My Blogging Hiatus

It has been awhile, too long really, since I last posted to this blog. After an intitial burst of regular posting, I found myself feeling like I had nothing interesting to say. So where have I been and what have I been doing? Nothing much really. Well, that isn't entirely true. I've been working --- a lot. Plus the kids are back in school and the family is busy. I get up, I take the kids to school, I go to work, I come home, I go to sleep.... I think you get the idea. Summer is over and the living is no longer easy. And given the nature of my work (I'm a lawyer), I can't say a whole lot about what I do at work. But this week, I'm on vacation so I'm gong to try to do some blogging. So, here goes...

Announcing A New Blog

As I've mentioned before, I started this blog just for fun. I've been pleasantly surprised by the number of people who've read it. I never really expected anybody to read it. Furthermore, it proved that I like blogging and can sustain regular posts.

I've had a website for my law practice for years, but updating it has always been cumbersome. Updating a blog is, however, a snap and it is the perfect format for regular fresh contributions. Therefore, I've started a blog for my office at http://www.harryhackney.com/blog/. I call it the Harry Thomas Hackney, P.A. Florida Law Blawg. No, "blawg" is not a misspelling. It is a common play on words for law related blogs. If you have any interest in Florida law, especially estate planning, check it out.

The Power of Blogging

I wrote earlier about how surprised I was that people actually can find and read my blog. I’ve been reading the book "What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting: Real-Life Advice from 101 People Who Successfully Leverage the Power of the Blogosphere" by Ted Demopoulos, which makes the point that search engines love blogs. Well, shortly thereafter I got a first hand lesson in just how much.

I got my weekly report about my site stats. The first thing I noticed was that over 100 people had read my blog. Now that’s probably no big deal for a celebrity blog with a focused subject, but this is a totally idiosyncratic personal blog a so-called “cat blog” that’s only been around a couple of months. I wasn’t sure anyone would ever read my blog. I’ve had a business website for years that is only just beginning to reach that level. Frankly, I rarely update the website because it is pain. It also seemed like there was a sudden jump in readership. Upon examining the referral pages, it seemed most of the jump was because I had reviewed the movie Live Free or Die Harder. In that review, I mentioned the F35 STOVL fighter jet. I guess a lot of people looked that up wondering if it really could hover. (It can.) TIP: If you want people to read your blog, write about a popular movie.

But the thing that really convinced me of the power of blogging and how much search engines love blogs was a referral page on which someone had searched for “ron john shops,” which is a misspelling of Ron Jon. In any event, my blog was number one on the page and ranked above Ron Jon’s own website! That’s nuts! That is when I decided that I had to add a blog to http://www.harryhackney.com/. By the way, if you search for “ron jon shops”, which is the correct spelling, my blog comes in at number 10. That’s still pretty crazy. I cannot explain the difference, but apparently search engines love recency as well as links.

If you’ve got a website to promote your business, you might want to consider adding a blog.

Who Will Read Your Blog? You'd Be Surprised!

I recently added two site counters and some code for Google Analytics to this blog. Before I added these, I wondered whether anybody ever read this blog. I assumed it was pretty obscure, and it is. I don't get a lot of traffic, but now, thanks to the site counters and Google Analytics, I know that people do read it and I even know how they find it. I no longer write something and then helplessly wonder whether anybody will ever read it. The fascinating thing to me are the searches that lead people to this blog.

For example, someone searched the words "Veronica Belmont precocious." I've never called Veronica Belmont precocious. However, I have mentioned Veronica Belmont and I called Nancy Drew "precocious." So, if you search these words in Google, my blog comes up as the fourth item. Whoulda thunk it? Someone else searched for the exact phrase "tips for living in Florida" and up came this blog as item number two of two. I'm actually surprised that searching for the exact phrase "tips for living in Florida" only produces two items. One of the first referring pages that showed up on the counter was someone from the United Kingdom searching for brief reviews of Spiderman 3. So somebody from England read my review of Spiderman 3. Pretty cool!

The random ways that people find my blog are amazing. Of course, some of the randomness is the result of the totally unfocused idiosyncratic nature of this blog. I write this blog primarily for my own amusement and to learn about blogging. Now I have a greater understanding of what professional bloggers mean when they talk about the key search terms that lead people to their blogs. I didn't understand exactly how they knew this until I installed the site counters and discovered what is tracked and that you can see the search phrases people used and the search page they viewed. This is pretty powerful information if you're trying to attract people to your site or buying ads via Adwords. In fact, I'm going to ask the webmaster of my office web page to add Google Analytics to my professional website.

By the way, as I was typing this, someone came to my blog because they searched for "Floridian spider" on the Dell search page. "Floridian spider"? Whoulda thunk!?

The Flock Browser

Leo Laporte of the This Week in Tech (TWiT) podcast mentioned a browser named Flock. So I, of course, just had to check it out. I found a clean looking interface built around Web 2.0 social networking. Its tag line is "The Social Web Browser." It is kind of hard to explain and I've only just downloaded it so I don't have much practice with it yet, but it allows you to comment on pictures, has a built in newsreader for your RSS feeds, and lets you blog from within the browser. In fact, I'm writing this entry from within the Flock browser without going to Blogspot. Of course, it allows tabbed browsing. It couldn't compete without tabs these days. It even lets you drag and drop pictures like this one:

That is the world sunlight map from my iGoogle homepage.

