Google It

(Picture Credit - Visionbritain)

Google it! That answer to almost any question has become a commonplace part of the English Language. Google has become much more than an internet search engine. One writer jokingly referred to it as “The Google”, a godlike entity ruling all of cyber space. For that’s what Google now is.

Way back in the nineties or noughties, Brian Slater, the deputy head of Cambridge Park Special School, Grimsby, introduced me to the internet. Specifically he showed me how to use the Yahoo search engine and I loved it.

When I got my first PC I started with Yahoo and the then NTL search engine. I then used Ask Jeeves and many more. But the one that struck me for its sheer simplicity was Google. Just a rectangle in the middle of a blank page, on which you could type in your keywords and voila! Google soon became my Home Page as it was the obvious place to start any surfing session.

The Google

Clearly I was not the only one to prefer Google. Today Google seems to rule Cyber Space. Everyone who writes on the web bangs on about how best to get Google’s attention. All that stuff about the Google algorithm, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), keywords, getting ranking points and God knows what. It’s a mass industry now.

See my title above: the keyword is “Google”, at least one of the most searched-for words on the web. Only the word “Facebook” might rival it. So, I’m looking forward to plenty of Views.

People keep saying, “We must do more to impress Google: better quality, the optimum keyword density...” Why do you think a certain Forum was closed down eh?

Blogger and Adsense

Google has become much more than a search engine. I personally use “Blogger” on which to post many blogs, and Blogger is of course run by Google. Those blogs are of course “monetized” by being linked with Google Adsense. Indeed quite a few of my pieces on various writing sites are monetized the same way.

“Blogger” I find very easy to use. I can add images quite readily, though sorting through copyright licences etc. I find confusing. The beauty of Triond is that they sort that for you when they find you images.

As for Google Adsense, I can’t make much sense of it to be honest. The pages there are a nightmare to navigate and filled with mysterious jargon. The Google ads on my blogs have gone very simple recently – not much of a temptation for anyone to click, and I’ve been unable to sort out why.  

I get very few “clicks” on my Adsense related ads. My Views count is also much lower than shown on my blogs or writing-site pieces. No, can’t make sense of Adsense.

Just checked: have made £6.42 sterling on Adsense over about five years and the minimum threshold for payment is £60. A long way to go! Surely no “Content Farm” in the world is so stingy.

Google Plus

Recently I joined Google Plus. It’s a social networking site quite similar to Facebook. It’s okay, but the fact remains that most of my personal and writing friends are on Facebook. While I’m talking, I might as well mention that I cannot get into Twitter either. That 140 character limit is a pain and again few of my human friends use it. (Well at least I hope all my friends are human)!

Conclusion

As you can see I am Not an expert on Google or indeed the web. All I can give you is my honest account of my personal experiences with these things. How long will The Google reign? Who knows? It remains to be seen whether the recent trend of PCs and laptops giving way to Smart Mobiles will have any lasting impact. Maybe some day Google (and the other big multi-nationals) might have to pay all their Taxes!

But, until anyone says otherwise, Long Live The Google.

Paul Butters


More Work:      http://healthmad.com/conditions-and-diseases/my-poorly-mother/

Update 25\8\13 - "Beat The Bullies..." 8346 Views now (18 today!).

Update 6\9\13 - "Bullies" - 8586 Views.

7\9 - More Work, even if "Forbidden"(!) -      http://authspot.com/poetry/now-now/

- And more -     http://authspot.com/poetry/image-intuition/

More - http://authspot.com/poetry/fear-175/

More - http://hellopoetry.com/poem/fear-181/ (23 Views in five minutes!) (18\9 - 2.30 PM - 120 Views now and Trending on "Hello Poetry"!)

21\9\13 Update - "Fear" has had 256 Views in 3 days! Some Likes too. New friends... Thanks to Australian poet Elizabeth Squires for prompting me that this was one for "Hello Poetry".

24\9 - 301 Views now for "Fear". 2\10 - 8879 Views for "Bullies".

