Sep 21 2007

Fortnightly Update for 20th September

Published by at 11:32 am under weekly updates

1. New blogs debuting in the Top 100 Australian Blogs

2. New blogs on the Australian Blogs Community

Aide-memoire
Guide to Blogging
Duchess and the Duke
planet doom?
Australian Bushfire Monitor
Disability Care Work
A Matter of Perspective
Project 183
The Cerebral Mum

Reminder: Anybody who would like to add (or update) the Aussie blogs from Bumpzee to their blogroll can find an A to Z list and a downunder version (Z to A). Snoskred keeps these updated weekly.

We now have 151 members, 175 blogs, 11273 entries. Is your blog there?

3. Other Blogpond News

I’ve been meaning to add a page with my favourite posts, which I finally got around to doing (many thanks to Thiru for the reminder). You’ll see it in the tabs above called articles. I’ve divided it up into six broad categories, so if you’re recently new around here, you might like to check them out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A big thank you to the four people who signed up for BlogRush via my referral. I didn’t really expect any – so thanks :)

And speaking about BlogRush, I’m trying to be patient, but I have to say it’s not really working for me. My stats below, and so far the click through rate has been very ordinary.

BlogRush Statistics

BlogRush CTR

How are your stats for BlogRush (if you’re using it)?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anyone else noticing posts seem to be delivered to Google Reader more quickly?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

4. From the Aussosphere

Have you checked out this fortnight’s Carnival of Australia? Bryce is hosting the next one and submissions close on Monday.

Speaking of Bryce, he’s also established an Australian Bloggers group on Facebook, which has already attracted 65 members.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Steven Noble from Hill and Knowlton announces the release of their fun election predictor tool. I haven’t had much of a chance to play with it yet, but it looks pretty groovy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BigPond have been slammed for providing 3rd party advertising on their BigBlog blogs. Quoting Darren Rowse:

BigPond is risking a “mass exodus”, according to Melbourne-based professional blogger Darren Rowse. He co-founded a network of 250 blogs that takes advertising but revenue-shares with its bloggers.

“I wouldn’t be too pleased about it myself because people invest their time in starting a blog,” he said.

Hmmm – interesting Google results:

BigBlog on Google

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You might not know that I’m a cricket fan. Surprised? It’s about the only team sport that I follow.

I was interested to see that Google have bought in a special quick search for cricket results. Simply type in “Australia cricket” (without the “”) and you’ll get the latest result. You can also type in “cricket score australia pakistan” (or countries of your choice, again without the ” “) to get the score from that game.

Australia Cricket Results

Alister Cameron also pointed me to the following video (6 minutes) of Indian Yuvraj Singh hitting six sixes from one over (only the 4th time in history, and a first for Twenty20 cricket) against England. You’ve got to feel a bit sorry for the bowler (Stewart Broad). Colin also reports that Singh’s 50 off 12 balls is a world record.

13 responses so far

13 Responses to “Fortnightly Update for 20th September”

  1. # swollenpickleson 21 Sep 2007 at 1:59 pm

    I reckon Flintoff would have regretted giving that bloke a serve right before the over started!

  2. # Peteron 21 Sep 2007 at 3:17 pm

    Hi Meg

    I joined Blogrush (along with everyone else in the blogosphere I think!!!) and had no luck. But mine was more on a technical level. My blogging platform gets funny with certain widgets and this one from Blogrush did not play well in IE 6. (I rum mine on a specific Mac platform). I like the idea but like anything I suppose you have to give it time. Or perhaps we’ve been Web 2.0ed out!!!!

    Typical Hellstra, sorry I mean Telstra. Good ol’ Sol…he’ll squeeze that last bit of revenue $$ form wherever he can!

    Thanks again for providing an insightful look into the Aussie blogosphere. You are my guide with all that kind of information.
    Cheers

  3. # rodon 21 Sep 2007 at 3:26 pm

    blogrush=fools gold! Fancy allowing someone to put unmoderated links on your site?? That’s my two cents worth.

