Blog collecting

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[FormerAdmin]

Hi there Naomi, and welcome. Watch out for that blog collecting. As I'm always saying, it's very addictive.

Speaking of which, if anyone is interested, I'm thinking of turning theblogcollector.com into a general blog on the art and science of blog collecting. It's lain dormant for a while (like a lot of my blogs), but given that there are a few of us who admit to the hobby (and it is a weird one, I will admit!) it might be worth a go.

Embrace the bloggy chaos, I say

Cheers, Andrew

[Nomesque]

Speaking of which, if anyone is interested, I'm thinking of turning theblogcollector.com into a general blog on the art and science of blog collecting.

There's an art and science to it? There ya go. I always thought of it more as a psychosis... hehe..

How would it work? What would you post? I'm curious...

Y'know, in all seriousness, I think blog-collecting is typical of a certain type of personality - the sort who's very good at seeing what needs to be done, planning out how to do it, and getting the ball rolling in doing it. Just... often not that good at keeping going with something once it's implemented. Not to say blog collectors don't keep their blogs going.... well some of them...

[Nomesque]

I am 50ish and loving it  and hi Naomi - I don't collect blogs, I just seem to collect domain names intending them to be blogs.

Another variant of the 'disease', maybe?

[FormerAdmin]

Speaking of which, if anyone is interested, I'm thinking of turning theblogcollector.com into a general blog on the art and science of blog collecting.

There's an art and science to it? There ya go. I always thought of it more as a psychosis... hehe..

How would it work? What would you post? I'm curious...

Y'know, in all seriousness, I think blog-collecting is typical of a certain type of personality - the sort who's very good at seeing what needs to be done, planning out how to do it, and getting the ball rolling in doing it. Just... often not that good at keeping going with something once it's implemented. Not to say blog collectors don't keep their blogs going.... well some of them...

Hi Naomi,

I've managed to keep some of them going - but it is part of my personality that I am better at concept design/planning/execution than long-term maintenance, I just love starting new projects. Which is great as a consultant (working 3 weeks here, 2 months there, setting things in motion) but not great as a blogger (requiring, I think, long term devotion to the core concept).

I think that there is world and blogosphere enough for us crazy folk to have our own little blog collecting corner - what do you think?

Cheers, Andrew

[Nomesque]

I think that there is world and blogosphere enough for us crazy folk to have our own little blog collecting corner - what do you think?

Of course! Even the internet needs its eccentrics...

PS. Good thinking on the thread split.

[FormerAdmin]

Hi Naomi,

I think that if it is good enough to have religious and political extremists in the blogosphere, then it is quite good enough for we (mostly) harmless eccentric blog collectors.

Now - what would the posts be? I'm thinking:
- psychographic/personality profiling systems that identify the "starter but not necessarily finisher" type (I think you are right, by the way, that this is how we end up blog collecting) and see if there is any common ground with what we do as blog collectors
- interviews with blog collectors and guest posts by same
- discussion on easy ways to set up and technically maintain multiple blogs
- ideas around the periphery of the blog collecting concept: are we collection driven or just attracted to the new? Are we more like stamp collectors (building up a collection and looking for complete sets/themes) or knitters (who may - or may not - finish one or more projects then move on to the next)? Are there other parallels in our lives, i.e. are blog collectors more likely to be true neophiles (people who love new things) and therefore gadgetarians? Are we more likely to move through multiple relationships (of whatever type) in our extra-blogular lives?

Thoughts?

Cheers, Andrew

[Nomesque]

Hmmmm... yeah, those are some good ideas!

The psych profiles would be an intriguing project in and of themselves.

[Lani]

I think Andrew, you mentioned  Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (personality typing) in another thread.  just out of curiousity, what are you?  (I'm an INTP)

[FormerAdmin]

I think Andrew, you mentioned  Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (personality typing) in another thread.  just out of curiousity, what are you?  (I'm an INTP)

I tested INTJ in 2001 and INTP a couple of years later.

My colleague and friend Matt wrote The logos and mythos of pop-psychology testing a while back - like him, I don't have a lot of faith in MBTI - Matt basically holds that it doesn't work because it is an oversimplification, I hold that it doesn't work consistently because it is based on a categorisation system that Jung developed for abnormal psychology.

In Jung's work, the introvert/extrovert dichotomy was not about "who is the life of the party?" - it's about "faced with a life crisis (like the death of a parent) do you implode or explode?".

That said, and I will always say this: if any kind of voodoo/psychographic system/newspaper astrology can teach us that different people think differently, then it is a course worth taking and the boss's money well spent.

Cheers, Andrew

[Lani]

I completely agree.  Personality testing is vulnerable to the Forer effect as much as any other pseudoscience etc, among other things.

Like you, I think it's valuable to demonstrate that people think differently, but I also think it's useful tool for people trying to understand themselves.  Not because it is "true" per se, but because at the very least it provides a place to start.  Self-awareness is the goal (imo).  Not an attainable one but the goal nonetheless.

But back to blog collecting...

[Snoskred]

I was going to post something here but I made a new thread for it instead..

[clutterbells]

So Andrew, tell all. How many do you have and where do you keep them? Under your bed? I am like you at work. I am great at visualising a project and getting it kicked off and underway. Totally hopeless at closing it out. Just as well that I work for a large company that makes me do it. I would be hopeless working for myself.

[FormerAdmin]

So Andrew, tell all. How many do you have and where do you keep them? Under your bed? I am like you at work. I am great at visualising a project and getting it kicked off and underway. Totally hopeless at closing it out. Just as well that I work for a large company that makes me do it. I would be hopeless working for myself.