10\11\13 - 9,559 Views for Bullies and 164 Views in a day for my blog on returning serve at table tennis (after extremely slow start).

20\11\13 - "Bullies" has now had 10,134 Views! Most of my Triond Views are from the USA still, with JAPAN (!) in 2nd place. UK is way down now. 194 for the table tennis blog - very good compared with most of my stuff.

8\12 - 12,449 Views for Bullies now.

17\12\13 - 2601 Views for Bullies this month, 81 today! 14,124 Views in total. Just posted onto Triond a blog - "Is there an Afterlife?", sadly prompted by Mum passing on last Thursday (12th December).

19\12 - More:      http://socyberty.com/philosophy/is-there-an-afterlife-2/

24\1\14: Bullies 16,514 Views now! 2\2: 17,206 V. 18\2: 17,854 Views.

31\3 - Bullies 20,273 Views.

Me the Hobby Writer

(Picture Credit - Publishing Guru)


(As posted on Triond 3\12\12 and on VoicesNet today12\5\2013)

Why HOBBY writer? Well I think that best describes me right now. I am quite comfortable with that these days. Let me tell you a story...

Do let me tell you a story. After all, telling stories is my forte. Well, one of them.

I write. More accurately I type. With one finger but at a fair speed. Be glad I no longer write: my handwriting is almost indecipherable at best. So, I see myself as a “Writer”. My Dad’s folk came from Staffordshire but no, I am not closely related to my namesake Paul Butters, who wrote a book about Stafford.

Both my parents did work (in Leeds) in an office for a while, before being directed into more practical, more lucrative trades. Dad was a foundry worker. Mum was a woollen mill worker then worked in tailoring before becoming a garden nursery worker (in World War Two). In fact, Mum started on the mill “floor” but was moved into the office to help with the accounts. Unlike me, Mum was great with arithmetic and Dad had beautiful handwriting.

On my Mum’s side (Haresigns and Gledhills) I have a half cousin who is a professional journalist. Just checked with her over the phone: one of my ancestors was a headteacher, and two of them were highly religious. My writing and “philosophical” DNA perhaps came from them.

At school I was a very slow starter to be honest. I was in the bottom band for three out of four primary school years. As a child I was very quiet, sensitive and often isolated. Maybe a touch of Autism there. Almost inevitably I “Failed” the dreaded Eleven Plus and was sent to County Secondary School. But there I was placed in the “G” stream (for GCE) and crammed for academic success! Five “O Levels” saw me qualify for a place at our local Grammar School Sixth Form to study A Level English Literature, History and Geography.

Even at Primary School, however, the teachers lavished me with praise for my “colourful, imaginative Compositions”. At that time my parents bought me a good set of encyclopaedias: so even as a junior I knew all about the solar system and the cosmos. In 1965 I shockingly (being an Agnostic even then) won the “Religious Education” prize at secondary school and bought a collection of the short stories of HG Wells. Science Fiction was my first literary love from a very early age.

At Grammar School we were taught that the “world was our oyster” so long as we applied ourselves to our studies. Their idea of Careers Education was the “Compendium of University Entrance Requirements”. Not encouraging for me: in those days most English courses demanded Latin O Level and top notch A Levels! As I flunked my A Levels I dutifully went to a teacher training college and got a Cert. Ed. Followed by a one year B.Ed.

Grammar School drummed it into us that we could do anything, so for years I believed I could write a novel any time I liked and get it published. I couldn’t have been more wrong of course.

Some of the most famous authors like JK Rowling have been rejected by many agents, let alone publishers, before making that big break. In the 1990s I had some poems and the odd story published by “Forward Press” and other now defunct small publishers, but that’s as far as it went for me.

The truth is that Triond\VoicesNet\Poemhunter and other publishing-platform websites have collectively been a Godsend. I cannot claim to be a “professional writer”, nor would I want to anymore. Even a “Freelancer” has to strictly speaking work for specific clients, under some sort of contract. No, I now see myself as a “Hobby Writer”, a free spirit who writes now and then for some pocket money and a little praise (and discussion with other writers).

