'Original' Content by the numbers

So it's been just over a year where iOS 4.3 came out and I came across a hidden feature that wasn't included as part of the release notes where you can now tether an iPad running iOS 4.3+ to an iPhone (even pre-iPhone 4's without the wireless hotspot feature) via bluetooth (assuming you have the Personal Hotspot feature enabled on the iPhone by your carrier).

I thought this can't be new so decided to Google it and came up with nothing, so decided to dust off my personal blog and post my experiences just as an experiment to see how 'original' content on the web would fair with Google rank etc. Hence I did this post -> Bluetooth tether iPad to iPhone in iOS 4.3 without jailbreak.

So as a test I did a quick google for 'bluetooth tether iPad to iPhone' and it showed up in the first page of results... neat.

Then after a few days of getting 300+ views a day, I thought "Maybe I can make a squillion dollars from ad revenue like all those other bloggers that do this for a living... So why can't I?" Moments later, I added some Google Adsense to my blog (and Google owned Blogger platform that I created this blog with has an easy 'Monetize' tab to make it super simple).

It is safe to assume that I'm not posting this from the Caribbean, sipping cocktails, retiring off my ad revenue for a single fortuitous post made from my accidental discovery, but it is interesting, a year on, to look at the numbers.

Here is the spike of page views of the blog when I first made the post, from my otherwise un-interesting (other than for family and friends that put up with my g33ky tomfoolery) posts:



(Yes, from the flat line prior, it wasn't that interesting... :P)

Then some numbers (as at 13/03/2012) - Original post was on 10/03/2011:



103,327 page views [approx 280 page views per day]*
181 clicks (for Adsense ads on the site) [approx 0.5 clicks per day]]*
$116.39 (ad revenue, and the kicker is that Google doesn't pay out until I hit AUD$150... *heh*) [approx $0.32 per day]*

(*Note: These numbers are aggregate for the entire blog since I made that post, but assumption is that there really isn't much other interesting content, so the majority of views were for the post mentioned. Also these numbers are not just from Google searches, after the first few months in an experience to see how I can get more traffic to the post, I did a search for similar terms. The search results mostly had posts/articles mentioning jailbreak solutions like iTether etc. so decided to get some cross linking action by posting comments on these posts with an alternative non-jailbreak method and linked to my post.)

And the traffic sources below gives an idea about some of these, as well as others posting the link to the post to help out others with a similar question etc.



Anyhoo, so bottom line is that it is hard work making a living writing blog posts, but it was an interesting experiment. (Not that I was actively posting that much)

One thing I have to say, the best thing I did was to suggest as part of the post is that people who got it working to post back in the comments with their experiences and also hardware/iOS versions that they got it working with. This meant that basically people who read the post can continue to read the comments, and know that someone with similar hardware/iOS versions got it working. It definitely helped with helping out others with a similar configuration, and troubleshooting problems that people were having.

All in all, in spite of the measly monetary value that is not worth doing for that reason alone, the value of the goodwill to others far outweigh that. So if you do have some original content (technical or otherwise) and can't really find anything similar online, do yourself a favour and take the little time it'll take to post it somewhere, and have the satisfaction that other people will benefit from it... and as an added bonus if someone asks you if you know how to do something, it's much easier to post them a link, rather than explain it again for the umpteenth time... :)

P.S. For all you people expecting a delivery in the next few days/weeks from the postal delivery man, give this a go and see if it works with the new 'New iPad' and post your experiences on the comments of the original post. Doubt it wouldn't work, but I won't know for sure until someone tries as I can't justify getting one just yet...

Life in the cloud...

So ever since I got my iPhone 3G almost a year ago now (End of Aug 2008), I've been slowly trying to come to grips with the real potential of this device. Did I mention that this thing makes phone calls too? :P

Having a 24/7 connection to the intrawebs is a game changer for me as this opens up endless possibilities. But the ability to get my email, check my calendars, have access to my contacts and keeping the calendars and contacts always up to date have always been an issue for me until now...

Enter Google... they pretty much own me now... let me explain... My main email is a Gmail account, my calendar is through Google Calendars, my contact list is sync'ed through to Google Contacts (little known feature as part of Gmail). I'm playing happily in Google's eco-system and I'm hoping that they keep to their motto/code of conduct of 'Don't be evil', and a whole bunch of my life is now kept in the Google cloud.

Anyways, it wasn't easy getting to the point of synchronisation zen for having access to my up to date email, calendar and contacts. Actually email was easy as it worked right off the bat with the iPhone and accessing Gmail through IMAP, however calendar and contacts are trickier due to the myriad of computers, devices and operating systems that I need access to this information from.

My work life is all Microsoft centric, I'm a software developer/IT consultant for a company that does pretty much work revolving entirely Microsoft products/offerings/solutions. But at home I'm an Apple fanboy running Leopard OSX and use my iPhone for most things.

