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

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.

Best Income Sites.

I have fingers in many pies. I write several blogs, have some online stores at places like Amazon, Zazzle, eBay and Etsy. I am even looking at another online store site Bonanza. Then my online writing sites come into play. Yahoo! Voices, HubPages, Squidoo and List My 5.

The top earners of all my sites are the online stores.

eBay is at the top, Zazzle.com Cafepress.com then Amazon and Etsy. Bear in mind I have had an Etsy store for only two weeks, so its a baby yet.

eBay of course is not really a residual income source as along with Etsy I have to find or make goods to sell and actively ship them.

Among writing sites my ranking is:

Yahoo! Voices is a far away leader its CPM model and purchase of my articles produces more cash than any other.  Follow this with List My 5, it has a CPC model but pays quite well there were only two months last year (2012)  April and July that I earned no money from my short lists. HubPages is a pretty poor third and Squidoo I have given up on that for any income.

Cash from blogs?

No I mainly use my blogs to direct people to my cash paying sites and don't use AdSense on my blogs at all.

Has HubPages Begun to look Tired?

For a few weeks now I have been going to HubPages just that little less often.

There was a time when I would spend several hours on HubPages, writing hubs, answering questions and working hard.

Recently however it seems that HubPages has lost a little of its glitter.

They are scrapping capsules that I have used for years.

They are putting links on my hubs to articles that are poorly written and have no real link to my subject.

It seems that  HubPages has somehow lost its way.

Questions now just revolve around one subject.  I just logged in and found 18 questions on the hot questions page posted by one person. The questions also involved requests for peoples opinions on certain occupations in Seattle.  Of course these may be genuine questions, I am tempted to think that someone is spamming the questions and answers board with hot keywords so as to grab advertising revenue from Google.

Come on people, this is an abuse of the system. It is dragging down the value of HubPages and we all suffer.

Of late I have seen a little recovery of my view rates on HubPages, but the views on my blogs are through the roof.

OK I accept that we are also at the end of football season here in the U.S. and I do expect a drop in views on big game days, but to have view counters move at a snails pace on HubPages on non game days as my view counters click as regularly as my old grandads clock on non game day blog pages. Well something is rotten in the state of HubPages.

We'll See a Fall in views on Sunday January 20 and February 3, 2013

I will now predict a fall in views for most Hubbers on Sunday January 20 and February 3, 2013.

Most of you who live in the U.S. will know and expect the same. These are the dates of the NFL Conference Championships and Superbowl Sunday.

For those of you who live outside the US, you will possibly not know the gravity of these two solemn occassions.

This coming Sunday January 20, sees the two Football Conferences seasons  come to an end.

The AFC Championship will be between San Francisco 49ers at  Atlanta Falcons and the NFC Conference Championship will be Baltimore Ravens at New England Patriots.

Each of the games could last up to four hours on television, each game only lasts 60 minutes itself but fifteen minuts of "game time" may be twenty or thirty minutes of real time, add in all the advertisements and commentary. The games are not played simultaneously, so Americans can see both games in full, basically taking up to eight hours of Sunday out of many peoples computer time.

For this reason the United States can be said to close down for the duration of the games.

The winners of this next Sundays two games will then go on to the Superbowl in New Orleans on February 3, 2013.

The Superbowl is the World Championship of American Football, and Superbowl Sunday is a very big deal which almost every American sees as a right to party.

So for those of you beyond the shores of the US mark these dates well. The fall of views on these two days is not due to Google changing an algorithm, HubPages are not skimming off viewers just to take your count down, the sky is not falling and no end of the world scenario is being played out.

Americans are just partying and enjoying a great game of football.

We'll be back at our computers on Monday as usual.

Creating Posts for HubPages and other online Writing Sites

Do you sit down and just create a post from thin air or do you do in depth research before posting.

Some people are able to sit down and compose a post seemingly from thin air. They go with the flow of their writing and with very little editing things may just turn out right. Others study a subject, find links, resources and compose their hubs and articles to a detailed plan.

Which method do I use?

Both.

For a personal hub or article I often just sit down and write. These articles would be say my life with my dogs or a personal experience from being blind.

Posts such as book reviews do require some planning and  resource gathering. The most important information gathering task of course with a book review is to READ the book. I have seen some reviews where it seems the reviewer has read other reviews and rehashed other peoples work. Not a good experience for a reader. Other areas which I have researched have been articles where I have needed to report on medical matters, signs and symptoms of a problem etc.

My advice is to take account of your articles purpose. To inform on a serious matter? Then research and information is the key.  Report on personal experience or to entertain then you may be able to create a hub or article with very little research, flying by the seat of your pants.

Which ever method you choose find what works best for you and stick to it. If you are enjoying how you write then your readers will enjoy reading your work.

Make Plans for Your Writing in the New Year

Make plans for  your writing in the New Year?

You may be asking why you should make plans for your writing. You write for fun? Or do you write for income?

Either way you should be looking for which online publisher is serving you best. What methods of driving traffic to your work has worked in the last year and what has failed.

If you plan to examine your strategies every quarter and set goals for each quarter then you can adjust how you work and work smarter, not harder.

In your plan set limits on time. You need to work on writing but not all the time you have.  Set time for family and set time for marketing.

You need to have family time and creating a marketing plan will help you drive traffic to your pages, if those pages are monetized then that means more potential customers.

Breaking down the year into quarters is easy and you soon find yourself thinking in those little thirteen week blocks. Maybe even consider using the seasonal titles, Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn ( Fall).

Set small goals for each quarter, write X amount of words/pages. Spend X hours on marketing. Spend a weekend away. Set research time.  Anything that sets a goal is ok. As many goals as you can possibly achieve. Not so many that you fail.

Having a quarterly plan and checking goals against actual results also helps you see seasonal changes. Do your readers go away over holidays? Do you see increases in traffic  during the Summer? This is knowledge that businesses need to be able to thrive and you should be aware of trends and potential wasting of your time.

So as a New Years resolution, set the goal of making a quarterly plan for your work in 2013..

May you all have a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Fall in Views over The Holidays?

Are you seeing a fall in viewing figures over the Holidays and New Year period?

Are you concerned about this?

Well first thing DON'T Panic.

I have seen all this before.. Remember that most people actually look at the internet and World Wide Web at their workplace, they take a break at work and low and behold they go onto the web.

Since they are not at work for the next week or so then you can expect some fall off of traffic.

Also bear in mind those people who may be viewing from home at normal periods may be away visiting relatives and friends or may be having friends and relatives visit them.

So in short don't worry. The decline in views is perfectly naromal and your viewing figures will come back in mid January.

It is not some fiendish plot by Google or search engines to steal money from you.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!