A Welsh View

Problogger Set To Earn As Much As The Big Boys

Darren Rowse from ProBlogger has revealed his earnings from AdSense and Chitika (a new one to me but looks profitable) and if things stay as they are he is set to earn a few hundred grand this year. I'm jealous!

How To Post Comments On Blogs

To the commenters of this blog who post gibberish or post comments in languages that me and the majority of my readers can't read, take a look at Lifehacker’s guide to weblog comments. [via]

The Top Ten Things You Can Do To Get Blogged

Scoble links to 'The Top 10 Things You Can Do To Get Blogged'. Aimed mainly at companies rather than individuals but interesting nonetheless.

Blogging From Within New Orleans

Is this the only blog written by someone within New Orleans? The blog is written by someone who works for the only ISP in New Orleans that is still operating. The ISP is running a live webcam although I can't view it at the moment. However, they do have a ton of pictures. [via]

BlogAds UK

Tim Worstall has teamed up with BlogAds to set up a mini-network of UK (and Irish) blogs running BlogAds. I was unsuccessful when I tried to join BlogAds earlier this year but I will be joining BlogAds UK when Tim sets it up. If you would like to be a part of it, Tim has more details.

More State Of The Blogosphere

Technorati have posted more stats about the blogosphere such as:

* Technorati is tracking about 900,000 blog posts created every day
* That's about 10.4 blog posts per second, on average
* Weekends tend to be slower posting days by about 5-10% of the weekly averages
* During the day, posting tends to peak between the hours of 7AM and noon Pacific time (10AM - 3PM Eastern time)

80,000 Blogs Created Daily

According to the 'State of the Blogsphere' statistics released by Technorati, around 80,000 new blogs are created daily - at least one every second. Of the 14.2m blogs tracked, 55% are considered active (a posting in the last 3 months) and 13% are updated at least weekly. More stats will be released today.

"Things I've Learned From Blogging"

"Things I've Learned From Blogging". I can relate to many of the points. [via]

AWV On A PSP

Thanks to Inverse for sending me an image of AWV on a Sony PSP. Now all I need is a hot chick to pose naked in fron of my site and my day will be complete.

FreeBlogPoll

FreeBlogPoll is a quick and easy way of setting up a poll for your blog. Unfortunately, each poll comes with a Google ad. I suppose that's the price you have to pay for not having to sign up. [via]

New Blog

I have just started a new blog dedicated to crime. The blog, called Crimelog, will feature posts to do with all aspects of crime with a sprinkling of bizarre crime stories mixed in for good measure. I plan on updating the blog as frequently as this one and will continue to update AWV just as frequently. I'm hoping that it won't eat into my beer drinking schedule to much :o) At the moment there isn't a lot there but it will build up over time.

Blog In Space

"Feed your blog into space for free." [via]

Weblogs, Inc Makes $1m From AdSense

Weblogs, Inc is on course for making $1m/year from Google AdSense. They are currently making over $2,000/day from the ads and if they can get up to $2,739.72/day that'll equate to $1m/year. However, whilst this seems a lot, Weblogs, Inc does have to pay 103 bloggers plus 9 additional staff. [via]

Earning Big Bucks Blogging

Fulltime blogger Darren Rowse has just passed a significant milestone in blogging. His network of blogs has earnt him over $10,000 from Google AdSense in just one month! And I thought my ads were doing well this month.

I'm A [C-List] Blogebrity

Whilst checking out who is linking to me on Technorati, I noticed that I have been added to the Blogebrity list. Granted I'm only a C-Lister but I'm sitting alongside (who I class as pretty big) bloggers such as Marc Orchant, Molly Holzschlag and Steve Garfield.

According to the blog you can email your info so that you can be added to the list but as I didn't do that, I wonder who did ask for me to be added to the list.

International Weblogger's Day 2005

Just noticed that today is International Weblogger's Day. Not quite sure what the point of it is. [via]

PubSub Linkstats

For all you statwhores out there (myself included), check out PubSub's LinkStats. It includes InLinks, OutLinks and No. of entries published. [via]

A Welsh View At 32,000ft

I already know that A Welsh View is read in many different countries around the world, and now I know that it's read from sky too. How? Because Robert Scoble added a link to me on his linkblog whilst flying at 32,000ft over the Atlantic. I wonder if this is the first time that AWV has been read from an aeroplane?