    Yes! Cricket – bring on summer and Ricky Ponting for PM!

  4. # Megon 21 Sep 2007 at 5:40 pm

    SP – when sledging backfires?

    Peter – Have you redesigned again? The site’s looking great. I love your RSS button with the “Want a Feed?” caption 😀 Thanks for your kind words.

    Rod – you really know how to make a girl feel good 😉 Very good point though. I’ll give it a few more days & see how it pans out.

    I always look forward to the end of footy season.

  5. # swollenpickleson 21 Sep 2007 at 5:50 pm

    Definitely Meg, file it under “When sledging goes wrong!”

  6. # Malcolm Lambeon 22 Sep 2007 at 1:40 am

    Mate, I just came across Professor Simon Jackman’s (Political Science Stanford University) blog where he’s tracking the odds on a Labor win. He’s a Brisbane boy who plays hard/done good in the land of the free/home of the brave. And he’s covering the election (with his awesome stats) for the Bulletin and others. Check the odds the bookies are giving on a Labor win – http://www.welcometowallyworld.com/frontpage/2007/9/20/betting-on-a-labor-victory-australian-politics.html

    Oh yeah…thanks for the placing in Top 100 Australian Blogs. Does it come with a Trip to Tasmania or something?

  7. # rodon 22 Sep 2007 at 1:43 am

    Tad harsh! Just how I see it – you know what would be really cool is a widget of the top 100 aussie blogs?

    You’ve already done most of the hard work!

    I’m thinking mash them into y pipes and then into a spring widget and wallah!

  8. # Andrew Boydon 22 Sep 2007 at 10:24 am

    Hi Meg,

    thanks for the news about onblogging.com.au – that is impressive :) I feel a little bit taller now :)

    BlogRush is funny – I’m doing OK out of it so I have no complaints personally (apart from the lack of categories). I got stumbled bigtime the day after I joined (coincidence I think but hard to say) so my credits went up a lot. I’m open to the idea of it being a good thing, will give it another few weeks before getting rid of it unless they do something really annoying.

    Thanks for the mention once again and thanks for running the index. You are my sunshine :)

    Cheers, Andrew

  9. # Cellobellaon 22 Sep 2007 at 11:12 am

    Hi Meg,
    Thanks for the link! I’ve been underwhelmed by Blogrush so far and on my site I would have noticed the increase in visitors!! :)
    But I’ll leave it up for a little while and see how she goes.
    And thanks for the cricket tip!
    CB x

  10. # Megon 22 Sep 2007 at 1:17 pm

    Malcolm – thanks for that link. Interesting. Love the monkey :) No trip to Tassie – LOL.

    Rod – nah – the wink was supposed to soften it. You’re right that would be cool. Sigh – you’ve given me more homework (you sure you’re not a teacher?)

    Andrew – I swear you look a bit taller too – well done :) Thanks.

    CB – LOL! You’re welcome.

  11. # ONwebCHECKon 22 Sep 2007 at 4:34 pm

    I also upload the Blog Rush widget and I hope it will works at least a little :)

  12. # Colin Campbellon 22 Sep 2007 at 9:28 pm

    Meg

    Glad you like cricket. You will just have to come to terms that I follow Scotland, England, Somerset and then the Aussies in cricket. My wife feels that I have had more than enough time to adjust and that I should just get over it. I am sure that my kids will think that I am very odd.

  13. # Andrew Boydon 24 Sep 2007 at 5:59 pm

    Hi Meg,

    those BlogRush stats: 3,609 impressions, and 2 clicks – apparently it is my fault for not writing interesting post headings. Your numbers suck too, so do Darren Rowse’ – maybe us Aussie bloggers just can’t write interesting headings :)

    (for the benefit of the thick – I am being snarky above – Meg and Darren write really good post headings, BlogRush is just going through some teething issues).

    Cheers, Andrew