I’m Back; A Hodgepodge Of News And Things To Come
Saturday, April 26th, 2008I’m back from Japan, and continuing with live posts (no more “portions of this broadcast were pre-recorded”). I just wanted to quickly reflect on some recent events, and let you know what’s in the pipeline.
Blogging Developments
I’ve recently had some success on the blogging front, for several reasons but most notably because The Zen of Blogging was highlighted by Darren Rowse of ProBlogger. Before this happened, I was happy that my subscriber count had broken 40 after more than four months of blogging. Shortly after Darren’s post, it shot up to 64. Right before I left for vacation, it was at 84! But my shock was premature. When I came back from vacation, I had 205 subscribers!
I also achieved positive cash flow with Google AdSense for the first time (making enough money to pay for my domain and hosting costs). It’s not much money, but at least now it’s flowing in the right direction.
The Zen of Blogging has now been translated into Russian by Олег Сатов, and into German by Jan Tißler. Having just returned from a situation where I desperately needed a translator on many occasions, I greatly appreciate their efforts to make my ebook easily accessible to people in their countries.
Along with all the traffic came a bunch of comments and emails. I’ve responded to most of them, but not all. If I haven’t gotten back to you yet, I will soon.
For people who might think that AdSense always gives relevant ads, I just noticed that The Zen of Blogging is now showing this ad:
Meet Gay Men
No Credit Card Req’d Online Dating.
Create Profile & Send Emails Free!
Methinks their algorithm might need some tweaking.
Upcoming Posts
My 15 minutes of fame on ProBlogger has given me some things to write about, both on how I got linked and what the effects were. For those of you who are new here, while I cite specific examples in my posts, I also try to make the lessons generic. So you should find these posts useful whether or not you happen to be a fellow blogger.
I’ve been getting inquiries about what Japan was like, and I’m sure many more people are silently wondering. Since this isn’t a personal blog, I can’t just write a post about “What I Did On Vacation.” It would be too off-topic. I do have some ideas for a couple of Japan-related posts I can write, but I have so much I want to say that I decided to write an ebook about it. That way, people who aren’t interested can just ignore it, while people who are interested can get plenty of details. Since the ebook will just be a story instead of a solution to a problem, it will be free. (Note to self: stop writing free ebooks! That’s why you’re not making much money!)
One of my upcoming posts will probably include a link to all my Japan pictures, but I don’t have the pictures yet. Not being much of a photographer, I don’t even own a camera. Instead of shelling out hundreds of dollars for a digital camera that I’ll never use, I bought three disposable cameras. When I finish up the last few shots on the last camera, I’ll get them developed. My friends are also going to mail me a CD of the pictures they took.
It will take some time to get this all done, especially since I don’t believe in posting too frequently (I don’t think it’s a good deal for either you or me). So I’ll appreciate your patience as I slowly answer the questions you might have about these recent events.
A Question For You
By the way, does anyone know where I can convert my last ¥10,000 ($100 U.S.)? The currency exchange station at the airport was closed, and my bank can convert the money but they don’t recommend it because of the delay and the fees. Alternatively, what do people think about the dollar’s short term prospects against the yen?
