Since I started self-hosting this blog again on August 6 2008, I have been trying to find more ways to pull traffic toward the content that I put up. Like all bloggers, I feel that I have important things to say (at least in the area of Web performance), and ideas that should be read by as many people as possible.

As well, I have realized that if I invest some time and effort into this blog, it can be a small revenue source that could get me that much closer to my dream of a MacBook Pro.

The Analysis

In a post yesterday morning, Darren Rowse had some advice on when the best time to release new post is. Using his ideas as the framework, I pulled the data out of my own tracking database and came up with the chart below. This shows the page view data between September 1 2007 and September 15 2008 based on the day of the week vistors came to the site.

Using this data and the general framework that Darren subscribes to, I should be releasing my best and newest thoughts in a week on Monday and Tuesday (GMT).

After Wednesday, I should release only less in-depth articles, with a focus on commentary on news and events. And I must learn to breathe, as I suffer from an ailment all to common in bipolars: a lack of patience.

A new post doesn’t immediately find its target audience unless you have hundreds or thousands (Tens? Ones?) of readers who are influential. If you are luckyin this regard, then these folks will leave useful comments, and through their own attention, help gently show people that a new post is something they should devote their valuable attention towards.

It takes a while for any post to percolate through the intertubes. So patience you must have.

Front-loaded v Long-tailed

Unless, of course, your traffic model is completely different than a popular blogger.

The one issue that I had with Darren’s guidance is that it applies only to blogs that are front-loaded. A front-loaded blog is one that is incredibly popular, or has a devoted, active audience who help push page views toward the most recent 3-5 posts. Once the wave has crested, or the blogger has posted something new, the volume of traffic to older posts falls off exponentially, except in the few cases of profound or controversial topics.

When I analyzed my own traffic, I found that the most of my traffic volume was aimed toward posts from 2005 and 2006. In fact, more recent posts are nowhere near as popular as these older posts. In contrast to the front-loaded blog, mine is long-tailed.

There are a number of influential items in my blog which have proven staying power, which draw people from around the world. They have had deep penetration into search engines, and are relvant to some aspect of peoples’ lives that keeps pulling them back.

Summary

I would highly recommend analyzing your traffic to see it is front-loaded or long-tailed. I know that I wish that this blog  was more front-loaded, with an active community of readers and commentators. However, I am also happy to see that I have created a few sparks of content that keep people returning again and again. If your blog is  long-tailed, then when you post becomes far less relevant than ensuring the freshness and validity of those few popular posts. Ensure that these are maintained and current so that they remain relevant to as many people as possible.

Tags: analysis, analytics, blog posts, Blogging, content creation, content release, current, Darren Rowse, freshness, front-loaded, hits, long tail, maintain, page views, posting, search engines, statistics, traffic, update, Web Performance

Since August of this year, I have been exploring the insides of my mind in greater detail. If you read this blog regularly, you are pretty likely aware of the fluctuations in my mood, and the rationality of my behaviour.

If you get the chance, find and watch The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive hosted by Stephen Fry. In his open, intelligent and witty way, Fry tackles the topic of Bipolar Disorders (oh yes, there are more than one), including his own. If you can find it (you will have to try all of the usual channels to get it in North America), watch it.

So, why am I openly discussing the fact that I am Bipolar in a public forum? Why would I confess to the world, to people who may in the future meet me, or even consider hiring me?

It’s simple. Many months ago, I wrote that if you were going to hire me based on what I had done in the past, or what school I went to, I most likely wouldn’t want to work for your company anyway. The same applies to this illness, this condition I suffer from. If you or your company won’t hire me because I suffer from an illness that is beyond my control, that I will have for the rest of my life, why would I work for your firm?

I have had Bipolar for a long time. I can track the behaviours that identify the condition back into my childhood, through my teens, through until today. Normally, the cycling that I go through is benign, punctuated by periods of utter and complete hyperfocus. Most of the time, hyperfocus is a benefit for me — it is what got me through re-building the GrabPERF interface last year, and helped power me to absorb and write as much on Web performance as I have.

The manic side does have its pitfalls. My mania usually results in buying and spending sprees that have often endangered my financial stability. An example of this is my acquisition or stationery supplies, pen, notebooks and books.

Two weeks ago, I cleaned out my desk and aggregated all of the writing instruments I have purchased over the last 12 months. When I was done, I had filled a 1-gallon Zip-Lock baggie with pens, pencils, highlighters and Sharpies.

In my lifetime, I could never use them all.

I fanatically acquire notebooks. Rhodia, Moleskine, Rite-in-the-Rain, anything. How many of them have I written in? Well, lets just say that my kids will be using my blank notebook collection for many years after I have departed this world.

The spending sprees, the intense desire for the acquisition of things, is my most noticeable manifestation of manic behaviour. In most instances, the manic process starts to wind down after a while. In a few instances, it continues upward. It continues upward until my rational mind dissipates, and I start ranting and raving, making irrational and potentially destructive choices in my life. Choices that have (or could have) affected the course of my life.

I suffer from a small subset of the condition, Bipolar I. What differentiates this group from the standard “manic-depressive” or Bipolar diagnosis is that is more MANIC-depressive, with a sustained emphasis on the manic episodes. Depressive episodes occur, don’t get me wrong; but it is the intense and unstoppable mania that has shaped me more than the depression.

