David Parkinson - Internet Entrepreneur - My Journey

Just thought i’d post some numbers with regards to Talk Playstation in 2008. Keeping in mind that the blog went live at the end of March last year so it hasn’t really had a full year yet.

I use Google Analytics to track my web stats as i find it most reliable and best of all FREE! So, the below stats are from March 08 until December 31st 08.

Visits

• 691,878 Visits
• 1,002,373 Pageviews
• 1.45 Pages/Visit
• 515,945 Absolute Unique Visitors

Browsers and Screen config

• Firefox 312,944 (45.23%)
• Internet Explorer 270,309 (39.07%)

Looks like Firefox is gaining or if not already overtaken Internet Explorer in the browser market share. Here’s an interesting one:-

In third place was the Sony Playstation 3, maybe because it’s a Playstation website? It even beat Apple’s Safari. (Playstation 3 40,081 (5.79%))

• 1024×768 174,817 (25.27%)
• 1280×1024 161,160 (23.29%)
• 1280×800 119,074 (17.21%)

Operating System

• Windows 591,923 (85.55%)
• Macintosh 45,935 (6.64%)
• Playstation 3 40,081 (5.79%)

Countries

• United States 288,173
• United Kingdom 108,060
• Canada 49,060

Top Traffic Sources

• n4g.com (referral) 200,777 (29.02%)
• google (organic) 195,018 (28.19%)
• (direct) ((none)) 126,267 (18.25%)

I’m rather happy with the above stats, i’m hoping the year 2009 will take things to the next level. I’m currently looking at a site re-design as i think it needs one.

Talk Playstation has gone a long way in such a short time, the site currently has around 5 authors working on it, they work brilliantly hard to keep the site up to date.

Anyway, lets wait and see what happens.

I promised to you that i would list my top 10 iPhone applications. I bought an iPhone just before Christmas after my work colleagues showed me theirs.

So, here they are, my top 10 iPhone apps.

1. Facebook - Facebook anywhere you go in the palm of your hands!
2. AroundMe - If you travel alot, or just don’t know where your going, this is a useful app as it lets you know what is around you. For example, shops, petrol, cash points etc.
3. Shazam - Out and about and you can hear music but don’t know what the song is called? This app will tell you.
4. Flixter Movies - Lets you know the latest box office earnings as well as movie times at your local cinema.
5. eBay - Bid for items on the move.
6. Wordpress - Blog on the go. Very useful app for Wordpress bloggers.
7. MobileLinked - MSN Messenger on your iPhone, has a few bugs though.
8. MMS - iPhone doesn’t come with MMS capabilities standard, but this app makes it possible.
9. EyeTricks - Remember those illusions you used to get sent in emails like staring a the dot in the middle and things will happen? This app has it all.
10. iPint - Trick your friends with this virtual pint.

There are some things wrong with the iPhone and i’ll let you know what i think is wrong in a few days.

My birthday is on the 15th of January and can’t believe it’s coming up again. I will be 23 years old. Funny thing is, is that my girlfriends mothers birthday is on the exact same day so we are all going to go out for a nice meal somewhere.

I will most likely not be blogging over the next few days but i’ll try and get my best iPhone apps in as well as the worst things about the phone.

Yes, thats right, i treated myself to an Apple iPhone - my first ever Apple product (no, i don’t own an iPod, i do now thanks to this device) believe it or not.

I was looking at iPhones since early last year and a few of my work colleagues had them and thought they were brilliant so i immediately went out and bought myself one just before Christmas.

The iPhone isn’t perfect, in fact, there is quite alot of things that are wrong with this phone, in the next few days i will list my top 10 iPhone Apps as well as my worst nightmares with it.

I was going to opt for the contract but i’ve always said to myself that i will never ever get a phone contract. A contract on an iPhone is around £35 on O2 for 18 months! Instead, i bought the 16GB model for £400, quite alot of money for a phone if you ask me. I’m sure it will last me a good few years.

The other alternative to the iPhone is the Google Android, which T-Mobile have for now. I didn’t really fancy the Android and went with iPhone.

Bear with me while i work out which Apps are the best, stay tuned!

As you know i left this blog without posting for a good two months or so because of personal problems. I came back to the blog last week, keep in mind that i’ve not logged in since the day i left it. I was quite shocked to see the results.

When i logged in i found around 800 spam comments, out of date plugins, out of date Wordpress and unanswered questions people left in the comments. I had to go through all of the 800 spam comments to see if any were actually legit comments. This took some time that i didn’t have time to upgrade all of my wordpress plugins and the platform itself.

Talk Playstation on the other hand is ran by a number of people now, it has a number of authors so they can take care of things when i’m not around. I need to update a few things on there such as the about page.

I’m going to try and take care of things this weekend because i’m going away again on Tuesday to Penrith with my girlfriend.

So yes, here’s the disadvantages of leaving a blog alone for a long period of time.

