leader of the free world

Just watched a 7 minute video of Hillary Rodham Clinton's victory speech, as she is returned as the Senator for New York once again. Have to say, if it was just based on that, I'd likely vote for her. Of course, we'd have to see what she'd actually do in office. But I suspect that with her as the President of the United States I might object less when Americans refer to their President as "the Leader of the Free World". Roll on 2008.

london calling

I've been a listener of the internet radio show Your Mac Life (and it's predecessor) since 2001... This show keeps my brain entertained while the body does chores. Anyway, show host Shawn and his wife Lesa recently attended the London Mac Expo, and are currently waxing lyrical about their touristic and culinary experiences on this Lesa's first visit to London. "Mind the Gap", pub meals, English turns of phrase. Sigh. Have to confess, feeling a little home-away-from-home sick, listening to all of this. :) We're rapidly heading to two years we've been back—nearly as long as we were living in London. A hang of a lot has happened since we returned to New Zealand (toddler Eden being the most obvious reminder of that) but it all still feels recent to me. This is London calling...

selling in

You don't have to be eagle-eyed to notice a couple of differences in the site. Yes, I've improved the iStockphoto link logo slightly. Yep, I've tidied up the search box, that lets you search (most) of the babbage.tv archive. Yup yup... that's about it I think.

Oh. And the Google ads? Yeah, I guess, let me think... hmm, yeah, you may be right. They could be new too. ;)

It's true. I've decided to sell in. I don't think this is selling out, though I do recall that when I first started blogging I had no intention of having ads on my site. So what has changed? Well, first of all the ads have changed. When I started blogging almost four years ago online ads were usually garish banner ads that broke across the top of the site, spoiling the design. They often flashed. They were just ugly. I admit, more recently I've been impressed to see some low-key Google ads on sites, that were suitably tidy to not make me gag. That moved it from never into the realm of possibility.

The second thing that happened to me was two things: iStockphoto and the Lunarpages referral program. I've been shocked to discover that cashflow is quite motivating. Don't get me wrong, iStock for me is about more than just cash... it's great having an outlet for my photography, and I never thought I'd be able to say one day that I'd had over 1,000 image sales. But having already made over NZ$800 in royalties, and a similar amount again in tax rebates, selling images online is starting to get my attention. Likewise, I made US$130 in referral earnings when two friends signed up with my webhosting company, and it gave me pause for thought. I genuinely recommended Lunarpages to them because they are awesome, because I've researched the issue carefully, and because they offer better features at a lower price than anyone else, for the industrial-strength hosting solution you are getting even on the Basic service. But you know, when times are so tight for Bronwyn and I financially, that money was really great to have. What this cashflow is doing for us is creating options and opportunities. With a mortgage, a child, and being down to one income, in cashflow we are poorer than we were when I was a student. At a time when we have the strictest budget of our lives, Wavelength (my photography and consulting business) has enabled me to take out a small business loan and sensibly finance a Canon 30D, Tamron lens, related accessories, and Adobe CS2. It doesn't look like the entire business loan will be paid off in the first year, but it'll be pretty close. Beyond that, we're talking about it making some additional mortgage payments for us. All this in my spare time, doing things I enjoy.

What does all this have to with babbage.tv? Well, let's play some Jeopardy.
Answer: Over 150,000.
Question: [Complete your matching question here, then read on.]

That's right, good guess! :) Question: "How many unique daily visitors have the babbage.tv sites had in the last twelve months?"

Yes. That's right. 150,000 visits a year. No, I am not talking "hits". (That statistic is over half a million.) Visits. Over 150,000 visits, apparently from real people. Googlebots from three separate URLs visit once a day, so you can cut out about 1,100 of those visits there. Just possibly there might even be other search engines. (Who knew.) But I'm becoming fairly convinced there is a whole lot of real people out there. I suspect it might have something to do with the number of people who do Google searches for my famous great- great- great- great-Grandfather, and then end up clicking through. Regardless, it's a bit stunning.

The only way to find out how much money Google pay for these ads, is to sign up and see what you end up getting paid—they like to play their cards pretty tight to their chest. But babbage.tv actually costs us money, in hosting and domain registration. If this can pay for that, OK. Maybe it will even eventually finance a badly-needed RAM upgrade for our main computer. And who knows, it might just prove to be a whole lot more.

So I'm opting in. For all the mega-corporation concerns I have about the almighty Google, there are a lot of things I admire about them. I heard the other day that they require their employees to engage in non-work related activities one day a week. A day a week. A day a week. I wish the university would let me instigate that in my team. Man, that would rock. (Memo to self: actually ask someone this one day. They just might say yes?) So I think to myself, if life was different, I'd really like to try working for Google, if I could make the team. So if I'd work with them, maybe I can be a different kind of partner and accept their advertising too.

We'll see how this goes. I'd love to hear your feedback about this. I might actually... yeah, ok, I'll turn comments back on for this post. I'll just have to deal with the spam, so apologies for any unsuitable links that end up in there for a while. But I'm interested in your feedback. And I'm interested to just hear from some of you again, finally! And if you're one of the anonymous strangers that must be making up the 150,000, feel free to post too. You're welcome here. :)

countdown to four years...

OK, it's a little early, as the four year anniversary of this blog isn't until December, but that's what I'm thinking about tonight. Ironically, I am currently in the midst of one of the busiest times I've had at work in the last 18 months, burning evenings and even midnight oil each evening and over the weekend. Yet I find myself here. And I'm thinking about where we want this blog to go in its fifth year. Hmm...

I'll admit, there may be an element of displacement behaviour goin' on. (Think cowboy blogger and this-evening-aint-big-enough-for-both-of-us attitude to arch enemy the evil Lecture d'Preparation.) But it's about time that I contributed alongside my more-recently-active blogging partner here. So what's new?

My Stock photography is going well. It is rapidly moving through the stage of paying for the business itself, and looking towards starting to be a modest but real income stream. We're starting to talk about this being one thing that might provide us with some additional leverage into our next home. Eden needs some more play space, and should he ever acquire a little friend... (Ahem.) (No, this does not constitute subtle "news"!) Anyhow, it only seems fair to share some of that photography more actively with you. I'm planning on some renovation around here eventually, bringing back new and improved spam-proof comments, and implementing a more straightforward way for me to showcase some images. In the meantime, if you're interested, feel free to visit my iStockphoto portfolio directly.

Eden is growing so fast. We just love having him around. He is on the cusp of talking, of fully walking, of creating one huge bag of mischef. He was excited when I turned his car seat so it faced forwards... now he can see us, and a lot more, as we drive around. He's loving it. He often smiles as he mimics the growling noises I make when I chase him across the lounge. :)

I need a five year plan. I had one. (We have something to thank the Russian Revolution for.) Actually, I had two, one after another. I basically completed them successfully; that's how I ended up here. Somewhere along the line I forgot to set another one. Maybe I just need a vision... sounds a lot more exciting than a plan. Memo to self: requisition inspiration.