Monday, February 25, 2013

Logitech 525 HD Webcam



As a blind writer, I often have difficulty with typing. If I don't want to continually check my work on Dragon Naturally Speaking, which though it works fine most of the time it can throw a fit now and again.

I decided to install a nice little webcam on my desktop computer. It is a small Logitech 525 HD Webcam.

It is inexpensive and the video output is very good as you can see from the above video.

The softweare that comes with the Logitech has a variety of add-ons such as allowing you to become a baby again, a little like the happy cute E*Trade baby or if you are really adventurous you can become an alien or dinosaur. The software also comes with one click posting abilities for Youtube and also you can use the webcam for a variety of online conferencing portals including Skype.

The built in microphone is just ok, I had to use my Logitech headset with microphone to get a better sound quality.

But for under $60 for the webcam it is well worth a shot, considering I can now talk as well as type.

You can get the Logitech webcam from my Amazon Store through te link in the right sidebar

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Where are Your Views From?

At the turn of the year, a little more than a month ago, I was getting pretty steady views of about thirty views per day over some of my blogs.

My HubPages blog and My Life with Blindness Blogs were at the high thirties level.

Suddenly with both blogs this month I have seen massive rises in views. Some days seeing up to three hundred views per day.

What at one time looked like quite respectable views on my analytics pages now look like the deepest portions of the Grand Canyon. The largest peaks like the towering Himalayas.

The sources of these spikes really surprised me, they weren't in the United States or even the Americas. The largest spikes come from Russia, then India and running a close third Germany.

I had had several hundred views from Russia and Germany over the years, so those spikes moved the middle order of my view regions a little. Russia secured a firm second place in both blogs recorded views.

The really big mover was India. India was definitely in the lowest tier of view rankings, we are talking, not even listing as a placed my blogs were viewed with any regularity over the past five years, maybe three or four views recorded.

In one night (Pacific night time) I had four hundred views from India. Yes you read that right 400 views, from one country alone you still add the ten or twenty views from a variety of othe nations.

That particularly large spike was enough to throw India into the high middle order of viewing regions we are talking now of India as my seventh most viewed nation, from nowhere I have gained a large and important audience.

Now India still produces the same number of views per day that the Rest of the World used to give me in any one particular day. 20-25 views.

The moral of this tale, er blog, is always be aware of where your audience is from.

Living in the United States, as I do, many hubbers see the U.S. as their audience.  While the U.S. has been a strong source of views in the past for me. January 2013 has shown that the internet is a global platform in a very positive way.

So be aware of your audience and keep checking your analytics to see just who is reading your work.