ajmatt blog » admin http://ajmatt.com/blog the lives of allegra, matt, and eva Sun, 15 Apr 2012 15:14:12 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 A techie snow day http://ajmatt.com/blog/2009/12/20/a-techie-snow-day/ http://ajmatt.com/blog/2009/12/20/a-techie-snow-day/#comments Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:06:06 +0000 allegra http://ajmatt.com/blog/?p=1144 We’re housebound by a foot and a half of snow, so I spent my Saturday giving our blog a much needed upgrade. It hasn’t had one since we started it almost three years ago – and now that I help other people build their websites, it seems like mine should look more modern.

We picked [...]]]> We’re housebound by a foot and a half of snow, so I spent my Saturday giving our blog a much needed upgrade. It hasn’t had one since we started it almost three years ago – and now that I help other people build their websites, it seems like mine should look more modern.

We picked a new (to us) WordPress theme called Atahualpa, which allows for much more customization. A few new features:

  • Email subscription. If you’re not an RSS person but want notification of new posts, there is now an option for email subscription. Just click on the By Email link in the top right hand corner. The old RSS posts and RSS comments options are still available, and the URLs have not changed.
  • Photo gallery links. If you’re someone who uses the blog to access our photo gallery, the link is in two places – across the top and on the right link bar, just under the banner.
  • A new archive page. I am probably the only person who will ever use it, but I love archive pages and think it’s pretty cool. And I’m pleased the list of months is no longer taking up real estate on the side bar.
  • The banner picture on the blog is now really easy to change. If I’m on top of things, it may even start rotating while you look at it. Right now the picture is as current as it will ever get – a picture Matt took yesterday of our snow-covered holly tree.

We’re still in construction mode – e.g. I’m not pleased with the font or font size, and might tinker with the width a bit more – but it’s getting there. A note: the old posts are going to look bad. The code I used does not work well in the new theme.

What do you think?

]]> http://ajmatt.com/blog/2009/12/20/a-techie-snow-day/feed/ 3 An analytical obsession http://ajmatt.com/blog/2008/01/13/an-analytical-obsession/ http://ajmatt.com/blog/2008/01/13/an-analytical-obsession/#comments Sun, 13 Jan 2008 19:19:17 +0000 allegra http://ajmatt.com/blog/2008/01/13/an-analytical-obsession/ I set up a Google Analytics account years ago, sometime around 2004 when it was first released. I hadn’t logged in for at least two years, but dusted it off last week for a non-blog related project. It turns out that while I have been ignoring Google, Google has dutifully been tracking traffic at ajmatt [...]]]> I set up a Google Analytics account years ago, sometime around 2004 when it was first released. I hadn’t logged in for at least two years, but dusted it off last week for a non-blog related project. It turns out that while I have been ignoring Google, Google has dutifully been tracking traffic at ajmatt blog.

ajmatt blog traffic is much more interesting than the old ajmatt photo gallery traffic, and the new version of Google Analytics compiles more complex statistics. Now I can see not only page counts and geographic statistics, but how people get here.

For instance, people can find me on Google—the search “allegra hartley” (sans quotes) yields this blog on page 2. Random people found old posts while looking for information on “gi joe movie 2009” and “ned nickerson.” Lots of people are interested in the correct pronunciation of assuage—someone managed to find us by searching “my usage was correct.”

And when we link to other blogs, their readers come visit us. It took an hour of digging, but we finally figured out a bunch of traffic came from this site because of this entry by Matt.

So I’m horrified by this revelation, even though I (Ms. “Web 2.0 is the best thing ever”) knew all of this was possible, and how it worked. But I still had this cocoon of denial that my blog entries were only read by 10 people I know really well, and most of whom I am related to.

To temper the hysteria, Matt’s reaction to the statistics was: “Oh look. We’re neck and neck for the most viewed page.”

Ms. Web 2.0 is married to Mr. Competitive.

In conclusion, if you don’t have it already, put some kind of tracking on your blog. It’s scary and inspiring, all at once.

Now I’m off to figure out feedburner, so I can find out how many people are reading without visiting (e.g. in Google Reader). In the meantime, I’m watching your Google keywords!

]]> http://ajmatt.com/blog/2008/01/13/an-analytical-obsession/feed/ 1 Blog spam http://ajmatt.com/blog/2007/06/25/blog-spam/ http://ajmatt.com/blog/2007/06/25/blog-spam/#comments Tue, 26 Jun 2007 03:38:42 +0000 allegra http://ajmatt.com/blog/2007/06/25/blog-spam/ I feel like a real blogger now—we have our first spam comments!

The filter seems to be doing a good job, but if something goes awry and your comments disappear, feel free to let us know.

]]> I feel like a real blogger now—we have our first spam comments!

The filter seems to be doing a good job, but if something goes awry and your comments disappear, feel free to let us know.

]]> http://ajmatt.com/blog/2007/06/25/blog-spam/feed/ 0 Comments RSS feed http://ajmatt.com/blog/2007/06/12/comments-rss-feed/ http://ajmatt.com/blog/2007/06/12/comments-rss-feed/#comments Wed, 13 Jun 2007 02:16:36 +0000 matt http://ajmatt.com/blog/2007/06/12/comments-rss-feed/ With all you wonderful people posting such wonderful comments here, we decided we need to get the comments RSS feed link posted on our site. Since we haven’t figured out where and how to post it yet (it has to be sexy – of course!), I thought I’d distribute the address here for now: http://ajmatt.com/blog/comments/feed/

[...]]]> With all you wonderful people posting such wonderful comments here, we decided we need to get the comments RSS feed link posted on our site. Since we haven’t figured out where and how to post it yet (it has to be sexy – of course!), I thought I’d distribute the address here for now:
http://ajmatt.com/blog/comments/feed/

In summary, it’s a feed of the comments, not of our blog entries! The RSS feed for our blog entries is on the left (the little orange button).

Thanks, and keep the comments coming!

]]> http://ajmatt.com/blog/2007/06/12/comments-rss-feed/feed/ 0 Yes – you can write comments! http://ajmatt.com/blog/2007/06/01/yes-you-can-write-comments/ http://ajmatt.com/blog/2007/06/01/yes-you-can-write-comments/#comments Fri, 01 Jun 2007 19:32:14 +0000 matt http://ajmatt.com/blog/2007/06/01/yes-you-can-write-comments/ At the request of many of you, we have enabled comments on the blog. We’re looking forward to your thoughts – so write away!

]]> At the request of many of you, we have enabled comments on the blog. We’re looking forward to your thoughts – so write away!

]]> http://ajmatt.com/blog/2007/06/01/yes-you-can-write-comments/feed/ 0