Tuesday, March 07, 2006

BlogCharm / Site Meters / BlinkList Review

This is a review about various Internet services.
I don’t normally do these things, strike that, I never do these things, but Dawn challenged me to a Site Meter review a while back so I am finally doing that along with all the other things I have been thinking about.

First Blog Charm:

As you can see at the top of my web site I have two links to two other blogs I have started (I have actually also started a political thoughts blog but that is for me, myself and I). The one is my horse related stuff blog that I have been having a blast creating, and the other is a back up of this blog.

I found Blog Charm quite by fluke one day and thought I would give it a try. I actually wrote about this once before.

Well the advertising is up and running and my sites are designed to where I like them so lets fill you in on my thoughts so far.

Templates: I love their templates. I find them much easier to deal with. In fact, for people who have not been able to do links on their blogroll in Blogger, their templates rock. They have a Links section that allows you to add as many links as you want without ever even looking at the template.
The downside of this service is that there is only one title for this now: you cannot have things all organized and freaky the way I have this one. Adding the tons of links that are on the side of this one to the new back up one was very simple though. With a tiny bit of input I was able to figure out tons of tweaking things with their template and I have been having a great time with it.
I tried some of the tweaking ideas on this Blogger template and it didn’t work. GRR!

Categories: I love this feature in the templates. It rocks. It is not as versatile as tagging but has been a simple easy way to organize what I write. You can also add as many categories as you want, again, without entering your template.

Comments: Not too happy with the comments boxes. First it appears at the top of a post instead of the bottom so people have to scroll all the way down to the bottom again in order to leave a comment. This can detour people from leaving comments, which makes a blog so friendly. I do prefer the comment boxes in Blogger.

Money: Blog Charm advertises that you can make money from blogging. They add simple and not glaring adds to the top bar. So far I have not been annoyed with these adds. BUT if you think you are going to make money off of it just by starting a web site, think again. The advertising has been up and running for about a week now: I get about 30 hits a day and have made a grand total of
$0.241
Ya! Two cents!!
Good thing money was not my main goal. In order to make money you have to stoop to levels and spend ridiculous amounts of time that I am not willing to do.

Summery: Over all, as a basic Blogging platform I am very happy with it.


This leads into:
Site Meters:

I have two on the bottom of this one. The one on the left is only a counter. I originally added it because I was curious as to whether people other than my family were actually reading it. The numbers kind of freaked me out and I added a site meter to see who all you cool people are.

The Site Meter in the middle on the bottom is much more in-depth, giving tons of stats.

There is no purpose for it on a blog like this one or on any of my blogs for that matter. They only serve to wet my curiosity. It can also be very amusing when I see how people have found me.
I think if money is your objective, or a large profile, then the site meter can let you know how people are finding you and what you need to continue doing to keep people coming back.

Work of caution though!! – I think the counter on the right has been the culprit to very large numbers of spam that I receive in my email junk box.

Now Dawn turned me on to my latest Internet joy: BlinkList.

I love my BlinkList.

I first heard about it when I was clicking next in the blogger tool bar and read Dawn’s first review. I had never heard of social book marking before and my curiosity was tickled.

Dawn and I have since become regular e-mailers and she has appeared on many of our comment boxes. When it comes to Internet crap I turn to Dawn first these days.
Her latest review about BlinkList actually attracted the attention of the Blink creators.

I have fallen in love with it because it is so simple and so convenient. It is really great when you are dealing with two computers, as I am: one at home and then one at work. Having the BlinkList means that everything is at my mouse click and I don’t have to try to remember links where I saw them.

Basically my book marking list is on the Internet, so I can access my bookmarks from where ever I want, whenever I want. It has been very useful.

There are private buttons, so sites that I don’t want to share can be hidden and the rest is for yours to check out. I actually really like this. I have found soooooooo many wild and useful sites checking out other peoples Lists. The colour generators have been wonderful.

There is a tagging system that can get a little out of control sometimes. I need to do some tag clean up, but over all I am happy with my organization of my Cloud and List.

They did change the Shoutbox format and my brain has not been able to figure it out yet. Duh!

BlinkList is also a dream if you are using FireFox. They have a drag and drop FireFox tool bar that allows you to surf with ease. When ever you see a site you like, just QuikBlink it and keep looking. Then when you have finished surfing you can go back to your QuickBlinks and do with them as you want. I use the QuickBlink a lot at work. We don’t have Firefox on our computers at work but I am able to keep my list open and just easily pop back and forth to blink things when I see them.
The tool bar also puts your List at a very simple mouse click and it is sooooo handy.

If you decide to start your own BlinkList make sure you make me as a friend!!!!

So this is my first Internet services review. HEHE! Hope it helped you all out.

Update:
1 - I just updated my blogroll. Added a few more blogers to my list. I hope I didnt miss anyone. If you would like to be on there please let me know and leave a comment.

2 - I seem to be having flu symptoms AGAIN!!! I feel terrible: like total crap, body aches and everything.
BUT
Today's blessing:
- I taught only one single solitary class at work today. Everything else was canceled or a no show. I sat and wallowed in a non stop flow if green tea all day, reading blogs, chat rooms and writting: and I was paid to do it.
I am going to miss my job!!!
AND
BabyJi went to bed early! I am going to quickly finish up here and also go to bed early.

Return Home

Posted by (Top)Andrea::3/07/2006 :: 21 Comments:

Post/Read Comments

---------------------------------------