Welcome! I am Andrew Yates, a web developer based in Birmingham, UK. Currently Lead Web Developer at 383 Project Ltd.
As you can probably tell, if your reading this on my site and have been here before. My sites design has changed once again. This time it’s not only a new design, its a new design in a new version of HTML. The site is now built using HTML5.
1 Comment ReadFinally after months I have added search to inBlogs, right now its very simple you search for a keyword/term and it will return the most relevant items.
0 Comments ReadOnce again I fell back into the non-blogging blogger state that has plagued my blogs for the last few years. Although I have many excuses I could bore you with the ultimate one is that I just come up with the content. The content I do come up with isn’t of the standard i’d be willing to post on the site. So this Monday I will be consulting with Brum Bloggers to find out how I can get some new interesting ideas/content up on the site.
On another note (and another excuse) I have been rather busy on projects, old and new. I say new, one of them is actually nearly 5 years in the making. Hopefully i’ll have a few posts about that lot soon.
Just going back to the first note, how do you keep your blog fresh with new content and ideas? I don’t want to turn this site into a ‘personal life’ blog, which rules out alot of content that I could come up with.
0 Comments ReadWell it’s taken a while for me to notice I haven’t actually blogged about the new inBlogs being launched, so here goes…
Back in October I (once again) hired James McDonald to create a funky design for one of my projects. I wanted to update the old design and also add a few new features to the site. Some of which are still in development and will be making an appearance soon, these are details at the end of this blog post.
The old inBlogs was powered by e107 as well as a plugin I had developed previously to Aggregate blogs using SimplePie. When the old inBlogs was taken down it was barely usable, with slow loading times and daily issues with feeds that had been taken down etc.
The new inBlogs isn’t powered by a CMS but a bespoke system I developed that still uses SimplePie to collect posts and save them to a database. Overcoming problems such as keeping 120+ feeds up to date on the site we’re nice little challenges throughout the development. The same system that updates the feeds will soon detect problematic feeds that haunted the previous site.
The new inBlogs also employs a new method for tweeting, the site no longer relies on twitterfeed to tweet, but uses it’s own feed update system and short URLs. You can check out inBlogs’ twitter at either @inBlogs or @inBlogsLite if you want to see the top post since the last tweet every 3 hours. The URL shorterner also records how many times the link has been hit so a more in depth stats page can be developed at a later date.
A few things that will be added to the site soon…
A few people I want to thank for making the new inBlogs possible.
While I try to work on inBlogs (thanks to the lack of broadband and useless mobile broadband), I am starting to think about ways to promote it. Ways I can get more people interested and more blogs added to the aggregator quickly. I’ve seen many different ways of promoting websites and WebApps. Some successful and some not so successful, One app caught my eye recently…
I (like many others) have come across a service/app called Spotify, which allows you to listen to tracks as you wish. You can add songs to your ‘Queue’ and create and share playlists. Daniel Davies (fellow Web Developer at 383 Project Ltd.) came in the office and then mentioned it and through Spotify’s invitation service it soon went around the office and Spotify gained 3 new sign up’s. This method of gaining new users was very successful in Spotify’s case, now a few months on, you can download Spotify without an invite.
A little about the new inBlogs before I continue, previously people could simply submit a feed and it’ll get activated and that was it. If they wanted it removed they’d have to email me. This new version, as well as a brand new design thanks to Flockey, will have a feed management area. This area will allow blog owners to log in and add/edit/deactivate feeds as they wish. The old ‘Friend of inBlogs‘ system will be back with a twist though, people who refer other bloggers can gain the ‘Friend’ status. The ‘Friend’ can also be obtained through a payment/donation. That’s enough about the new inBlogs.
Now how would a similar system translate to an aggregator? Well to be honest, i’m not to sure it would. Would people send out the invites in the first place? It wouldn’t spread around Twitter and other such sites in the same way, people aren’t getting access to thousands of free songs. It’s just a basic aggregator. I guess the referall scheme is exactly the same as invitations, it will just reward you after.
At some stage I will need some people to test the new site. To go around break something, then report it to me to fix it. If you are interested in helping out let me know and i’ll add you to the list.
0 Comments ReadA few months back I brought a package from Adam Roberts that included a domain and designs for a web development site. I am now actively working on getting this site up and running. I am hoping to officially launch several sites at once.
The site essentially is based around readers and writers creating articles, tutorials and news posts for cash. If you wish to earn some extra money and create a few posts ready for when the site launches get in touch with me by using the contact page or twitter.
All posts will need to be related to Web Development, I am still working out rates to pay writers but i’m sure we can come to an agreement that suites everyone. If you have experience blogging or writing then that will be a bonus.
Look forward to hearing from all you writers.
0 Comments ReadQuite a while ago I blogged alot about a clients site called inBlogs, an Ad-Free Web-Related Aggregator. Well now I own the site and have made some significant changes to the site to improve its speed and backend. The main initial problem we had with the site before was that it would clog up and stop functioning when lots of feeds needed updating. This has now been resolved and the site moved over to a new host. So far the site is running nice and quickly, with no hangs experienced over the past 2 weeks.
The Friend of inBlogs will be re-added and all the friends of the previous inBlogs copied over. I will be doing a big advert campaign once I feel the changes to the site have been completed, this will boost not only traffic to inBlogs but traffic to active blogs that are been aggregated by inBlogs.
For now if you have a blog and wish to add it to inBlogs please do so.
0 Comments ReadJust thought before I wrote some new content for this site to go live in the next few days, i’d come here and just quickly update everyone with anything I can think of really.
I mentioned a couple of my own projects last time, no names to be released as yet, but they are coming on well just need to find the time to get them finished and up and running. I have started on a few other little projects too since the last update, one includes some changes to this site. These will be online as soon as I can complete them.
More tutorials, articles coming soon. Some updates to come about my EyeTV Hybrid, some new stuff about my iMac and well any other gadget that is new ish… I may even get some stuff in about AppleScript.
Talking of AppleScript, hopefully in the next week or so I will have a script done for one of my little ‘fun’ projects. More information on this will come when its all complete and working.
e107 Guides etc, still in the works. Will try and get something out soon, can’t guarantee anything.
Work… What can I say, it’s going great. Its miles better than working at home in a tiny office, now I get to work on some amazing projects in a cool office with some great guys, random music, and chit chat.
Expect some posts in the next few days. Gonna get this blog back to ‘active’ status.
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