In tonight’s Coronation Street soap opera, we saw a screen shot of the online auction site that Cilla has been using for the past goodness knows how long.

Here’s the screenshots:

Let’s be geeky and take a look at this mockup in detail:

1. The domain name mybay.org.uk is registered to Click Computer Systems Ltd of Leeds who are involved in, amongst other things, “bespoke software, graphics, images and screen savers to overcome the issues of copyright clearance.”
2. The real life website doesn’t exist (just a holding page) – not even a Coronation Street page which would be cool.
3. The mYBay logo is nasty:

4. Even the Internet browser isn’t identified, it’s just an “Internet Browser”

5. However, the browser does have a messaging service on it:

6. The URL changes from mybay.org.uk on the first page to mybay.org.chopper-bike – I had no idea chopper-bike was a top level domain

7. Despite supposedly being a British auction site, the spellings are decidedly American:

8. Though the character is Cilla, the person selling the bike for her is someone with a username ‘click-cs’. Hmm I wonder who that could be:

Now they probably weren’t expecting any smartarse nerd to pause the TV picture and analyse it on the web, but if the logo hadn’t been so awful I probably wouldn’t have bothered.

Nice try, CCS, but could do better.

Keith Waterhouse has gone on an all out attack on bloggers, accusing them of regurgitating Google news, not acknowledging sources, and generally being a bunch of nerdy anoraks who spend all their time surfing the web and stealing stuff, without any original thoughts or content of their own.

I’ve written my ranting response on Tech Digest, and Ashley Norris of Shiny Media has also added his opinion.

What do you think? Should bloggers, and the Internet community in general if you read what Keith actually writes about people who use Google, be tarred in this way? Is this washed up mainstream media journalism? Have your say – better still blog it – and let Keith know how off the mark he is…

Unless you agree with him of course?

Not content with hacking off shop owners, eBay have decided to employ people who know precious little about what their members are selling.

My wife decided to sell an organic bead set on eBay. They are a lovely fired set of ivory-coloured beads that many people have commented are very beautiful.

However, eBay have decided that ‘ivory glass’ must be something that contains pieces of dead elephant, and hence is a prohibited item because it contravenes this policy:

Ivory

All trade in ivory is strictly controlled. Items made from or containing ivory may only be listed under one of the following two conditions:

1. The seller has documentary proof that the item is older than 1st June 1947, the proof is included in the listing, and the item is in a significantly worked form; or
2. The item is accompanied by an Article 10 certificate as issued by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), or the Irish Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, and such certificate is included in the listing.

Hear this, eBay – ivory glass means that it is glass that is an ivory colour.

These items DO NOT CONTAIN ANIMALS! For goodness sake, where do you think someone living in London is going to get hold of ivory from – hack up an old piano and then melt bits of it into molten glass? Get real!

Better still, employ people who don’t have kneejerk reactions to primitive keyword filters. And if you don’t really understand what something is – ASK! If you don’t get any reaction, then sure, pull the plug, if you’re that stupid.

Instead of banning genuine, beautiful artwork, why not pick out the idiots who sell bootleg software, stupid iPod promotions, and other illicit crap? Yeah I know – because that’s too difficult isn’t it? Much easier just to search for anything containing a word that you think is bad, and pull the listing without any communication with the seller.

It’s an appalling way to do business, and shows a shocking lack of professionalism or courtesy to your sellers. And of course, a fast way to make cash, given that the listing fee hasn’t been refunded. eBay have at least refunded the listing cost.

eBay continues to fall in my estimation and my advice to people is to leave well alone and find some better services that actually care about their buyers and sellers instead of being totally focused on making money.

It’s annoying when a friend does it, but when a tech company that should know better (and have the resources to handle it) sends mail to nearly 500 people at once and lists them all in the ‘To’ field, it’s just plain unacceptable.

This morning I received my latest ‘Valleyschwag’ news update. To be perfectly honest I didn’t look at the header, until I received another mail from someone I’d never heard of:

Dear Valleyschwag support and the rest of the valleyschwag subscribers.

