I’ve been following GeekMommy on Plurk for a while. The site is a Blog chuck full of information. So when GeekMommy decided to run a contest, I thought it would be a good idea to help her along.

Let her know of a good Vlog and you might just walk away with a Flip Ultra video camera. I know I will. It promotes so much by doing this - GeekMommy, the Vlog you watch and of course, you.

So check out Geekmommy. Help her out and you might just have something that will let you start your own Vlog.

Other Posts of Interest:

• Is my website worth it?
• Small Crisis Averted - iPod / Zune Giveaway status

“103,288,431 websites with nothing on…”

It’s the Bruce Springsteen song with a different twist. Of course when Bruce performed that song in 1992, the general populous wasn’t on the internet. I would make a guess that the majority didn’t even know what the internet was. Of course that all has changed. We use the internet everyday to buy, sell, inform, rant, rave, rate and surf.

The number at the beginning of this article is the amount of websites that are active on the internet today. Over half a million were registered today while 338 million were deleted and about 350 thousand either expired or were transferred (stats from Domaintools.com). While the average person surfs about 5-20 websites in a sitting, where do they go? Better yet, will they ever see your site and for how long?

If you look on alexa.com, the top 10 websites are as follows: Yahoo, Google, YouTube, Windows Live, MSN, MySpace, Wikipedia, Facebook, Blogger and Yahoo (Japan). Even a couple months after the shutdown, Stage 6 is still in the top 500 Global (485 and dropping).

Don’t expect to see your favorite blogger in the top 500. Even your favorite superstars don’t make it to the top 100 thousand. If you think making it Hollywood is difficult, try making it as a website.

Why do we go to websites? Well, for news, information, products and email. Mix in the occasional rant about gas prices, the presidential race or your favorite sports team. Everything else can be hit or miss. If we find it, that’s cool. If we miss it, then ignorance is bliss I guess.

What is your favorite website and why? Do you go to a page and read, or do you scan and leave? 3 minutes is about the average for someone to be on a website, but once again - That is an average. Most likely they are on and off in 30 seconds going to the next web site that will entertain them for up to 3 minutes.

There are a lot of things that webmasters do to make that stay longer. Write more articles can one way. Some feel that controversial posts can be the way to go. Some believe that giving away trinkets and bigger ticket items is the key. I ran a contest where I gave away a Zune or iPod. I hoped to see a moderate amount of traffic, but it really didn’t go in the direction I would like to have seen.

I wish I could say I have a golden tongue for blogging. I don’t. It’s more of a “Babbling idiot”. But I keep doing what I do best. And maybe someday that babble will end up with a high Digg count or mention on another’s blog. Maybe it’s just so I can keep from having Idol hands for the Devil’s Toolbox.

It’s more of a new found passion to write. Sometimes it’s music - Other times its news. Still even other times it’s the hope that someone of interest can see my babbles and connect so I can build my network.

I read everyday tips and tricks to bring more to my site. Whether it’s calculated data like from Stomper.net, or just the everyday blog that shares the same passion as me to write. I read, learn and copy with the best of them.

For those of you who do not know Randy Rhodes - he was a guitar player from the 70’s. He played with Ozzy Ozbourne and Quiet Riot and some consider him to be one of the greatest guitar players ever. I remember reading an article where Randy stated that he loved to learn so he could get better. When he entered a city for a show, he would find a local music teacher, then sit down with them for a lesson. It didn’t matter if they were good or bad at teaching or even if they played guitar, for Randy stated he always got something out of it.

What do you get out of your website? Money? Personal Gratification? Maybe just the simple idea to connect with someone else on the same levels as you. Friends with similar passions getting together to converse, swap stories and maybe help each other out. After all, you do have 103,288,431 websites to choose from.

So where do you go on the internet and why? Do you get on the internet to check mail and move on with your busy schedule, or are you someone that wants to try and soak up everything the internet has to offer? Find out about the latest game patches, learn about something you need to do at work or make a better investment. It’s all out there on that thing we call the “Information Superhighway”. All you have to do is just put up your thumb so you can be hitchin a ride and maybe someday you’ll stumble along my path and stay for about 2 minutes, 59 seconds.

