Return of the 52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 49

Week 49: History

I checked Google for some Australian history quotes and one of the first items to appear was Kevin Rudd's "Sorry Speech" to the Aboriginal Stolen Generations. Created on black "scratch paper" (which comes in a pack of five sheets plus tool for $4.00 from a toy shop) with collaged pale yellow cartridge paper.

Update:

Week 49: History II

A very early historical event; collage of freecut snake and apple, with some deliberate shading from the directed lighting, mounted on Quill glitter-finish Galaxy card.

Now we are two

Well, today I chalk up my second year of blogging.

As I said this time last year, it is so satisfying to put my various inner thoughts (and Internet responses) somewhere more permanent that just letting them drop off the menu at some online bulletin board.

Thanks everyone for the continued support, even if so few of you leave messages. I check Sitemeter almost every day, and my stats tell me I continue to get about 50 visitors a day, who read more than one post per visit, and these numbers have been consistent for many months, whether I'm posting every day or being slack. A great many newcomers stumble across this blog via Google Images. I continue to be a more visual medium than the quality of my written entries, so I won't be giving up on putting lots of images on Flickr. There are still plenty Star Trek, pet and naked Abigail fans out there, even if you don't always tell me in person that you've dropped by.

Writing better blog posts

Sue Waters, of The Edublogger, says, "Here’s My First Five Tips For Writing Better Blog Posts — What Are Yours?"

My five tips, to add to Sue's five would include:

1. Use of humour - especially if I find myself telling a funny anecdote more than once. That usually tells me it's worth repeating as a future blog entry. (It's amazing how often I check back through old entries now, and find humorous stories I've almost forgotten writing. If they hadn't ended up in the blog, they'd perhaps be gone forever.)

2. Know your topic(s). I think that sometimes bloggers try to be too eclectic. Focusing on a few topics you know well helps the audience to anticipate your future blog entries in those areas. You become "the guru" on a topic.

3. Know your audience - but also remembering that your audience may well be bigger than you think. (If you miss blogging for an extended period, you are likely to hear from them! I had no idea my two young nieces regularly checked my blog - until I was on vacation, far from an Internet cafe, and they emailed me wondering where I'd vanished to.)

4. Keep in mind the international nature of the World Wide Web. Be prepared to be informative by embedding a few clues in your posts. Remind them where you are writing from. Some quirky, localized things will seem quite bizarre to those of your readers not familiar with certain terminology, places, customs, the local slang, etc.

5. A picture is worth a thousand words. A picture can help explain many of the above mysteries for international web surfers. Most of my new visitors seem to come via people following a link to posts after locating one of my Flickr photos, which they found during a search of Google Images!

Waxing and waning

Last week I complained that my 50-100 visitors per day blog inexplicably fell to about 30 daily hits, which is way below what it even received when I was last on vacation (and nowhere near computer access).

Today, very strangely, and with no additional publicity or potent posts whatsoever, the stats suddenly doubled! Maybe Google Images had been down, or something? I certainly get a lot of site visitors through my Flickr! pics, and these get catalogued by Google. I'm realizing now that it was the referred links from pics that were lacking on the Site Meter data.

I find it quite fascinating, which is making me yearn, even more, for the Sydney-based Webloggers' Meet-up activities. The group has been strangely quiet recently, despite having 133 members at last count, although several are meeting as a spin-off Data Miners' Meet-up group. Now, I'm guessing that the data miners would know what's likely to be affecting my blogsite - numbers are their business, I think - but since I found myself quite out of their league at the regular Meet-ups, I'm not sure the level of conversation at a wholly data miners' meeting would be less scary and/or mathematical.

I'm seriously thinking of trying to run a Hobby Bloggists' Meet-up group through the Meet-up site, since many of those at the regular Webloggers' Meet-ups do their blogging professionally, but I am also having doubts that too many hobby bloggers will be any more free to meet in the CBD for drinks than those at the Meet-ups I run for Star Trek fans or Lost fans.

How do you Google? Part III

Time to share some new wacky search terms on Google that have led poor deluded Internet surfers to my blog! According to my site meter, it's:

andorian fanfic

adam-12 books dead on arrival

old transformers toys purple phaser

entomology ebook blogspot.com

Star Trek Voyager Full episodes WMA
(WMA?)

trek TAS script aurelian

"taste of brazil" pyrmont
(actually, that's a popular one, and it finds them some good, brief information about that restaurant)

"cookie puffs"
(who can blame them?)

youtube phaser

squeaker squeak shoes

"Richard Arnold" + "Peter David"
(I'd recommend "But I Digress..." omnibus of articles by Peter David)

Raccoons in Christmas Costumes
(Awwww, cute! for Midwinter Christmas, perhaps?)

When I first put the site meter onto the blog, at the end of January, the blog was getting about 50 page views a day. That increased to almost 100 per day, until I went on vacation, which is how the readship fell to about 30 visitors per day. When I bought my screen-used Andorian robes on eBay, my hit rate reached almost 150 daily visitors, but this has settled back to about 60 per day.

