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ProBlogger T-Shirt Models Posted: 09 Apr 2008 12:44 AM CDT Got this picture of some of the team at MarketLeverage wearing the ProBlogger T-shirt today. These guys have been pretty impressive with T-shirt-Bait lately - congrats! Share This

On Being a Healthy Blogger Posted: 08 Apr 2008 02:27 PM CDT Today in the NYT there’s a piece about bloggers blogging til they drop and the impact of blogging on health. I’ve been asked numerous times since the article came out for comment and I’ve had a few random thoughts. Let me post them as a stream of consciousness type post: For starters I think people in all occupations can get stressed and suffer from ill health. I’ve had friends pass away from and survive heart attacks who work in numerous fields - including blogging. I’m a little skeptical that blogging is any more stressful than other professions - yes it can be a pressure cooker of a job - but I wonder if it’s more about the person, the way they deal with pressure, the choices that they make and the boundaries that they put around themselves etc than the occupation itself. Having said that - I’ve had my own little health scare of late with diagnosis of high blood pressure which my doctor thinks could partly be a stress related thing and perhaps related to work. It’s too early to tell and tests go on but it’s becoming clear that I need to make a few more changes in my life in addition to my own increased attempts to eat healthy and exercise more (something I’ve done since late last year). Tomorrow I’m wearing a blood pressure monitor for 24 hours - I’ll be interested to see if it rises or falls when I’m blogging! I can see how bloggers might suffer from the impact of a lack of exercise and poor diet. Blogging can be highly addictive and the temptation to blog through meal breaks, skip opportunities to exercise and to eat poorly is no doubt there for most of us. I know until late last year my exercise routines all went completely out the window and I began to put on weight. Lack of sleep is another common thing that many of us as bloggers fall into the trap of. I know of quite a few others who suffer from insomnia as a result of blogging right up until bed time and then not being able to ’switch off’. Another health related aspect of blogging is that I’ve come across a large number of bloggers lately who suffer from the effects of sitting on poor chairs all day every day. I know for the first few years of my own blogging ‘career’ that I had this problem from sitting on a kitchen chair and then a poor office chair all day. More recently with an investment in a ergonomic chair my back’s been a lot better. Further Reading: Let me leave you with three posts on ‘healthy blogging’ - all from Lea Woodward. How to be a Happier, Healthier Blogger? 7 Unhealthy Eating Habits of Unproductive Bloggers How Stressful do You Find Blogging? Share This

Have AdSense Sliding/Scrolling Text Ads Changed Your eCPM? Posted: 08 Apr 2008 08:57 AM CDT Just under a week ago AdSense rolled out their new Sliding/Scrolling feature on Text Ads. The response from ProBlogger readers was mixed to say the least and included: “They're interesting. I like that the arrows are pretty small, yet visible to those who are paying attention to the ads.” Stephanie “What a waste - do they really think that people looking at Adsense will take the time find a couple of tiny arrows to look at more ads?” - Blogthority “I'm not a big fan of bells and whistles, so it annoys me a little bit to see more moving parts on a website. On the other hand, if it offers more-relevant ads and gets more clicking for the bloggers, then I'm all for it!” - Jeff “This seems counterintuitive. People don't like ads anyway, why would they actively scroll to see more ads?” - Lulu “I think it will help people get more targeted ads” - Alex “I am definitely wanting the option to turn it off.”- Prince John OK - so there are a lot of opinions - but one of the questions that I’m left with today is - have the addition of the ability to see more ads in AdSense units led to any changes in your actual earnings? Does the ability for people to see more ads increase the chance of them clicking more and you being paid more? Does it lead to a higher eCPM (amount earned per 1000 page views)? At this stage it’s too early to be conclusive but in spending some time today checking over my own stats I’m not sure there’s much of a difference. In fact if anything some of my AdSense channels have had a decrease in CTR over the past week. I’m hesitant to draw too many conclusions but here is a graph (without any figures) of the CTR and eCPM of one blog with AdSense on it at the moment. The 3 April was the day that the scrolling ads went live on most people’s ads. As I say - it’s too early for conclusions - particularly with just sampling one blog. There’s many explanations for differences in CTR and eCPM however I’d be interested to hear if anyone else has noticed any changes in your AdSense performance over the last week? Share This

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