Saturday 6 December 2008

T'internet


I don't want to fall into the trap of posting too many links in the form of posts, but this is a really interesting article about generating traffic on websites.

The Guardian - the most popular story in the world

Actually, thinking about it, Blogger is part of Google so it might have a different system. So typing 'Obama decides to quit tomorrow' might not actually work.

The more I thought about it, the more I realised how little I know about how much my blog actually works. As time has progressed, I've picked up things like the gadgets on the side, the organised labels, the RSS feeds (I recently accidentally removed these and my readership plummeted), systems for storing images. But there's still plenty that baffles me: how do I widen the body of texts, being completely computer code illiterate? And another thing: how on earth do I get that thingy to work which tells me about the traffic my site is generating and all those stats? Mine is just so stubborn.

I'm supposed to have an A grade qualification in ICT, which I passed less than 6 months ago. Yet I still only use blogger on the most rudimentary level. Once or twice I've wondered what would happen if the site crashed? One of the first things they teach you in ICT is that you don't own data unless you have it saved twice. In two different places. But does this blog have a back-up? No - I don't even know how to make one.

So I'm asking you: do you know anything about how your blog works? Or have you, like me, grasped some of the consequences, but are left completely in the dark about the rest? And do you have a back-up?

Note: when writing this post, at one point the page froze and I spent a moment or two thinking why, why, why didn't I SAVE?

6 comments:

  1. Hummm.... interesting article. I blog more for fun, so if people find and like so much the better (but I definitely find some aspects and intricate features of the google system way too complex).

    ReplyDelete
  2. definitely a very interesting piece! i admit that i'm not very tech savy (no, i don't have a backup either) but i do enjoy breaking down my site's statistics, especially the google searches (i have surprisingly many hits being results of searches on "stonewashed denim" and the like).. thanks for bringing it up :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Argh! I know exactly how you feel! i have very little clue how my blog works and even less idea how to actually make the most of it... what do you use to tell how much traffic your blog has got? as I'd really like to know - but don't know where to start!

    ReplyDelete
  4. My version of Blogger has an 'auto save' function, you might want to see if yours does, too.

    I don't know any techno stuff. I spot things on others' blogs, and do what they do if they're doing something I want to do.

    I'm relatively in the dark, but I muddle through.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm an amateur on this stuff. I know how to design pages, but my ability to design my page is hugely constrained by Blogger's . . . constraints.

    I think most people operate at least a little bit in the dark, and learn functionality piece by piece.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm glad to see that everyone else is equally in the dark :)

    enc - yep I do have autosave, I was referring to saving the whole blog.

    ReplyDelete