Lifecycle Of Bloggers

Ming Jung Kim's 14-stage 'Lifecycle of Bloggers'. I don't think I've ever gone past stage 3. [via]

How To Become A More Productive Blogger

Keith Robinson's 13 tips on becoimg a more productive blogger. Great advice that includes many useful ideas. [via]

Blogging A Flu Pandemic

Nature blogs a flu pandemic. It starts on December 26th 2005 and of course is fiction but could well happen. [via]

Blogebrity

Blogebrity features A, B, and C-list bloggers. I wonder if the will go down a few more letters so that I can be featured. [via]

Man Blogs His Own Murder

This is Sek Man (Simon) Ng's last blog entry.

Anyway today has been weird, at 3 some guy ringed the bell. I went down and recognized it was my sister's former boyfriend. He told me he wants to get his fishing poles back. I told him to wait downstair while I get them for him. While I was searching them, he is already in the house. He is still here right now, smoking, walking all around the house with his shoes on which btw I just washed the floor 2 days ago! Hopefully he will leave soon...

The intruder ended up killing the blogger and his sister. The entry was crucial in fingering the ex-boyfriend in the killing and is now in custody. [via]

Hotlinking

Exclamation Mark on hotlinking. He went easy on the site that hotlinked his image. Hotlink from me and I won't go lightly on you. [via]

Google Adsense Guide

Amit "The Indian Blogger"Agarwal has posted a nifty Google Adsense "heat map" that shows the best places to put your Adsense adverts. The map, which can be found on the official Google Adsense site, shows that ads placed near content of navigation produce the best results and shows what I found out - that ads on the left produce more revenue than on the right.

How The Big Bloggers Earn A Crust

Problogger on "why Adsense is not suitable for all blog topics" and "how the most highly visited blogs earn money". [via]

How Long Do You Spend Blogging?

A question to the bloggers who read my site? On average, how long do you devote to blogging each day? That includes finding/thinking of material to blog about and actually composing posts.

I spend far too much time blogging - probably around 3 hours plus a day - and it starts to become difficult when you have programming assignments to do and lectures to attend (who knows what things will be like when I start working again). I'm always looking for ways to streamline things but I guess it just takes a long time to read a load of different blogs/sites.

What's your routine? At the moment I wake up at 7 and the very first thing I do (it's sad I know) is log on and see what's new. I'll spend about an hour or more composing a few posts. Then I'll head into uni where I will occasionally blog throughout the day. When I get back from uni I will spend a good couple of hours checking out blogs and posting. Whilst it spend a few hours in the evening I won't be purely blogging, I will also be doing other things.

Maintaining this routine is really hard on occasions and you may notice that on some days I post less than usual. This is usually because I am either at the pub or just feel like a breather. Other days you'll see tons of posts. This is because I have plenty of time on my hands to blog. Anyone have any tips for more efficient blogging?

Google Site Search Revenue

It's unfortunate that I can't find out what people are searching for when they use the Google search box on my site. Most of the time I get a couple of cents a day with the maximum being $2.81. For some reason, today I've noticed a big increase in people using the search box (a whopping 35 so far today) and they are clicking on more ads than usual. The amount of clicks is higher than the number of searches which indicates that multiple ads are being clicked on.

Not only that, the ads are high paying too. So far today I've made over $17 from the searches. Some high paying keyword(s) must be appearing on one or more searches and I want to find out what they are!

Google AdSense Advice

In a bid to try and gain a little extra revenue from the site, in particular from AdSense, I had a look through the Google AdSense forum at WebMasterWorld. There seems to be a lot of good info in the forum and has many active members.

Since starting on the Google AdSense program, my CTR has increased slightly allow it is still pretty low and because of poor adverts my daily earnings have dropped. Originally I had the ads on the left-hand side of the blog but after reading an article I move them to the right-hand side. They performed well but poorly selected ads meant that earnings went down. After reading a post on the forum I decided to move it back to the right-hand side. I waited until 8am GMT and moved them over. Within 4 hours I had earned the same amount as all of yesterday and had slightly more clicks. It's early to tell but this indicates that the left-hand side could be a better place to have the ads.

