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Server Move Complete, Minor Issues Being Addressed

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Over the weekend some of you will have been aware that we moved the main website over to the new servers, the ones that house Performancing Metrics which is due to beta tomorrow. This went “mostly ok”, but there are some minor issues to clean up today.

  • Login/Cache issues: If you are having difficulty logging in right now, please delete your cache, and all cookies. This will be dealt with, but for right now, that’s the fix.
  • RSS feeds shortened: Some of my hacks were’nt put on the new system, so RSS feeds are at the Drupal default of being partial, sorry about that, it sucks, but is being fixed.
  • Minor cosmetic issues: For example the buttons on the forums. Again these are being dealt with today.

If you’re having any other problems, or spot anything screwey, please let us know in this thread, and we’ll get it sorted ASAP

ADDED: If you do the above, and are still having login problems, email [email protected] and we’ll get it fixed for you.

thanks!

Mining Search Data with Metrics

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One of the neat things you can do with Performancing Metrics, and many other stats tools is to mine search data to get an idea of how people are finding your blog through search engines.

Be warned though, people search for some weird shit heh…

The Devil is in the Details

We’ve been working hard on the “details” page for search referers in Metrics. You will now be able to get your hands on more detailed metrics in that part of the system, and see exactly what search engnes are refering, and to what page — All GOOG all the time? Sure looks that way, but once you start getting really deep into your blogs referers you can certainly learn a lot of useful things.

One such thing is to get ideas for new posts by learning what users are looking for when they reach you — an even better way is ot look at your sites local search log if you have one.

I don’t think I’ll be writing anything about “body language” anytime soon on Performancing, but it’s interesting stuff nonetheless….

How Many Blogs do You Wanna Track?

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If you own a blog network, or just have more than one blog – be it 5, 10 or 300, you’ll be glad to know that you can add as many blogs as you like to Performancing Metrics when it is launched in public beta next week

Own a Network? Want to Start One?

When I told you earlier that PMetrics had a little more bollocks to it than your average stats package, I wasn’t kidding. We’ve built this with professional bloggers in mind. We know you have more than one blog. We know you’d like to track all your blogs from one place….

And that’s not all, we know you’d like to see aggregate stats for your entire network right?

It’s coming, and it rocks.

Aggregate functionality is still in development, but during the beta period (maybe 2wks from now..) it will be added, and you’ll be able to get an excellent feel for the health of your network in one place.

How cool is that?

Performancing Metrics

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Some months back when the ideas for this site, it’s community and it’s tools were still being formed, we took a long hard look at blog statistics, and thought we could do something different, something better. Something with a little more bollocks.

Several months later, we’re nearing the public beta of a world beating blog statistics service designed by professional bloggers, for professional bloggers.

Performancing Metrics

We’ve been in closed alpha, with a trusted group of friends for a few weeks now, and even as we speak, the system is still being tweaked based on their invaluable feedback, feedback we’re hugely grateful for. We want that to continue with our beta.

As with all our tools, our site, and our services, Performancing Metrics will be shaped by you. As it stands, it rocks, but with help from you guys, it’ll only get better.

I’ll be posting a few more details over the coming days, in the meantime, if you have questions feel free to ask them here in the secure knowledge that they may well go ignored untill nearer the date 🙂

Finally im happy to say we’re out of 007 mode on this, and cant wait to open the public beta next week!

Build Your Own Ad Network

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Last year, Darren wrote a great article on what he wants from an ad network, and I’ve been re-reading that post this morning as I jot down some ideas and fancies of my own. I’d like to revisit the topic today, and ask Performancing bloggers what they want from an ad network?

Its a difficult topic. It’s easy to grumble about adsense, or moan about blogads, but it’s quite another kettle of fish when it comes down to actually working out a better system….

Right now, there are two things that I really want out of a network. Actually there are lots of things, but these are the big ones:

  1. For it to be a good earner
  2. To be treated as a business partner, not another number in the system

Have a read through Darrens post above, it was written right at the start of Performancing and likely you haven’t seen it. Then, help me get this conversation started by telling me what it is YOU want from a network.

