Web Hosting Data & Bandwidth Considerations

Photo by sammix2008

In part 1 we considered two free programs you can use for monitoring and measuring the traffic to your website.  One of my readers suggested a third program, Gostats which I’m still checking out.  In this follow up article, I want to go through another aspect of this subject, which I had n’t thought about until it became a problem for me.

Last week, I got an email from my Web Hosting provider which read:

“The domain technicalarticles.co.uk has reached 80% of its bandwidth limit (2707.29/3000.00 Megs).   Do not respond to this message. Your reply will go nowhere. !!!!”

This was a bit ominous and caused some alarm bells to ring, and I was in a bit of a panic for a few days.  Let’s just go through what happened and how I got to the bottom of this little episode.

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Installing and Using Statcounter & Sitemeter

Photo by Irina Patrascu

This lovely photograph by the truly exceptional photographer, Irina Patrascu, carries the words of Goethe ‘I find the great thing in this world is, not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving’.  The compass beautifully captures this thought, and yes Irina, we all need to use a compass when we are lost!  In the vast seas and oceans of the internet, it is so easy to be lost and hard to know if we’re headed in the right direction.  Measuring and monitoring the traffic to your site, gives you that necessary compass, that helps you to find your way and know for sure whether what you are doing is achieving the desired results.  So join me now, as I go through the process of how to monitor or measure traffic to your website / blog, and outline what has worked for me…

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Time for An End of Year Review

Photo by Irina Patrascu

Firstly, I would like to wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year, as this is likely to be my last post for the year.  As the last few days of 2008 slowly take a bow and leave, the new days of 2009 are eager to join into our experience of life.  The time at the end of the year is indeed a good time to take stock and review what we have achieved.

Always be good to yourself, there’s enough people out there to knock us down in one way or another, so look at your achievements, accentuate the positive.  I am really proud of this website, it started of as an experiment for me, to just create some sort of a web presence and learn the ropes.  However, its come to mean a lot more to me now.  It has has become an avenue for my thoughts, a vehicle to share my experiences with others.  Life is a journey, and I do intend to see this journey through to the end, not give up and let things go.  So join me as we take a look back, and then look forward to what I want to share next with you, my readers.

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Lessons You can Learn from the Professionals

Photo by JdeePanIII

In the previous article on Adsense, we discussed the pros and cons of using this to monetise your website/blogging efforts, especially with regard to the issue of when it should be introduced.  We still need to cover the technicalities of setting up Adsense, but before we do that, let’s look at what works and what does n’t from my own personal experience to date, and also, see if we can learn something from the professionals.

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Making Meaning - Case Study 1: Knowledge

Photo by JdeePanIII

Part 1: The Making Money Online Hype
Part 2: Problogger, Making Money Online & The Hunger to Succeed
Part 3: The Importance of Making Meaning

Let us now continue our journey and see what it really means to add meaning to something.  I’m going to share with you in this post one of my favourite blog sites of all time, which exemplifies this principle and if you would take time to study this blogger’s format, and his message it will really change your own thinking.

At the end of the day, what it is all about is the VALUE you add as an individual, to the sum total of human knowledge, either by creating this with some original thought or sharing what you know with others.  True, we want to make money, but the meaning that Guy Kawasaki talks about, comes from that core, that essence of helping our fellow mankind to better themselves through knowledge.  It does n’t matter how you do it, but reach that inner core within your self and let it guide your efforts, and you will find the meaning and the purpose.  Enough of the preaching, so let’s begin.

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The Importance Of Making Meaning

Photo by JdeePanIII

This is a follow up article on the Making Money Online Hype versus Reality series. In Part 1, we dispelled some of the myths about earning huge sums of money when you’re starting off, that you need to be realistic with your expectations. In Part 2, we gave real life examples of people who did make it big, and you can see the photo of Jeremy Schoemaker holding his Google adsense check of $132,994.97 which shows it can be done, and how you should persevere with your efforts to succeed in this game.

Now, in Part 3, I want to share a video from Stanford University with my readers, for anyone who is into making money, this is a must watch video because it teaches the importance of ‘Meaning’, and why you should focus on this rather than think about making money. I have found this video really inspirational and it is one of the reasons I decided on a new blueprint for this website to focus on the quality of content. Let’s take a closer look at why we should take heed of this message in our blogging journey.

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Photo by dingbat2005

A long time ago, when I had just graduated and was starting off in my career as an engineer, we relocated into some new offices and on the wall was a sign which said:

“The only certainty, is Change”

It struck a chord with me, that Life is beset with Change, and we have to come to terms with the changes that go on around us and adjust our own worlds to live comfortably in the space we inhabit.  In a similar vein, my browsing journey across the blogosphere led me to some inspiration which has made me want to change the complete look and feel of the Technical Articles blog, because I realised something important.  So, please bear with me, and join me as I recall the steps to this decision which will set the blueprint for this site from now on.

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In this article, we will take stock and review the progress so far with this Technicalarticles.co.uk site and look at the Top Ten articles which I would recommend you to read.

When Making Haste is a Good Thing!!!

When you start a project like this, it’s good not to spend too long procrastinating and drawing plans, but to just launch yourself head long into the activity and LEARN AS YOU BLOG.  Because, from my experience, that is the fun of blogging, you never really know where things are going to end up because you’re constantly learning new things and making new friends through your social communities.  Most importantly, you must always be prepared to change course, if it feels necessary.  So don’t hesitate or delay your need to blog, read some of my articles on how to get started, or search Google, and just GO FOR IT!!!  So let’s look at how my journey has gone so far.

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Let’s consider Adsense and the what, when and why you should, or indeed, why sometimes you should not use it until the time is right!!

Adsense - What is it?

Anyone involved in blogging or web site development will have heard of Adsense and it usually comes into play when you’ve got somewhere with your site and are looking for a means of monetising your efforts.  Adsense is an advertisement program run by Google, and website / blog owners can register for an account with Google to display text, image, and video on their websites.  When visitors to your sites click on these advertisements,  they generate revenue for you on a ‘per-click‘ or ‘per-impression‘ basis.  Lets look at this in more detail.

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In this article we will discuss the secret of automatic content generation and for those using the Wordpress platform how your choice of blogging platform may limit your future developments.

As your endeavours in web/blog site developments progress, you will inevitably ask how do I do this in Wordpress and you will soon come to the realisation that you need to look else where.  Let me start by explaining my own experiences in this area, and the reasons why I’ve started looking for an alternative.

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