Lightening Online

 Image via WikipediaThere are a couple of small “housekeeping” matters I wanted to fill you in on. It seems easier to simply put together a post detailing the bits and pieces I really want to say. Apologies for the “boring” nature of this post. Some days the “boring” stuff just needs to be said.

COMMENT MODERATION

Some of you will have come across a message when you try to post a comment which indicates you’ve used a word from my spam filter in your comment which may result in it going to moderation.

Unfortunately, spammers don’t limit themselves to nonsense or objectional words in their spam comments and so some regular words are also in there.

If you click on the button “yes, post my comment”, it will go through. INCLUDING the word my filter has picked up.

If your comment doesn’t appear (and it’s not your first comment - 1st comments ALWAYS go to comment moderation) you can use the contact form listed in the tabs in my header to let me know.

I apologise for the inconvenience but this seems to be the least intrusive way of dealing with spam right now.

PARTIAL RSS FEEDS

There is a temptation to set your blog to partial RSS feeds in an attempt to force readers to click through to your blog. Some people do this for advertising dollars (or cents), some to help their statistics and some because they think people will comment more if they are forced to visit their site.

I don’t want to rant and rave about this one because what you choose to do is your choice. It’s your blog.

Here’s my problem. Some blogs I really like choose to only publish partial feeds. And I just don’t have the time to click through to every blog that I read. So when it comes to making hard choices about which blogs I will and won’t read, those with partial feeds are the first to go.

Publishing a full feed might reduce your visitor statistics in the short term but it will increase your loyal readership in the long term.

Like I said, it’s your choice whether or not you publish a full or partial feed. And it’s my choice how I choose to spend my time. Sadly, those who only publish partial feeds are the blogs that tend to get culled from my reader when I need to cut back on how many blogs I read.

BLOGROLL

My blogroll is a combination of blogs I enjoy reading and my way of thanking readers of this blog. I read a LOT of blogs and try to, at the very least, occasionally visit the blogs of those who comment here.

I do apologise that there are not enough hours in my day to regularly read the blog of every single one of my readers but I do try to do what I can as time allows.

I got the impression from some of the responses to my recent “blogroll call” that some people are reluctant to even contemplate my wanting to put their blog on my blogroll.

Unless you regularly publish objectionable material, I AM happy to include you on my blogroll. My not reading or commenting on your blog is less a reflection on what I think of it and more a reflection on my time limits.

So if you’re reading this and you’re yet to put your hand up to be included on my blogroll, I hope you’ll feel more comfortable doing so now.

ADVERTISING

My apologies for anyone who has had annoying little boxes (that supposedly are NOT pop ups but are very close to it) appear on their screen. It’s taken me by surprise and I’m in the process of looking into that. I think it’s a new thing BlogHer are trialling. To be honest, they don’t pay me enough to be that annoying. Hopefully I can get it sorted out sooner rather than later.

THINK THAT’S ALL

HELLO???? Are you still awake??? Thanks for bearing with me. I hope that’s helped to clarify a few things but if you have any questions or concerns, feel free to say so.

P.S. I KNEW I’d forget something. If you have a blogger blog that uses a pop up window for your comments, I cannot comment right now. Don’t ask me WHY but the pop up window won’t open fully enough for me to comment. I’m REALLY sorry. I have NO IDEA what is going on or WHY this is happening.

Todays post is partly written but my brain is fried and I think it’ll come together better after some sleep (I hope so anyway).

When I spoke about Twitter last week, some of you asked what it was.

Yesterday I wrote and published a basic post about Twitter on Lightening’s Blogworld. If you’d like to know a bit about it, feel free to pop over there and check it out.

I’m thinking of removing the Twitter widget in my sidebar. It doesn’t do what I thought it would do and only shows my very last tweet which won’t always make sense to everyone else. I’m also concerned as to whether it slows down the loading of this page for people.

If you want to follow me on Twitter (and no, it’s not just for bloggers), you can do so here.

For those of you already Tweeting on Twitter, feel free to post your twitter URL in the comments section here so others can follow you too.

