Friday 18 January 2008

'Flog the Blog' Day (2)

I've been blogging now for 2 months and counting. 1694 visits with an average of 27.46 a day, 498 unique visitors so far from 44 countries and 332 places, who stayed on average 5,42 min and looked at 2,47 pages.
I'm not sure if this is good or shabby. Seems to me, there are a lot of sailors out there, but perhaps not to many who have the same passion for the rules....? Anyway, this subject will probably be only interesting to a small percentage, but that's fine
As before, you my readers, are urged on this day to tell me what I'm doing wrong, tell me what you want changed, tell me what you think is an interesting subject to discuss, or just tell me to shut up en get on with it.

Do you want more Umpire calls or do you want more personal experiences posts? Posts for the coming weeks will include some more on IJ-Seminars and Exam, the usual test questions on Monday's and some history of the rules. I've also decided to actually buy a camera and hopefully do some decent pictures of events.

I've put a reminder in my calender on the 18th each month and this is the second time after starting, that sweet 18 has come around. Don't spare me, I can take it.

10 comments:

  1. Google Analytics is launched via Javascript, and only tallies web-page hits in Javascript-enabled browsers. Additionally, the user's HOST file or FireFox plugins may impede this Javascript execution, and your stats.

    I read this blog in a FeedDemon, a feed reader. Google Analytics stats cannot reflect this because your feed is syndicated as XML.

    I would say, 2.46 pages per visit seems low, considering it's a young blog, so most visitors are new, and thus susceptible to discovery, meaning more hits. A good question is: does this blog user interface encourage discovery?

    No.

    Google "Eye Tracking Heat Maps". Check the images for this also. Observe: your blog's homepage layout redefines all known best practice about how users read on the Internet,. Also, it's white on black, which is horrible. Also: the first 12 links aren't links, they are downloads of unknown file types. So anybody clicking any links on all your pages is bombarded with download boxes as a reward for clicking.

    What do you expect?

    Also: Why ask? You're demonstrably not into any sort of improvement. Like simply improving from "white on black" to "dark on light".

    ReplyDelete
  2. Feedburner stats indicate your Demon, along with on average 15 others.
    I will check your Eye Tracking Heat Maps, but am still very reluctant to give up black. As for the Document Links, I consider those to be the most important, because they are used to study the rules by making tests and reading.
    In fact, you are the only one who's making the argument for white and you are reading it that way already in a feedreader.
    Also, if your to chicken to tell me who you are, why should I follow your advice?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think you are a bone-headed hypocrite. I just told you some solid reasons why your blog is not getting any meaningful traction.

    I ask again, show me ONE website in the top-500 that's white on Black. What the hell do you know that they all don't know?

    If you have no intention of experimenting, and fixing OBVIOUS problems, then don't pretend to be concerned with improving your blog.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Of course I am.
    There's no fixing me...

    Your comments are very much appreciated.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Jos,

    Maybe this anonymous person is just the messenger and is it advisable not to shoot him/her.

    He (lets presume anonymous is a he) has a point when he says none of the top 500 websites use the white-on-black scheme you do. Like I said on the previous 'flog the blog' it's a waste for this blog to use a standard blogger.com layout.

    Maybe you can have a look at the layouts at The Zen Garden to get some inspiration.

    Something I'd like to see more regularly are posts like this and this

    Keep it up!

    ReplyDelete
  6. First of all, I have no ambition to become a top 500 blogger. The RRS on this level are only interesting to a handful of people.
    About "anonymous". He or she keeps commenting on my black background with white lettering, but reads my blog in a feeder, which is black lettering on white background. Why should I trust someone who's not sure enough of his or her opinion to post under a name?
    I don't like to be called a hypocrite, let alone a bone-headed one, when his or her sole point is based on a matter of taste, and I'm not willing to do as this anonymous seems to demand.
    According to his comments my layout is "redefining" all best practices on how users read on internet. That makes it unique, no?
    Pretty neat with a standard Blog template, don't you think?
    I did have a look at you Zen Garden . About a quarter of the designs have a dark background with light lettering. I like "Emmakade". It would involve rebuilding all extra codes. I'll think about it.

    As for your post preferences, I'll keep that in mind. You can be sure there will be cases and umpire-calls in the future.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The top 500 websites isn't based solely on their looks of course. It's also about their uniqueness in content, community, and so on. Their designs however are all based on best practices in website design.

    As for the anonymous person: imagine your wearing a purple shirt and blue trousers. We as society think it's a bit strange and someone unknown points that out to you, trying to help you. At this moment your response is that you ask for his name and you tell him to wear sunglasses to block the colors if it bothers him.

    I know colors are a matter of taste and I'm not saying your blog looks as ridiculous as purple on blue but this color scheme goes against most best practices. Although this person doesn't have a name, he could be on to something.

    I'm sensing some irritation about this topic so I'll shut up about it now.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Popular Blogs
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    at 14: http://technorati.com/blogs/postsecret.blogspot.com
    at 92:
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    at 7:
    http://jimcotton.blogspot.com/

    All blogs with a dark background and a light lettering. I searched trough the first 100.
    I'll make you a deal; Find me a couple of templates for blogger you think are good for my blog and I'll will consider them.

    I think this (anony)mouse is only posting to bate people....

    ReplyDelete
  9. hehehehe... nice pun :)

    I'll have a look and let you know if I find something interesting for you. Don't count on it this week. I'm a little busy as you probably read on my blog.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Yep, I will be patient, I know your doing your thesis, Good luck with that!

    ReplyDelete

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