20 million pageviews!!

Making A Mark has finally achieved 20 million pageviews - as counted by Blogger!

It also recently made it to six million unique visits as well.

125k+ Visitors from all over the world in the last 6 months

I feel so silly though as I knew it was coming up - but took my eye off the ball so I don't know when it happened but it was in the last few days!

Despite me writing a lot less now (only 106 posts so far this year!) - for reasons I explained in my last post - it's still generating a lot of visits from all over the world - and most stick around and take a longer look at what else can be found on the blog.

Below are tips for how to get people to visit and to keep coming back....

Making A Mark - the story so far

Blogger hasn't quite adjusted to blogs being as old as mine. This is the chart on the stats page

The story since 2011 (when it was already 5 years old) - when it achieved 1 million visits

Previous posts on this topic include:

• Making a Mark is 17 years old. What next? (January 5th 2023) - in which I look back at how the blog has progressed and where people come from
• After 17 million pageviews!!! (May 15th 2021) - when I noted that Making A Mark was averaging over 1 million pageviews each year
• Making A Mark achieves 5 MILLION visits! (January 15th 2020)
• 10 Years of Making A Mark (January 1 2016)
• Making A Mark achieves 2.5 million visits (March 13th 2014)
• Making A Mark notches up 5 million Pageviews! (January 17th, 2014)
• Making A Mark notches up 1 million visits. (April 2011) - It took five years to get the millionth visitor in April 2011
• Exploring Web Analytics #1 - about why I use statistics to develop my blog.

I included a tip for how to get visits and visitors who want to look around once they arrive in 11 tips for how to get 1 million website visitors quickly

The 11 Tips (explained in the post) were:

1. Make your website very focused
2. Make every webpage very specific - make it a niche within a niche
3. Make every title very specific in terms of its topic
4. Provide a short summary of what each page contains at the top.
5. Make navigation very easy
6. Have a plan for how your website will develop
7. Use statistics to guide development
8. People look at images and read words - but really they scan both!
9. Write about what you know
10. Refresh and update a website regularly (use a blog)
11. Do link to relevant other websites - and encourage them to link back

Blog posts to date

The Archive tells me that the pattern looks like this - with over 4,400 published blog posts to date.

• ►  2023 (106)

• ►  2022 (151)

• ►  2021 (179)

• ►  2020 (212)

• ►  2019 (174)

• ►  2018 (205)

• ►  2017 (191)

• ►  2016 (180)

• ►  2015 (217)

• ►  2014 (221)

• ►  2013 (274)

• ►  2012 (304)

• ►  2011 (288)

• ►  2010 (307)

• ►  2009 (310)

• ►  2008 (357)

• ►  2007 (392)

• ►  2006 (348)

I started out writing virtually every day - for three years.

Then started having one day a week off. I producing around about 300 posts each year or very nearly 6 blog posts a week. This continued (apart from when I was on holiday) until I started to write my book in 2014.

BLOGGER Archive Albums are STILL available

I must confess when I was writing GOOGLE BLOGGER: Album Archive no longer available after 19 July 2023 I couldn't quite work out how Blogger was going to keep images on Blogger Blog live unless they had an ACTIVE ARCHIVE somewhere.

It used to be part of Google Archive - but we were told Google Archive was going away - and now has (see image at the bottom of this post). In effect the old user interface was deleted - but not the albums.

THE GOOD NEWS is that, although the old Google Archive interface disappeared last week, the BLOGGER ALBUMS ARE STILL AVAILABLE!

The URL is https://www.blogger.com/mediamanager/albums - which I assume is the same for everybody and brings up your albums when you are signed in.

I have absolutely no idea how you find this URL independently. So for those of you who want to keep their access to the Blogger Album Archive, I highly recommend you make a note of it.

UPDATE: Google finally got round to communicating more effectively and explains where images are now - and how to find them in Google Album Archive changes and What will happen to blog photos now that Album Archive is going away?

A selection of my early Blogger Archive Albums - which used to be limited to 500 pics.

My last album for Making A Mark was ENORMOUS - with 6,602 items to date - and that just would not download.

However I tried Takeout and that did finally download ALL albums - in named and dated albums - in an absolutely enormous archive zip file. However it took ages (DAYS!) to appear - and I very nearly missed the email!

I have however been spending a the last few days reviewing the 6,602 images in the last Making A Mark folder and downloading ones I want to make sure I still have. That was some journey down memory lane! 

One of the reason I like the albums is that, for me - being a regular blogger for many, many years - it's rather like walking back through my life!