My strengths remain the same as ever: a fertile imagination combined with a knack for story-writing, dialogue and using good words.

My old Careers Guidance tutor John Malkin (Trent) said never say “weakness”, always use the word “limitation”. So my main limitation, in hindsight is that I did not and do not Read enough. I am an extremely slow reader, which has its advantages with poetry, but that’s no excuse. My other Achilles heel is the lack of a sustained Work Ethic. When I get interested I’m fine but... Maybe I specialised in Science Fiction too early too.

Triond\VoicesNet suits me: I can indulge in writing as a hobby, and remain unchained. I can blog my stuff too once it’s had a run on such sites. Those old unrealistic expectations have gone. However, I suspect there are many writers about who still carry some unrealistic dreams. There’s a thought.

Paul Butters

More works:      http://authspot.com/poetry/whats-god-got-to-do-with-it/

http://authspot.com/poetry/paradise-road-2/

Update 19\5\13: "Beat the Bullies" has now had 5160 Views on Triond. But "Champion" on VoicesNet has 6221 and "Mirror, Mirror" (my blog) has 7051.

More work:      http://authspot.com/short-stories/marinia-seven/

Update 2\6\13: "Beat Bullies" 6012. "Champion": 6418.

4\6: 101 Views on Triond for my new story "Marinia Seven". That's great going for a story. Happy days.

More work: http://webupon.com/search-engines/google-it-2/

10\6: 66 Views to press for my blog "Google It". Good going. 107 for Marinia Seven. By the way, most of my Triond Views are from the USA these days, and then from TURKEY! Don't know where That came from. UK is in third place now. USSR features too. The USA dominance seems to be from "Bullies".

18.10: 115 V now for "Google It"! 6532 for "Bullies". 6481 for "Champion" on VoicesNet. "Mirror, Mirror" is 7060 on my poetry blogger blog.

11\6\13: 191 Views for "Google It" now. Not listed in "Top Ten" but still good.

14\6: 1078 Views on Triond this month but has now slowed. Maybe time to write again.

24\6: Beat Bullies has hit the top on 7077 Views. Mirror, Mirror has had 7068 Views.

More Work:      http://socyberty.com/issues/how-to-live-3/

http://authspot.com/poetry/no-now/

14\7: OMG! See that all my Triond links here are "403 Forbidden"!!! Anybody know why? Is it possible to ask Blogger or Google? If so, how?

Let's try a link to VoicesNet:

http://www.voicesnet.org/displayonepoem.aspx?poemid=138346

Ah, as I type, that link is okay. So it's TRIOND then. MMM.

Let's try "Poemhunter":

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/swirling-snow/

Yep, that's okay too.

15\7: 63 Views for  "No Now" - that's great for a poem. Am getting good Viewing figures on Triond these days.

More Work (In the hope that it will be unblocked eventually):

http://healthmad.com/mental-health/how-to-be-assertive/

More:      http://socyberty.com/work/live-on-triond-to-stanza-or-not-to-stanza/

(Have explained to Nathan at Triond that this 403 Forbidden thing persists).

26\7: "Beat the Bullies" has now had 7793 Views.

7\8: "Bullies" has reached 8065 Views.

My Best Viewed Pieces

(Photo Credit - Macmyth)

Some of my pieces of writing have Viewed quite well these last few months. Here are some highlights (with abbreviated titles):

Triond: (2\3\13) Man U V Real (47 in 2 days), (8\2) Colonisation Earth Pt 3 (28 – good for a story), (22\1) Fergie (427), (21\1) Triond Tragedy (817), (21\12\12) Cheating at TT (339), (19\11) Beat Bullies (552), (7\10) Listen (661), (3\10) Single (827), (13\8) Olympics (113), (7\8) Banned (148). All but one of these were blogs\articles.

Voicesnet: Top 5 (from my author page): Champion (5931), Seashore (1166), Our Universe (1132), Look Up! (749), Dog’s Life (732) – all poems.

