Lighter blogging

As luck would have it I've been been dragged by GP and wife through to some investigations ( X rays, strange wires pocked up your leg etc but no super powers resulting ), and am going to win another visit with our finest and their machinery - probably next week.

This is going to reduce blogging for a bit, but I'll still manage the odd post no doubt, but at a lower frequency. Normal service will be resumed shortly.

Blue bash reflections

So I made it home, abandoning the younger a fitter members of the Tory blogging fraternity to their home brew entertainment.

It was good to meet up again with some of the guys from Steve Green's Pint of Badger fuelled afternoon last year. Also to get to know a few more bloggers. ( Just what is so Terrible about Terrible Tory Girl anyway ? )

Blogging's not where it was, and in many ways has gone over the initial wave of interest of a few years ago, as the media and innovators chase twitter, facebook and the semi-detached Conservative home type sites.

I suspect blogging will become the hinterland of political parties electronic presence. Few people can write about politics without becoming more involved and developing their ideas. At the same time networks are developing outside of the control of any party or body ( as Eric Pickels wisely conceeded in his brief talk ). This will continue to give blogging a form of deep long term influence. English Nationalism is perhaps the best example of this. An issue rejected by all the main parties, but a key issue for many of their bloggers.

As the general election warms up bloggers will be engaging with the issues and each other via any means possible. But the key is likely to be the wider interaction on social media - Mum's net type sites etc and the wider population starts tacking an interest for just three weeks. ( Remember how Labour tries to control the local press by getting its party members to try and write "floating voter" letters. The scope for this sort of influence has now vastly increased and we can expect the propaganda war to be relentless. )

The key moment for the blogs themselves will be after the election as the battle for ideas and the soul of the parties ( combined with perhaps two leadership elections ) gets going.

No 1 Lib Dem blogger ditches the Lib Dems

Its tempting to make partisan hay here, but having read Charlotte Gore's post on this I think she's challenging us all about our relations with our parties ( for those of us who have them).

She deserves a careful read.

I hope it works out well for her. I'm sure she will receive many invites from other parties, but if I was her I'd stay independent for a while. Commentating on the general election battle and then calling your opinion about 2 days out could be a great way to run for the next few months.

Testing

A few tests going on right now. If things look odd - thats why.....

Easy come, easy go

The new top 100 Centre right blog list is in from Iain Dale's empire. This blog didn't make the cut this year of the main category I would have been interested in the top 100 Centre Right. There are a lot of new blogs in there, and a lot of the old guard are slipping down the table - so maybe I shouldn't feel too bad.

Oddly the interaction and visitor frequency has been up over the last 6 months or so, with Silly Week a definite hit ( a lesson for the future perhaps - people love humour, even when the message is serious ).

I've seen a number of blogs run their course this year, and more threaten to call it a day - as we must all do eventually. But this blog remains sufficiently fuelled by anger at Labour's betrayal of our nation on so many levels that I think you'll still be hearing from me until at least June 2010, unless the No 10 bus, or those squirrels outside my shed, gets me first.

Update: OK self petty tempered by only a slight reduction in the Top 100 Conservative rating ( there must be a lot of UKIP and Libertarian blogs out there ).

Advertising on your blog

Last week Economist had an article on the impending doom of services such as Twitter who haven't figured out how to make money yet. ( Whilst I'm a happy Twitter user I can't really see it lasting that long in its current form ).

This got me thinking about if services such as Blogger, which we don't pay for, shouldn't carry adverts.

For what its worth Blogger is a great service, but it occurs to me that it must be hard to make it pay. And ultimately things that don't pay stop. So I'm wondering about running google adverts here.

Any thoughts ?

I used to take the view that having adverts on your blog was a bit much, but now I'm coming round to the idea that perhaps it would be more consistent with my view of the world to either pay for a blog service or run adverts.

London from the top of a bus

I had a fun afternoon on the top of a open top London Bus on Saturday, taking my son on a tour of London. The only problem was that seats on the top deck where in slightly short supply.


All in all a good day out and introduction to London. I'll recommend it, with a warning about potential crowding.



PS Blogging to resume once I've caught up with some pressing work issues.

Blogging plans - work needs

A critical bit of work and a few weeks holiday are coming up, so its going to be necessary to focus more and blog less, until September.

My plan to achieve this is to blog only on Weds, Sat/Sun and twitter at other times with a quick line fired of from Twitbin as a sort of micro blogger.

See how it goes ..... the ratings will head south, but perhaps quality will improve ;-)

PS If any of the following occur then all bets are off

1. Gordon Brown resigns / gets sacked.
2. A General election gets called (you can but hope).
3. Lord Falconer says almost anything in public concerning England.
   

Good local election candidate blogs ?

Shortly I'll be talking to a friend who's standing for the local elections. I'm trying to convince them to get a blog, but need some good examples to point at. ( I'm going to look over the list on Iain Dales blog over the next few days ).

Any suggestions anyone ?