LS Blogs, the blog directory and search engines very own blog.

Random header image... Refresh for more!

Back up to speed now… Plus we have moved…

I have managed to get back up to speed with the submission queue, lots of new blogs have been accepted, although there are still several hundred waiting patiently in the queue. If yours is one of them, dont worry I will be getting around to it soon.

As lsblogs gets more popular the amount of spam submissions also grows, you would not believe (well perhaps you would) how many non-blogs get submitted, I dont know why they bother, as they just get deleted, and often a ban applied.

Finally, we moved servers again recently, this time back to godaddy, as the beta program we were on ended before schedule due to unexpected issues. The move went smoothly, apart from a few hours downtime, but all is back up and running again. I have not decided where to keep the site, I may move to another server if I experience problems on godaddy. One plus point is the major problem I had with godaddy not being able to open remote files (the site started of on godaddy) is now no longer an issue. Only downtime and speed are concerns now, I will give them a spin and see how they go, if they are up to it, then I will stay, if not, another move will be in the pipeline.

March 28, 2006   No Comments

Updates.

For those that noticed a little downtime the other day, its due to the fact that lsblogs is currently hosted on a server that is in beta test, and a little glitch occured, which was fixed quite quickly.

Some may notice a slight slow down in the number of new blogs being approved each day, dont worry, any sites that have been submitted are still in the (ever growing!) queue, I am just spending a little less time accepting blogs for a short while, as I am developing another site. LS Blogs is still my main priority, and updates will pick be back up to speed shortly, I just prefer to slow down a little to get some time to work on the other site whilst it is in its early stages.

March 11, 2006   No Comments

Google expands its analytics services - by purchasing another service just for bloggers

Google Acquires Blog Tracking Software, Measure Map

Found this today, whilst watching the feeds being updated..

Google already has it’s Google Analytics service, but now it has a one specific to bloggers.

I have not tried it yet, so I cant say what its like, but Im guessing its a ’simplified’ easier to understand version of Analytics, that presents
data in a easier to understand format for bloggers.

Read more over at SearchEngineWatch

February 16, 2006   No Comments

SEO

Said it before, but I will say it again, It cracks me up when someone� who has a SEO (search engine optimisation) blog, who claims to be a expert on SEO, cant even get the URL correct for their own site when submitting to a directory.

If they cant get it right for their own site, what chance do their clients have, who pay good money for their services?

Needless to say, the submission went in the bin, along with any others they did.

February 8, 2006   No Comments

LS Blogs toolbar.

Just a quick post to remind people we have a toolbar available for download, its free and has some useful features. My favourite one is the “random blog” button which picks a random blog from the directory each time you press it.

Its a great way to find blogs that you would probably never see, as its random!

I use it all the time, to do random spot checks for dead sites, and the good news is there are very few in the directory, I can surf for quite some time before hitting the occasional unavoidable dead site (and most of the time its just a temporary problem with the site in question, not actually a permanent failure).

You can download the I.E and Firefox compatible toolbar here

February 5, 2006   1 Comment

Adbrite Adverts

I have had to take the adbrite ads of the site, as I discovered yesterday that they they had started publishing ads that I had not been informed of, had not approved, and by the looks of it was not even going to be paid for!

The adbrite rules are very clear, I get to approve all ads before they go on site, and I made sure the settings were set that way.

Maybe the move to another server (more on that later) confused them, but I dont see how, as the normal ads were still showing, so they knew which site they were ‘on’.

As I was getting way to many ads showing, and they were for ones I had NO CONTROL over, I pulled the code and stopped the ads completely until they get back to me.

Problem is, I have no idea how long it will take for them to get back to me, going by past experience it could be a long long time, if ever, as support at abrite is not very good in my opinion, to put it mildly

I still cant believe that there system failed in such a manner, the last thing I wanted to see on site was a advert for a online pharmacy - Im so sick of online pharmacies spamming the site that I never want to see another!

So, if you had a ad with adbrite on this site, then I apologise for pulling the code off, adbrite should not charge you for any days that the ad is not showing, but I would check to be on the safe side, as they dont seem very on the ball…….

February 1, 2006   5 Comments

Aghh - Another monitor on its last legs.

I dont have much luck with monitors, some people can keep one for years without any problems, but not me. My monitor is playing up badly, at first it was not to bad, just going a odd shade of yellow from time to time - but now the picture keeps shrinking and stretching at random.

monitor faulty

A good thump seems to bring it back to normal, but past experience tells me that it wont be that way forever, and sooner or later thumping will not work.

I do have a backup monitor, but dont fancy dragging it out of the attic, nor using it, I have become quite used to a 19″ screen, and going back to a tiny one isn’t my idea of fun.

Guess a new monitor is on the shopping list (or a really good second hand one :) )

Meanwhile, back to blogs - I have deleted quite a lot of blogs from LS Blogs today, lots of expired domains and blogs that for some reason had all posts removed. I know deleting entries like this on a regular basis means I wont have “impressive” numbers of blogs listed, but at least the ones that are listed are not mainly dead ones, which is more important than pure numbers in my opinion.

January 29, 2006   No Comments

You dont miss something till its gone….

Its funny, but you often dont realise just how much you use, like, or love something until its gone…..

I have been checking alexa rankings, out of curiousity for quite some time now, I know they are not exactly a scientific or reliable method of ranking, as they are based upon users having a toolbar installed, and are quite easy to fake, but still I like looking at how various sites are doing.

But I cant at the moment, and have not been able to for a few days, as it turns out that they are moving from their dark dank basement to shiny new offices, and whilst they are moving, their servers are stuck in the back of a van.