Have you guys never heard of blind copy.(its the one with Bcc on it) Can we now expect a raft of valleyschwag paypal phising. This is unacceptable.
regards

So I looked at the original message again to find my email address and some 464 others plainly listed for anyone to see.

Now I’d like to think that none of the Valleyschwag subscribers are spammers – but that’s not the point. Why oh why are VS sending out single open mails to their entire list?

The easiest solution is to use Blind Carbon Copy.

A more elegant solution is to use mailing list software to send individual emails to each person.

I’m sure this was just a slip-up on Valleyschwag’s part – trouble is it only takes one mistake and similarly it only takes 5 seconds to look at what email fields are filled in.

Brilliant eh?

What follows is my general daily blogging routine. It may vary slightly from day-to-day, but will give you a rough idea of how my day structures.

• 6am – 6.30am: Get up, wash, dress.
• 6.30am: Get coffee brewing. Wake Apple Powerbook (unless it’s been helping out on the World Community Grid overnight.
• 6.35am: Load up important bookmarked web pages in various Firefox wiindows (eg Bloglines, news feed sites, press release sites, company sites.
• 6.40am – 7.30am: Look for any overnight breaking / urgent news in any of my niches, and either write a piece for publication immediately, or make note to start with these articles.
• 7.30am – 8.30am: Work through email newsletters, Bloglines, web sites. At this time, most news will be late US, Far East and Australasian. Open interesting articles in tabs, make written note of subjects to cover (particularly on Shiny blogs)
• 8.30am: Take some breakfast. Any morning chores – goodbye to my wife leaving for work.
• 8.45am onwards: General blogging time, usually starting with work on HDTV, non-gadget stories on Tech Digest.

  During this time, work includes:
  * Dealing with ‘urgent’ emails from Shiny, breakers from PR agencies.
  * Researching longer feature pieces; linking together multiple news stories into one article.
  * Following up PR contacts for additional information, photos, review items, etc.
  * Keeping eye on updating websites (Bloglines, news feeds) for anything breaking.

• 1pm-1.30pm: Lunch, watch news, any essential household chores
• 1.30pm onwards: General blogging time, continuing HDTV, general coverage of Tech Digest.
• 5.30pm-6pm: My wife returns from work. Generally down tools, prepare meal, have family time.
• 8.30pm: Sometimes check in to see if anything needs reporting, deal with spam, check statistics, general housekeeping. Tend to take laptop from office to living area.
• 10pm-11pm: Scan late UK/mid-evening US/early eastern articles, make note of anything to blog first thing next day – maybe write an article or do any catch-up or longer term work.
• 11.30pm: Bed.

These are approximate times that tend to shift about depending on how well the blogging is going and what other things are happening.

I generally don’t blog on weekends. Before I was a full-time blogger, I did, but then I was only blogging 2-3 hours on a weekday. Now, weekends stay pretty much work-free. I’ll still check email from time to time and take a general look at what’s happening in my niches.

What follows is my current list of daily blogging priorities. This doesn’t take into account large-scale, ongoing projects such as blog redesigns, new site planning, and other longer term activities, but constitutes what I seek to achieve each day, based on my current situation.

1. Find and produce content

• Ensure all primary news feeds are performing and delivering via email / RSS / bookmarks.
• Flag and action incoming email particularly from trusted contacts e.g. PR contacts, other bloggers in niche.
• Write content:
  * Succinct: gets to the point, no waffle.
  * Accurate: all key facts stated, hearsay stated as such, opinions properly attributed.
  * Timely: break important news ASAP.
  * Informative: gives your readership what it needs to know, no less.
  * Entertaining: I’m blogging, not writing a research paper
• Ensure all external daily posting quotas are met – absolutely no question.
• Strive to meet all internal posting quotas / targets – these could slip if necessary.