Depending on who you read, some will say that the right-hand side is more profitable as it is close to the scrollbar and others will say that the left-hand side is close to where a site's navigation is found. For the time being I will stick to the left-hand side and see how it goes.

Tracking Backlinks

Philipp over at Google Blogoscoped has a great article on discovering who is linking to your blog. A great resource, particularly seeing as Technorati now seems to take an age in updating backlinks.

Why People Blog And Read Blogs, And Why They Don't

The Volokh Conspiracy on why people blog and read blogs and why they don't [via]

How Blogs Work

How blogs work (with a handy diagram). [via]

Dinosuars Attacked My Site

Whilst I was asleep my site was attacked by dinosaurs! Luckily not too much damage was done and they seem to have moved on but they may come back! [via]

Best Of The Brit Blogs?

An Englishman's Castle asks - "A Welsh View...it is interesting but is it really that much better than the rest?"

Being modest I would say no, but I must be doing something right.

Top British Blog

A Welsh View is currently top of the British Blog Charts compiled by Britblog.com. The chart is compiled by stats gathered from trackers placed on sites by those listed in the Britblog.com directory. I'm interested to know the figures behind the positions (I wanna know what my competition is ;o). Thanks to New Links for pointing out the new chart.

Blogosphere 'Doubling Every 5 Months'

According to new stats released by Dave Sifry of Technorati, whos is now tracking over 7.8 million weblogs, and 937 million links, the blogosphere is doubling every 5 months. Depending on the day, 30,000-40,000 blogs are being created which is more than double compared to October 2004. However, some of these statistics may be tainted with the ever increasing volume of fake/spam blogs out there. Whilst Technorati are confident that the majority of spam blogs has been identified, there are bound to be a few lurking in there.

These statistics are impressive and show just how popular blogging is becoming, but Jason Kottke is not so convinced. In a post in the comments he says that the amount of blogs being added to the Technorati database and the amount of blogs being created are not the same. Perhaps the figure of blogs being created every day should be changed to the amount of blogs being discovered every day. [via]

#1 Euro Blog...Sort Of

Whilst a lot of blogs that are much more popular than mine are not included in this Top Euro Blogs chart, I don't care. I'm #1 and I'm going to enjoy the glory!

It's been a lean week here at A Welsh View with quite a few less hits than usual but the number of hits that I am receiving is still fairly consistent. Whilst I do like getting a lot of hits (a few extra bucks from Adsense) it's having regular readers that makes the blog more worthwhile. I have a few people who I know come back frequently and comment and knowing that drives me to keep blogging. Of course, coming top in charts gives you an extra boost and making the shout out list on Milk and Cookies works wonders for your ego!

MyBlogLog Rocks

If you own a blog and haven't already done so, sign-up with MyBlogLog now! The real-time reports of the external links that people click on is an invaluable tool. At last I can now see which posts are the most popular. Up until I installed MyBlogLog I never knew if my Peculiarosities posts were of interest to anyone but it turns out that the weird stories I post in them are the most clicked on links. It's also handy to see which sites in my blogroll are being clicked on and the old posts that are still popular. It's certainly worth the $25 annual fee (you can use the free version but it's not in real-time).

MyBlogLog

Track where your visitors are going after visiting your site. MyBlogLog offers real-time stats (for pro customers, but if you sign up now you get a free week's trial (actually 2 weeks) and then can continue on the free package) of the external links that your visitors are clicking on. If you are a stats freak you will love this tool. All you need to do is paste a one-line piece of Javascript code into your template and it will track your visitors for you.

Not Enough Time

Why is it that when you take a few hours off from the Internet it's so hard to get back into the swing of things? So much has happened and it's so hard to get back into it. I think it would be easier if I just left blogging until tomorrow. See you then.

Blogging May Be Light Today

Blogging may be light today. After a few hours in uni this morning I will be going to the Cardiff University Real Ale Society Beer Festival. As there will be around 50 different beers to sample who knows what state I will be in later this evening. If I'm coherent enough I will do some blogging when I get home.