Of course, you are welcome to stay longer. Maybe even leave a comment….?

Other Posts of Interest:

• Is Comcast Trying to Be the Next AOL?
• Dell Buzz on Possible Phone?

Today I was working on the site and the delete button jumped up and bit me! OW!

We had a small issue, and I had to restore the backup database. There were a couple tables that were restored from the weekly backup. There should be no data loss, but if you signed up for the site this week, you may have to do it again.

Speaking of signups - Some have been asking about the iPod - Zune Contest info. According to the rules I set up (found on the Giveaway Rules Page) I will be choosing a winner today. I will email that user and they will have 7 days to respond. Once a winner is acknowledged, I will post the results.

NEWay, thanks for being a part of the site and participating in the contest. I have taken your information to heart and will be using it down the road.

Other Posts of Interest:

• Webware 100 Winners - Who won, and what’s new.
• Contests

Web Apps.  Can we live without them anymore? What did we ever do without them? Webware put out it’s top 100 and we’re going to go through them and see what was good, what was bad, and what was… well, you know..

Webware is a site dedicated to watching what is popping up out on the internet. Any application that a web developer puts out will be checked out and reported on by this organization. It’s a good thing, too. There are so many out there, it’s tough to keep up.

On April 21^st, Webware put out the list of the top 100 apps. There were ten categories, each with ten winners. There were 5000 nominees, and 300 apps were chosen as finalists. Over 1.9 million votes were cast to dwindle this list down to 100.

According to Webware, most of the winners were also winners last year. There were a couple apps that pushed their way onto the list. This might not be as easy next year as Web Apps are expected to be more widely used within 2008.

So here are the top picks:

In the Audio category, we saw popular names like iTunes, Zune, eMusic and AmazonMP3. It was great to see sites like Lastfm, live365 and blogtalk radio on the list.

The Browsing category had Firefox, Google and Google Reader, Internet Explorer and Opera. iPhone was the newcomer and not a surprise to the list. Maxthon Browser is a lesser known app that is great to see win in this category.

Commerce and events saw Amazon, ebay, Google adwords, Paypall and Yahoo on the list. It was great to see Craigslist - it’s such a popular site and not graphically driven. Kayak was the name I wasn’t familiar with. It is a Travel aggregation website - which means it will find the best rates from the other sites, then redirect you there.

In Communication we saw Gmail, Skype, Yahoo mail and AIM. Meebo is a multinetwork IM platform that lets you chat between AIM, Yahoo, google and msn. Pidgen also is a multi IM site. and OoVoo is a chat and Video chat site. Too bad Twitter or Friendfeed didn’t make it.

Productivity showed us Google Docs, Microsoft Office Workspace and Yahoo Calendar. Some other lesser known sites could be Basecamp, Mint, Remember the Milk and Zoho. It keeps reminding me I have work to do…

Publishing and Photography contained sites like Blogger, Drupal, Flickr, WordPress and Twitter. Good to see an old site friend in Worth 1000 - a Photoshopping contest site - added to the winners.

The Search and Answers section had a host of old favorites. From Ask, Google, Wikipedia and Yahoo. A new entrant is Hakia. It’s a new site that searches on common words.

The Social winners were MySpace, Facebook, Yahoo, Google LiveJournal. Friendster had some tough times and almost were bought out by Google. However they prevailed and joined the list of the top 10 in this category. I may never go to “Stardoll”, but for anyone that wants to “Dress up dolls”, this may be the Social site for them.

Utility and security showed sites like Amazon, Bittorrent, Yahoo, Yousendit and OpenID. It’s also good to see OpenDNS in the list. It’s a great way to thwart online rogues in getting your information.

Last, but not least, the Video category had a lot of new names in it. YouTube, Netflix and Amazon were the three mainstays. Ustream and Joost were ones I knew about. Fixmymovie helps clear up pixilated video. A pretty good service - I may need it for my videos…

The list is pretty impressive. Like I said earlier, it’s too bad Friendfeed wasn’t on the list. Pownce is another site I can think of. But there is always next year.  And it will be a competition to look forward to.

Other Posts of Interest:

• DigGoogle - What Google Can Gain if They Buy Digg
• About