Spring Weddings

This wedding section, along with formal wear will be getting a lot of my attention this coming week. I finished the Men's Clothing page by adding twelve new links and deleting one dead one. Not as ambitious as my first thoughts, I'll get this next time.

I do want to maintain the six to eight week updating schedule and with every update there is improvement beyond just removing dead links.

Coldwater Creek has me upset today, fortunately I have other positions doing well...

Men's Clothing

I finished the Jewelry pages without integrating them with the Vintage Jewelry database tables, I'll do that when I update the Vintage clothing pages...

Now the Men's clothing page is undergoing an update and I do think I should be able to find enough new entries to expand this page into several categories. If I can have fifty pages of women's clothing I think I can have four or five pages of men's clothing. Likewise I will be trying to expand the children's clothing pages as well.

Jewelry pages continued...

The heavy lifting is done on the jewelry pages, that is all the thumbnails have been updated and the dead links (surprisingly few) have been removed. I have created two new pages Handcrafted Jewelry and Costume Jewelry. Today I will be adding locations and phone numbers to the new pages and updating internal menus to include links to these pages.

The Fine Jewelry pages are still too large and I haven't yet separated out "Fine Art Jewelry." This will be a difficult task because although there are a few sites that specifically label themselves "fine art," most fine jewelry is fine art or very close at least.

I have yet to include the database tables for Vintage Jewelry with these and this too will be a difficult task.

As difficult as making all these decisions is, I do really enjoy working in the jewelry section and may stay here all week. :)

Jewelry Pages

After a short distraction with a dozen new fashion blogs I am finally revamping the jewelry pages. Several changes and new pages are coming since the Fine Jewelry pages are already too large and some classifications need to be broken out. There will probably be Fine Art Jewelry and Handcrafted Jewelry pages.

The Vintage Jewelry pages are currently grouped with Vintage Clothing in my database and this linkage works well but I also need to group Vintage Jewelry with Fine Jewelry so I will be doing some database designing this week too...

That will keep me busy this week, along with my regular tasks defining the nature of reality and controlling the weather.

The iPhone name fight.

The value of the free publicity generated by this fight, measured according to what the equivalent ad time/space would cost will exceed the amount paid by both companies in the legal fight.

And "iPhone" will be much more of a household mega-name no matter the outcome. They should begin acting like Rosie and the Donald to get a free segment on every celebnewsfotainment show. A food fight in the company cafeteria would work, rig up the security cameras just right for the opposing lawyer/actors.

More fashion, more apparel.

I have just added a link to this blog on all of the AndiFashion pages and I plan to use this blog to report news about the progress of the fashion directory. There has been a spurt of new traffic which seems to be just an artifact of internal changes in the Google algorithm but whatever the cause it is very welcome and certainly a reminder of what is my primary job. I am glad that I spent the last several months researching the stock market. It hasn't yeilded much but it has taught me a great deal about business and I can use that knowledge to improve this directory.

I have subscribed to several financial services which all report on companies in the apparel sector and I will be using these analyses to improve the fashion directory.

I have instituted a system which makes it easy for me to review every link in every fashion category every six to eight weeks. I had hoped to do it every thirty days and maybe will get it down to that interval over the next year.

I want to add more categories but all the main apparel categories are covered so I will be looking to add greater detail in the coverage.

These next few days I will be working on the Jewelry categories and hope to post a few gems about that.

Socialists on the Verizon

So the price of C.A. Nac. Telefonos de Venezuela rose a bit this morning on the news that Hugo Chavez will compensate stockholders when he nationalizes the company. One has to wonder who is buying this stock on such a promise. Is he nationalizing the phone service so he may more easily spy on his enemies? Does he really think he can provide better phone service after alienating those outside Venezuela who are on the cutting edge of the technology?

Chavez is hurting all of Latin America with this. I have heard several commentators, notably among them Jim Cramer, say that any Latin American exposure is riskier now. I know I just sold stock in one company that has Latin American holdings--why risk it when there are so many other options? And so wealth flees all of Latin America, poverty deepens there and of course America is blamed. The cycle then continues, with poverty deepening other dictators are more inclined to grab their phone companies.

My happiest Apple day since 1985.

I think the inflection point has finally arrived, Apple is a triple threat, music, phone and computer. I never thought it would take 22 years... I havn't been this excited since I first saw it on a 9" B&W screen.

With Leopard getting better reviews than Vista, Zune not even in the running and RIM stock dropping on news of the iPhone the planets have never been lined up like this before.

The all-time high stock price is just an indication that the world agrees. As it happens I got out at 88, should I wait for a lull to get back in or is this it?