Sometimes being a student is great. What other 'occupation' allows you to go to a beer festival, in the day time, on a Wednesday! I'll miss this lifestyle.

Re: Hotlinking Images

Regarding my post about a site hotlinking one of my images, she's done it again. Yesterday I changed an image that she had hotlinked to that of a hairy arse and then changed the name of the original image. I wake up this morning to see that she has linked to that new image! Granted she has given a link back to my site and she must have read my post about the subject yet she continues to hotlink.

It's not just my site that she is hotlinking images from. There are a few from Growabrain and one from Sushiesque.

When will this girl learn? If I could be bothered I would change the image again but obviously that doesn't get the message across.

Google Adsense Cheque

I finally received my first cheque from Google Adsense for December and January! According to the rules I can't disclose how much I made but it's obviously over $100. I'm surprised how much (only a little compared to some sites) I make. Obviously it's not enough to quit my day job (the one that I haven't started yet) but it's something.

Now comes the task of getting it converted into a currency that I can use.

Don't Hotlink My Images!

If there's one thing that I hate it's people that hotlink images on my particularly without any credit. I know it's not my image but at least the site could say where they found it. There's also the issue of bandwidth. I already use too much bandwith and I don't need other people using it for me.

Another thing I hate is when people lift entire articles (with images) from my site without any credit or even lift the comments from my site! (Joanne won't be happy). I try to make sure that I credit every site where I find something so why can't other people?

Update: Hotlink and this could happen to you.

Flying The Flag For Wales: No 2 In Top 55 European Blogs

Europundit has posted the Top 55 European blogs and A Welsh View is in at no. 2. Whilst this is a great achievement, the chart is a little restrictive.

The list is based on the now defunct British Blogs Top 10 so contains very few Euro blogs. Only English language blogs will be included in the charts which will prevent a lot of high-traffic blogs from being listed. Blogs that want to be included must only use Sitemeter for reporting their stats - another restriction.

So whilst it will change greatly next week once European blogs discover the chart, I guess I should enjoy the glory.

The Bacon Blog

A blog about nothing but bacon by a guy who loves nothing but bacon. [via]

Welsh AM Leghton Andrews On A Welsh View

Welsh AM Leighton Andrews has blogged about my no. 2 spot in the British Blogs Top 10 (I'm still holding that spot).

I'm not that familiar with A Welsh View as yet, though I will now keep an eye on it. A quick scan suggests he's not too enamoured of politicians' blogging. He has a lot to say on the subject of chavs, who the papers tell us are supposedly into Burberry.

He picked up on my comments about politicians getting into blogging. I originally said that politician's blogs are just a way of regurgitating the same old crap but maybe I should have a rethink. If they are posting about quality Welsh blogs like mine then maybe they're not so bad after all.

Flying The Flag For Wales: No. 2 In The Top British Blogs

I'm listed in the new British Blogs Top 10. The site aims to chart the most popular British blogs based on the average amount of hits they receive a day. Whilst there are other blogs that are clearly more popular than those in the top 10 the site has to have publicly available stats to be included. The site has only been running for a few days and more sites are bound to be added. Whilst more sites are being added the chart will be reproduced daily but will then likely be produced weekly.

Update: Today's chart has been updated with a new entry at no. 3..

Blog Threat Levels

When faced with deciding which is a greater problem in daily life, one must conclude that terror disrupts far fewer American lives than online journalism. It’s time we took the threat seriously.

There are 8 blog terror alert level indicators for you to add to your blog. [via]

New Welsh View Feed

On the advice of Andrew I have just subscribed to FeedBurner so that I can track subscribers better and track how people are reading my site. My aim is to try and get everyone to switch over to the FeedBurner feed and then switch off the TypePad feed. I haven't decided when I will do this but it will be a good few weeks. Hopefully this switch won't be too much of an inconvenience. When you switch over just leave a comment letting me know.

Update: I got a little confused with the whole FeedBurner thing and was under the impression that it would replace the current Typepad feed. Instead, it just uses the current Typepad feed to gather stats. Therefore, I won't be turning off the Typepad feed so those who are currently subscribed will not have their feeds cut off. If you could switch over I would be grateful but if you don't, it's not the end of the world.