Bakugan au combat!

This is why I love my Bakugan au Combat! blog. It's long-ceased to have a purpose, and really pretty dumb.

But every once in a while 50 people around the world suddenly decide to disagree.

Bakugan Au Combat!

Looking for Bakugan information? Click here: www.bakuganaucombat.com and please notice the ad links. If you find them relevant, click them. Thank you!

The reason for that post is the recent resurgence in Bakugan related activity according to Google Analytics. I cannot figure out how or why this is happening.

Recap:

About a year ago, I wrote this post on Bakugan - a toy and pastime my son discovered in his Swiss school. After the post appeared, Google Analytics showed huge traffic to my site from Europeans interested in Bakugan.

As an experiment, I registered the domain name bakuganaucombat.com and started a blog with Google AdSense. For some reason, traffic to this site has not increased even though I use the phrase "Bakugan au combat!" frequently, conspicuously and ridiculously throughout the site, hoping it will appear on any Google searches. (Google "bakugan au combat" and the blog is the #2 hit, followed by greatcreativeneutralcountry.com. Change it to an image search and my picture appears.)

A few days ago, on a whim, I did this post on bakuganaucombat.com. I have since seen the traffic to greatcreativeneutralcountry.com triple, with heavy traffic from Germany.

I really don't know that many Germans.

So if you are interested in Bakugan, please visit bakuganaucombat.com. Because my Google AdSense agreement does not allow me to ask you to click on the links, I only ask that you consider them, and pursue those most relevant to you. And because you never know which may be relevant, you may as well browse through them, if you like.

Bakugan au combat!

Let's kill some blogs.

I realize I'm starting to be a pack-rat for blogs. I've got too much digital detritus hanging around the blogosphere. I've started a handful on a whim. I had high hopes for one, nurtured it for about 18 months then stopped feeding it like a neglected gigapet. So I'm ready to put a few on some digital chloroform beds.

Here's the fun part: You get to help me put them down.

Go to this blog's main page. In the upper left corner is a poll to determine which blogs should head for Davy Jones' locker. You can vote for multiple candidates, and in the event of a tie (or near-tie), I'll do a two-fer, and delete a couple.

Poll closes August 15.

(The Bakugan Au Combat blog warrants explanation. For that, click here.)

Blogosphere Experiments, Part 5: The Virtual Ghost Town of Blogs

There are a lot of dead blogs on the net - digital ghost towns of one-post blogs lost in limbo.

Before deciding to call my new blog Titanium Bound, I came up with a list of names and asked a few friends for their ideas, too. But once I started checking the availability of names, I realized they were all taken by dead blogs.

Here's a sample of the names I checked and the status of the blog that already owns that name. Those marked with a * indicate blogs with a single post (i.e., someone started the blog and then decided it was too hard).

NAME: Flux Capacitor
LAST POST: 2003

NAME: Signpost
LAST POST: 2002*

NAME: Bend in the River
LAST POST: 2005*

NAME: Another Thing Coming
LAST POST: 2006

NAME: Gathers No Moss
LAST POST: 2004

NAME: Adnostic
LAST POST: Sept. 2008*

NAME: Volution
LAST POST: Oct. 2008 (blog is in French)

NAME: Premonition
LAST POST: 2003*

NAME: Ice to Eskimos
LAST POST: Sept. 2008

My Birthday Party

For my birthday I asked all 377 of my Facebook friends to change their profile pictures to mine for the day. Eighty-five of them did. That's about 22%. Sounds low, but it was still the biggest turnout of any party I've ever had.

Blogosphere Experiments, Part 5: Bakugan au Combat!

As I've mentioned, this site has received an inordinate amount of visits because of my original Bakugan post.

In fact, if you Google "Bakugan au combat," this blog is still in the top three. Do a Google image search, and my masthead is on the main page. According to Google Analytics, my Bakugan post receives 63.35% of the visits to this site - almost 2,000 visitors in three months.

So as an experiment, I purchased www.bakuganaucombat.com via Go Daddy, which routes viewers to my new blog, "Bakugan au Combat!" Of course, loaded with Google Adwords in case the experiment pays off.

The Bakugan au Combat blog receives approximately zero visitors. And it doesn't come up on any Google searches.

This can't because the content is awful and written when I'm really bored. Because as bad as it is, it has more to do with Bakugan than my original post did. So I'm chalking $9.99 I paid to Go Daddy up as R&D.

Bakugan au combat!

Blogosphere Experiments, Part 4: The Results Are In

Thanks to those who voted on my Blogosphere Experiment poll. Per popular opinion, I am going to post a Facebook status update encouraging others to view my page and click on links.

But I'm going to postpone this effort until after May 5th, because I've launched a new effort out involving Facebook. And I don't want to saturate the market with too many egocentric requests.

Please feel free to participate.

Blogosphere Experiments, Part 3 (or Bakugan, Britney Spears, AIG bailout)

According to Google Analytics, some weird things are happening with this blog.

I usually get around 40 hits a day, which is very flattering. A huge thanks to everyone who reads this.

But traffic has spiked to around 80, and has been holding for some time. And I think it's because of my Bakugan post.

Google Analytics tells me that this Bakugan post has received 839 hits since it was first posted a month ago. I know those aren't you regular readers.

And a search for "Bakugan au combat" lists this blog immediately after two Bakugan instructional videos on You Tube.


So I've double the visitors to my blog with a serendipitous post title. The Bakugan visitors don't seem to spend much time on the site once they realize it's just cultural commentary. But I wish they'd click on a GoogleAd ad or two while they're there.

Blogosphere Experiments, Part 2

In the last 7 days, I've received 12 clicks for a total of $18.84.

So since this blog began, I've earned $36.50 (Google sends me my first check after I reach $100.00).

I wonder if you could fund a party like this. Start a blog, run about 10 Google Ads on it, and tell your invitees the more they click, the bigger the party.

Blogosphere Experiments, Part 1

I’m contemplating removing the Google Ads from this blog (the three just to the right, if you’re reading this on the main page). I'm not sure I'm running them effectively. And they are pretty ugly.

From what I understand, I receive a few cents every time someone clicks on those ads. Google will send me my first check after the total reaches $100.00. Last time I checked, I had a balance of $17.21.

The ads are a blogosphere experiment. I'm not so interested in the cash. (I have another blog that receives 4x the traffic this one does, but I don't want to advertise on it.)

Here are the options I'm considering:

1. Remove the ads because they're unattractive.
2. Do a little research to see if I'm maximizing my Google AdSense account and continue the experiment.
3. Update my Facebook status to say, "Greg wants you to visit www.greatcreativeneutralcountry.com and click on at least one ad" to see what kind of spike I get.

If you're viewing via Google Reader, I've included a poll on the main page to see what you think. Please click on a Google Ad while you're there.