Archive for June, 2008
I am blogging like a crazy horse today, yes yes you may have guessed
that I am having a quiet day. In fact Friday’s should be made quiet by
law, employers should ease back, customers shouldn’t email or phone
their service providers…. just chill out and leave people be, they
are only thinking of the weekend after all.
This leaves me with plenty of time to think about stuff like:
Should I switch to O2, just so that I can have one of those shiny new
Iphone 3G thingy-me-dukes, I have resisted thus far but I can feel the
gravitational pull of planet Apple pulling me off kilter. Mind you I
would blog even more then, probably even from the toilet! Now that’s
taking it too far, way too far…
Looking forward to the longest day of the year tomorrow….
I have to confess that I am becoming addicted to FriendFeed and I
thank Fraser Smith for pointing me in its direction in the first
place. Now that my connections are growing, the activity and
discussion taking place on there is becoming more engrossing, as
members of the technical world take part in what can be best described
as one of the best global discussions there is. I am discovering new
photographers, music, software, websites and hearing about interesting
rumours in the industry. In fact if you are hard-core blogger or
journalist, its an invaluable tool - Its your digital “ear to the
ground”, your “radar” etc etc.
I am only following a smallish number of people compared to some guys
out there but I can also see their friends through them which is a
great feature, as I am able to comment or like their items. This can
lead onto new friendships being established and so on. Thus the
network grows over time.
If you get on with FF, go and get Feedalizr, its a great tool and runs
in the background. Add a link to your email signatures too, so that
friends and relatives can see what you’ve been writing about and they
too can join.
I am sure there are many ways FriendFeed can be improved but I have to
admit, I quite like it as it is, so please keep it that way!
Sometimes the internet world is a very fickle place. Take for example
the recent problems with Twitter, who as a result of their phenomenal
success have started to creak under the strain of the shear volume of
traffic they receive every second of each day. Apparently they are
finding that “Ruby on Rails”, the system they use for their front-end,
isn’t really able to handle so much demand. They are now seeking
alternative solutions whilst keeping the existing site up and running
- well some of the time!
Thing is users are an impatient bunch and will sooner jump ship than
wait for promises to be delivered in these beleaguered times. I have
read countless moans on friendfeed recently about people abandoning
Twitter in favour of its rival services such as FriendFeed.
I stand by Twitter because its a great service, does exactly what it
was designed for, doesn’t step outside of this premise by offering
other confusing facilities that end up clouding its real purpose (as
so many other sites do) - Plus you can use your mobile to text updates
to it which is fantastic - plus its integrated into this blog, so that
when I either cannot write a proper blog entry or just want to say a
quick something….
I Tweet it!
Last year I penned a post about Red Kites making more of an appearance
in the skies of Hampshire and it has attracted regular comments from
my readers. I did a little bit of research on Google and found that if
you search for “Hampshire Red Kites” my site is listed in 2nd or third
place in the results. This may have been caused by the number of
comments received or maybe it was Google that attracted them in the
first place.
If you think about it, people who are interested in red kites and live
in Hampshire are likely to do a little research on the web to see if
there are any chances of seeing them in this area and when they
discover a blog all about it, it will grab their attention and they
may well share their information with you, as they have in this case.
Comments are very useful in judging which subjects you are considered
to be an authority on (even if you don’t think you are) and people
will visit your site often if you spend a fair amount of time
following up the subject and or writing related stories as spin-offs.
I must confess that this blog does at times wander all over the place
and doesn’t have a particular direction but its a case of finding it
(or perhaps a clutch of different ones).
I have been planning to photograph the red kites again. Stokenchurch
is a great location for this and I am currently saving up to purchase
some more kit to achieve this. I am looking out for a Sigma 300-800mm
lens which is very pricey indeed (still saving my pennies!) and a hide
of some description. I have a location or two in mind and it should be
feasible to get some very good photographs of red kites in action. I
will blog about this when it happens but its not going to be for
awhile yet!
Some people try and cram everything into one website, such as
www.johnsmith.net. John Smith likes to write, he is also a
semi-professional photographer but by day he works for a software
house, engineering web solutions. On top of this he also has interests
in gardening, nature, music, travel and technology in general. His
website is confusing and cluttered as he has literally got pages
dedicated to everything he is interested in. Ok, John is a fictional
character but he is no different to myself.
This is why I have more than one website and host them all on the one
dedicated server. This site is dedicated to my blog and used to house
a gallery, which I have decided to scrap in favour of the separate
website www.nicklewisphotography.co.uk (known as NLP hereon).
NLP is dedicated to becoming as big a library of usable images as
possible, its my own personal stock library and people can purchase
images from it either digitally or as prints. Its down to you, you can
have them anyway you want and to make it even more attractive, all
prices are negotiable within certain limits.
However the best thing about having multiple websites is that each one
has a clean and uncluttered look, they serve up their own relevant
content, so much so that people are more likely to bookmark them for
certain purposes.
Marketing your sites therefore is a lot easier because if people ask
about certain things, lets say nature photography, I can give them a
very specific link that leads them to a collection of images that suit
their needs perfectly. Sales are more likely.
In terms of this blog, its categorised, so that all posts are sorted
into relevant groups.
SEO is also greatly improved when you have more than one website and
especially if you link them together in as many ways as possible.
www.Nfolio.net is a community site for photographers and you should
check that out too, if you haven’t already done so.
Hi everyone, would you be up for a photowalk somewhere in the UK at
any point in the future? Location and dates TBC…..
Have you ever read the book “Shaggy Blog Stories”? I recently
discovered it on Lulu.Com and bought it just to see how good books are
that are produced by Lulu. Anyway the book is a real hoot and full of
diverse comedic posts. All profits go to Comic Relief.
Damn I am suffering from “bloggers block” at the moment and cannot
think of a single thing to write!
To get a copy of the aforementioned tome - go to:
http://www.lulu.com/content/739873
The wphone plugin is now installed and trying it out from my phone. Looks real good. Nice and simple!
I think its good to escape from the office for awhile each day and especially when the weather is as nice as it is today.
On of my favourite haunts is the Jubilee River. Its also a great nature reserve in its own right. I have been visiting it for a year now and you get to see the full cycle. Lots of gulls and terns, young chicks now. In the winter you can see plenty of Redwing and Fieldfare. Look out for Skylarks too!
