Archive for August, 2007

I probably visit digg about 20 times a day, no exaggeration

If i’m bored, or need inspiration or just want to see whats happening, off i go to digg.

Remarkably, i don’t actually use digg much as a marketing tool for this blog.. and i thought to myself, well why not as i give THEM plenty of MY time..

I had intended to make a list of 101 random website ideas, but i just ran out of steam to be honest – it would take weeks to formulate 101 decent unique website ideas.. but for the craic, i’ve already started on that list, don’t expect to see it anytime soon though

So with my ‘18 random website ideas post‘ i thought i’d submit it to digg as it took quite some time to put together, plus i thought it was digg quality and people would enjoy it. Plus, I also wanted to test out a new plugin i installed – gregarious which isn’t ‘new’ as such, but i’d never got it working properly and had another go at installing it.

It automatically knows if a story has been ‘dugg’ and will display the yellow digg box underneath the article.. for every other post it displays a smaller digg button and you can change it to text or nothing at all if you want.. so you can now digg any post you wish

Anyway, i’ve gotten my best results from digg so far with 45 diggs (at the time of writing; it’s rising all the time), plus a crapload of traffic sent from digg.com (i’ll post some figures later when it settles down a bit). Ok, it’s not frontpage material and it’s not into triple figures or anything, but it’s a solid digg article and 45 people took the time to read it, and digg it.

I deliberately pulled the kontera in-text ads from that particular article as i felt digg users would think it was a deliberate attempt to get a few clicks and that obviously wasn’t the case, plus the ads aren’t fully targetted properly so they wouldn’t be of much use anyway.. the ads remain on all the other posts but i wanted that article to stand out for it’s content.

So the digg effect is definitely an easy one to achieve, provided the content is unique and interesting. Of course consistently unique and interesting content isn’t always easy to create

Ah, the uniforms, the new books, the new bags, the nerves, the ‘study 12 hours a day and we’ll get along just fine’ talks, the gloom of it all…

That was a rare moment of fun above in my last year at school Notice i’m using my mobile to take a picture (strictly banned in my old shcool), plus the teacher’s foot is in there somwhere.. we we’re making a mockery of a school letter sent out which wanted everyone to polish their shoes for a visitor coming The teacher asked me to take a pic It’s pretty rare a teacher will join in with the craic, but the teacher above was an exception… he understood a happy mind was a healthy one.

Anyway, it’s back to school time for many.. This time last was a blur for me, i was over in Germany for a football match, i had my Debs (prom) and everyone was heading off to college while i took the decision to take a year out and save a bit of cash whilst trying my hand at this web business.. So i never really thought about going back to school much or what it felt like..

Do i regret taking a year out? No. In that year i’ve got my full driving license, travelled a bit, set up my first website, made my first dollar and now things are really starting to get interesting with BeerChief on the way and some sort of respectable online income starting to come in..

I hated school and i’m glad i’m not going back and starting another year.. sure, you’ll create memories and friends but despite what people tell you, school times are not the best days of your life. That was the case maybe 30 years ago when there was no pressure on you and college was optional.

Nowadays, if you don’t go on to third level, you’re a nobody in the eyes of employers and teachers and probably parents too. And that puts pressure on students to do well, to get A’s.. There’s too much emphasis on jobs/careers/money. No emphasis at all on happiness.. if you’re not relaxed, content, enjoying life then you’ll never be able to step back and make the right decisions. You’ll make a decision, but it will be heavily influenced by fellow students, parents, teachers or cold hard cash.

I remember having a few discussions with guidance counsellors and tutors – 1 on 1 in a tiny little room It was ASSUMED i was going to college straight away. It was also assumed i was doing a 4 year degree course in a university..
Applying to an IT, Dundalk IT, i was made to feel like that wasn’t good enough. Ok, so i had about 3 times the amount of points i needed for the course i wanted to do but still, i had made the decision, i was happy, but they weren’t. Nobody is too good for a course, or too poor for a course/college. I’d stumbled upon the invisible snobbery ladder in Irish education and no way was i going to Trinity because it has tradition or class or higher standards. My life, i do things my way

God help anyone who had no plans to go to college at all

Happiness doesn’t come in to it. Teachers don’t care if you’re happy or not, they want all of their students going to Harvard or Trinity College – probably as it looks good if they have taught x number of people that went to these Colleges. Now i don’t want to tar everyone with the same brush but that’s the impression i got.
My advice to anyone in their final year is to think long and hard about where you want to go and what you want to do.. What course will you enjoy the most? What course will be the most rewarding for you?

That may be medicine in Trinity College or it may be no course and working in Mc Donalds full time.. if you’re happy, feck everyone and feck their views. You only have one life and if you go into a course for the craic and to please everyone and end up hating it, there’s only one person to blame.

If you feel under pressure and can’t decide what you want to do, don’t go to college. Take a year out. Take two years out. 2 years is nothing compared to 40 years stuck in a job/industry you hate. Plus you can get a job and save a bit of cash over that year or two out..

Apologies for the length i get pretty revved up about things like this as i feel we, as a nation are losing our happiness, our fun loving side.. classic example was when my old boss asked me to come in on my day off.. i told him no, he asked why…

me: “i just wanted the day off, no reason, just to chill out…”

boss: “well it’d be a nice bit of extra pocket money (was a bank holiday so time and half pay)”

me: “yeah but money isn’t everything”

boss: “no, but it helps”.

End of conversation. The reality was, 10 years previous and it would have been frowned upon to even open up on a bank holiday It’s a nasty element that’s crept up on all of us.

The draw for the most lucrative prize in club football takes place today at 5pm GMT.

There are 6 British sides in the hat – that’s pretty rare.. normally there’s 5.

Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Celtic, Rangers are all in the hat this year.

Man Utd reached the semi-finals last year along with Liverpool and Chelsea (Ac Milan eventually won the final).

I’d tip another English side to get into the final – Utd or Chelsea. We could in fact have an all english final as imo, the english sides are stronger than ever before and now have the squads to cope with multiple tournaments..

The final will be held in the Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow, Russia… quite a journey for any British fan.. but tickets will be a little easier to come by than previous finals as it’s an 85,000 seater stadium. I applied for tickets last year (it’s basically a lottery) and may well have gone to the final had Man Utd got there.. but it wasn’t to be..

A quick check shows flight prices at €300+ to Moscow for the May 21st final.. staying 2 nights…expect that to role into the 4 figures in a few months time.. Some Liverpool fans last year were charged €3000+ per person for everything

If you were clever, you’d book a hotel with a good cancellation policy, plus book the flights as early as possible with an airline that allows name changes for the passengers, that way you could also sell the flights on to someone else and get your money back..

I’m always one step ahead when it comes to football travel Leave it too late and you’ll be priced out of it..

I meant to post this a few days ago when i first seen it on digg.. some of you may have seen it already..

I feel sorry for the poor girl… she kept smiling and talking politely but the ‘ole brain was on strike at the time.. i know she’s been on TV since, trying to defend herself and right it off as a ‘mistake – we all make mistakes’ moment, but you can’t defend this;

Mind you, are we really surprised when this man is running her nation