So what i simply did was put the content from the 404 page into the search page and modified it a little. I’ve also added in a random post section underneath the RSS subscribe information to make my page views go up a little. I think this is a nice feature because not every reader will have read talk playstation from the beginning and it might bring back posts that are worth reading.

Other than that visitors are still swinging in and i’m starting to see more traffic from search engines which is a good sign.

I’m still not up to scratch with design and such, just like any blogger, no blogger is 100% happy with their theme and i’m always finding ways to improve this. I’m still considering the Revolution Magazine Theme as a future upgrade.

The stats for daparky.com are:

• 120 posts altogether
• 2,548 Visits (from 18th March to 17th April)
• 4,259 Page Views (from 18th March to 17th April)

The stats for talkplaystation.com are:

• 119 posts altogether
• 11,531 Visits (from 26th March to 17th April)
• 16,469 Page Views (from 26th March to 17th April)

This clearly shows that a Niche blog is far better than a blog about anything. Thats not to say my blog is about ANYTHING, it’s about me, what ever is on my mind and my journey.

When i’ve sorted out talkplaystation i’m going to do some advertisement to try and expand my readership. i’m more than happy with the way things are going with talkplaystation.

I might try something cheeky so stay tuned to see if it works!

I could pay for a theme to be built for my requirements, but that requires money. I would rather start off with a free theme and if the blog becomes a success i would then either make my own theme (if i have the time) or pay someone else to build one for me.

Anyway, i hope to launch talkplaystation.com this weekend when i have my 4 day weekender. Stay tuned!

Advantages of blogs

1. Freedom of speech
2. Share knowledge with other people
3. Make friends online
4. Can be used as a diary

Disadvantages of blogs

1. Need to keep it constantly updated otherwise you lose potential readers
2. Easy to start, hard to maintain

Thats my say on the advantages and disadvantages of blogging. I found a very good article which covers most of this, take a look at it here.

I used Googles removal tool within Webmaster Tools section to remove these directories, including the admin pages and tag archives. I finally think i’ve worked it all out in terms of what i want indexing and what i don’t want indexing. I chose categories over tags and appled ’noindex’ to the tag archives using ‘All in one seo pack‘ plugin.

Using both of these plugins together is very effective on what you want indexing etc. All i want indexing is my blog posts, cateogories and nothing else. I don’t mind the /page/ directory being indexed.

In a later post, i will post what i have blocked google from indexing and why.

Also in the Web Development category i may post about the best tips and tricks with html and possibly showcase my degree work i did for the past few years.

Also, i’ve been thinking about some niche blogs i want to start, i will give further details about those niches in a month or so as i need to research etc.

It’s gonna be an early night for me tonight i think, very tired and work is tomorrow.

If Akismet didn’t exist then i would have a horde of spam comments on my blog. Some people don’t activate Akismet because they prefer spam comments to make the blog look ‘busier’. I don’t agree with this, if i go to a blog and i see spam comments all over it, it would immediately put me off and i would probably never return.

As you can see i’ve added a top bar, consisting of three collums, two of which are occupied by ‘Recent Posts’ and ‘Popular Posts’. I think having these features will enable visitors navigate around my blog a little easier.

I’m not too sure what i’m going to put in the end collum, i was thinking maybe ‘Recent Comments’ or RSS information, subscribe via e-mail etc. It’s not finnished yet and i’m still developing it. It should however roll out this weekend all being well. Be sure to check back soon!

This time last year i didn’t know what a blog was until i ran into Smemon’s blog. I was searching on Google for website ideas because i wanted to see what ideas are out there and start a website, develop myself from there, after all i was studying web development back then and now i’m a full time web developer, i just wasn’t putting my skills into play. Anyway, Smemon’s blog was up there in the search engine results and i clicked through to his famous ‘18 random website ideas’.

For months i kept my eye on Smemon’s blog and i liked the content he was putting in. I then thought to myself, should i set my own blog up, a place where i can have my own opinions and ramblings. From then on i was visiting many other blogs including John Chow, Dailyblogtips and Problogger and learnt a hell of a lot.

Reading Smemon’s blog months on end, inspired me to create my own, and i have a few more blogs in the pipeline which are niche based. I thought to myself “is this for me?”, “will i have time to keep it updated?” and “will i enjoy writing/typing?”.

Answers to those questions weren’t answered until i actually started blogging, which is probably why i didn’t start a blog as soon as i found out what a blog was. This was probably because everytime i thought, “right i’m gonna start my blog tonight” those questions kept ringing in my head and put me back from starting one. Now that i’ve actually started one, i can say i’m addictive to blogging. If your still waiting for that final push from someone saying “go on start a blog, it will be fine”, force yourself to start one to see what it’s actually like, then you will answer any questions stopping you from blogging. I knew i would start one, it was starting it at the right time.

So now you have it, you know who inspired me and how i got into blogging.

I will post the advantages and disadvantages of blogging later this week.

Last night i witnessed life without the internet and i was bored, very bored. I went on my Playstation 3 for a bit, but i got bored of that too because i couldn’t play online. I’m waiting for new games to come out for the PS3 that will keep me occupied if the net ever goes off in the future. Soon enough i was eager to do some blogging but i knew i couldn’t.

I was scheduled to go and visit my girlfriend, so i went to see her a bit earlier. I tried my internet this morning and it’s working again!

Expect my Call of Duty 4 review to be published tonight.

Heres a screenshot of the BlogRush dashboard:

As you can see, my blog post have been syndicated accross the network, with Burnley vs Watford being the popular post, no readers have read them. Why is that?
Ok it’s online been active a week, so i guess i should give it time, or maybe write better titles to grab peoples attention. I’m surprised that the earthquake in lincolnshire wasn’t popuar over BlogRush, it was mega popular in Google.

I will post more results in a months time.

I still visit them, but it’s every few days now. I visit smaller blogs on a daily basis including Smemon. I’ve no idea why i don’t visit these massive blogs anymore. Is it because i know everything? Do i have enough time to visit them while updating my own blog and thinking about the future?

I should visit them everyday because they all offer some great advice and have helped me solve problems i once had before. If i hadn’t had started this blog, i probably be reading someone elses blog right now, and at the same time, thinking about whether i should start my own blog. I’m so glad i pushed myself to start my own blog because it’s super fun and addictive!

The one reason what blogging put me off was time. I mentioned this before and i can now say it’s not as bad as i thought. If your stuck between a question on whether you should start a blog or not, i think you should push yourself to start and see exactly what it’s like.

During the week i will talk about how i got into blogging, who inspired me, advantages and disadvantages of blogging and more.