Image via WikipediaToday this website is 6 months old.

Which means it’s no longer an itty bitty baby website but a full fledged toddling website.

At least according to Technorati that is. Who will now start removing links counted as quickly as they are added (okay, well hopefully not QUITE as quickly).

It also means I won’t be visiting Technorati on a daily basis JUST to see if my authority has increased. At least, I don’t THINK I will. I’ve never reached the Technorati 6-month threshold before so this is a new experience for me. My blogger blog hadn’t been on Technorati for 6-months yet when I shifted.

I just checked and my authority has dropped by 4. Which means 4 of you who linked to me when I first moved haven’t linked since!!! I think.

So what are you waiting for? Quick, go and link to me already. Before I have a Technorati meltdown!!!

I’m only kidding. I’m not THAT insecure. Most days.

This post has nothing to do with Technorati (other than it being the reason I’m AWARE this website is now 6-months old) and everything to do with reflecting on the past 6-months.

The Decision to Move to Self Hosted

Was one of those really well thought out ones where I (in a weak moment) sent an email to Snoskred saying something along the lines of “can a total technological noob like me actually manage a self hosted blog?”

I’d been reading her “self hosted” rocks type posts for a while and thinking how it sounded all well and good. For those not technologically-challenged like myself.

Nevertheless, with her help, this website was born (I can so call it a website and not a blog can’t I? Since I have my own dot com and all? Yeah?).

And it surpassed my wildest expectations.

And it caused me to tear my hair out figuring out how to USE it.

Yet now, it’s as familiar as my comfy ugg boots (and no Kelley, I don’t wear them out - I love them too much to subject them to mud and other filthy stuff outside of my own little world here).

I don’t really know exactly how much of this I can attribute to the move to self hosted…

BUT

Blog Milestones Over The Past Six Months

I had 20 readers via feedburner (that I knew of) when I moved. I now have “IwishIknewhowmany” readers. But it’s a LOT more than 20. Feedburner is being rather temperamental of late but I think my total readers stand at around the 170 mark now (on a good day).

Technorati Authority was just over 50. Is now over 200.

I made it onto the Top 100 Australian Blogs Index.

I made it onto the Top 100 Australian Women Bloggers list.

I wasn’t expecting ANY of that to happen!!!

If You Think This is All About Me, It’s Not Meant To Be

I’m not mentioning these milestones as a way of “tooting my own horn”. One of the things I do love about blogging is that you don’t get anywhere alone. A blog isn’t just about the blog owner but about the community that gathers at that blog.

Without the help of Snoskred, I would never have made the move to self hosted (well, most likely never anyway).

Without my readers, I wouldn’t have a reason to write.

Without those who take the time to comment, I wouldn’t have such a feeling of connectedness with the outside world. And I wouldn’t have such a great incentive to write and share what I do.

Without other bloggers linking to my blog and people in general spreading the word, I wouldn’t have the readers I have today.

So my heartfelt thanks go out to all of you.

Most Viewed Posts & Pages in the Past 6 Months

1. Candy Cane Bathsalts

2. Blogroll

3. Reducing the Grocery Budget - Fruit & Vegetables

4. Australia Day Giveaway

5. How Did This Happen?

Top 10 Search Terms Over The Past 6 Months

1. Lightening
2. Lightening Online
3. Square Foot Gardening
4. Things I Love About You
5. Tightwad Gazette
6. Bowling Cake/s
7. Smiley
8. A Journey Of a Thousand Miles
9. Grocery Budget
10. Nervous Breakdown

Top 5 Referring Blogs (not including Mr Linky Links)

These are the blogs who have brought me the most traffic in the past 6 months.

1. Lightening’s Thoughts Musings & Happenings (my old blog location)

2. Down To Earth

3. Fit Cat Blog

4. His Princess

5. The Tin House

Top 5 Referring Websites (non-blogs or Mr Linky links)

1. Entrecard

2. Stumbleupon

3. Rocks In My Dryer (giveaways linky)

4. Biblical Womanhood (Frugal Friday linky)

5. Daily Meme (linking to my Smiley Saturday)

Where Did You Go?