Yahoo buys MyBlogLog

Could be good, maybe not. I'm not convinced that Yahoo is competent enough to exploit this powerful thing... I don't think del.icio.us has done much since being acquired, that has really disappointed me.

Could the tail wag the dog? Could Eric and Scott turn Yahoo around? That seems a stretch. I'd have much prefered they had waited for an offer from Google or toughed it out alone for a while longer. :: sigh ::

About Blogging

In the day since I decided to begin blogging again I have run up against all the reasons that I stopped blogging in the past. Mostly it is the pressure. If I post on a regular basis and develop a following for my random thoughts there will be a lot of pressure to post every day and I don't want the blog to become a ball and chain.

I have been directing my creative energies toward andilinks.com the site and posting to Andilinks the blog will draw off some of that energy. On the other hand if I post mostly about the directory my thoughts will necessarily be more organized and the effect will be positive. That will be a dull blog and certainly won't develop the kind of following that will put any pressure on me.

But I have a lot of opinions about other topics that I need to express, so I will just try to ignore any pressure (or perceived pressure) and just post my ideas when they occur. People who return here for that will just have to accept that I will not post anything at all if I am not moved by some story, posting or site that I've found interesting.

I don't think I want to talk much about my personal life though that may happen from time to time. Mostly my topics will be politics, world events, media, technology, and technology business. I don't want this to be a fashion blog but I probably will occasionally blog about art, pop culture and fashion too.

Blogging again, switching to Mac now...

It may stick this time, I'm more motivated to blog. The Andilinks directory is doing very well and I'm visiting more blogs myself because of the MyBlogLog network. I have always been enthusiastic about journaling and writing but somewhat reticent while blogging. Perhaps I can turn that around.

My current big project is a switch to Macintosh, something I've been longing to do since I began using Windows in 1996. I began using a Mac in 1985 after struggling with DOS... I did get proficient with DOS and dbase but Macintosh was like sweeping a curtain away and seeing the world anew. My first glimpse of cyberspace was through the 9" B&W screen of a Mac SE...

I expect the reconversion to take some time, I won't buy a Mac until Leopard is released and I have just massively upgraded my PC system so I will have absolute redundancy during the switch.

Andistars and a Difficult week...

My difficult week had nothing to do with the website(s) except that it kept me away from my computer. Well, partly I was doing my taxes which was difficult but happy because I owe less than I had expected and do have a little spare cash because of that. I think I'll save most of it for a trip next month. :)

Other than adding graphics to many of the pop music pages and starting a new domain (andistars.com) not much has happened. I am testing the andifashion.com domain and it seems to still be in the sandbox (or doldrums) because the one page I moved lost all of its Google traffic, so I won't be moving any others until it recovers.

New Andi sites.

I purchased the andifashion.com domain last August and began it as a new site when andilinks.com was banned by Google. But the sandbox kicked in and when andilinks.com was reincluded by Google in September I moved all the fashion/apparel pages back to their original URLs and they once again recovered their traffic.

But now it's February and I'm thinking that I may try moving some pages to andifashion.com. I've also purchased a new domain for pop music and it's generic enough that I could expand it to celebrities in general. Mostly these are insurance against andilinks being banned by Google again, I'd be perfectly happy to have everything on one site.

Anyone who's followed my postings at WebmasterWorld, WebProWorld, or Matt Cutt's blog know how strongly I feel about this.

It will be another week before the Pop Music site is live, I'll still keep the current pages where they are and simply post informative articles at the new site until the sandbox period has passed. The apparel pages are doing so well with Google I'm afraid to move them all at once.

Trimming the fat

After running the MyBlogLog software for 45 days I have compiled a list of the 35 most popular links on the home page and I will begin re ordering the categories and links based on this list:

1 Drudge Report
2 Slashdot
3 Red Ferret
4 Google Search
5 digg
6 del.icio.us
7 TV Listings (excite)
8 Google Video of the Day
9 the ONION
10 180 degree News
11 Daypop
12 AlwaysOn
13 Bandwidth Meter
14 techdirt
15 SciTechDaily
16 Back in Pajamas
17 BetaNews
18 Wired
19 Progress report, this blog
20 O'Reilly Radar
21 CNN
22 Blog Networks
23 FOX
24 GoogleNews
25 GGuide Cheat Sheet
26 Newsbrew
27 Google Blogoscoped
28 Mondo Times
29 Topix.net
30 traceroute
31 Flickr
32 details (link checking)
33 Disposable Email Addys
34 MySpace
35 FeedMeLinks

These are not the ONLY links I will retain but this list will guide me in my choices. There will be more apparel and pop music links replacing the deleted items. I'd like to keep the file size down to about 40KB, it is currently pushing 46KB.