Recents: Ping Pong World Ch (103), Fergie (56), Single 2 (72), Censored (224), Lady Blantyre (337), Lennox Dog (191), Lifism (153), Internet Trolls (554), Serenity (story) (485), Young Chickens (poem) (693 – 6^th top on list), Circles (poem) (445).

My Blogs: Mirror, Mirror (poem) (7021), Cyberspace (poem) (993), My Triond Top 20 (blog) (43), Triond Forum Spoof (play) 165, Nemesis V Clee Sports H (blog) (34).

Hello Poetry: Circles (717), Frenetic Genetics (497), Excitement (492), Mother Nature (395), New Eden (366), A Poem (331).

Conclusions: There aren’t any really. Sure, blogs or articles get Views more readily, particularly if you find a popular topic. Sadly some have noted that “hate” pieces View well. Some on Triond write about Obama a lot...

My poem “New Eden” went viral on “Hello Poetry” but later four poems posted mainly earlier overtook it. Knock-on effects like that are quite common.

“Champion” went viral on Voicesnet but I’ve no idea why. Likewise “Mirror, Mirror” Viewed massively on my own blog, maybe because of some connection with “Snow White”. Perhaps many folk want to buy a mirror!  

As I’ve said before, on Triond it now helps if you get in the top ten on Sportales or some similar site – that gets you Lots of Views.

Unfortunately stories – my forte – do worst of all for attracting Views. Blogs are simply the best. But don’t worry. I remain convinced that it is quality that counts. Above all, I’ll always please myself. Over and Out.

More 9\3\13:

Knoji: "Which Planets for Life" (1404), "Spectral Types" (1283), "How Buy TT Bat" (1376), "TT Techniques" (1135). Grand Total - (5,200 V).

12\3\13: NB on Triond my "Beat the Bullies" piece keeps Viewing well, though no longer in the "top ten". 693 Views to press - about a hundred in a few days. Must be a useful topic to people. Keep beating those bullies!

Paul Butters


More pieces:

   http://socyberty.com/history/britain-is-too-soft/

http://authspot.com/short-stories/marooned-in-space/

http://authspot.com/short-stories/ping-pong-passion-one-2/

10\4\13 STOP PRESS: "Beat the Bullies" continues to View well on Triond! On 8\4 it had received 1383 V. Today the piece stood at 1588. 1395 Beyond Jane Views for my work recently: dominating my referring site stats. 77% of my Views are currently from the USA, with only 11% from the UK. Bullying must be a big issue in America. Nuff Said. Out.

18\4\13: "Beat Bullies" has now had 2552 Views. Healthy figures most days still.

23\4: "Beat the Bullies" - 3012 V (100 today!).

More:      http://authspot.com/poetry/any-world/

5\5: "BB" - 3887 V. Current Triond breakdown - 53% USA, 10% UK, 10% Turkey(!), 8% Germany and Russia, 5% Italy(!) and Canada.

9\5: BB - 4295.
    

Writing Tips - Type Inner Speech in Italics etcetera

(Picture Credit - Computer2 by Psuca)

Early in the new year I read some articles on self-editing, on a Linkedin Writer Group forum. One piece explained how you type inner speech in italics. You live and learn.

As a Writer in English, it goes without saying that a mastery of English is most useful to the writer. Fortunately I have quite a good eye for spelling and my grasp of basic sentence-writing is okay. Using words such as okay might be a bit naughty, but at least I usually Notice when I’m being naughty. That capital ‘n’ is a tad mischievous too, but hey... The spell-checker on “Word” usually makes me toe the line, though some of their grammatical “rules” I frankly find sheer nonsense. So I believe most of my English to be sound.

Inner speech in italics please

Yet command of the English language is not the whole story. Articles on Linkedin about “Self Editing” have recently reminded me of that. Last year I would have typed some narrative as follows:

John headed down the dark alley with some trepidation. Now he saw a huge shadowy figure up ahead.