Excluding my own sites, these are the top 10 places people have clicked from this site:

1. Life In the Country

2. Dances to the Beet of Her Own Drum

3. My Little Drummer Boys

4. Aussie Bloggers Forum

5. A Joyful Keeper

6. Miscmum

7. Ecosilk Bags

8. Home of Slightly Cracked Dreams

9. Altered Cutlery

10. Magnetoboldtoo

Latest News & Hopes for the Future

I’ve recently updated my About page and included a couple of pictures for your viewing pleasure (maybe ).

The Travelling T-Shirt is making it’s way around the world (well, parts of it anyway), hopefully helping to spread news of my blog.

I’m getting distracted by Twitter and Plurk. Are they “mini blogging”? Too “mini” for me most days - I need more characters to say what I want to say. But when you’re after something a little more “instant” than blogging, they can be useful.

I hope you’ll all stick around a little longer (okay, a LOT longer). Thanks for joining me on my journey thus far.

Guess I should start thinking up some fabulous celebration for the 1st birthday shouldn’t I? It’ll come around fast enough!!!!

A fellow blogger and I were recently discussing Comment Love on blogs. All bloggers (as far as I’m aware) LOVE getting comments on what they’ve written. Why? Because someone has cared enough not only to read but to contribute to the conversation in some way.

In my mind it’s really what blogging is all about. Sharing our thoughts and our journey in life with one another and building a relationship.

So, what do you think of blogs where the blogger doesn’t appear to ever respond to comments? Is that still a blog or a regularly updated website? Would you still leave comments?

I’ve been doing so because it’s just automatic for me to go to a blog (from my bloglines reader) and leave a comment if I have something to say. And you know me, I seem to have something to say with reasonable frequency!

So, the other day I left a comment on The Pioneer Woman asking if she gets time to actually READ the comments she receives. I can understand her not responding too often as she gets hundreds and hundreds of comments per day. But I just wondered if she actually READ them because well, if she’s not reading what I have to say, why am I bothering to say it?

She hasn’t responded either on the blog or personally so I’m thinking just maybe she doesn’t have time to read them all. Not that I blame her.

I just wonder why people keep commenting. Do they want to say something regardless of whether it ever gets read. Do they do so in the hope that another commenter might visit their blog? I’m not sure.

What do you think?

Do you think there is such a thing as too many comments?

Would you ever like your blog to get so big that you couldn’t keep up with the comments?

Would you continue to comment on a blog even if you never got a response from the blog writer? Ever?

Oh and don’t worry. I don’t expect there will EVER come a day when I have too many comments to reply to. So please continue to leave yours.

And it’s all down to you guys!!!! So I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking time out of your day to read my blog. I feel totally humbled by the fact that people actually want to read what I have to say.

Lightening Online has reached some milestones in the past week or so and I’ve been contemplating whether or not I should share them with you. I don’t want to be seen as bragging but at the same time, this is something for all of us to celebrate. Because this blog wouldn’t have made it to these milestones without the support of YOU, my readers.

Recent Milestones:

* Passed the 100 readers via feedburner mark

* Debuted at #38 in the Top 100 Australian Women Blogs list. It probably sounds funny to debut a #38 out of 100 but up until this month it was only the Top 50.

* Debuted at #79 in the Top 100 Australian Blogs Index. To be honest, that one really has me scratching my head as it wasn’t even on my radar. It was one of those “I wonder if I could ever make it to a list like that” type of lists.

Next milestone I’m aiming for:

* reach 100 authority on Technorati. Nearly there (96) but not quite.

Each of you, as part of my blog community, should celebrate these milestones. Because without you, this blog would really just be me talking to thin air. Please know that I appreciate each and every one of you and REALLY hope you’ll stick around!!!

P.S. I know I’m behind on a meme or 2 (and an award). I’ve started working on them. HONEST!!!

