Tonight, I finally listed my cabin for rental on AirBnB (hey, want to rent a super cool luxurious cabin in WV?) after about 9 months of spinning my wheels trying to build a website that I found deeply unsatisfying to build. I was stuck. I was procrastinating. I missed opportunities (probably).
What got me unstuck? Seeing how easy it could be to act. Sometimes an external impetus can be the thing that shines a light on your stuck ways… and then in a big flurry of activity, BAM! You create what you could have done months ago.
Greetings from snowy, chilly Montreal… I’m up here working on a variety of things, but I understand there will be poutine for lunch. Poutine is Canada’s gift to the world, and Canada says, “you’re welcome.”
I ran across this really interesting infographic from kissmetrics that I want to share… with all of the analytics data we get from various sources (I use Google Analytics for websites, Libsyn’s data for podcasts, plus the open and click info from MailChimp and Constant Contact… it’s an ocean of data!) but sometimes the data needs interpretation that’s over our heads. Here’s where kissmetrics weighed in based on their data:
The highest percentage of users read blogs in the morning
A higher percentage of men read blogs in the evening and at night.
The average blog gets the most traffic on Monday.
The average blog gets the most traffic around 11am Eastern Time.
The average blog gets the most comments on Saturday.
The average blog gets the most inbound links on Monday and Thursday.
The average blog gets the most inbound links at 7am Eastern Time.
I know my data confirms early posts tend to do better than later posts, so when given the choice, I prefer to post about 7am (think about that when scheduling a post in advance!). I also tend to like posting podcasts on Sunday night – based on data I have, there’s more engagement between then and Monday morning than other days.
What do you think about this? Does your blog get more attention at certain times of day over others?
Today I shot a semi-unofficial video for Amtrak’s Employee Assistance Program. The video will highlight how to relax and move as an employee on the long haul runs. It’s a tough job, so the video will hopefully be a help. The truly cool part of the visit was seeing a lot of the behind-the-scenes aspects of their Ivy City maintenance facility. Some highlights:
Homeland Security (aka “GI JOE”) drilling storming the train with blue plastic guns. No joke.
Seeing the track equipment pushing and pulling train engines
Seeing the clever use of space in the roomettes and other sleeping cars
Interacting with the men and women there… really pleasant cool people.
Shooting on a train is challenging – lots of noise from the AC and very, very tight quarters. Overall, a fun experience!
Do yourself a giant favor and support one of my favorite indie chill-out cool band from the Bay Area, Karmacoda. There’s a new remix album out right now, and it’s great stuff. I’ve gotten the chance to hang out with Heather, Karmacoda’s lead vocalist and we’ve played a lot of their stuff on Kimberly’s podcast. Special shoutout to Anji Bee who makes an appearance on the album too. In addition to being half of Lovespirals, Anji’s also a legend in the chillout podcast world. I doubt she’d admit that, but it’s totally true. Check out Chillcast. Aaaaaand, you’re welcome.
This weekend, I hope to get a chance to hear some cuts from my favorite band you’ve never heard of from Montreal, Sunfields… they’ve got a new album and I happen to be hanging out with their frontman/guitarist Jason. I predict a Juno. OR perhaps a Genie… this came from a prior visit:
The Internet Association released a series of videos from their non-bar bar crawl of small businesses in Dupont Circle. One of them features me chatting up how the internets not only aren’t a series of tubes, but actually helps out our business. Warning: I am definitely in this video. Also, the audio is strangely wonky.
Louis the Pug and I are gearing up for today’s big game against our arch-rival Georgetown Hoyas. If you’re not a sports person, it’s hard to convey the degree and depth of this rivalry. Today marks the final time the Hoyas visit the Syracuse campus as members of the same conference (long story). The Carrier Done will be packed to the brim with 35000+ fans, breaking some record that I’m pretty sure Syracuse owns already.
Louis, as I mentioned, is all geared up:
He loves wearing that.
My game treat will be some stuffed jalapeños – I’m shaking things up:
Louis asked me to mention it’s 10:55am and Georgetown still sucks:
The internets are full of trolls. Trolling has a lot of definitions, but I’ve observed that most trolls exhibit these characteristics:
Anonymous commenters
Negativity in their comments
Generally try to hijack a discussion from one topic to another, sometimes tangentially at best
Tend to have a high opinion of their opinion, but get testy when called on it
Think of themselves as higher intellectuals than others (especially those with whom they disagree)
Never become real members of a community (see anonymity above)
Become shocked (shocked!) when they are called out as trolls
I recently had a bit of a run-in with a troll on another blog. I make it a point not to feed the trolls, but this one got under my skin just enough to call out, because the person was anonymous, negative, picked an inhuman time and occasion to troll their trolling, tried to hijack the post with a senseless observation, and cloaked it all in pseudo-intellectual feces. Basically, your perfect troll.
Unfortunately comment streams seem to be full of them – check out your local paper’s comments (and God help you if you live in Syracuse… I swear, that’s the worst of the worst) or any CNN story, or… sadly most places. I used to enjoy the discourse amongst a lot of Internet based communities, but now I find them to be anti-intellectual.
And troll, if you’re reading this… I invite you to actually discuss your point. I really do. Just pick a different forum than a grieving woman. Or write a blog post. Anonymously, of course.
Today we hosted the Internet Association’s small business crawl at Tranquil Space. Nice people, and it was fun to share how much we leverage the internets for our businesses. I didn’t use the term “internets” … but I really, really wanted to. I did say “series of tubes” though. Sadly, it was in context. Thank you Sen. Stevens… R.I.P..
I upgraded the templates for a bunch of the blogs I oversee. The buzzword these days is “responsive” – as in, your images resize in response to the size of the screen. No more lame mobile optimized sites! In any event, I made some tweaks on a few blogs to make them “so 2013.” Go ahead… change the size of this blog’s window and look at what happens to the series of tubes below. I’ll wait…
SEE! Awesome, huh? So, tip: change your blog or website template to one that’s (say it with me now!) responsive!
Kimberly and I hit the airwaves (podwaves?) again… this week we chat about juggling different tasks and how to manage that. Check it out at Tranquility du Jour.
I wish I had all the answers, I really do.
Kimberly and I hit the airwaves (podwaves?) again… this week we chat about juggling different tasks and how to manage that. Check it out at 