2. Site maintenance

• Handle comment and trackback spam as efficiently as possible (preferably with advanced automated blog tools such as Akismet and Spam Karma)
• Read and respond to legitimate commenters as necessary.
• Check statistics, particularly (for maintenace) broken pages (404 errors), forbidden access (403 errors) and server errors (500 errors)

Read the rest of this entry »

I promised that I would share my ProBlogging earnings with you on a regular basis. Whilst I won’t give actual figures, you’ll be able to see trends and (hopefully) growth.

Below is the graph for July.

• In June I got paid a full wage from my previous employment.
• In July I got paid a portion of wage from my previous employment, plus a portion for my work at Shiny Media.
• August is a projection, and yes, you can see I’ve taken a pay cut of around 50%. Sometimes dreams require sacrifice.

Over the coming months, the line on the graph should climb as I am able to spend more time on my own projects. Watch this space.

Update: Please see Graphs & Statistics page for a better graph – well, different at least.

I’ve made it through day one, and I’m still standing.

What have I learnt from it?

1. There’s a huge difference between blogging in your spare time and when you feel like it, to blogging full-time and having quotas and deadlines to meet.
2. It will take some time to adjust to a new working environment and structure.
3. Distractions will come and they need to be dealt with swiftly.
4. There’s no shame in starting off slowly and ensuring that systems and methods are in place, even if it means that you couldn’t get all the ‘extras’ done – that will come.
5. Time vanishes. It just goes. You’re up early and working, and before you know it, it’s early evening.
6. Don’t jump at every email. Use filters, colours or alerts to know what’s really important (like breaking news) and what can wait. Poor email management slows down your work rate.
7. Planning is key: get systems in place early then tune them to meet your needs. Learn to be a good administrator.

I had hoped to get more done in less time yesterday, but the phrase “don’t run before you can walk” seems apt here.

Despite my knowledge of the Net and blogging, I am still on a tremendous learning curve. I completed everything I needed to yesterday, without falling into a blubbering heap on the floor come the evening.

Most importantly: no regrets. I’m doing the right thing and it will only get better.

What tips would you give a new ProBlogger?

Good morning all!

This is my first official post as a ProBlogger. If the term “ProBlogger” makes your eyes glaze over, or you think of teenagers on MySpace talking about their flaky relationships, then instead I’ll call myself a freelance writer.

Some have called me a journalist… we’ll have that debate another time.

Despite the picture of the coffee beans (courtesy of my colleagues at the British Heart Foundation, thanks guys) I am feeling very much awake and ready to go this morning.

It’s a great day here in the south-western suburbs of London. It’s going to be another scorcher, but that’s OK – the laptop is charged up and I can move into the garden and work wirelessly as and when I need to. Oh, not to be stuck in a central London office…

For any new visitors (particularly old work colleagues) who wonder what on earth this is all about, and if I really have gone just a little crazy, I’ll quickly summarise what I’m doing and how I intend to survive. If you’re really interested, stick around, join my email newsletter, add me to your feed reader (you what?), and come along on the journey.

Heh, maybe you’ll decide to go freelance yourself – but that’s a whole new conversation.

Here’s a potted history:

• I’m nearly 32, so have 14 years of employment history behind me.
• I’ve wanted to earn a living using the Internet as a primary tool for at least 10 years.
• I’ve a wide experience of Internet technology, programming, and design (though it’s not always been put to best use)
• I’ve been pestering the guys over at Shiny Media for some freelancing experience, and a couple of months ago I landed an editorial role at HDTVUK.tv.
• Since then, I’ve been able to juggle finances (with help from my wife) and budget to be able to afford to give up full-time employment and take on more work with Shiny Media.
• I will be working a combination of roles, including two or three blogs at Shiny, two of my existing sites, owning and overseeing the Blue Fish Network (my fledgling online network), and generally trying to be entrepreneurial and develop new ideas, partnerships, and money.

So there you go. Only time will tell whether my determination and hard work will pay off – both financially and for job satisfaction. I’m expecting it to. You can watch and see if it does.