Since I moved this blog to self hosted and started using Wordpress, I have to admit, I have been having trouble making good use of my blogger “Lightening’s Blogworld” blog.  I like the concept of writing a blog that is related to all things blogging (plus a little bit of other internet) so I’ve decided to make the move to a self hosted Wordpress blog for my blogworld blog.

If you’ve noticed some inactivity surrounding Lightening’s Blogworld of late, that’s because I have been busy trying to set up the new site.  I was planning the “launch” to be February 1st but if you’d like to pop over and have a sneak peak you can find it at Lightening’s Blogworld.   Please pop over and take the tour, subscribe to the feed and of course, leave me a comment. 

You may notice I haven’t imported my old content.  I decided to make a fresh start.  So it has 1 lonely little post so far.  But I’m hoping to add at least 3 posts a week once I get going.

Hope to see you there!!!!

Oh, and it will be “business as usual” around here - of course. 

Or so it would seem!!!!!  I thought going away for a couple of weeks over Christmas and New Year would be a GOOD time to go away.  Well it was a GOOD time to be away but I thought the internet would be a lot quieter than it has been.

Did you like that I was able to post EVERY DAY while I was on holidays???  The beauty of wordpress where you can write posts and state when you want them published.

I’ve just been through and responded to all of the lovely comments you lovely people made while I was away.  Thank you for continuing to comment in spite of my obvious lack of response.  If you’re not subscribed to the comments, you may want to go back to any post where you’ve left a comment to see my response.  A few are general comments but I’ve tried to respond individually where appropriate.

Of course, I’ve come home to 21,567 posts in my bloglines reader!!!!!  Just kidding…..I read a few on the odd days I popped home to do washing so there aren’t that many really.  I think about 2000 or so in the 2 weeks though….

Sadly, a few of my favourite blogs use partial feeds.  Mostly, because they are blogs I really like, I will click through to the blog occasionally to catch up.  However, when I get this behind it’s those blog posts that get missed.  So pllleeeeaasssseee, if you have your settings set to only a partial feed for feed readers, consider changing it to full feed. 

And NOW for the BIG NEWS that happenened during my absence……

The AUSSIE BLOGGERS FORUM has now been launched!!!!!  I’m still a little nonplussed over the fact that they chose while I was away to launch.  LOL.  I’ve noticed some of you have already found your way over there.  For those who haven’t, come on over and join the party!!!!

It was set up by the very people I mentioned in my post “Isn’t the Blogosphere such a nice place to be” - Meg, Snoskred and Andrew.  You’ll also find some familiar names amongst the moderators there. 

It’s already turned in to a very friendly and fun place to be.  If you’d like to get to know other bloggers, perhaps find some new blogs to read and get some advice/information about blogging - it’s definitely the place to go!!!!  I don’t think you need to be Australian OR a blogger to join in the fun either!!!

Well…..what are you waiting for????  Come on over!!!!   Oh, and if you’d like to give the forums a plug on your own blog - that would be great!  As they say, the more the merrier!!!!

This is my second attempt to write this post.  The first appears to have disappeared into the great wide blogosphere - perhaps never to be seen again.  If you see something similar to this, let me know!

Anyway, I’ve been thinking of doing this for a while now and figured a new year was a good time to finally get “roundtoit”.  I’ve decided to “name” my family members so that I’m not constantly referring to them as DH, DS….. etc.

Farmboy - this is my DH who most of you are probably aware is a farmer.  My DH looks like he was born to be a farmer.  It’s hard to explain why, he just does (he also looks HOT in a blue bonds singlet but don’t tell him I told you that ).  If you’d like to know more about my marrying a farmer (and how I had determined NOT to marry a farmer, you might be interested in reading my guest post on Snoskred’s Life in the Country).

Leighton - my firstborn is very passionate about sport of any description.  But it would seem that he is quite a whizz when it comes to tennis.  Not that I’d know - I don’t even know what the rules are let alone how to play!  He’s tiny, likes wearing his hat in all kinds of strange angles (including backwards) and would LOVE to one day be some kind of Leighton Hewitt.  So it seems fitting.  Oh, and he turns 10 in January.  But please don’t tell anyone I’m old enough to have a child in double figures!!!!   Sometimes I lovingly refer to him as my “absent minded professor”.  He’s quite bright but can lack some simple common sense at times.  Apparently that’s quite “normal”.