Beware the Blog Snobs

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Ever come across a blog snob? Sure you have, they abound in the ‘sphere, and they’re as annoying in the blog world as any kind of snob is offline. From the wikipedia definition for snobbery: “A snob, guilty of snobbery or snobbism, is a person who imitates the manners, adopts the world-view and affects the lifestyle of a social class of people to which he either belongs or aspires to.”

I keep coming across the blog snobs, I just can’t seem to avoid them. They’re the ones patting eachother on the back about “what blogs are”, and what they should be. Judging what others are doing with their blogs and pronouncing them unfit or suspect if they don’t fill the blog snobs particular view of how the web should work.

They’re arseholes basically. Arseholes in the blogosphere, and most likely aresholes in offline life also.

Dont Tell Me How to Blog

One of the truly great things about the blogosphere is its diversity. There are so many different kinds of blogger, from the personal blogger, to the professional blogger, to the business blogger and all manner of things in between. As far as im concerned, there simply isn’t any “right” way to do this, there are just lots of ways to do it differently.

For a personal blogger, blogging for friends and family to read, its easy to start a blog. It’s as simple as getting a WordPress account, choosing a template and starting to write. For a business blogger, it can be a lot harder, as there are all sorts of considerations to take into account:

  • Where should it be hosted?
  • Should the design match our company site?
  • How “edgy” can we be on this thing?
  • Dare we let the CEO near it?

For a professional blogger, one who makes a sole or partial living from their writing there are additional concerns over business models, advertising programs and many other financially related items.

Guess what though? They’re ALL bloggers.

There’s room for anyone who wants in, and no amount of echo chamber commentary from idiots who’re just trying to suck up to more popular snobs than they will change that. Blogs are for people, and people will be as diverse in their blogging, their motivation and their content writing as they are in all other aspects of their daily lives.

The particular inspiration for today’s little rant doesn’t even warrant a negative mention from this site, though i do thank him kindly for giving me something to be grumpy about today! heh…

Public Speaking Nightmares

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It’s been one hell of a trip to SES NY. Apart from it just being a damn long way from rural Denmark, I had a “interesting” time speaking on Tagging during a session with Andy Hagans and Jeff Watts.

I’ve not spoken publically for some years, and the day just didnt start well when i woke up at 5:30am feeling pretty ill. I’d not had too much to drink the previous day, but man, it felt like I’d been on a week long binge!

The actual talk didn’t go too badly at all. I felt pretty rough which didn’t help, but Andy and Jeff both made excellent discussion points in their presentations, and after fumbling around with USB keys and pdf’s i did manage to present without too many problems.

What actually made it well worth while, was the Q&A with the audience at the end. We had some great questions and it was good fun and kind of educational to talk to a whole bunch of folks that for the most part, dont live and breathe blogging like many of us. Their level of familiarity seemed pretty low, and for many, sites like del.icio.us etc were brand new to them. Kind of refreshing in an odd way.

Chris’ Curve Ball

Chris Pirillo tried to throw a curve ball at us with “what is the future of tagging”. I said I had no idea whatsoever, because I don’t hah.. and that was kind of fun, he also caught up with me after the gig and did small interview which i guess will go out sometime soon (i got to meet ponzi too, and that was cool..)

Thanks to Andy and Jeff for carrying the show, it was a great session, and I enjoyed it despite feeling a bit queasy…

Shame to miss NewComm…

Clearly im not at the New Communications Forum today, I’d planned to be there thurs/fri but the trip got cut short due to some issues with our next blogging tool. Hopefully I’ll be able to get those resolved quickly from home, and we should have that out to you next week with a bit of luck.

There were some folks i would have really liked to meet there, but alas it was not to be, oh well, hopefully next year!

Why Micropayments and Donation Biz Models SUCK

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The news that Kottke ditched the donations biz model he started a year ago comes as little surprise. At the time, I posted that I hoped he had a better plan than that and was none too kind about the whole ludicrous idea of expecting readers to support a blogger for just blogging. I don’t take any great delight in seeing Jason fail, I don’t know him, but Im certainly glad to be able to point to a great example of the models failure. Maybe now we can drop that silly line of reasoning once and for all.

We have talked about models where one would pay to get into the archives of a particularly useful blogs content, and indeed it seems to work well for some, but that’s a very different model to simply holding out your hand and hoping enough pennies come your way to feed the family.

Maybe it’s just me, though i suspect not, that finds the idea of the donation button repulsive?