Coding In The Darkness

It’s a deceiving title i know,

After using WordPress for just over a month now i am really impressed with it, so much so that i have been desperate to try out the install version on my own server.

So after a friend gave me some web space [ Cheers Rob ] and i finally bought the URL and created my website i am ready to say goodbye to codinginthedarkness.wordpress.com and hello to http://codinginthedarkness.com/blog/

Hopefully this won’t impact on my Social Media experiment to much as i am seeing small improvements, this blog now comes forth on the ben scowen search.

So i will be copying over all of the posts in the next day or two, setting up my theme, tracking code etc but blah, so please hold on whilst i update and hopefully I’ll see you in my new web dwelling.

Goodbye WordPress.com

Wow it’s been 12 days since i started my social media experiment, I’ve been putting this first update off for a while as i have been busy with life and my own site but i think now is a good time to see just how everything is going.

Before i get into the numbers i thought I’d just give my overview and thoughts. I think i have been doing an OK job so far of actually trying to boost my web presence, i have been blogging on a occasion basis, updating my twitter feed and looking at trends, as well as regularly checking my Google rankings. But i know i need to do more, so I’m gonna up my game as far as blogging and twitter goes so hopefully by update #2 i feel like i should have a 8/10 for effort rather than the 3/10 i feel like so far.

Coding In The Darkness meets Google spider

Although if you have a look at the image to the right, Google found my blog after 45 minutes of posting, so i was very happy with that! I’ll wait to see how well my other posts and website go down but was shocked to see that the blog was picked up so quick when it wasn’t ranked in at least the top 10 pages before and it jumped to 6th.

So the stats so far;

• Twitter follower increase by 5 to 31 (I have had more followers but i seem to be losing some, maybe i am not interesting enough!)
• Blog views was 128 now 223 with an average of 5 views per day
• Facebook – i have decided to drop this stat as i just think it won’t be a good measure
• LinkedIn – still 23 connections, i haven’t done much with LinkedIn put i am looking to get involved with groups soon so we’ll see what comes of it, hopefully some good connections

Google Results

• ben scowen – 5,650 results, 7 out of 10 on the front page are all me and this blog is 6th!
• “ben scowen” – 121 results, same as above

I haven’t looked at anything else yet but i am going to try and impact the top 100 for:

• scowen
• ben! – Will have some competition for that one
• Not sure what else maybe London freelance web designer etc, let me know your ideas.

That will do for this update, i am off now to write some code, buy my domain and re-enter the Twitter-sphere, but next time i am going to add some data from various twitter mash ups, and some more blog stats, but before i go here is a great piece by MediaSnackers who have a guide for entering Social Media for beginners >,
enjoy.

When it comes to writing a good blog, content is king, in-fact when it comes to writing web content or even updating facebook and twitter if your content is boring then it wont get clicked. But where do you or i fit into all of this?

I’ve been reading  alot lately about what makes a good blogger and web writer i guess unsurprisingly it’s similar to writing a good book, you have to know your audience and present your content in an interesting way. But how exactly do you do that when there are no doubt thousands of blogs already which know your audience and know how to grab them in?

So I’ve been thinking what do i need to do to find my voice, grab my audience and most important find what to write about.

I reckon it will take me a while to figure all of that out nut for now a little link dump is in order:

http://www.socmedia101.com/ – Very cool site i found a few hours ago, i will be checking often
http://www.viralvideochart.com/ – Try not to get addicted, good tool for learning if your interested or a great way to waste 30 minutes!
http://www.gosquared.com/liquidicity/archives/category/helpsheets – Great for Web Designers – Simpellz!

Hope that craves your thirst of Ben for the day…

I suppose the title sums up this post, i talk to lots of people about Social Media, Networks on the web, and Google and SEO rankings etc, but am i right?

Basically as it stands i have:

• 175 Friends on Facebook
• 26 Followers on Twitter
• A very Old MySpace and Bebo page
• A nearly finished Web Site
• YouTube & Flickr accounts
• And this blog which needs a good shot in the arm

I admit i am selective and don’t add just anyone, i know >90% of my FB friends for instance.

So the EXPERIMENT!
How famous can i get by the end of the year?
Basically i have no idea how i am going to measure it but i want see how many “friends”, “followers”, “subscribers”, how high up the google rankings i get when i search for “Ben Scowen” (and how many are actually me).
I have to learn a lot more about good blogging, SEO, Social Media but there is no better test subject than myself.

So i will set some rules to make the test fair throughout and not cheat.

1. I will not request people to be my friend, follow etc, they must want to join me on there own accord
2. I will blog, tweet, video blog etc as often as possible but at least once a week
3. On certain sites i will become or follow someone but not ask them for a return, i want to make myself visible without forcing myself upon people.

That’s it for rules unless i get some good suggestions, i will post weekly or monthly updates on my progress with graphs etc for all you stat geeks out there.

That’s it, if you have any advice, or can find anyone else who has done similar so i can compare please let me know, but for now,

Stay Classy (Maybe i need a new non Ron-Burgundy sign off?)