The message left on the Google Album Archive Page
after the web gallery was discontinued

GOOGLE BLOGGER: Album Archive no longer available after 19 July 2023

This is IMPORTANT for all those users of Google Blogger who would like to download their images.

For those using Blogger, you may be aware that all the images you have uploaded to Blogger over time are available in something called Google Archive.

The link to Google Archive for your Google Account is https://get.google.com/albumarchive/ plus a long number which relates to the Google Account you use.

However Google Archive is going away.

Technology giant Google has announced that it is shutting down its Album Archive feature. It will no longer be available to Google users starting July 19, 2023. For those unaware, Album Archive feature allows users to view and manage content from different Google products

So if you want to access easily all the images you have uploaded to your Blogger Blog or other Google Products in the past, you need to download them

For me, some of the images are on old computers which I blew up through overuse(!), so the archive is important to me to remind me what exists in photography or paper form.

How to download your images from Google Archive

You can do this in one of two ways

If you've previously accessed Google Archive, Google knows and will have sent you an email about what to do. 

Basically, in the email Google explains how it wants you to use a function called Google Takeout

• this is a bit longwinded - depending on how many images you have stored.
• you say what you want done with your images
• then Google downloads them - but this can take a long time - so you then have to watch out for the email which says they can now be accessed.
• BUT whether you get what you want is debatable!

I can tell you what what you get this route is NOT necessarily the same as all the images in your Google Archive i.e. what happened to me

However if you go to the Blogger Album bit of your archive, you can also access past album stores of images and download them direct to your hard drive. 

THIS IS WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO TO DOWNLOAD YOUR IMAGES

• go to the three vertical dots top right corner of the view of your images in the archive
• click download the album
• you will then get a file of all your images.

You have until 19 July 2023 to download your pics.

Sketches from 2011 in the Blogger Album for my Sketchbook blog

This is what I did a while back when I realised that Google was at some point going to get rid of access to the Archive.

I'm now checking to make sure I've accessed and downloaded everything I want to.

The big question for me is if they get rid of the archive what happens to all the images on my blog going back 18 years? 

Will they still load?

Blogger problem - unable to upload pictures

I'm afraid I cannot write any blog posts involving images at the moment. 

Google has made a change to its software which is preventing me from uploading images to blog posts.

It's an appalling situation in Google's Chrome. This is the message I get while signed in

It's slightly better in Apple's Safari browser - which is where I found out that they want me to accept all Google Cookies so they can track all my activity.

The latter is illegal in the UK - Google should really mug up on GDPR - it's been around for quite a time (see General Data Protection Regulation ​for Artists and Art Organisations)

I suspect the change has been due to the enormous fine Meta has just received - see Meta: Facebook owner fined €1.2bn for mishandling data | BBC

Facebook's owner, Meta, has been fined €1.2bn (£1bn) for mishandling people's data when transferring it between Europe and the United States.

Issued by Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC), it is the largest fine imposed under the EU's General Data Protection Regulation privacy law.

I suspect Google has changed things so they can say "we all agreed to all the cookies" - EXCEPT they obviously don't understand that in the UK we have a legal entitlement to refuse all but essential cookies i.e. they cannot make us accept all cookies!

Looks like Google is setting itself up to get a big fine too!

What next for Feedburner email subscriptions?

On April 14, 2021, Google announced that Feedburner would be losing its email subscription service. Which means that my regular email to those who have subscribed with the latest blog post title and the first 200 characters of the blog post will be no more....

If you’d like to continue using email subscriptions after the June transition, we recommend downloading email subscriber data so that you can migrate your subscribers to a new email subscription service. This data will also be available for download after the transition.

I'm absolutely sure I'm not the only regular Blogger and Feedburner user wondering what to do about a replacement.

[Note: Apparently Google intends to remove all non-core functionality and make it maintenance only - which conflicts with what they're saying re. the removal of the email subscriptions - because that's the only reason I used it - that and the fact it's free!]

Feedburner email subscriptions stop in July 2021

Switching to an alternative for Feedburner email subscriptions

What I want to do is migrate to a Feedburner alternative which

• Provides me with a free service (like Feedburner)
• Allows me to import all existing validated emails from Feedburner
• Allows a subscription for RSS Feed to email subscription option (i.e. replace what I've got at present)
• Works with all existing RSS services (like Feedburner) - for those who like to read blogs in Feedreaders (like Blogger's Reading List)
  
• Gives me some basic statistics. (I have other services which provide me with in-depth stats. All Feedburner tells me is how many subscribers opened the emails).
  

I'm still trying to work out what to do about the imminent (in July) demise of the Feedburner email to all those who have subscrived to date. 

