The Blogger Template Ate My Tracking Code

In reaction to a cryptic Blogger “bX” error, I changed the template for this blog. I’m not going to go into great detail about the error here, because a ton of posts have appeared on this subject – here is one well-written one.

At precisely the same time, my web traffic “flat-lined”.

A little background. First, if you haven’t already dived into the habit-forming Google Analytics for tracking your traffic, you should. Knowing that your blog is reaching eyeballs is reassuring. Your hard work and efforts are worthwhile. It’s how I start my day, everyday.

Be advised that a change in templates requires that you repeat the copy-paste of your tracking code.

Wonder where you readers fled to because your blog traffic graph “flat-lined” after a template change? Nowhere. You still have the average number of readers (reciprocal link traffic spikes notwithstanding) that you’ve always had, but the javascript code that you copied into your old template was likely removed by the application of the new template.

You won’t lose the historical data before the change, but by the time you notice, there might be an outage of traffic reporting (ten days in my case).

I got a clue something was afoot when I was getting traffic on my podcast, from a link on the blog – but no traffic on the blog itself.

While tracking your blog is relatively easy for those experienced with looking at HTML markup, it certainly isn’t for the casual non-technical blogger. A search of Google Help will always bring up instances of the same problem, but as both are Google products, better documentation is called for.

Whatever happened to a separation of the presentation from the data?

Podcast Episode 04: “Everybody Else Is Too Loud”

“Everybody Else Is Too Loud” is my new podcast. The goal is to update on weekends to discuss the prior week’s events – the subject will be anything I feel like talking about: film, art, games, music, family, webcomics, graphics tips and discoveries, gadgets, news, and likely some highlights of my current work(s)-in-progress.

Please press “play” on the audio controller and thanks for checking it out.

Episode 04 Show Notes:

Lessons Learned: YouTube Post-Mortem

In true curmudgeonly fashion, I have long eschewed YouTube as the supreme time-waster. Still do – as a matter of fact, albeit there is a time and place for everything.

I recently wrapped my first YouTube video blog. It is the inaugural launch episode of “Tim’s Gear Review”. There will not be many episodes about new gear, since I buy these items myself, but I am certain shoppers searching for reviews on used gear they are considering on eBay and Craigslist may find some worthwhile advice.

This was hard work, but a great exercise in dusting off my video editing chops since I primarily do graphic design full-time now.

Some lessons learned:

Lapel (lavalier) mic:
I knew some hum would be introduced from the lights for the my on-screen appearance, but it was far more severe than imagined. Isolating the audio, rather than “fixing it in post” is the way to go. I suspected this, but “dove in” anyway using the camcorder’s on-board mic. Dubbing is impossible for me because of the unscripted, conversational approach. I’ll purchase one for the next review (maybe a review of the lavalier itself?).

Are you a YouTube Newb?
I am. Did you know that you cannot “re-upload”. Not without resetting your View Counts, anyway. I wrongly presumed, like a blog post, I could Publish – Post – Proof – Edit, and Re-Post.

While initially crestfallen that the subject of my first gear review (the Wacom Intuos4 graphics tablet) was already reviewed by dozens, I feel that I have something to contribute on this topic. I have been a graphics tablet user for over twenty years, having used Summagraphics and Calcomps before Wacom hit it big.

I overcame that discouragement and was amused that a few dozen people have viewed it (at this writing) and am awe-struck at amateur content providers that garner nearly a half million views.

I have discovered some pretty funny, polished productions that inspire me to raise the bar higher on my next production. If it were not for iJustine’s behind the scenes blog post, or Terry White’s Intuos4 review, it probably would not have occurred to me to publish. Thanks for the inspiration.

Link to Gear Review on YouTube

Podcast Episode 03: “Everybody Else Is Too Loud “

“Everybody Else Is Too Loud” is my new podcast. The goal is to update on weekends to discuss the prior week’s events – the subject will be anything I feel like talking about: film, art, games, music, family, webcomics, graphics tips and discoveries, gadgets, news, and likely some highlights of my current work(s)-in-progress.

Please press “play” on the audio controller and thanks for checking it out.

Episode 03 Show Notes:

Podcast Episode 02: “Everybody Else Is Too Loud “

“Everybody Else Is Too Loud” is my new podcast. The goal is to update on weekends to discuss the prior week’s events – the subject will be anything I feel like talking about: film, art, games, music, family, webcomics, graphics tips and discoveries, gadgets, news, and likely some highlights of my current work(s)-in-progress.

Please press “play” on the audio controller and thanks for checking it out.

Episode 02 Show Notes: