Brennan’s Blog

On this day last year I wrote my very first blog entry. At one point I kept a sort of online journal which a few people knew about, but this was my first effort to publish useful information instead of just personal comments.

I have learned about many things, such as RSS/Atom feeds, Javascript techniques, Spam fighting techniques and many other things and as I wrote blog entries on them I would occasionally get feedback. Perhaps my most popular blog entry was called The Single Form Problem with ASP.NET. It seems my solution works well for many people.

The second most popular blog entry was PHPNuke Feeds for RSS 2.0 and Atom 0.3. I needed those feed formats so that I could syndicate content for the Spider Portal. I shared my work and have have received a positive feedback on it.

Back in July I started to post Google Ads on the website. I saw that Vinny was running them and I was curious what sort of revenue those click-through ads could generate. In about 6 months time I have accumulated a whopping $20. I will continue to show the ads simply because I want to get a check from Google and post a photo of it in a blog entry.

I have also increased my regular traffic to the blog. I am hoping it is because I am providing useful information as I learn various technologies. Back in May I was averaging about 100 visits to the website but this month is showing more than 400 visits each day. It actually jumped about 100 visits in the last 30 days. It may simply be that I am writing about topics people are seeking. I know Google sends me a good deal of traffic and based on the keywords I can tell which blog entries brought them to this website. I will do my best to write something useful on related topics.

I also want to start producing a knowledge base to compliment my blog entries. I already have a pile of content which I have created by simply experimenting with different technologies. A good example of such a site is QuirksMode which documents web technologies and techniques. The author has also written books but felt a website will better serve his audience and his needs better. Another site I would like my knowledge base to emulate is A List Apart. I would also like to put together a series of online presentations using S5. In a month or two I should have something in place.