• Spam comments mount up (some spam comments are sometime legit).
• A lot of emails/comments from readers unanswered.
• Out of date plugins.
• Out of date platform.
• Takes time to put back right.
• Readers lose trust in you.
• Less visitors because of less content

Thats all i can think of for now. If you know of anymore let me know.

So, ive not blogged for a while, more than two months ago! What have I been up to, I bet your wondering? My life has been very busy, personal problems came and I just didn’t have time to put anytime into this blog.

First of all my girlfriend became pregnant, we agreed to keep it. 6 weeks in she had a misscarriage that left my girlfriend devastated. I had to spend all my time with her.

I’ve been busy spending less time gaming and more time being productive, I’ve been learning php in my own time, it’s an area I currently lack, rest assured I’m getting better and better at it!

I got myself a new iPhone two weeks ago, I’m loving it very much, in fact I’m writing this post on the iPhone! I was going to get it on contract but the thing that put me off was the lengthy contract, 18 months! I got the phone on pay as you go, £400 it cost with free Internet which I think isn’t bad.

My car, yes the shitty saxo I have is in good working order after the recent problems it’s had with it, I have been looking at a new car, just want to wait a little longer.

The last two months have been busy in terms of birthdays etc so I’ve been going out quite alot. I went to see scouting for girls in Manchester a few weeks ago, they are pretty good live, would deffinately see them again.

So where do I go from here? Im going to put a bit more time into this blog, sorry for leaving you for so long!

This Monday I’m going to see the kooks at the Blackpool winter gardens with a few friends. Not really keen on them but we’ll see how it goes.

Next week it’s my girlfriend university ball, we are staying in the lakes, she goes to the university of Cumbria. The week after we are staying in a hotel in Penrith, should be nude and romantic, a break just before Xmas.

This post us just a simple one, I will spend more time on this blog and post more often.

Sorry to those who have been keeping an eye on this, stay tuned!

Yes, my car went a couple of weeks ago and now my monitor! At the weekend my monitor decided not to turn on… at all. I havent got a spare monitor so i couldn’t use the PC at all. Luckily, my friend Carey had a spare one and i’m going to buy it off him because i think the monitor is excellent. It’s a 19″ Samsung LCD supporting a resolution of 1280×1024. The monitor i had was a dell 15″ and only supported 1024×768 so this is a good upgrade as i have a lot more room on my desktop.

In the next few months i’m going to be looking into getting a whole new machine, possibly high end gaming mammoth as the one i have is kinda getting slow and can’t run the latest games. I do have a Playstation 3 for my gaming needs, i got FIFA 09 today and it’s a kickass game.

I just prefer playing first person shooters on the PC using the mous/keyboard combination. For any other games such as sports and adventure i’d just get for the PS3 as it’s easier to control etc.

I get my car back tomorrow and i dont dare wait to pay the bill.

I own a Saxo VTR and to be honest i’ve probably exceeded the vehicles value over and over again doing repairs to it. I mentioned a while ago that i might need a new car but i didn’t bother then. I thought the time was now but i just don’t have the time to look for a new car yet.

My Car

Anyway, my Saxo is back in the garage with something wrong with the rear axle. I was coming home from work one day and i heard this scrubbing sound coming from the rear wheels. Got home and i inspected the wheels at the back and found out they were bent inwards scrubbing against the inner arch.

The cost? £370 for a new axle and thats without fitting! Along with this i’m getting new rear brake disc’s and pads so what will the bill be? I’d say in excess of £500. I’m going to use this excuse to drive this car a little longer and then i think i will get rid and get that Fiesta ST i’ve been looking for.

It wasn’t that long ago when the head gasket went and that cost around £300 to get sorted. Before that the front brakes needed renewing. I guess it’s that time when everything fails on your car.

I’m setting myself a promise now, if anything else goes wrong i’m going to get a new car. End of.

As you know i’ve been away on holiday to Greece so i’ve decided not to set any goals for this month for the simple reason that i’d be cheating myself if i set them now.

I’m just about recovered from jet lag and back in full motion.

I bet your wondering what i’ve been doing with my life recently. In my spare time i try to see my girl friend as much as i can as well as friends. She starts college next week so that will free up some time and plan to use that time to develop this blog a little as it’s been a bit inactive for the past few months, very sorry that.

In a month or two i plan to be more active and possibly write up some good articles that will hopefully drive some traffic here. No idea what i’ll be posting but stay tuned!

Hey everyone! I’m now back from Tsilivi, Zante. I actually got back yesterday but was way to tired to make a post and i still am tired. I won’t be doing much over the weekend at all apart from sleeping and possibly try out the new Fifa 09 demo that was released a few days ago.

Did i have a good time in Zante? Yes! I loved it. I would definitely go back again without a shadow of a doubt.

I will maybe post some pictures and what not in a few days i just need to get my bearings back to normal.

Sleep for me!