• I put up the Sightings of Some Silent, Guarded Emotions set of burqa pictures. Good reaction. Highest hit count ever. About an hours work to change all the pages and have the thumbnails in place and to do testing etc. That’s quite good, and will keep me from spending time trying to automate any part of the process of putting up a new set.
• 202 posts from the beginning with 98 in July and 40 in August so far. Seems to be an average of 2 to 3 posts a day. Of course I’m really happy about the amount of stuff I’ve been producing. It has become a habit despite the very sketchy internet connection that I have here in Bangladesh. What is the most encouraging is that the quality of the posts have been good, and they have been meaty. Also being able to build a big number one by one feels great. Of course, just like cricket mentally you start from 0 after having reached your hundred. If I can keep up even half the pace of posting that I have been able to so far when I’m travelling in less convenient circumstances (i.e. not internet in the hotel or home) I’ll be more than pleased.
• Started a naming system for all the photos that may make it into a set (or on to a gallery wall or a book). It is 2 digit year, 2 digit month, dash -, and the 4 digit camera incremented number. As I don’t see myself shooting more than 10000 photos a month (I could live to regret saying that), the number should be unique. E.g. 0908-5499.
• Some major categories have emerged: aphorisms, essays, photo notes, shooting notes, interviews (thinking of renaming these to photographers). These categories (using labels) gives a forward motion and structure to the the blog. It is far easier to say to myself, oh I’ll find a photo today and write up a photo note than it is to look at a black text box and try to come up with something.
• Aphorisms usually consist of 8 short sayings with a photo.
• Essays can be quite short (200 words)
• Photo Notes cover two different types: one photo with a comic description, or a collection of photos that form a mini set. Maybe I need to split the two out, maybe it’s too much work. And because I’m saying maybe’s it definitely is too much work for now.
• The every post must have a photo is working well.
• I’ve rejigged the right hand menu to account for the new categories, and also link to the front page from all pages. The front page link is especially important as only individual posts are linked to in facebook (so that I get the right look for the posting there). I’ve tried to use very natural language in the navigation with direct commands for people follow.
• I’ve been posting major posts onto facebook which has been a really good way to get people to the site. In fact from Google Analytics it seems to be the most likely way people find themselves on the site. The reactions and comments have been good. People can of course turn my updates off if it bothers them.
• Google analytics has been ok. I’ve gotten over 1300 unique visits over the past month and a half. The numbers still aren’t large enough to do anything meaningful with. Also, is the blog is primarily a private or friend thing, I don’t know how much I’d change to account for the data anyway. The basic trend is that the more posts (and more spread out during the day) the more visits. Just need to produce content regularly for people.
• I very rarely look at the feedburner stats.
• Changed to 7 posts a page, which makes the page still pretty long, but includes about 2 or 3 days worth of posts, which is about right.
• Photos are now 665x665 (I’m making mainly square format now). This large size is working really well. Maybe some people have to scroll but that’s ok. It’s very important to see the detail. If I could make it even larger I would. I’m thinking for the Archiface set of doing 875x875 and just letting people with small screens scroll. The detail is more important than seeing the whole thing. Will need to change how the caption appears (it doesn’t move down at the moment).
• It was a serious pain in the ass to set up but have a new email address, contact@adnanchowdhury.com that I can start getting printed onto cards and so on. Updated the website to reflect the new email address.
• Copyright notice at the bottom of the blog.

• website updates

Posted 2 years ago