I really hope that van is locked up somewhere safe, I dont want to read that some car thief drove of with the whole of alexa over night, or broke in and stole their servers!

Hopefully they will be back up soon, and I will be able to satisfy my odd compulsion :)

January 27, 2006   No Comments

Upgrades to the site….

After a nice suprise with Adsense today, I have decided to buy some more memory for our PC’s soon. The nice suprise came about when one of the people that had signed up to adsense using LS Blogs earned their first 100 dollars.

When that happens, google pays the referrer a nice bonus, and thats what I will be using to purchase some more ram with.

If you dont know what adsense is, then where have you been for the last few years!

Adsense is a service, provided by google that lets people place advertisements on their sites or blogs, and its loved by many bloggers, but its also disliked by many others who do not like adverts.

If you are not using it, then it wont hurt to give it a shot, as it is free, the worst that I can imagine happening is people saying hey we dont like those ads! In which case, you can always take it off, but when its on you can sit back and hope for some earnings from google.

It wont make you rich, unless you have a incredibly well trafficked blog, and I do mean well trafficked, and the content of your blog will make a difference to, as the ads are contextual.

This means that the ads are based upon the content on your blog, so as you can imagine some topics attract higher amounts of competition than others (more competition = more people bidding for the ad, which means more money for the publisher)

If you were to sign up, I would suggest reading the help that google provides, as they have some good tips on how to place the adverts, and how to make the most of the service.

Most important of all - do not try to cheat the service

I will repeat that one again

Most important of all - do not try to cheat the service

as if you do, when you are caught, and you will be, you will lose out on the chance to participate in the service again, and you can kiss goodbye to those ill-gotten gains.

Google has been around long enough to be able to tell if you and your friends are going click mad to earn money, its easy to spot, and they will boot you when the spot it. So dont do it!

Google adsense is best thought of as a bonus, if you make anything from it, then great, go and treat yourself, if it takes a long time for the treat to arrive, then so what, its still a free treat at the end of the day.

Serious bloggers with a lot of traffic could earn more, and faster, the only way to find out if it is for you is to try it.



Getting back to the memory, once I have that, I will be able to tweak lsblogs even more, as at present my pc cant really cope with the demands I am placing on it, and its slowing down my development cycle.

In time, I will get around to getting the bits needed to complete another spare pc, which I will use solely for background tasks needed to keep lsblogs ticking over, which should make the site run a lot smoother.

January 27, 2006   No Comments

Google, oh google.

With all the talk recently of Google defying the US government, I kindof missed the other news that
Google has bought another company.

I spotted it when browsing the directory, and it was mentioned on PC Talk, more details here

As you can see if you read their post,

Google buys radio station


General Technology
Google
has agreed to pay $102 million in cash for dMarc Broadcasting, whose
technology links radio stations and advertisers to automate the radio
ad selling process.

Will we be getting google adverts on the Radio next? Will you have to do a jingle for your site if you want to compete in the future? Is google making it a case of the rich get richer, and the poor, well screw em….

Or is it just purchasing it to learn from people who have possibly learnt a little more about the advertising game than they themselves have? Who knows, only google knows for sure.

I really, really hope that google does not start inflicting the world with radio ads for everything they advertise on adwords, and I really hope they dont even consider doing TV ads.

The playing field is fairly even at the moment, as it does not cost much to do a adwords campaign most of the time (well a small one that is) and you dont have to hire a sound recording studio to do a text ad.

If they start with the radio ads though, those with money will be able to afford ads on the radio, and the rest wont stand much of a chance. Google seriously needs to think before it turns the internet into something more commercial than it already is.

And dont get me started on Google defying the US governement, what are they doing their?

Privacy is important, but they have to act within the law, if they have to do something, then they have to do it. Its not up to them to set the laws of their land, nor to tell their elected officials what is right or wrong. This sort of thing is bigger than that, it should be put to public vote.
Just because they are billionaires does not make them better than anyone else, and if they dont like the rules, they should not be playing the game. I dont like the fact the governments want to spy more, but I figure they are doing it for good reason, like perhaps to convict the serious criminals, or catch terrorists. I doubt they are looking to see what cooking recipes Mrs Smith is searching for……

Perhaps google does not want the government to see this sample of search queries because google is fully aware the government may not like what it finds, after all I bet there will be a heck of a lot of searches for illegal activities in amongst that lot, and google probably does not want the government to turn around and say - you have to inform us everytime someone searches for “how to make a bomb” or “how to kill a president” for example. They just want to sit back and say they do no evil, even though its clear that their tool can be used very efficiently to help people do a lot of evil. But then again, so can any tool, or search engine really for that matter.
What is so wrong with giving a list of search queries, if its just a list of searches made, then its just the terms that were searched for, no who searched for them, so no one’s privacy is really at risk here is it?
Is there more to this? Are they terrified that someone may see just how much data they actually collect? Maybe, power has corrupted them, or maybe they just want to DRAW ATTENTION TO THE INTERNET.
Because that is exactly what they are doing, they are so big, they have drawn attention to themselves, and are now putting politicians in a position where they will probably turn around and start passing all sorts of laws, rules and regulations regarding the internet.

And when that happens, and the internet has been so tied up in Red tape thats its not worth using, we can all thank big old Google for not thinking things through - again.

Course, it may not happen, but who thinks the politicians are going to like google defying them?

Well, thats just my opinion, could be wrong, have been before, and will be again.

Maybe its just a storm in a teacup, and one side will back down. But who knows. Also, who knows just what the implications of this are long term, if search queries are made available to the goverment.

January 23, 2006   No Comments