Alan's Blog

Cutty Sark and Google AdSense update

A few more months on, and I'm still getting some nice little earnings from my Greenwich Guide site, where I'm using Google AdSense. With the exception of one month only, visitors have clicked on enough ads there to generate sufficient revenue (US$100) for Google to pay me regularly each month. In fact, the next month earned a little more than usual, so the shortfall that one month was more than made up for, and I average over $100 a month for the full period.

In May the Cutty Sark was badly damaged by fire. Since my site appears high up in Google searches for the ship, on 21 May I received over 10,000 hits on the site, when the normal average is around 500 hits. The site traffic went back to roughly normal again after a few days, but the larger number of visitors meant more clicks than usual, so I gained to some small degree from the tragedy. In case you are wondering I've already donated the extra to the Cutty Sark fire appeal.

My new iPod

Back in November last year I posted about my iPod. As I said , shortly after I bought it, Apple released a new version for the same money with double the memory. I found the 2Gb limit too small, and have splashed out on a new 8Gb version. First of all, I was impressed by the smooth way it installed on my PC and connected to iTunes. There was a new version of the firmware available, and iTunes automatically downloaded it and installed it on the iPod without any difficulty.

I also liked the much longer-lasting battery; before, using it to go to and from work, a total journey time of about two and a half hours a day, it needed a recharge every other day. The new battery only requires a recharge once a week. It is also faster when recharging. Since the new nano only cost slightly more that the first, but has four times the capacity, I reckon it's a lot better.

Google AdSense a success

I posted back in September that I was trying out Google Ads on my Greenwich Guide site. Three months on I can count the experiment a success. I had no expectations of earning big money from the site, but I am pleasantly pleased with both the amount received and the efficiency of Google.

Google only pay ad revenue if the accumulated amount payable comes to more than US$100. For the past three completed months I have earned more than that each time and have received two payments to date by direct payment by EFT to my bank account. To anyone who has been to my site and clicked on an ad link: thank you! The only fly in the ointment is the Pound Sterling's current strength against the dollar. At the moment the rate is nearly 2 dollars to the pound. I suppose I can't blame Google for that, though.

My iPod

I finally got around to buying an iPod about six months ago. Of course, shortly afterwards, Apple doubled the memory, so if I'd waited a couple of months, I'd have been able to get a 4MB nano for the same price as I paid for my 2MB version.

I found my daily commute to work was made more bearable. I was also struck by the number of fellow commuters I saw using an MP3 player or similar. Before I got the iPod I only noticed the occasional person whose earphones leaked their music to the whole train carriage. Now I saw that roughly half those travelling with me seemed to have earphones as well.

My musical tastes were set some thirty-odd years ago - think Led Zeppelin; Ten Years After; Emerson, Lake and Palmer - and they don't get much airplay these days. I am really enjoying hearing again the music of my youth.

One tip - I suggest you invest in a pair of headphones instread of the "bud" type earphones supplied by Apple. While the sound seemed not too bad, when I tried a decent pair I noticed a tremendous difference. Apart from a much less "tinny" sound, quiet passages were still audible. Before, I found myself checking that the iPod was working properly as I could hear nothing at all.

w.bloggar

I've posted about this useful little free tool a couple of times. I've just discovered I missed a minor update to v.4.00.0193 made in March. According to the release notes, the following additions have been made:

• Support for MSN Spaces;
• New Languages: Spanish, French (Canada) and Russian;
• Button to import the xml file with the saved settings and accounts directly from the "Add Account" wizard.

In addition, the save post option now suggests the post title (when it exists) as the .post file name. There have also been a couple of bugfixes.

You can download it from http://wbloggar.com/.

Google ... again

I am not paid by Google to advertise their services, honest! I know that many people have reservations about the way that the company will put to use information collected from us while using Google, with all sorts of accusations of plans of world domination, etc. I value my privacy as much as the next person, but don't really have much of an issue with them. However, since Google is one of the most blogged-about companies out there, I figured I ought to put in my own two pennyworth.

Please note that the following is written from the point of view of a Web amateur, and is aimed at similar people. Professionals and experts will either not need services like those Google provide, or already know all about them, or both. It might be useful to those running small small businesses and amateur Web publishers, though

Google AdSense

I decided recently to add Google ads to my main site, Greenwich Guide. I don't really have any expectations of retiring early on the proceeds, but they should, I hope, help offset the server fees. I must say that Google make it fairly easy to add their ads, and they are fairly configurable. I had some trouble adding the code to the site as I used 'Find and Replace All' to insert the code on each page. Unluckily, the 'Quiz' page on the site uses JavaScript and the code was accidentally inserted in the middle of the script as well, totally breaking the page. Luckily I was able to find the problem by running Aptana (see previous entry) and it immediately found the offending lines in its 'Problems' view and enabled me to delete the offending lines.

Looking for a new HTML editor

I've mentioned Nick Bradbury's FeedDemon RSS aggregator and his TopStyle CSS/HTML editor several times on this blog. His software business was acquired last May by Newsgator and he has been spending all his time coding for FeedDemon. Although they have promised that they will continue with the development of TopStyle, they are still advertising for a Delphi developer to take development forward.

I don't hold out any hopes of an update in the near future, and quite likely not in the middle term, either. That assumes that Newsgator don't quietly drop all development.

Greenwich Day by Day

I've added a new section to my Greenwich Guide site, courtesy of David Male, called Greenwich Day by Day. Check it out at Greenwich Day by Day!

I apologise for not making any posts here for so long. Hopefully I'll get around to making more posts next year!

w.bloggar version 4.0 released

I posted about this handy blogging tool back in August 2003.

This new version supports MovableType advanced post options and also support some new tools: Wordpress, SquareSpace, b2evolution, Blog:CMS, UBlog, .Text, BlogWare and Xaraya. Check what else is new at the w.bloggar site.