John: “Hello, is anyone there?”

The figure came closer and loomed over him.

John (thinks): “Let’s get outta here John!”

(Narrative over) Alternatively I might have used the word “thought”, but let’s not nitpick. THIS year the last two lines would be:

The figure came closer and loomed over him.

Let’s get outta here John!

(Narrative over) Frankly I find unbolded italics rather flimsy looking, but if that’s how it’s done...

To be honest I never noticed this editing convention. I guess that’s because I only started typing in relatively recent years. A feeble excuse, I know.

 

No full stop at the end of a title

Another one I admit to missing is that one about not putting a full stop at the end of a title (usually?). To be honest I thought “Suite 101” writing site were being Grammar Nazis when they told me that. But they were right. If you don’t get told... Recently I’ve had to delete LOTS of full stops... (Can I risk that on Triond I wonder with that “title fix” glitch?). You live and learn, as they say. Funny how you can miss such things.

I once put in a history essay that one country “claimed” war on another. It should have been “declared” of course. All I can say is I must have misheard this in some earlier lesson. The history teacher who pointed this out to me (a certain Terry Dennison of international swimming-coach fame) was the first person I can recall highlighting my limitations.

 

Positive Feedback

In my work as a Careers Adviser we were always told to give “Positive Feedback”: I.E. do Not say anything Negative. But I do wonder about that. Sentences such as, “The dog’s of war all chased the dogs bone” really irritate me. Apostrophes folks! Surely you have to point out errors etc. at some time.

Frankly some articles on “Triond” are gobbledygook at best and perhaps something needs saying to the individuals concerned. I will ponder on that.

For now I will carry on with my lifelong learning. Frankly I think some of the most “advanced” grammatical rules are a bit “OTT” (over the top) so I will always be a “Maverick” to some extent. Artistic licence...

I will always write with my “Inner Voice” which can always lead into some informality. I have my preferences. Old buddy Rob Stoakes critiqued one of my poems most aptly: “You can tell it’s a Butters.”

Yes, sorry but I love an exclamation mark! I like my commas too. Don’t use semi colons much (whereas my old friend Neil uses them a lot). But in my own way I’ll always try to be progressive and continuously improve.

Longer Pieces for more Views.

Another thing I read the other day was that to get more Views you need to write 1000-1100 words. Google etc. are now looking for more substantial pieces packed with quality content. For quite some time I have restricted myself to about 400 words on the assumption that most online “readers” have a low attention span. Have been deliberately keeping down to one page. Well, I am reconsidering this. Look out for longer pieces. 727 words before this elliptical sentence or fragment according to “Word”. You have been warned.

Paul Butters


More postings -      http://authspot.com/short-stories/colonisation-earth-part-three/

http://authspot.com/poetry/swirling-snow/

http://authspot.com/poetry/determined-8/

http://authspot.com/poetry/nick-2/

http://authspot.com/poetry/car-crazy/

http://authspot.com/poetry/arthur-5/

http://authspot.com/poetry/kepler/

http://www.picable.com/People/Sports/Skateboarding/Cleethorpes-Cheeky-Free-Parking.4249171

http://sportales.com/soccer/manchester-united-versus-real-madrid/

 

Triond Tragedy

(Picture Credit - World Trade Centers by Andrea Yelde)





The following blog has ironically attracted 638 Views on Triond to press (29\1\13). My "Fergie" piece has had 370 Views and is still on the "Sportales" top ten and doing well. However, my article "Single" on Triond has received 826 Views. Anyway, here is "Triond Tragedy":

Late last year Shelpeare and others advised me (and everyone else) to target Triond sites with a “Top of the Pops List”. So I targeted “Beyond Jane” a few times and got hundreds of views. On 12^th January I targeted “Sportales” with “World Ping Pong Championship 2013”. However, I made a typo in the title, and all was lost...

As I said above in my description, following the advice of Shelpeare and others late last year gave me a mini Triond Triumph. “Beyond Jane” was the scene for hundreds of views for me. Loved it.