Hi Colin,

I keep them (mostly) in my mediatemple account, but there are other domain names (60+) that I keep parked against the day when I get the energy to flesh out the basic concept behind the name.

I too work for a large company that values ideas - and also has some great 'closers' to compensate for my propensity to start more things than any one human can finish

Best regards, Andrew

[Sueblimely]

Like you, I think it's valuable to demonstrate that people think differently, but I also think it's useful tool for people trying to understand themselves.  Not because it is "true" per se, but because at the very least it provides a place to start.  Self-awareness is the goal (imo).  Not an attainable one but the goal nonetheless.

Knowing that people think differently is surely only a start. Understanding, tolerance and learning how to deal with them are the harder steps.

I am not sure that I want to be self-aware - I might not like what I find. How do you know if you are self aware - your perception that you are self aware could be because you are not self aware  :confused5: 

Andrew - have you ever parked any domains for the purpose of earning money by the domain hosting company using the site for advertising?  I know that if I land on one of those sites I never stay there so I am doubting they would earn the domain owner much -  but then again why are there so many of them if there is no money to be earned.

[macgirvin]

Andrew - have you ever parked any domains for the purpose of earning money by the domain hosting company using the site for advertising?  I know that if I land on one of those sites I never stay there so I am doubting they would earn the domain owner much -  but then again why are there so many of them if there is no money to be earned.

Andrew will likely have some input on this - sorry for jumping in. But a lot of these parked domains are being snatched up by large offshore companies. The portfolios include millions of domain names that somebody once thought was cool, but abandoned. If you've got a million of anything generating $0.25/day, it doesn't take long before it's real money.

The sites running these grab anything that is likely to be typed into the URL bar. That's the primary source of traffic.

[FormerAdmin]

Hi,

I have a lot of parked domains that don't make any money at all - they are just there for somewhere to put them.

There is one (an adult name that Rove discussed one night in context of a joke about John Howard on his show and I bought for a lark) that makes about $10 a month in ads clicked within it.

For reference, the joke was about JWH doing a google search on antique water pouring vessels that were decorated with cats

On big business and domaining: Daring Fireball subscribers will have seen this story from Command Line Warriors about some dodgy dealings. You just can't trust anyone these days

Cheers, Andrew 

[macgirvin]

On big business and domaining: Daring Fireball subscribers will have seen this story from Command Line Warriors about some dodgy dealings. You just can't trust anyone these days

Cheers, Andrew 

Yeah, I discovered this myself. I was using one of the cool web2.0 domain name 'search' tools and managed to come up with a few dozen good ones that nobody else had found. That is until I went back the next day, and all of them were now taken. Never registered before and yet all snatched up in a matter of hours, though I hadn't told anybody about them. Coincidence? Hardly.

The take-home message is that if you ever find a really-really good name that goes well with your target service, grab it immediately. And also be careful what tool you use to find it. Some are less scrupulous than others.

As for the adult domains, I ended up getting rid of most of them. It isn't worth the trouble to run an adult site because you get some real sickos. I've got a couple of really good adult names left that I picked up before the land grab of the late 90s and might figure out how to monetize some day - but monetization isn't a priority for me. Mostly I keep them so I can hand out an email address to somebody that they'll never ever forget.

[FormerAdmin]

On big business and domaining: Daring Fireball subscribers will have seen this story from Command Line Warriors about some dodgy dealings. You just can't trust anyone these days

Cheers, Andrew 

Yeah, I discovered this myself. I was using one of the cool web2.0 domain name 'search' tools and managed to come up with a few dozen good ones that nobody else had found. That is until I went back the next day, and all of them were now taken. Never registered before and yet all snatched up in a matter of hours, though I hadn't told anybody about them. Coincidence? Hardly.

The take-home message is that if you ever find a really-really good name that goes well with your target service, grab it immediately. And also be careful what tool you use to find it. Some are less scrupulous than others.

I'll do an experiment. I looked up three names today using my godaddy reseller account - I will look again tomorrow to see if they are taken. Either way I'll report back.

Cheers, Andrew

[Lani]

I was wondering about that very question today, whether when you look for a particular name, somebody notices. I checked on something at GoDaddy but I doubt that it will now be in hot demand.  I wonder what the results of your experiment will be though, Andrew...

[FormerAdmin]

I was wondering about that very question today, whether when you look for a particular name, somebody notices. I checked on something at GoDaddy but I doubt that it will now be in hot demand.  I wonder what the results of your experiment will be though, Andrew...

Hi Lani,

checked the domains again just now in the reseller account and none of the three had been grabbed. This means that I trust godaddy to not squat on any domain that I enter - which is reassuring, as I've checked some domain names in the past only to recheck them a short while later and find them unavailable.

Best regards, Andrew

[Lani]

Yup, my mum registered hers today.  It was still there.  Now it's just up to me (and Snosk) to do all the hard work! 

[Snoskred]

I've also found godaddy reliable when it comes to this - I would never search a domain elsewhere..

[FormerAdmin]

I was wondering about that very question today, whether when you look for a particular name, somebody notices. I checked on something at GoDaddy but I doubt that it will now be in hot demand.  I wonder what the results of your experiment will be though, Andrew...

Hi Lani,

checked the domains again just now in the reseller account and none of the three had been grabbed. This means that I trust godaddy to not squat on any domain that I enter - which is reassuring, as I've checked some domain names in the past only to recheck them a short while later and find them unavailable.

Best regards, Andrew

And the experiment held - I registered two of the three domain names this morning via my godaddy reseller account and they were still available - godaddy rocks

Cheers, Andrew

[guera]

Yep, I will join in the godaddy love - I searched for domains a few days ago and found 3 possibilities. 2 days later all three were still available.