However, this condition is not “curable” in the standard way. It also doesn’t manifest any physical symptoms. So in most cases, people just say that I need to get a grip and get on with my life. I am grateful that I have an understanding and (in some cases) forgiving wife who is intent on helping me control and regulate my behaviour. I am also extremely lucky that my current manager understands this part of me, and gives me the freedom I need to ebb and flow with the condition.

To wrap this up (I hate long postings), I leave you with this thought. In his programme, Fry asks his interview subjects the following question (and I paraphrase it here):

If there was a button you could push, a button that cured you of this condition, and gave you a normal mind, would you press it?

Only one of the interview subjects said yes. Everyone else said that despite the pain and suffering that accompanies the condition, there is no way that they would be willing to give back the state of mind that allowed them to achieve what they had achieved.

We are not in our right mind. And I am proud of that.

Technorati Tags: Bipolar, manic+depression, manic+depressive, Bipolar+I, psychiatric+illness, mental+health, depression, mania, manic

Tags: Acquisition, app, bbc, Bipolar Disorders, blog, book, control, current, depression, EAD, GrabPERF, HTML, HTTP, IE, IM, IP, it, LAN, leave, mania, normal, North America, Om, One, performance, posting, pr, Stephen Fry, Technorati, teen, tv, web, Web Performance

I think that I am protected from the PHP XML-RPC vulnerability discovered by Secunia. However, the team at b2evolution have made only a cursory attempt to explain what is happening.

I have updated the xmlrpc.php file on my serv to the latest CVS version and also updated the PHP XML-RPC library in PEAR.

Looking forward to a clearer posting on why b2evolution is NOT vulnerable to this type of attack.

Technorati: b2evolution, XML RPC, PHP, Secunia

Tags: app, evolution, HTTP, IE, it, Om, PHP, posting, pr, Technorati, update

Tyme hits for six with this posting about how Scoble is unique in the world of corporate blogging.

I have to agree with her on her opinion. In discussing the possibility of establishing a blog at our company, the conversation between myself and the other contributor came down to one final point: could our company handle the content that is necessary to make a corporate blog work?

In most companies, blogging about work, even if you don’t talk about futures, financial, and other company confidential information, would most likely get you removed from your desk by a large security person.

And before I get flamed, we all know it’s true. Companies, despite lip-service to the contrary, don’t like transparency, because they cannot control the message.

As an example, if the corporate commandos at Microsoft discover who Mini-Microsoft is, he will be looking for a new job. I have no doubt about that.

So, Scoble, be glad you are unique. Live in the moment. But keep your resume up to date, because somedy you will need it.

Tags: blog, Blogging, content, control, conversation, corporate, cro, hits, HTTP, IE, IM, information, IP, it, live, Microsoft, Om, One, opinion, PHP, posting, pr, the other

Last post here on this topic.

Go read Kevin. He got promoted to my list of must reads with this posting.

Tags: ads, blog, cro, EAD, HTML, HTTP, IE, IM, it, Microsoft, Om, posting, pr, web

Jeff Nolan and I have had our differences, mainly over Prop. 13. But his posting that links to an article listing the reasons why people are fleeing California cities (or the state entirely) is heartening.

Not for California. But for those of us who decided that we couldn’t stay there and live in one of the world’s richest economies, and tolerate a third-world public infrastructure.

Tags: ASP, content, flee, HTML, HTTP, IE, ISP, it, LAN, live, Om, One, posting, pr

I am in a Sales Meeting for the next three days, so postings will be light until the evenings.

Tags: posting

Scott Berkun’s monthly essay is on the topic of why and how Smart People defend Bad Ideas. [here]

I have been in and seen people in these situations many times in my life. One of the great faculties we as human beings have is that which allows us to make decisions and then defend them.

But because you have arrived at an idea, doesn’t mean that it is the right idea. New evidence, further discussion and growing experience will affect the answer you give to the same question at ages 20, 40 and 60.

However, where I see this happening most right now is at Apple. To say it is a new phenomenon would be ignoring history. Steve Jobs Computers and Electronic Gadgets, Inc. has had a history of saying “we’re right and the customer is stupid.”.

Eventually, this attitude will catch up with them, and they will get to spend 4-5 years clinging to life, until they are able to generate a new whizbang gadget to pull them back from the edge. I am starting to see the rumblings of discontent from the Apple Fanatic community: Apple is their friend until they wander “off-message”. Then they are loose cannons that must be silenced.

Smart people defending stupid ideas. I know that some folks from Apple Inc have stopped by to read my postings. The question is whether they are brushed off as the ramblings of a lunatic who doesn’t use an Apple computer (YET!), or if it has sparked some internal conversation.

If Apple has not noticed the rumblings of discontent, then they are far more insular than I have heard them described.

Apple, let the other people out in the world who use and love your products talk about them freely. Let someone else invent the idea for a change. Steve Jobs will not live forever; and based on Apple’s success without Jobs, I believe that you need to apply an old ad slogan to yourselves now:

Tags: app, Apple, community, content, conversation, EAD, HTTP, IE, IM, it, live, NY Times, Om, One, posting, pr, the other

The Gomery postings have drawn a huge amount of traffic to my server. It’s been fun to watch the numbers explode all day.

I will return to normal blogging tomorrow.

Tags: blog, Blogging, it, normal, Om, posting, server, traffic

Interesting posting on this topic here.

I vote for cubes. I prefer to have some space to call my own, especially for the 10 hours a day I spend there.

Tags: brand, HTML, HTTP, Om, posting, pr