I've actually got so many subscribers that it very definitely makes some alternatives rather expensive - and I'm running a blog NOT a business!

Some Issues

 

Email marketing is targeting ecommerce not blogger

Most of the email subscription marketing options are set up to provide an "occasional newsletter / marketing via email" facility for those who have websites and want to communicate with their followers from time to time

i.e. they're set up for ecommerce operations and not for bloggers

You know when you're dealing with one of these when:

• EITHER there's a limit on 
• the number of subscribers
• the number of feeds
• the number of emails you can send in a month
• OR you have to pay a charge - - which can mount up - to enable you to carry on as at present.

Another thing - not everybody opens their email

Why should I pay for people who do not open their emails?

As we well know, people are apt to sign up for email subscriptions - and then don't bother validating them and/or reading the emails. I certainly do NOT want to pay for a service which is charging me for those who have subscribed but do not bother to open their emails.

For me this is all the more reason to find a good quality basic service - or a very cheap one.

One more thing - migrate or sign up again?

I could migrate all current subscribers - BUT..... there's a bit of me which would quite like to get people to sign up all over again. That way I will know what the number of 'real subscribers" are.

Or maybe I should just use Twitter more to signal new posts

I already announce everyone via my FB Page....

 

Possible contenders

Below I tell you about my favourite option(s) to date 

There's also a summary of some Feedburner Email Subscription Alternatives - plus a link to a post which includes a very useful tabulation to help you decide.

Reporting copyright infringement & impersonation to Google - MAJOR FAIL

For all those who wonder what happens when you report the infringement of copyright or impersonation of your website or blog to Google.....

• The good news - Google reviewed my report
• The bad news - Google has not done what it told me it had done

In short:

• Earlier this year I found a blog which had lifted my blog posts wholesale - and then changed some of the words - and decorated the blog with Google Adsense adverts
• I reported it to Google in April - but heard nothing
• I reported it again in September with a LOT more detail. To do a report you file a formal copyright infringement report - providing a lot of detail
• see https://support.google.com/legal/troubleshooter/1114905
• see https://support.google.com/legal/troubleshooter/1114905#ts=1115645 (re infringement via Blogger)
• you wait for a long time 
• My first report was ignored. 
• My second report was filed on 14 September; 
• I received an email from the Google Blogger Support Team today (9th November 2020)
• you get an email saying they agree with you - and the blog is now suspended and will no longer be viewable
• you check the URL of the offending blog - and FIND THE BLOG STILL EXISTS!!
• you email the Google Blogger Support Team saying you are very unimpressed and are now writing a blog post about it
• you email the Google Blogger Support Team saying you want to pursue the money paid to the blogger who impersonated by blog

GOOGLE FAIL

Bottom line what looks good on the surface does not deliver in reality

We take inappropriate content seriously
If you see content on a Google product that you believe violates the law or your rights, let us know. We’ll review the material and consider blocking, limiting or removing access to it. Behaviours like phishing, violence or explicit content may also violate our product policies and qualify for removal from Google products. Before creating a request, try to flag the content in the relevant product.

In visual terms this is what the process looks like.......

NEW BLOGGER: Legacy Blogger goes away in September (Take #2)

I inadvertently deleted my blog post - this is Take #2!

This is an update - with the pros and cons of where we are up to in the change to NEW Blogger. It's also relevant to all those who read my last post in June on the change to NEW BLOGGER: Google's NEW Blogger interface does not work properly! 

In short I'm now using NEW Blogger for nearly everything - BUT

• some major omissions have still not been remedied
• Legacy Blogger is now scheduled to disappear in September!

I managed to accidentally delete the post before Google had cached it so this is the new shorthand version

Communication has improved 

Although only if you know where the Blogger Help Community is to find it!  

There has been NO UP DATE ON THE GOOGLE BLOGGER BLOG SINCE MAY! Despite several changes in the date the Legacy Option is going be terminated.

These are summary posts about changes made to date. There have in fact been more - which for some reason they've not recorded. 

• Updates for week of August 1
• Updates for week of August 8
• Updates for week of August 15
• Updates for week of August 22

Update on my last blog post

1. IMPOSSIBLE to upload images from my computer

Then - nobody could upload an image

NOW - uploading an image works but is a bit confusing as to which icon means what in terms of adjusting the image.

Those uploading lots or uploading images bigger than the pixel width of their blog post still seem to be having some problems. I suspect they need to change the dimensions and file size of their images.

2. IMPOSSIBLE to upload videos properly

Google's NEW Blogger interface does not work properly!