People definitely stay on the site longer per visit, and read other pages while they're here. I do remain flummoxed about what people search for on the Internet: essentially, every topic - and combination of topics - you could ever imagine. Human beings are fascinating animals. (And 'm glad to be one. When I'm not an Andorian, that is.)

Colour me impressed (blue)

As you may know, I'm currently awaiting the arrival of my recent eBay win: a screen-used Andorian costume of jumpsuit, robe and belt from two "Star Trek: Enterprise" episodes.

Although I didn't want to Jonah myself and buy a suitable male display mannequin too early, a casual Google search surprised me. I typed in "second hand" male mannequin Sydney and up popped a mannequin called, so appropriately: "Bluey"! Perfect! And no need to panic about finding a mannequin that can be painted, or working out which paints were stable enough not to react to fabric.

I immediately got on the phone and secured him.




For my international readers, "Bluey" is a typical Aussie nickname for a red-haired man. (Please don't ask why.)

Webloggers in the Attic

Tonight Sydney's Weblogger Meetup Group met again in the well-hidden Attic Room of the Art House Hotel in Pitt Street. About 22 members turned up; always a few new faces - and plenty of chances to chat, and then recombine with different small groups for more chat.


Sydney Weblogger Meetup pics by Tim Lambert.

Therin of Andor and group organisers, Mr & Mrs Bargain Queen, are at far left.


I especially enjoyed meeting two fellow Star Trek fans, neither of whom have indicated their science fictiony passions on their blogs, as far as I can see. A third member claimed it was my Andorian pic on the Meetup site that made him want to attend. (If he expected to find a blue-skinned guy with antennae, he was to be disappointed.)

One recurring topic was how Google seems to be listing blogs above other search hits, meaning that the content and keywords of our blogs can determine where we get lots of visitors or just a few. It continues to be fascinating to be a small part of the blogging phenomenon. Who can guess where it's leading?

One of the females in the group had a bizarre experience, though. It seems that a member of an RSVP meeting of Sydney's online, lovelorn singles was taking place elsewhere at the ArtHouse tonight, and that a lost RSVP guy was checking out our group and evaluating that the weblogging females were a more choice collection than the RSVP females.

"He didn't even know what a weblogger was!" our targeted female blogger said, "I tried to tell him that Meetups weren't RSVP pick-ups, but he wasn't buying it..."

I continue to be bemused...

... bemused, puzzled and surprised by what people Google, and how their seemingly random searching brings them to my site. After the Easter lull, where my hit rate on Site Meter dropped down below 50 visitors per day because I was on vacation, and not posting, today the number was back up - and reached a new peak of over 100!

Aha!, I thought, my recent research into the Star Trek audio productions was bringing in new customers but, no, most of the people finding my site have been browsing for images of actress Abigail ("Number 96") naked - and therefore they find the cover of her autobiography - or pictures of Jack as a puppy, or my name in Chinese characters. Only a few of the referring URLs seem to have been in regard to my Star Trek articles, such as from this page at the Non-canon Star Trek Wiki, thanks to whoever put it there.

The Internet is a strange animal.

How do you Google? Part II

Once again, the call of my site meter is both compelling and relentless. Some of the recent visitors to my site had to have been disappointed not to find what they were searching for, but hopefully they enjoyed their stay at this blog page. Recent activity came from surfers Googling under such terms as:

parramatta collectors sunday

Connor Trinneer

Star Trek catchcry

our jack russell terrier

nasturciums

therin of andor

David Gerrold Tribble seller

australian aboriginal surnames

The Tudors TV series

And the most popular picture on my site (via Google Images) is the wonderful, vivacious, topless Abigail (below). Still drawing a crowd after all these years! Onya Abby!



When I first put the site meter onto the blog, at the end of January, the blog was getting about 50 page views a day. That's now increased to almost 100 per day. And people seem to be staying longer, and viewing other entries on the blog. I'm feeling much better than when I could only use incoming comments as a measure for success. I know people are out there, although I'm constantly surprised about what people search for on the Internet: essentially, every topic (and combination) you could imagine, plus many more.

How do you Google?

Now, I'm sure that some of the recent visitors to my site were disappointed, because their wildly varied Internet search terms led them to my little blog page when they were (sometimes) seeking something else entirely, but it's fascinating nonetheless, and the meter has only been active since last Friday:

jack russell animation

Puffy Cookie Puff

therin of andor

"number 96" naked

Kooky Spooky Family + glow in the dark finger puppets

Motionless Picture

Efrosian

Citadel alien figures

save the penguins

Dolly peg angels

"elaine lee" opera singer

chinese big sister tattoo

"There was a cold lady who swallowed some snow"

How does the bilby travel?

I do love my new site meter, oh yes I do! And the online world map is wonderful, too, with "recent visitor" dots lighting up in Hawaii, Ireland, Vietnam, Greece - and everywhere in between.