The same tactic did not work on “Writinghood” because its “Top Ten” was monopolised by one or two writers. But hey, “Beyond Jane” was great: namely my pieces “Single”, “Listen” and “Beat the Bullies...”

But then I posted “Ping Pong...” As usual I copied and pasted the “Description” and main text from “Microsoft Word”. (My “Word” automatically corrects some spelling errors and underlines the others in bright red). Titles are too short to copy and paste so I typed this one straight in again: BUT I typed “Champoinship”!!! Only after it was published did I notice this error but I submitted a “fix” immediately. The URL showed the same typo by the way.

Just before that fix I had six Views and the piece went straight onto the “Sportales Top of the Pops”. Since then NO FURTHER VIEWS. Whenever I click on the title from my “Published” page I get “Not Found”. For days the same “Not Found” notice appeared when I clicked the title on the “Top Ten”.

By searching Sportales I found a “Sportales: Sport” page listing recent articles and THAT link worked! The URL was amended too. Later I changed the title again, using “Championships” with an “s”. The URL changed but only that one link worked. Further Views by Shelpeare and myself there did not register.

I complained to GetSat about this “access lack” and added further update-comments but there was no reply. Talked with Shelpeare via Personal Message at great length: this has happened to him and many others too.

Today the “plot thickened” when I checked my View stats. My “Referring Chart” shows 900 Views recently from Sportales and next to nothing from anywhere else. An article of mine, “Cheating at Table Tennis” has had 330 Views (don’t recall these hitting my Dashboard by the way) but “Ping Pong...” remains at SIX. Where are the other 600 Views?

Being an optimistic person I hope these Views will come through for “Ping Pong”. I also hope those links from my “Published” page, my profile etc. will be restored.

While I’m at it. Earlier I complained to “GetSat” about their “Image Machine”. When you draft a piece there is a button to “Get Images”: usually a selection of images appears: you click on one, it turns green and hey presto... For “Ping Pong”, however, the images provided were unresponsive, although their “credit details” did “pop up”. So I had to track an image down to source and add from my laptop. Such unresponsiveness happens from time to time and is a pain. Rant Over.

Paul Butters

Hello Poetry - My Most Popular Poems

(Picture Credit - "Poetry" by Ghazi Salahuddin)

Here is my latest personal Top of the Pops List:

1) Circles - 665,
2) Excitement - 479,
3) Frenetic Genetics - 424,
4) Mother Nature - 360,
5) New Eden - 328,
6) A Poem - 311,
7) Girl Eyes - 218.

The interesting thing to me is that "New Eden" had the first major surge of Views, getting onto the "Trending" list. Well, it was the first surge I noticed, anyway. Then "A Poem" made a surge and overtook "New Eden" for a while. Since then there seems to have been a "knock on" effect, leading to the top four as shown. Looks like many made a pilgrimage together to "New Eden" but thankfully checked out my other poems.

"Frenetic Genetics" has been very popular elsewhere on the web and has risen to number three here. Another poem, "Champion", did extremely well on VoicesNet and should perhaps be posted on Hello Poetry too.

PS Have posted "Champion" on "Hello Poetry" and it has drawn 77 Views in 1 hour! To press it has had 5852 Views on VoicesNet. Good News - at 1.30PM I received an email from "Hello Poetry" telling me that "Champion" was trending. Over and Out.

24\1 (00.07) Something else - from my Facebook Page - I put:

"AMAZING! On the Voicesnet writing site I amended about 25 pieces today by removing a full stop from the end of each title. Each one was assessed by a volunteer checker. If any others get rejected then embarrassment: they are already published!"

25\1 - Latest stats from Triond - "Triond Tragedy" 489V, "Fergie..." 189V.

26\1 - Latest: Triond Tragedy 591 (my 2nd highest to press on Triond), Fergie 202 (5th)!

Latest:      http://writinghood.com/style/remember-type-inner-speech-in-italics-2/

Over and Out.