Hey, it is what was handy! And it is the first time I've dragged and dropped a picture into a post using Flock. What were you expecting? It was either the world sunlight map or the weather map.

Now it will be really easy to rip off copyrighted photographs for blogs. I guess I'll have to watch that and be careful. It even lets you tag your post and publish it to your blog from within your browser. It will then open your blog for you too if you want so you can view your new post on your blog. Anyway, it is a pretty handy application for blogging. I'm sure that I'll be writing more about Flock as I use it.

You can check it out for yourself at the Flock website.

technorati tags:Flock, Browsers, Web2.0, Blogging

Blogged with Flock

Ruminations on Internet Acquaintances

Web 2.0 is supposedly all about social interaction and connections. Through this blog, Jaiku, and Twitter, I'm exploring how true that is, or isn't. I started Jaiku, Twitter, and Blogger accounts on a lark. At first I figured (rightly so I'm sure) that I was just sending my blatherings out into the ether (hence the name of this blog). I figured that I would just be that tree that falls in the forest that no one ever hears. There appeared to be no point to this, but I decided to stick it out for awhile and see what happened. Well, what happened was that I've acquired my first "follower/friend" on Twitter, my first comment to a post on Twitter, and my first blog comment. Cool, I guess. Actually, I'm not sure what to make of it, but let me explain.

I received a direct message on Twitter that I'd been added as someone's "friend." It was not a name that I recognized. Naturally, I checked out her Twitter page. It turned out my new "friend" was a woman stationed on an Army base in Korea. I decided that since she was following me that I'd follow her too. I've since learned she's married because she mentions her "hubby" from time to time. Her bio says she's a soldier but I haven't seen any particularly soldierly posts yet. I messaged her back thanking her for adding me and wondering why anyone would want to do that. She replied that she'd seen me on the Twitter public page and just thought I might be interesting. Fair enough I replied, and we've left it at that. Now a few times a day I get to find out what some lady stationed in Korea is up to and vice-versa. I'm not sure what to make of it yet, but it is different.

About the same time, I got the first notice of a comment to a post of mine. Most nights I walk my English Springer Spaniel, Holly, just before I go to bed. I mentioned this several nights on Twitter via my cell phone. Well, one gentleman commented that my life sounded a lot like his, as every day he started and ended the day walking the dog. His life does sound a lot like mine. And maybe that is part of the point here ---- we're really not all that different and we all have many points in our life in common. The Internet and these social networking sites just make that more apparent. Maybe the long term consequence of this will be a more peaceful world just as international trade reduces the likelihood of war as countries become more interdependent. But maybe I think to much.

That same day (when it rains it pours) I got my first blog comment. It came from our family friend, Regina. She posted a comment to my favorite movie review sites in which she suggested a movie for the family. Thanks, Regina!

Today, I apparently kicked off some discussions when I mentioned that I was watching the Veronica Belmont Prize Fight between Jaiku and Twitter. Twitter beat Jaiku by one point! I said that I smelled a rat. Apparently, this got people's attention and kicked off a flurry of comments. That was kind of fun! You have to keep in mind that Veronica Belmont appears to be a Twitter fan although her "Buzz Out Loud" podcast has a Jaiku channel. On the other hand, Leo Laporte is a Jaiku fan and I suspect if he were to compare the two that Jaiku would win. I, however, am what Leo calls a commitment phobe. I belong to both and have my Twitter feed show up on Jaiku. He says that if you do that you're just "mailing it in" and not participating in the community. I disagree and like that my Twitter posts will appear in Jaiku.

By the way, if you want to check out what I'm doing on Jaiku or Twitter, there are links to both on this page in the upper right corner.

I've Gone and Done It Now!

Well, I've done it. I've jumped into Web 2.0 and exposed myself on the Internet. Of course, I've had a web page on the internet for years so I guess this is just a natural extension of that. Lately I've become intrigued by Web 2.0 as I've come to appreciate the fact that it is all about the social networking. I'm inspired by foks like Leo Laporte, Veronica Belmont, and Tom Merritt who seem to live their lives in the open on the Net. I'll bet Veronica Belmont gets her share of weirdo email.

I checked out My Space and came to the conclusion that it was a bit too heavy on the "meeting people" aspects for a happily married middle aged father of two and just a bit juvenile too. Facebook seemed to want to know too much for me to just check it out. I actually created an account in LinkedIn, but it tried to "up sell" me from the beginning. I could see that was going to get annoying. Blogging seemed like the better option for someone like me. I also read some negatives about the overwhelming spam, stalkers, and assorted weirdos on My Space. I'm afraid that is why you'll never see the actual names of my children on this page or their pictures. They're gorgeous kids, which is why I'll never post their pictures on the Internet. You'll also never see my birth date, my exact address, or other personal information. If you know me, then you know my kids' names. If you don't know me, then you don't need to know. Of course, I realize that you can find all this out easily enough these days, but I don't need to help you.

I hope I have something interesting to say. You can expect to read details of my travels, interesting legal topics, tips for living in Florida, and some general musings.