Singstar Princess - our only daughter turns 7 in a couple of weeks.  She is VERY passionate about singing and given any opportunity will perform.  She’s also my little princess.  We were able to purchase a Singstar for the playstation the kids got for Christmas so now she’s able to be a real “Singstar Princess” - and LOVING IT!!!!

The Bomb - my 4 year old son has been rather a shock to the system after having 2 reasonably quiet children.  He attacks life at a flat out pace!  It amazes me how observant he is though.  He picks up the tiniest of details when you don’t even know he’s watching!!!  He LOVES anything that moves (cars, boats, planes etc) but his real passion seems to be trucks - especially road trains - and anything with a trailer.

Lightening - well that’s me (obviously).  I’m passionate about my husband and kids and of course, blogging (in case you hadn’t noticed! ).

So that’s us.  Assuming I don’t lose this post as well, when I return, I will add a page with descriptions that can be referred to as needed.  I’ll possibly add to the characters if I find there are others I refer to often on the blog.

If you’re reading this then you’ve obviously found me at my new website!  Isn’t it exciting????  I’m so excited I’m bouncing!!!!  I have to pinch myself to believe I have really gone to my own website!!!! I absolutely HAVE to add this to my “101 things I thought I’d never do” list!

Firstly, a MASSIVE thank you to Snoskred who has put in a MAMMOTH effort to get this up and running. Without her this would NEVER have happened. If you’ve not visited her site yet, please go and do that!!! And make sure you tell the world how wonderful she is because she truly deserves it!

Secondly, PLEEEEAAAASSSSSEEEE make sure you add this site to whatever feed reader you like to use. I think if you click on the beautiful pink button to the side there (under the word “subscribe”) it will take you through the process.

Thirdly, if you have been so kind as to add me to a blogroll or similar, could you please change that to my new “address” so that people can find me. And if you want to mention this new site in a post and give me some “linky love” to help me along my way that would be SOOOOO appreciated too. If I understand correctly, I’m starting again at the bottom of the heap here and need a little leg up!

Well, that’s all from me for now. This is a HUGE learning curve for me so please bear with me as I find my feet and my way around here.

P.S.  I have SMILEYS!!!!  Real, live smiley faces instead of pretend sideways sort of smiley faces!!!!!   

Phew! November is finally drawing to a close. And what a month it has been!!!!!

I succumbed to my internal desire (with some prodding from a few internet buddies) to join National Novel Writing Month, completely unsure of whether I could possibly write a 50,000 word novel in the space of 30 days AND still do justice to my blog! If you haven’t noticed my quiet sidebar announcement yet, I am officially a Nanowrimo WINNAH!!!!! Yes, you may bow down to my brilliant ability to say a lot of nothing in plenty of words.

In an effort to balance the scales and pledge my commitment to maintaining this blog, I also decided to join National Blog Posting Month. That sure was a LOT of fun and a great way to find new bloggers and make new friends.

I am curious though as to whether I picked up any NEW regular readers from participating in Nablopomo. I know I had many visitors from the website and the randomiser but I also know I have visited MANY blogs and have only returned to a few. So if you found me via Nablopomo in some way and have decided to become a regular reader - can you let me know? (curious minds and all that….)

I am feeling very proud of the fact that not once did I make a post along the lines of “I got nothing but have to post because of nablopomo”. Not that I’m criticizing anyone who did. I just thought I may have to resort to that myself so I’m pleased that the ideas kept flowing despite the pressure to post EVERY DAY.

It is interesting how it can change the dynamic within your own mind when you have an OBLIGATION to post every day. But I did get used to it after a while and settled back to my normal routine of posting whatever seemed to pop into my head.

