blog stuff

I’ve been using Twitter quite a bit the past few weeks and I just did my TweetCloud.

The main words are getting, going, watching, working, bed, home.  Yep, that just about sums it up.

Twice today I was searching for some specific One Tree Hill info that people were asking me about and both times my One Tree Hill site pulled up as first in the search engine.  Then the second result down on the second search was a forum where someone had copied and pasted info straight from our site.  Hmph.

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You can take a look at her portfolio and then contact her for a quote.  Now go visit!  If I send the most links over there, I get a free full blog package :).

Mama Belle tagged me for this.  The tag is “7 Things.” It is fun to hear tidbits, facts, unique things about your blogging friends.

The Rules:

1. Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So I’m going a little out of the rules and I’m going to post about 7 random things that are on my desk right now.

1. My laptop.  Owned by the large bank I work for.  Without that laptop, I have no job.
2. My mouse pad.  It’s from the company I interned for during college.  I’m too cheap to spend the money on a new mouse pad since you can get so many free ones but I haven’t found another one I like as well.
3. Empty Starbucks White Mocha.  Scott bought it for me this morning because I was already having a bad day…awww…
4. CVS April Monthly catalog.  Because I’m a CVS-er and I’ve been too lazy to put it in my coupon bag.
5. My iPhone.  Because it goes where I go.
6. A picture of me and Scott.  A youth member had it printed and framed for me.
7. Emma’s hairbows.  Because she loves to play computer games at my desk and left it there and once again, I’m too lazy to put it where it goes.

That was actually pretty fun.  Consider yourself tagged.

OK, so I guess I can talk about this new venture I’ve signed up for. First off, everyone, I realize I am already very busy and probably don’t have time for this. But I’ve thought and thought about it and Scott and I have talked about and actually almost backed out today but I think I can do it. Before I go farther, here’s the lowdown.

A good friend of mine along with a group of people have started a new web site, Streamocracy.com that actually launches for real tomorrow. I like to describe the site like a youtube for tech videos.  Not sure if the creators would appreciate that but without seeing it, that’s the easiest way I’ve found to describe it.  So what does it have to do with me?  I was asked to host an online show.

Now that is harder to describe.  Basically it’s going to be me chatting/reporting about different tech-related…things.  Maybe a news story or a product review or new websites to check out.  And me hopefully being a little funny and entertaining.  Honestly, we’re not clear exactly what the content of the show will be.   The best thing is to point you to something like http://epicfu.com/ or WebbAlert.  I expect much less news-y than Morgan Webb though.

So I spent the weekend doing a sort of audition type video.  It did take a lot of time and really being in front of the camera is not easy.  But I did get one video that I felt comfortable showing them and they were very excited about it.  And really, the best one was me just being goofy and talking like I would with my friends or family..he actually called it rambling.  I would never, ever ramble!!  OK, maybe I would and apparently that’s a good thing.  Especially when I’m talking about stuff I really like like my iPhone.

So the trick right now is finding the right vibe/content for me to make this successful.  I know watching just me isn’t that interesting but once they add the special effects and edit it all I have full faith it will be great and I know my friend is a perfectionist just like me so he won’t let anything subpar out for public viewing.  Or at least I hope not.  Do you think I should worry the site is getting launched on April Fool’s Day??? 

So back to the time involved in this.  Well, I think this is going to be like OTH was.  It’s going to take a whole lot of time upfront and I’m going to be clumsy at first.  But after I really figure out “my voice” and we figure out exactly what content to fish for, I think it will come more easily. They wanted something weekly but I knew there was NO WAY I could do what I just did this weekend every single week so I said once a month for now.  I have a few weeks in April to get the first one filmed and hopefully it will be put on the site in May.

