The May 2007 Report

SamirBhardwaj.com monthly reportThis site went live on the 4th of May, 2007. It is exactly a month old today, so I decided to do a little recap of the month that was. I plan to to make this a regular feature because it helps me keep track of my progress, and also allows me to link back to and thank some people who have helped me along the way.

Traffic

As you can see in the graph below, I had very little traffic to begin with. This was carried over from my static site that existed in this same space. That traffic was largely driven by links on sites I had designed for clients and also signature links from my participation in forums (mostly BlenderArtists). The traffic then was usually only a few hundred page-views a month. Almost non-existent in the larger scheme of things, but then my original site was really meant to be more of a showcase for clients who needed proof that I could do all those things they needed me to do for them. It was adequate for the purpose.

SamirBharadwaj.com May 2007 traffic stats

This month the growth above that original level of traffic was stratospheric, and it was all because of the Problogger Top 5 group writing project (discussed below). Traffic figures for SamirBharadwaj.com in May 2007 were:
Total Pages — 275100
Total Visits — 64736

That is quite literally a hundred times what I used to get on my old static site (which I never really marketed anyway). So all in all, I am extremely pleased with this initial boost during the first month of this site’s existence.

The Problogger Top 5 Group Writing Project

I have been an occasional visitor at Problogger.net for many months now, because the plan to create a more comprehensive site with a blog has been swimming around in my head for a long time, and Problogger is an excellent source of information and ideas about blogging. I came upon the group writing project on one of my random visits, a few days after starting this blog. It was already a day into the project and I didn’t have much time, but I did want to do something significant rather than some arbitrary listing. Keeping that in mind I came up with the idea of photography tips. Once again, I wanted to make the article special, so I decided to take some special shots to illustrate the piece. I managed to finish all this just in time for the deadline, and the result was Top 5 Tricks for Taking Professional Looking Photographs with your Digital Camera

My article was linked in the Day 4 listing and also in the final listing on Problogger and after a quiet day or two a flood of visitors arrived peaking at 28,000 page views on the 14th. After that there was a decline to more steady levels of traffic but still a healthy flow. Most of this came through people publishing the list of Top 5 posts on their own blogs, which resulted in some social bookmarking activity. I was lucky that some people singled out my post and decided to recommend it specifically. That lead to minor levels of Digg and Del.icio.us traffic and a flood of Stumbleupon traffic. Stumbleupon is still sending a steady stream of traffic to my site through this post.

So, a big Thank You to Darren Rowse of Problogger and all those kind people who linked to me for getting me started on this blog with a bang rather than a whimper.

Blog Carnivals

While I highly appreciated the sudden burst of traffic to my photography tricks post, I did know that I would have to do enough marketing to create some sustained traffic to this site. The major step in that direction during this first month was participating in Blog Carnivals. I submitted some of my more interesting posts to some carnivals and was actually included in a few. Here is a list below:

ToDo

That was the first month of SamirBharadwaj.com. Problogger has provided me with an initial surge of traffic, but that positive is also the weakness of this site at the moment. Almost all incoming traffic is for the Top Photo Tricks post at the moment. I need to diversify my traffic so that I can sustain it in the long term.

Also I still need to make many technical tweaks and changes to this blog to get it looking and working better in some areas.

A good start and plenty more to do. As always, I will keep you posted on my progress right here on this blog. You can also subscribe to my RSS feed to keep your fingers on the pulse here and for a lot more great content. Until the next post …

How to assemble a Feedburner alternative using WordPress plugins

Wordpress without Feedburner

Feedburner has become a ubiquitous part of every blogger’s arsenal. Over the past few months, before I actually got this blog up and running in May, I found Feedburner mentioned in every tips and tricks list on creating a successful blog. The Feedburner redirection plugin for WordPress appeared in almost every list of most important plugins, and there were reams of material on when to and when not to show your Feedburner reader count on your blog. So the question is, if it’s so important, why look for an alternative? After all, everyone uses it.

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Pirates of the Caribbean 3 – At World’s End, a review

Pirate skulls and treasure maps

The first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, The Curse of the Black Pearl, was a masterpiece in every way possible. There is little wonder as to why it became such a smash box-office hit, because it had everything going for it. Not only was it extremely watchable and entertaining, but it was very impressive on many other levels. No doubt, Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow brought in a whole new level of character dynamic into the dying pirate genre, but over all what set that movie apart was its extremely etched characters. Every one who ever said a line on screen had a very clear and well defined persona that came through strongly in the dialogue and the plot, and that endeared them to the viewing audience. Then of course there were all the regular technical accomplishments of lighting and cinematography, sound and special effects. Everything meshed into a very cohesive whole which dropped the viewer into a rich and well developed world that didn’t seem transitory.

I’m sure you’ve gathered by now that I loved the first Pirates movie. Unfortunately the sequel, Dead Man’s Chest, while impressive on a technical level, disappointed me in many ways. So, it was with more than a modest sense of trepidation that I stepped into a cinema to watch Pirates of the Caribbean 3 – At World’s End.

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Bits of paper and other calendaring software

My paper todo lists and notebooks

I occasionally flirt with the idea of being more organised. Don’t get me wrong, I am more organised than most people. The photograph above is of my todo lists and notes which regulate my day-to-day activities. That’s the way it’s been for a few years now and that is the only way I can maintain my sanity considering my do-it-all persuasion. But, there is always more that can be done. I’ve never gotten into the strict calendar scheduling and note-taking habit. When I started this blog, I thought maybe a bit of more structured scheduling of posts to be written and tasks to be done on the administrative end might do me some good. So I set off down the internet stream in search of the right calendaring software.

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Carnival of Cinema #32 & #33

Carnival of CinemaSince I started actively maintaining the current avatar of this blog less than a month ago, I’ve been looking into blog carnivals and submitting some of my posts for inclusion into a few appropriate ones.

Scott Nehring runs the Carnival of Cinema over at his blog Nehring the Edge. Every Friday he links to a wide range of interesting posts and articles relating to the world of cinema — everything from movie reviews to film production tips. Scott has included two of my posts in his weekly listing. My comparative review of Babel and Guru was linked in last week’s carnival #31, and my review of Hot Fuzz was linked in this week’s carnival #32.

If you’re a film buff of any sort, Nehring the Edge makes for very interesting reading. It includes not only the carnival listings but also Scott’s own extensive set of movie reviews. Grab your popcorn and pay him a visit.

Good Business – book review

Good Business - a book by Mihaly CsikszentmihalyiI’m not part of the ardent business book devouring audience. I am not one of those who have a well arranged shelf of all the latest tomes featuring grinning gurus spouting the latest business wisdom. But I do read business books occasionally when the mood strikes, because when you come down to it I’m simply interested in everything out there.

I was a bit surprised when I came across Good Business in the bargain bin of a local book shop. While I hadn’t read Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s previous famous work Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, I had heard of it and read a basic synopsis at some point. I found his ideas to be quite intriguing. He seemed to be one of those thinkers trying to blur the boundaries between disciplines, which I like, so when I came across Good Business I picked it up.
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