Slow but sure progress...

I've been going over the stats from MyBlogLog for the past 36 days and I can see that the home page is going to lose many links because they were clicked just a few times or not at all. I may keep a small number that were not clicked simply because I like them or because they anchor a category, but mostly this will be a "people's choice" winnowing... After these changes are made I will add the MyBlogLog stats to some other pages...

I am also redesigning the apparel database and there will be more clothing links on the home page. I'm not sure how long this will take or when the changes will be reflected on the site, but there is definite progress behind the scenes. The apparel section will be getting a LOT bigger and better.

Andilinks will become a directory mostly for people who wear and buy clothing, though I will also expand the pop music section somewhat as well. My point here is that apparel industry people may visit and use the site from time to time for their own purposes but this will not become another Apparel Search site.

New Home Page

As much fun as I've had compiling the current home page I'm afraid that it is not going to survive in its current form. It simply is not pulling its weight as compared to the rest of the site, especially considering that it competes for the position of most trafficked page.

Many have said it is ugly and many are frightened or put off by the clutter. But I find it very useful and well organized and many others do as well, so I will probably continue it at another URL, but it can no longer remain the default page.

I have made a lot of progress--though it's probably not immediately visible--with women's wear and pop music. That will continue to be the direction that Andilinks takes...

I may begin a fine art site, but it will be entirely separate from Andilinks.

Redesigning Andilinks

So it's time to do an overhaul, not just a facelift. I'd really like to add some snazzy new technology but just redoing the appearance is my main goal at the moment.

I will be converting the layout from tables to css and that will be taking some time since I plan to continue updating the site and adding new pages while doing the redesign. Though the "look" of the site should remain uniform I cannot change everything at once, I've got to consider how Google reacts to the new design. I have heard about and experienced problems with the indexing just because of design changes. So I'll begin with just one or two pages and see how that goes. I have always begun new designs on the home page and I'll continue that practice.

I'll probably try some experiments there but nothing so jarring that you won't recognize the place.

I would really like suggestions but I don't expect much, I seldom get comments of any kind from people who don't want a link or have something to sell. I do get a lot of traffic though, I must be doing something right.

Regrouping (if one person can regroup)

I have yet to fully recover from the 54 day ban from Google (7/28 - 9/22) even though I have made some significant improvements to the site. Prior to the ban I was filled with enthusiasm about an almost unbroken three-year run of escalating traffic and income. During the ban, and even now to some extent I am disheartened. I am not now as despairing now as I had been during the ban but I have come realize that while Google may not be evil at its core, it is not very good either.

This is a post about my progress since the ban, but I do want to take one swipe at G. When there is a consistency over a period of years, and it is known, or should be known, that people are depending upon this consistency, there is a responsibility to at least acknowledge an act that can potentially destroy lives. I find Google in this regard to be reckless, heartless and irresponsible. I still don't know why my site was banned, I don't know why it was unbanned, I don't know whether the changes I made during the ban helped or hurt.

I have now completed my first purge of dead links from the big link table since July, and during this coming week will be updating the pages on the site that are fed by this table. This is a good time to think about a dynamic database which automatically updates the site. I'm not ready for that yet and am thinking that it may be better to shrink the site than to take that next step. But since the old pages still produce income I won't remove them. I will simply post a notice on them that they are not being updated as often as the Fashion directory...

There is still a lot that remains to be done, I think I have the spirit remaining to do it.

Maybe this blogging thing will catch on.

What’s up with Bloglines? Russell Beattie
I've been wondering this myself, I'm glad Russell has done some work on it...

Consumer Spending, Personal Income Gloom from Barry Ritholtz, The Big Picture.
Not a good picture if you've been hoping for more expansion, but as Jim Cramer says, "there's always a bull market somewhere."

I plan to check out Debra Messing's Style Shops in the example of
ROLLYO, a personal search with a social aspect.

Should I go back to posting New Items here?

The main site is finally back in the Google index but is still suffering from some kind of penalty which has led me to this: maybe I should blog. This occurred to me as I began adding "New Items" and realized that I wanted to add blog-like commentary.

While figuring out how to get my Google traffic back I may as well try my hand at blogging, though I've tried before with some limited success.

PC vs. Mac: Why I might Switch Back... Russell Beattie
Russell is very smart but we disagree a lot. Once he banned my IP from his blog and I haven't left many comments since even though I left that IP behind long ago.

Notes and Comment on the Launch of TimesSelect PressThink
Goodbye NYT

More TiVo treachery and betrayal boing boing
Goodbye TiVo, again.

FireANT Not TV
I haven't downloaded this but it looks intriguing and is gaining popularity.