million things I meant to mention, but this will do for now.
Don’t forget to go and vote on my poll!
December 5th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
Glad to hear things are starting to tick over for you on the ranking/social side. I think that’s the hardest part of moving domains.
December 5th, 2007 at 11:42 pm
Is it okay if I link back to your blog from mine?
December 6th, 2007 at 12:19 am
Enola - Any time you like. You are most welcome. I really love reading your blog. If you want to link to something, I would be honoured.
Meg, those first few days were a little bit of a shock to my system but I’ve actually been surprised by how quickly it is rebuilding. I think it is illustrative of the fact that the brightest, sharpest blog marketing cannot compare with the communities blogging creates.
December 6th, 2007 at 3:19 am
It is great to hear that you are bringing this blog back up to where you were with your old one. It gives me hope. I seem to be coming up on Alexa but not so much on Technorati. Only a couple of the people that previously favorited me on Technorati have done so on the new blog. Thanks Meg
I was wondering about putting out a begging post asking my readers - after all it is the same blog, just a different address - do you think that would be too rude?
I like the way you have set out your Read page - I started to import my blogroll last week but got sidetracked. I may follow your example and put them in their own page - excellent idea.
December 6th, 2007 at 5:34 am
I like the new site. Good luck working out all the kinks. I finally got your new site up on my sidebar links. I almost forgot-had you on the blog carnival posts, but almost forgot the sidebar.
BTW: I was catching up on some reading after getting back in town and scrolled down to see your gorgeous son. He is ADORABLE! Oh, those soft, chubby cheeks! I remember my son at that age-it is such a cute age with so much wonder and exploring going on. Enjoy!
December 6th, 2007 at 5:35 am
BTW again: thanks for the very sweet comment you left on my blog!
December 6th, 2007 at 8:15 am
Sueblimely, someone I read recently wrote a short post asking people to push their “hopeful buttons” and while felt uncomfortable about doing something like that, it didn’t offend me, it was just a little reminder and I was happy too. The blogroll was a tedious job, really, because the categories got lost in the transfer, but now it’s all automated again (I set up a template to call the links and display in the columns) so I just have to add more links as I go. I like having it on a separate page. I try to be reasonable about how large it gets, but there is just too much good stuff out there.
Caspar is gorgeous, isn’t he Marj? I’m not just biased. I’ll be sad when those chubby cheeks and the arms rolls go.
December 6th, 2007 at 10:08 am
Really, no thanks needed. You are the one who has done the great work and you won the $250.00 squarely and fairly. I really was so excited when I found out your name was pulled. I squealed like a little pig.
I really like stumbleupon - it always does wonders for my stats too. I make a point now of collapsing time by stumbling the green thumb to sites that I visit in my daily travels (eg: I’ll stumble this page once I’ve left my comment). I don’t always have the time to sit and stumble new sites (but holidays are upon us and I plan to do nothing but blogging stuff and reading novels - I want to revisit the school classics so I get what all the kids are talking about and find new blogs to suggest to my clients as alternative voices to their own!).
Mxxx
December 6th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
Thanks for the link! And on the $250: noice. That will pay for many months of webhosting …
I signed up to a few of those blog directory things or whatever, early on in my blogging career. I don’t think they do much good either, so I’ve never bothered since. And it’s nice to find you’ve been del.ici.oused or StumbleUponed by somebody (”geekily charming”, lol!) but I’ve never noticed any sustained traffic increase from such things.
I think the only surefire rules to generate traffic are to (1) write well (and preferably often), about whatever it is you are passionate about; and (2) make sure that the sorts of people who ought to be interested in whatever you are writing about, know about your blog. Everything follows from those two things, I reckon. And it looks like you’ve got both of those things covered!
December 6th, 2007 at 8:58 pm
Brett, that would pay for more than 4 years, actually. My webhost rocks. It’s getting spent on Chrissy presents. I’d already splurged and put Caspar’s percussion desk on lay-by so Big Sis was likely to end up with a roll of toilet paper or some sticky-tape or something. I love buying presents. Yay, Christmas shopping!
As for stats etc, I think the best measure that you’re doing something right is the engagement of the readers and I’m blessed. I don’t even think I would like a ridiculously successful blog because I couldn’t keep up with it. But I can’t help pulling things apart to see how they work. (Sometimes I even do it to people - did you know that they’re difficult to put back together?
)
Megan, that sounds like an absolutely luscious plan for summer! In your new sarongs, of course.
December 7th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
And a fine guest post it was - it’s how I got here.
December 7th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
Thanks Laurie.
It was nice to write too. it brought back some good memories.