Posts

Adsense case study for a personal blog

One of the reasons I decided to put Adsense on this blog was out of sheer curiosity. There are plenty of Google sponsored case studies available from American shoe shops that significantly increased sales and revenues using Adsense.

Successful blogger John Chow is totally and refreshingly transparent with all his various revenue streams but I didn’t have a clue what income (if any) a small-time blogger might expect.

So, here - drum roll, please - are the revenue figures for this blog for the first 3 months

the real star of 'Saxondale'

Morwenna Banks, who plays Vicky in Saxondale, is superb. While she gets some of the best lines in the comedy series, co-written by Steve Coogan like

‘Tell him to put some jam on his shoes and invite his trousers down for tea.’

…her delivery and timing is absolutely brilliant.

confessions of a blog addict

‘My name is Norman and I am a blogoholic.’

Two years ago, I started this blog purely as an experiment to see what all the fuss was about.

Two years ago, I didn’t even know what blogging was. I certainly didn’t expect that I would still be doing it two years later.

I didn’t anticipate that I would subsequently play with themes, plug-ins, spend money on a domain, migrate to my own WordPress blog and eventually add Adsense.

double Dutch

After recent horrific events, I was forced to flee the country so I took my family (and a couple of young hangers-on) for a relaxing break at CenterParcs near Eindhoven.

For those readers with (young) families, CenterParcs in Holland is very similar to the setup in the UK except that the prices are lower and staff are actually friendly and helpful.

For those readers without families, CenterParcs is probably not for you.

Anyway, I have returned refreshed, invigorated and raring to go. I am currently wading through my backlog of email. Then I will quickly review the week’s football news and my Fantasy League team selections, watch ‘Saxondale’ and then normal blogging service will be resumed as I ease myself gently back into work and scale my ivory tower.

please welcome Oracle 11g

Oracle 11g has recently been released so it’s time for everyone to submit their colourful screenshots into the ‘Oracle 11g banner version’ competition. Well, nearly everyone.

Apologies for the delay but, finally, I am proud to present my paltry, monochrome effort.

I just installed Oracle 11g onto a VMware server running Redhat Enterprise Linux 4.0. It actually took me more time to configure VMware tools and successfully share the folder staging the distribution than to install and configure Oracle.

Tony Wilson

Thanks for bringing us Joy Division, New Order, The Hacienda and your faith and passion for Manchester.

From The Times:

‘His name change to Anthony H. Wilson was, he once said, to’ “wind up all the people in Manchester who think I’m a flash t***.”

57 years young. Much too soon. RIP.

how to create perfect tables in WordPress

Create tables, resize, add rows and columns, preview the output and add the finishing touches in Google Docs.

Then simply paste the HTML into the WordPress WYSIYG editor.

how fast is Google Blog search ?

Less than two minutes to index a new article. Impressive.

non-stop erotic cabaret

Please don’t tell Norma but, earlier this week, I spent £25 in Shagorika. Such is the life of a sad, lonely IT consultant on a slow Tuesday night in Sunderland.

Unfortunately, contrary to my expectations, Shagorika turned out to be a rather mediocre, overpriced Indian restaurant rather than the sordid den of sexual iniquity I was hoping for.

It took me a while to summon up the courage to cross the threshold. My nerves were soothed when I was warmly welcomed by a beautiful, flirtatious lady who led me by the hand to a cosy waiting area. She gave me a complimentary drink and asked me to wait a minute while she prepared a table. A table, not a bed ! How very exotic.

Kettle Chips rant

Two weeks ago, I sat in the business lounge at Newcastle airport. I chose a desk right in the corner away from everyone else because I am like that.

Inevitably, the lounge filled up with business types trying to impress everyone else by speaking loudly on their slimline toy phones.

A gentleman came and sat down next to me. He fetched an orange juice and two packets of delicious Kettle Chips (Sea Salt with crushed black peppercorns and Mature Cheddar and Chives) to occupy himself for the next 25 minutes.