At this point I’m getting no monetary compensation but I completely understand a start-up and hopefully part of making this a successful site for everyone is providing unique content.  I think it has huge possibilities and I hope the site is successful even minus any part I have in it.  So for now, my “compensation” is knowing I may be a part of something bigger later on and I’m doing something new and I get to gab about techie stuff which obviously I have no problem doing (see all 7 paragraphs above).

I’ve been really excited about how well the One Tree Hill Blog did this month.  They had a huge episode (100th one) and season finale of sorts since we’re now in a writer’s strike induced break until we have 6 more episodes starting April 14.  So for that reason, I think numbers skyrocketed.  Especially since they sort of plummeted since then.  I expected the lull but still hate it nonetheless.

So we had more records set this month.  A high of 43,000 page views the day after the 100th episode.  Before that, we were averaging in the 20-30K range.  Since the last episode aired, we have been averaging 15,000 a day.  We had a monthly total of almost 600K page views.

But let me tell you the shock and awe I experienced when I read another very well established OTH fan site has 22 MILLION hits in a month.  Holy Cow!  I thought we were doing well but we are just eating the crumbs.  I know it’s only been 3 months and they’ve had 4 years but still.  It definitely put things into perspective.

That being said, I’m still ecstatic about the financial numbers for the month.

I know today is not over, but this is what is expected at the close of today:

• BlogHerAds: $760
• Adsense: $170
• Kontera: $48
• Linkshare: $18
• Total: Right under 1K at $996

That ROCKS!  Trust me, I’m not complaining about having an extra 1K in my pocket but I still see more potential (just do some multiplying and there’s potential for making thousands of dollars)!  Although really, you could never have convinced me that in 3 months time, we’d be this far so I really have been quite happy how March has turned out.

I’ve been on Twitter for several months now but recently just “got it”.  And I love it.  Something else to update on the web when I have absolutely nothing to do!

If you read here and you twitter and you’re not on my following list, let me know.

Since I am so good at jumping on bandwagons, I’m going to jump on this Ultimate Blog Party one. So, for those visiting from there, welcome!

First, this is the family:

A few things about me:

• That is Scott, Emma (5), Lexi (3). We live in South Carolina.
• I’m on the computer 24-7 it seems. I work from home as a computer programmer for a large bank.
• I blog. A lot. Here and at a fan blog for One Tree Hill. This blog is now six years old so I don’t think anything’s changing about this blogging thing.
• I’m very involved with our church…choir, Sunday School, youth worker, etc. We go to a Baptist church but I grew up in a Church of God.
• Some of my hobbies include shopping, reading and um, blogging.

What you’ll hear about here:

• My day. Some of those posts are boring, but I do journal about what I’ve done during the day or my plans for the next one.
• Ongoing issues or projects such as the current one of us getting hardwoods ordered and installed or me freaking out about Emma going to Kindergarten.
• TV. My favorite shows are One Tree Hill, Grey’s Anatomy, Lost, American Idol, The Bachelor, Desperate Housewives, The Office and House. I tend to blog about them intermittently.
• Funny stuff my kids say.
• New things my kids do.
• PPP. I do some paid posts around here but lately it hasn’t been too much.
• Memes. I do a few a week…WFMW, Thankful Thursday and sometimes Friday’s Feast and my own Sunday Scripture.
• Anything else…this is the blog of my life! There’s not really much I don’t share.

So glad you stopped by…trying to make this short and sweet so you can move on down the list!

Here’s my list of prizes I’d like to win:

39 — $20 Gift Certificate
Provided by: The Organized Knitting Club
Prize details: The Organized Knitting Club is offering one lucky winner a $20 gift certificate to Amazon.com.

72 — Webcam
Provided by: Liz
Prize details: Liz at This Full House is giving away a Logitech QuickCam Pro 2000 webcam, she received on her review blog, courtesy of the promoters for Skype.com – a video instant messaging service. The prize is valued at $100.

59 — $25 Cash
Provided by: Lori
Prize details: Lori from A Cowboy’s Wife is giving away $25 via pay pal.