Now, being the sensible person that I am, I figured writing a novel AND maintaining this blog was enough to do for the month of November. Yeah right? Instead, I thought it would be nice to start a
new blog. Something rather different from this blog and also an opportunity for me to explore wordpress just a little. I had no idea how familiar I’d actually become with blogger until I attempted to use and understand wordpress. LOL. But it’s been fun and as much as I find it difficult learning technical stuff, I do enjoy learning and stretching myself. So it’s been a worthwhile exercise.

Now, apparently as long as I THINK I am going insane, I’m not. So as long as I’m *aware* that starting BLOG NUMBER 3 , also during the very busy NOVEMBER, is kind of a crazy idea….I’m safe from the men in white coats (are there really men in white coats?????? I’ve always wondered that……) Now I will admit I’m fairly passionate about blogging and all that but I NEVER imagined I’d be someone to ever have more than 1 blog, let alone 3.

I’m sure by now you’re all in awe of my brilliance!!!! After all, she’s written a novel AND maintained not 1 blog, not 2 blogs but 3 BLOGS!!!! (yeah okay, only 1 of those blogs was posted on every day - this one is still my first priority). All the while still reading and commenting on other blogs, attempting to learn more about blogging, trying to attract new readers to her blog because her whole self esteem now revolves around whether people read and comment and LOVE her. LOL.

Not to mention cooking nutritious meals for her family (ummm…… shhhh…. don’t tell anyone that her DH is quite handy in the kitchen), …………love her children to bits (yes dear, I love you…now can please go away….can’t you see that mummy is BUSY), …….wrap Christmas presents (yes, wrapping 1 present qualifies me as having STARTED my Christmas wrapping!!!!!!), prepare for a birthday party, wrap birthday presents……do some Christmas craft with her kids…..

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no it’s………. “supermom” (note the Amercian accent there!) ………. LOL. As IF!!!!!!!

Wondering how all this could possibly be happening?????? You should see my poor neglected house!!!!! *sob*

Well, this is what my desk looks like. Actually that’s not too bad a shot really, it can get a lot worse than that. Sadly, I don’t work well in a cluttered environment and yet I continue to do so . Ooh, you can see my laptop in this photo so now you can kind of picture me typing away, talking to you!

No, I didn’t cheat and get Rufus to write my novel for me! He just looks a lot neater sitting on the chair than sprawled on the floor…….

Usually I have a mug and a cup and at least 1 plate there somewhere along with a packet of lollies, some dried apricots and almonds. I like to eat while I’m “thinking”. Just like “umm….” in a conversation gives you time to think about what you want to say next, stopping to stick something in your mouth gives you time to think about what you want to type next.

I don’t even want to THINK about what my weight is doing right now. If you ever make it to the bottom of my blog page - you may have noticed my weight loss ticker doesn’t get updated much. That’s because my weight is heading in the WRONG direction!!!!! I blame it on November really - too much sitting and EATING while typing copious amounts of……..words (I was going to say crap but it hasn’t really ALL been crap - at least I hope not!!!).

Here’s another shot and to be perfectly honest, it was at least twice as bad as this yesterday. I’m cheating. These shots I took a couple of weeks ago with the intention of posting them in an effort to challenge myself into cleaning them up. Instead, I just kept adding to the clutter while ignoring the fact that my writing was keeping me from other more “domesticated” tasks. I should have taken another shot yesterday before I began to sort things out a little - that would have told more of the REAL story here.

If I wanted to REALLY embarrass myself, I could go and take a photo of my laundry! LOL. But a girl has to have some pride!!!! I think there are currently 3 washing baskets with ironing in them and 1 with folding to be done.

What I’m trying to point out here is that yes, I did achieve a LOT during November and I’m quite pleased with that. But it did come at some COST. No-one can do everything!!!! (Well, maybe someone can….let me know if you find them). I’m kind of pleased to see the end of November and plan to spend the next few days trying to get my house back in order before it gets descended upon by 4 year olds on Monday!!!!!

Oh, and I’ve started a new feature on Lightening’s Blogworld which mentions a few posts from this week that I really enjoyed. Hope you have time to stop by and take a look.