Also I need access to multiple calendars, work/personal/wife's calendar and these span both Google Calendar and Microsoft Exchange, and thankfully my requirements for my contact list is that I only keep a personal contact list.

Oh, did I mention that a requirement is that I don't have to spend a single cent? :) Even though there is a great solution using a paid offering like MobileMe (which works very well, and is well worth the money), my super tight-arse asian upbringing led me to find a free offering...

So after much research online, trail and error and testing, my solution which suits my purposes is as follows:

Google Calendar

This is used to host my personal and work calendar, as well as my wife's calendar. As Google Calendar allows multiple calendar, my main calendar is the work calendar, and I also created a personal calendar. My wife has her own Google Calendar, which is shared and linked to my Google account.

Basically, I have the luxury of having a work computer that is always on, and on my work network, so I use Google Calendar Sync to 2-way sync my Outlook exchange calendar with my main Google Calendar (this is a limitation on the tool, which can only sync with the main Google Calendar), which takes care of getting my work calendar up to the cloud.

These calendars (3 - Work, Personal and Wife's) are then synced back home to iCal my Mac through CalDAV (Enable Google Calendar in Apple's iCal).

Same process to setup my iPhone to sync to my Google Calendar (Calendar & Contacts Sync: Set Up Your iPhone or iPod Touch), noting that I set it up for when my iPhone was on OS Version 2.2.x. Version 3.0 allows you to sync with Google's pseudo-"I'm pretending to be an Exchange Server"-server as well as to a local calendar through iTunes, but since the old way still works for me, I'm leaving it status quo (if it ain't broke...).

Extra note is that you'll need to log into http://m.google.com/sync to choose which Google calendars on your account you would like to sync (Calendar & Contacts Sync: Choose Which Calendars to Sync)

Google Contacts

Since I am only interested in syncing my personal contacts, I'm only syncing my contacts stored in Address Book on my Mac to Google Contacts (iTunes: Syncing address book contacts with your Google contacts) which is done through iTunes everytime I sync my iPhone.

Technically, I can sync directly to Google Contacts from the iPhone as per the instructions for syncing the Google Calendar(s) to the iPhone and selecting the 'Contact' option of what to sync with Microsoft Exchange, but I have grown to like the photos of people I associate with contacts on the iPhone and Address Book on the Mac, and these do not get sync'd if directly synced with Google Contacts (although this is an assumption and I'm not willing to lose my pretty pics of people doing a test...). This works pretty well whenever I sync my iPhone with my Mac (every day), and most times update contact information on the iPhone which means I don't really get out of sync with the cloud.

Thing to note is that if you do not have an iPhone or iPod touch, there will not be an option to sync Address Book on the Mac with Google Contacts (as this option is only available in iTunes when syncing with either of these types of devices). I actually needed to do this on my hackintoshed netbook, as I do not sync my iPhone to this, so a workaround is described here. This will allow you to manually sync using the standard iSync functionality on the Mac.

Benefits

Key benefit is that I have access to my calendar and contact information wherever I go. I have access to them whenever I am on a computer with internet access, so if I forget my iPhone or lose it, I still have this information handy. I also have the added benefit of using iCal or Address Book on my Mac to search, view, edit these in a nice UI on a client app. Another benefit which only occurred to me recently is that I'm no longer afraid of losing any of my gear as it's all stored in the Google cloud, and I'm not going to be overly put out, and lose productivity/efficiency by not having access to this information.

Nice touch is also having my work calendar to automatically update when I get invited to meetings, without having check my work email (which I don't do outside of work hours), and not miss an appointment which was organised with short notice based on having missed checking my work emails.

Personal benefit is that I am able to put appointments into my wife's calendar to remind her of upcoming things organised like dinners, birthday parties, etc. and they get sync'ed to her iPod touch. Similarly, she can put in appointments so that I can have visibility of these and not double book nights out with the boys when it's our anniversary or something like that... :) Now if I can only get her to enter in appointments in her iPod touch, and also to turn that darned thing on at home so that it will get sync'ed of wifi, then this might actually be useful... :)

Pitfalls

Syncing with Exchange Calendar at work relies on a client desktop computer turning and running at all times, although I'm not sure if I can sync to multiple exchange servers in OS Version 3.0, which means I can do this directly over the air (although this would mean that I cannot edit/update my work calendar through Google Calendar if I don't have my iPhone or have access to Outlook Web Access).

This solution also puts a lot of trust and faith in Google in their code of conduct of "Don't be evil.", as they would have alot of personal information about me in Gmail, Calendar, Contacts, Search History etc. but I'm going to just put up with that based on the convienience/elegance of this solution. Oh, and the price is right... :)