Blog Stats for September 2008

The temperature has dropped and the leaves are beginning to turn colours and fall, well I guess that means it is the Fall season right? October will be a chilly month it seems as the fog rolls in the morning and our lovely Summer weather slowly fades away.

Well being the first of a new month means I get to look back on the previous month here at Tyler Ingram dot Com and look over what I have done and how I am doing.

So What Have I Done?

Well I have started going to school in which to learn some more ‘tools of the trade’ I guess you could put it. I am looking at gaining more experience in Web Design and to start off I took a Graphics Design course and an Adobe Illustrator course. Why you might ask? I wanted to familiarize myself with how layouts are created in both print and online, to get a better handle at creating things people will see as opposed to the back-end development people don’t get to see.

I also took the Illustrator course so that I can digitize logo and have the knowledge of creating vector art. The above chessboard and pawns were created using Adobe Illustrator CS3 and the more I work with the software the more I enjoy it. I have had only 3 classes and there does not seem to be many classes left but I will look at continuing it onto the next level as well as the Graphics Design course too.

Though because of my busy schedule the past month I have noticed my posting frequency has dropped as well as people have been commenting on the fact that I have not posted as often. Homework from both courses takes up quite a bit of time but it will be worth it in the end. Don’t worry, I do plan on continuing this blog as well as others I have in the works.

Blog Stats

People love reading over blog stats and I love looking over statistics of my sites especially this one. The month of September was busy (as I mentioned above) and my stats for it have took a small little hit.

• Visits: 5,065 (+2.25%)
• Pageviews: 6,883 (-2.08%)
• Posts for September: 11 (-35%)

• Twitter Followers: 200
• RSS Followers: ~67

As you can see from the above stats, I still received an increase of visitors though just not as many pageviews as the previous month. Though I would assume that is because I did not have any crazy high-hit posts like previous months. The pageviews and visits were steady for the month of September even if my post frequency dropped a little bit.

I hope to try and increase my post frequency though with a new site I have in the works it will be a little difficult. The new site I am working on does fit into a niche and has me and Robyn pretty excited to work on. It will be fun to have Robyn working on the site with me as the niche I decided upon is also an interest to her.

Earnings for September

Now the earnings for September were low and I would also say that would be due to the fact of only posting an average of about 1 post per 2 days. Not a great rate but at least I was able to get some posts out there to keep people interested as well as myself!

• Google AdSense: $10.21 (-56%)
• Private Ads: $15

I am still able to have my hosting paid for each month which is something I like. If I don’t have to spend money the better right? AdSense took a hit but isn’t really a surprise to me. I also removed Kontera from my site because I was getting tired of how long the pageloads were getting when it was trying to match the content to a Kontera ad.

Thoughts for September

September as I mentioned was fairly busy. I looked at various aspects of my blog from the behind-the-scenes and also added the Follow me on Twitter image you see on the sidebar. I did break 200 followers yesterday and according to statistics it will slowly increase over time.

I find that RSS Feed subscribers are also on the incline as well. Though does the RSS Feed subscribers mean a lot when my Twitter following is higher? Perhaps though I like to keep track of both. If you are not subscribed to my Full RSS Feed I would highly recommend it. Why? Because I tend to give away stuff to my readers!

Top 5 Posts for September

Kal Tire: How They Can Screw You Over – This is a popular post of mine that gets hit and hit every month (as well as new experiences people like to share). I am contemplating on closing the comments on this particular post because it has been around for a while though.

SMS With Apple 3G Phone – I talk about how cool the SMS feature is on the Apple iPhone. I highly enjoy it more than any other cellphone I have had to date though one thing I want Apple to include in a future firmware release is the ability to use SMS in landscape orientation.

Apple 3G iPhone App Review: Pennies – A great little expense tracking application for the iPhone

Apple 3G iPhone App Review: The Running Gypsy – If you are a runner, jogger or walker and have a 3G iPhone I would highly recommend this application. You can check your distance, pace and speed with the built in GPS feature of the 3G iPhone.

Ripping a DVD to my Apple 3G iPhone – I had some issues when I went to rip movies to my iPhone but I was able to figure it out. Yes I am a Windows user not a Mac user. Though I would take donations for a Macbook if you want to help me make the switch!

Predictions for October

I do not have any predictions for October. As some of you know I do have my Photo blog (www.tyleringramphotos.com) which I post photography highlights of mine. I do understand that the default WordPress theme is crappy to look at but I have yet to find a theme I like and that fits my criteria so I will probably have to create a custom theme for the site itself.

I also have plans on another site (as I previously mentioned) that does follow a particular niche. Niche sites do usually have a larger following and I hope that the niche I have chosen will interest people as much as it interest Robyn and myself as well as some of our friends to whom I’ve pitched it to.

I do want to increase my posting frequency or at least post more than 11 times for the month of October. With a wedding coming up that Robyn and I will be attending in Minneapolis I am sure I will be able to get a post or two out of that alone.

So how did you site do for the month of September? Did you meet or exceed your expectations for it?