Programming Coffee

Not that I don’t like Webalizer, Analog, AwStats, or ShortStat, I just think a more custom application would serve me better.  I have no desire to know what countries my traffic is coming from, or what languages.  I also want the ability to know *who* gets tracked, *why* they are tracked, and *how* they are tracked… and I want complete control over it.  I also enjoy the learning experience as a side bonus.  In addition to that, I want to be able to add other tracking mechanisms to my Stats package, without the need to do major integration.  An example would be the ability to track my google adwords traffic separately from the rest of my traffic (though I would tie each adword hit back to a unique session, in case I wanted to compare browsing patterns of pay-per-click traffic). 

This past weekend, I spent a couple hours developing web stat software that tracks unique sessions, and page hits.  I have the ability to exclude pages from being tracked, which will neither register that hit as a page hit, or a unique session.  At the moment it’s fairly small and simple (which I think is a good thing), though I do plan to add a mechanism that will allow me to exclude whole sessions from being tracked (because I don’t really want to track my own traffic, and sometimes I can really distort my own statistics by viewing my site often…  for testing purposes, PR purposes…  I don’t just frequent my own websites for the hell of it).

I setup my initial stats software to allow easy integration with other tracking addons, which allowed me to add Google Adwords tracking software to my whole site, with only 1 line of code.  Thank God for object-oriented php!

Now, I just need a catchy name for it…  like "Ultra Cool Web Stats Program", or "Funky Monkey Traffic Watching Junky".

I know I’ve been blabbering here and there about a possible ibook refresh and my personal iBook refresh wishlist. But I really think it’s coming soon. Why?

You’ll notice that as of today, the estimated ship time increased from "same day" to "5-7 business days". This usually happens right before they release the new models (the same tactic happened when they updated the iMacs, and the iPod mini’s). So I’m betting on Monday or Tuesday, we will be looking at brand new iBooks.

But what will they look like?? Surely they will wait to redesign the look and feel when they move to Intel proc’s (kinda like a refresh of the body AND the mind). Guess we will find out soon.

How to Get a Date.

Boy I’m glad I don’t have to deal with dating anymore…

First there was Google Earth, and now because of a google employees birthday wish, Google Moon has been launched. Its not very much at the moment, but if you zoom all the way in, you can see the *swiss cheese like surface*.

Several months ago I started working on a widget for my employer. It was pre Tiger release, and there might have been 20-30 widgets available online, and no real way (other than trial and error, and Apple’s Dashboard Documentation. How did I learn? I ripped into several of the widgets provided by Apple (I had a pre-release copy), and started learning by example. Fortunately for me, I do a lot of XHTML/CSS development, so a lot of this came quite easy.

The other day, I ran across a Dashboard Development Guide eBook. I’ve only read one other eBook before (and it was treacherous), so I decided to give this one a try under one condition… I could print it out. Hey, I stare at a screen all day long, is it wrong for me to want to do my reading on paper? Yeah, I know… my apologies to the trees, or cotton plants that were killed in order to enhance my learning experience. Anwyays, I’m almost halfway done with the eBook, and even though I haven’t really learned anything new, I do see the value of this eBook (I think it sells for $15). This eBook and accompanying tools, could have saved me hours of learning on my own. I’ll write up a full review once I’ve finished reading it.

Finally, a good iBook refresh rumor. I can’t wait to see what apple has in store for the new iBook. Widescreen monitor, extra memory, larger hard drive, better graphics card (to span displays), and faster processors. It will pretty much make recent Powerbook buyers wish they had held out for an iBook, and make those of us waiting for the refresh glad that it finally came.

And for an additional whammy, use your student discount (if you are a student), and you can get a free iPod mini with your new iBook purchase. How’s that for a deal?

The big question will be: Do I take advantage of the new iBook and enjoy the “latest and greatest”, or do I enjoy the discounted “late model” iBook? Decisions, decisions.

Out from Google came the mighty Blingo. Blingo is a new search engine that apparently gives away prizes just for using it. Speculation from other sources says that the site *is* legitimate (I guess google adwords is really paying off for them… not too sure how else they could afford to give away prizes). But since Blingo returns Google search results, I’ll probably use it just for that odd chance of winning something that I would not have purchased otherwise.

Is this a scam? I sure hope not. But I gave them my junk email address anyways (they claim you can win prizes without signing up, but you have more chances of winning if you do), and they sent me a verification email where I had to verify my email account. Of all the searching I do, I should surely win something, and I will definately let it be known when/if I do.

So, if anyone wants to join Blingo as a friend, and increase my chances of winning something, click on any of the links in this post.

Ok, I’ve been claiming this for a long time now, but I know the Secret to Search Engine Success. Are you ready to find out what it is?

Create something that people want, and put it on the website where you want to get a high Google PageRank. Seems simple enough right?

I ran across this article that discusses why Google would possibly be offering up such a great service without a means to capitalize from it. They note that it’s similar to Google having “a tight grip on an empty sack”, and that even though it is *empty* right now (no money directly being made from Google News), that inevitably other competitors will want that “empty sack”.

My thoughts? Why does Google need to make money off a product to legitimize it? I like Google. I think they provide the best search engine available. All of their extra services (Google Maps, Google Suggest, Google News, Gmail, etc) just give more credibility to Google. Besides, I’m sure Google has made a ton of money from Google News (indirectly).

I have been running Google AdSense for almost 1 full year now. I haven’t really done it to make any money, but to learn about Google AdSense, and to get my feet wet in advertising. Just a couple days ago, I received my 14th click… ever. With close to 2500 total impressions, this puts me at .6% CTR.

Where are my ads placed? I have one where WordPressDash is located, and another one at my Online Christmas Gift List site. They are both 1-ad units, and receive a very small amount of traffic (as noted by the impressions).

Now that I’ve made my first $1 from Google, I think I have $99 more to go before they will throw a check my way. What’s the rush you ask? There are other webmasters out there (currently out of my league) that are making $50 per day from AdSense. I might not be able to produce those sort of numbers right now, but I think I am an intelligent enough guy to start working towards that goal.

How will I get there? Creating websites that people will actually use. Not exactly a hard task, but definately a time-consuming one. I’ve learned that there is someone out there to buy any product, no matter how useless or overpriced. My line of thinking says, give the consumer something useful at a decent price, and you will attract buyers. Do I want to control the market completely? Well, that would be nice now wouldn’t it? Really though, all you have to do is get enough customers to cover your development costs, and most of your revenue from that point on will be pure profit (minus hosting, transactional costs, etc). Thats the great thing about operating an ebusiness of your own.