Spammers Suck

So yesterday I had an interesting comment on an old post of mine. I decided to leave the comment up there in case anyone feels tempted to follow Ray's advice. However, coincidentally I've had someone using my 'Send Entry' page as a Spam factory ever since that comment. Thanks to this lowlife I've had to implement CAPTCHA on both my send entry page and my contact page. I'm holding off on the comments, but if things get bad I'll have to do those too. My apologies to my readers. Please do not let this dissuade you from sending entires or contacting me.

Definition Of Excess And Over Saturation

Have we gotten a little ridiculous with our social bookmarking buttons?

Seriously....

Quick Blog Survey (Tell Me How I'm Doing)

I'm not a big 'resolution' guy but I do like to use the new year to focus my efforts and reflect on things I'm doing to an extent. I've just thrown together a very short (5 question) survey for the readers of my blog to get your opinion on the content here at cfsilence.com. If you don't mind, please take the survey. Please give your honest opinion - it's totally anonymous (but you can leave contact info if you would like to be contacted for any reason).

BlogCFC Survey #2

Ray has released a second survey to get your thoughts. It's only 4 questions, but your feedback matters.

New Flex Blog Aggregator

If you've been living under a rock this week then you probably missed the announcement that my buddy Scott Stroz (aka Boyzoid) launched a sweet new Flex blog aggregator built on the same platform that runs ColdFusionBloggers.org. Check it out. I wonder what kind of aggregator someone will decide to launch next??

Use BlogCFC? Let Your Voice Be Heard

Ray Camden is getting ready to start working on version 6.0 of his immensely popular ColdFusion blog engine BlogCFC. He's asking for your feedback as part of that preparation. Take the survey and make your voice heard.

Monetizing Your Blog - Improving CTR

Last month Aaron Lynch posted a call for suggestions on ways to improve the revenue and CTR for InstantSpot. I read his post and the comments that followed and really didn't think much about it at first. Then near the end of the year when things were a little slower I decided to take another look at some of the suggestions and see if I could improve my blog a bit.

The items that I focused on were:

• Colors - Make the ad color theme blend into the color scheme of your blog/site. Focus on background colors and font colors to reduce what someone called "ad blindness". If it looks like an ad, people are less likely to click on it.
• Positioning - Place your ads in a place where people are more likely to click on them. Google has done that homework for you already - see Aaron's other post for details. I'm still playing with this myself, so don't go insulting me in the comments ;)

Now granted, these are only two minor things, but the results have been noticeable. In the past few weeks I've seen a decent improvement on CTR. My blog all time average was around .68% and since the changes I'm averaging .94%. This month is even better so far - currently running at 1.54%. More noticeable is the dramatic increase in revenue since the changes. I'm not sure what to attribute this to as revenue is based on the ad itself, not the CTR. I can only imagine that an OT post is generating quite a bit of traffic and subsequent clicks since my observation has been that ColdFusion ads don't really pay all that well. I'd really have to dig into my stats to confirm this though.

Another item that I implemented while making these changes is channels. Google allows you to assign a particular channel for each ad unit (or group of units) to allow you to track the performance of them individually. It has been interesting to watch the performance and it definitely provides good feedback as to future enhancements that could be made to improve ad performance.

If you are interested in improving your revenue, I'd definitely suggest checking out Aaron's posts and the comments posted over there. You can definitely make some improvements by making a few small tweaks.

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If you don't know what InstantSpot is, check out the homepage. InstantSpot is basically a free blogging service, but with much more than just blogging. You can share photos, manage your personal online calendar, communicate with friends via the ShoutBox message board and much more. If you'd like to get your own free InstantSpot please consider using my referral link: http://www.instantspot.com/referral?c=lxq8jnnx.

InstantSpot iPod Nano Giveaway - Help Me Out!

I love InstantSpot. I want it to succeed. I love it so much that I created a Design Exchange for it. So what does this have to do with an iPod Nano? Well, Aaron and Dave have just launched a new promo/referral drive in which the user who refers the most active users during this month will receive an iPod Nano. So I thought I'd (ab)use the power of this blog to get me some referrals. Spread the word after you sign up and you too could be in the running for the Nano.

So help me out, sign up and begin using the greatest Social Blogging site on the planet.

Here's my referral link: http://www.instantspot.com/referral?c=lxq8jnnx

InstantSpot Design Exchange - Now Open

I am thrilled to announce the launch of my new site, the InstantSpot Design Exchange. isdx.net is a place where InstantSpot users can go to upload/dowload custom Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) files for use with their Spot. Registration is simple, just pick a username and password, then enter your email and your InstantSpot name and you'll receive a simple verification email. That's it! Login and you can begin uploading designs! Registration is not necessary to download designs, but if you do register you'll get the added bonus of being able to preview any design in The Exchange live on your InstantSpot before you download it. How cool is that?

Other features of isdx.net include:

• Previews - Each design has a snapshot taken of it in live action when it is uploaded. This snapshot is prominently displayed with the design in The Exchange.
• Design Tagging - Tag your CSS with a few keywords to help other users know what your design is all about.
• RSS Feeds - The top 10 most recent designs are available in an RSS feed so you can always check out the latest! Individual RSS feeds by tag are also available.
• Search By Tag - Just enter a tag to quickly find designs tagged accordingly.
• Much More Coming Soon!!!

I'd like to thank a few folks for helping make this possible. Below is a reprint of the Credits over at isdx.net, but I wanted to personally thank them here as well.

isdx.net is powered by the greatest language in the world - ColdFusion.

I'd like to thank the following people/sites for their code, help, ideas and assistance in developing this site. Without them this site would not be what it is.

isdx utilizes the makePassword udf available at cflib.org.

isdx banner created by Ryan Everhart.

Many thanks to Aaron Lynch and Dave Shuck. First of all, for creating InstantSpot and continuing to enhance and support it. Secondly for being cool enough to work with me to roll this site out. I appreciate it guys!

isdx utilizes some source code from the ColdFusion Jedi Master Raymond Camden. In particular, Textblock code, parseSES and RSS functions. Also many thanks to Raymond for answering questions and sharing knowledge.

isdx uses WebShotto create jpg previews of each design in The Exchange. Thanks to Ben Nadel for his demo!

Don't have your free InstantSpot yet? What are you waiting for! Go get one now! Then go to isdx.net and check out The Exchange!

I Made It To The Top (O The Goog)

I just reached another milestone in my blogging career - my first trip to the Top O The Goog!

See that guy at the far right of the graph (second from the right)? That's me! OK, so it's just for posts per month, but it's a start.

I'll try not to pad my stats with more fluff posts like this. Back to business.....