If you’ve had problems viewing my blog or commenting the past week or so, it should be fixed now. It was an odd problem with the new Movable Type 3.2 upgrade I installed and my .php files not working properly.

After using it for a week, I still really like the new features, though I’m not as thrilled with the comment protection. I still don’t understand how it works, which means I have a hard time tweaking it to make it work better. MTBlacklist seemed to be more straight forward. I suppose it is saving me time–I just wish it was saving me more time.

Yesterday I upgraded to the new Movable Type 3.2. So far, so good. (though I can’t stand their new user’s manual—it’s way over written and makes everything sound harder than it really is.)

This does mean that MTBlacklist, the old spam filter I used, is no more. MT 3.2 has built-in spam protection, and the guy who wrote the code for MTBlacklist says it’s now obsolete (he now works for Movable Type). I’m sad to see it go since it kicked some major spam butt. Let’s look at the numbers for my blogs:

• 100,957 comments blocked (which means I never had to deal with them)
• 12,316 comments moderated (which means I had to delete them from the system, though they were never public)
• 12,796 comments blocked for using the word ‘poker’—I added the word to the blacklist out of frustration sometime in August 2005, apparently a smart move.
• 946 comments blocked for using the word ‘f-ck’—another word added out of frustration.

That’s a lot of comment spam, considering my blogs only have 2,200 legit comments total (and 145+ of those are about Simple Plan’s Pierre Bouvier).

I love blogging. Why else would I keep doing it for almost seven years? But still, some things about it just annoy me. So I present the Top 10 Things I Hate About Blogging.

10. The Name of My Blog.
Thoughts. What a stupid name. It started as Daily Ponderings and then became ReAL Thoughts and is now just Thoughts. Stupid. All of them. The problem is I can’t come up with anything better. As dumb as the name is, it sure beats Kevin’s Blog.

Continue reading 10 Things I Hate About Blogging →

I’ve been blogging since 1998 and have seen plenty of rewards in terms of writing experience, web know-how and even some freelance jobs and interest garnered thanks to my blog. But making money directly off my blog has been a new experience for me. It’s certainly not the only reason I blog, but it’s a nice bonus.

In late April I started my own blog network and pro-blogging, while not yet a reality, is at least understandable. Below are a few of the lessons I’ve learned along the way.

(Note: I originally wrote this to be a part of ProBlogger.net’s 31 Days to Building a Better Blog, but I think I missed the cut off. Oh well.)

Continue reading Lessons in Professional Blogging →

With the summer winding down and me blogging like a mad man all over the place (except maybe here), I thought it’d be a good idea to take a page from the Jason Kottke book and do a summer blog posts review.

Well start here with the personal stuff and move on to the random other blogs nobody really cares about.

Thoughts

• The biggest news is the baby on the way. Highlights so far include the youth group reaction and the heartbeat. Next week is the ultrasound.
• I did have to tackle some home repairs. (well, actually a friend did the heavy lifting and I watched)
• I admitted to tearing up during Brat Camp.
• I rocked out at Sonshine 2005.
• I went to Los Angeles.
• My dog made more money than you.
• I turned 26 and got a new digital camera, which is a good excuse to check out the first photo I ever took.
• And I saw my traffic rise after a pathetic May (which resulted in a Google check that showed up this week).

Continue reading 2005 Summer Blogging Review →

The caller ID said Paramount Pictures, which really had me intrigued. I didn’t catch the guy’s name, but I think he was with the Dr. Phil show. He launched into his question so quickly I missed his introduction. But he went on to ask me about my blog post about body suspension.

I vaguely remembered the post, but I quickly realized where this was heading and started laughing. He was looking for an expert on body suspension, or at least someone who could connect him with experts or the teens involved.

He asked why I was laughing and I explained why, pointing out that I’d just found an article online talking about body suspension and linked to it. I pointed him back to my post for the link to the article and suggested he start there.

I can only guess he found me because the ReAL Magazine blog post shows up at the top of the second page of search results for “body suspension.” Weird. I’m just a blogger from Minnesota, yet I’m getting calls from the Dr. Phil Show.

I realize I’m totally jinxing myself by saying this, but I think I’m back in the game. If you check my traffic for this blog, and most of my other blogs, you’ll notice a sudden upsurge in the past two days. We all know I haven’t been posting more (though I am breaking quite a posting slump today), so I can only guess that Google has returned my site to its search rank glory. Or something like that.

My referrals are packed with Google results again, and my server stats show Google just soared past Yahoo for search engine results, something that is usually the natural order for my site, but it hasn’t been that way all month. I still don’t have much of an explanation for it.

At any rate, my Google AdSense income is up again, to the thrilling height of shiny silver coins per day, instead of dull copper. That’s always cool. For yesterday and today anyway. That and the graph of my traffic is fun to look at. The traffic graph will probably get more dramatic as the day goes on, but I grabbed a shot of it for posterity.

A lot of bloggers are linking to AutoBlogger and its Apple Switch spoof ad. I won’t use the same tired joke that I’ve been using AutoBlogger and that’s how I manage to post on umpteen different blogs all day long. You all know I’m just a freelancer who works at home and really does write all those blog entries all day long.

I’m a blogger, and I have no life.

I’m pretty far from what anyone would call a pro-blogger (though Steve is making his predictions), but this last week has been an interesting experience in approaching pro-blogging.

Continue reading Lowest Traffic Ever →

In case you haven’t heard I’ve launched a few new blogs as part of the Monkey Outta Nowhere Blog Network. Check it out:

• Moving Pictures – Somehow this blog is showing up in all the Google results. I’m getting lots of traffic for this post and, hey, I’ll take it.
• Reading is Fun – Earlier this week I posted an interview with Jason Boyett, author of Pocket Guide to the Apocalypse.
• I Like Music – Today I posted an interview with Audio Adrenaline’s Tyler Burkum.
• Twin Cities Liver – Not a lot new over here, though it has a pretty graphic at the top.
• Spacebar – Speak’s blog has been redesigned to include Mazie (full of cute pictures!)
• Quotables – Today’s Jessica Alba quote is a good one.
• ReViews – A review of the aforementioned Pocket Guide to the Apocalypse.

That’s my new blogging network. And if you really like to get your full dose of Kevin, you can check out the blog network page where I run the latest 20 entries from all my network blogs. No one’s expressed interest in an RSS feed that does that, though if you do I can try to tinker around with it.

Continue reading Monkey Outta Nowhere Blog Network →