The tech people at Google may be regretting the notion of revamping Blogger.  Below I'm itemising the problems I've encountered. There may be more!

If you are an ordinary reader please excuse the VITRIOL - which is included in the hope that somebody from Google Blogger might read it!!

Below are two main faults 

• poorly managed change process
• very poor communication and very poor design

plus a section why the new interface is dysfunctional - which contains 

• 10 points explaining what is wrong with the NEW BLOGGER interface

Poorly managed change process

It's a big mistake to change what works - without

• a very good reason and 
• a very good team to deliver that change 
• a very good communication system for communicating the change

It's an even bigger mistake to announce - with a month to go - that 

• a new interface is to become the default in a month's time 
• WHEN IT DOES NOT WORK

That was the situation in May. We're now reaching the end of June and it would appear that 

• the new Blogger is now the default
• BUT somebody in Google Blogger has seen sense and the message saying that the system would remove the Legacy Blogger has been removed.

They better not remove Legacy Blogger because the system STILL does not work properly - and this post is being written in Legacy Blogger to preserve my sanity and keep my hypertension in check!

Very poor communication and very poor design

It's an even bigger mistake to be appalling at communicating about change - but that is what Google has succeeded in doing

• Nothing on the Google Blog - 'The Keyword'. Apparently Blogger is a Google Product which no longer merits a mention!
• No announcement of the planned new interface on the Official Google Blog for Blogger
• Until this week when we got a blog post A better Blogger experience on the web 
• after no blog posts since January 2019!

Obviously Fontaine - who wrote the blog post - has had no training in communication because s/he/it LEFT OUT the critical information that Blogger users need to know until the penultimate paragraph (my bold of the critical information which is NOT ON THE DASHBOARD)

• new interface becomes default in late June
• Classic Blogger - now called "legacy") will disappear in July

This proposal frankly shows evidence inexperience, lack of awareness and ineptitude in equal measure.

How can you do away with a legacy system when THE NEW ONE DOES NOT WORK!!?

We’ll be moving everyone to the new interface over the coming months. Starting in late June, many Blogger creators will see the new interface become their default, though they can revert to the old interface by clicking “Revert to legacy Blogger” in the left-hand navigation. By late July, creators will no longer be able to revert to the legacy Blogger interface.

• Plus in May we got a new banner on the dashboard - 
• a month before the new interface becomes the default. 
• That's the new interface WHICH DOES NOT WORK.  
• It forgets to mention that the existing interface will disappear in July - despite the fact they do not have a fully functioning interface and it has NOT been tested with users.
• BUT there is no HELP Page which explains how the new system works!!!

• The Google Blogger Help Community - set up for Blogger by Google - is NOT MONITORED BY THE BLOGGER IMPLEMENTATION TEAM!!!!!!!
• so we have huge numbers of people reporting various problems with the new interface
• nobody from Google responding to them
• just one blog post which highlights that they recognise there is a problem with images - but that's the only problem they recognise.

I know a number of my Readers use Blogger for their own blogs - in which case:

• you will be interested to learn about why the new interface is dysfunctional
• you may well become as worried as I am about the almighty cock-up already manufactured by Google

Why the new interface is dysfunctional 

Let me count 10 ways it does not work

1. IMPOSSIBLE to upload images from my computer

This is the big one. IT's improved somewhat - but is still not working for everybody.

What was happening is that you click the picture icon and say "I want to upload an image from my computer" and it triggers a large white box with a spinning wheel over a document icon - and momentary notice that it is unable to contacts Google Docs. Given the fact I had no intention of connecting to Google Docs this was very puzzling. It then got extremely boring because the spinning wheel never went away.

The latest is that a picture is uploaded and then does not appear.

So, currently, uploading images very much continues to be a problem for some - particularly those using Safari for a browser.

Comments are suspended on Making A Mark

I've changed how comments work on Making A Mark i.e. you can't.

This is what the preamble to the comment section on Making A Mark now says.....

COMMENTS HAVE BEEN SUSPENDED

There are lots and lots of very silly people who don't understand that Google is not stupid and that links posted to a Blogger comment are:

• NOT LIVE and
• CARRY NO LINK JUICE. 

They continue to post spam comments - despite this blog using both word verification and moderation that states very clearly that no spam will be published.

So I've SUSPENDED COMMENTING BY EVERYBODY but me. This allows past comments to still be seen.

Feel free to comment on my Facebook Page when my blog posts are posted there
BUT but do note: Spammers on Facebook will always be blocked and reported to Facebook if  they spam my FB Page.

I'm left wondering if my NEW blog settings for comments  will mean most people wanting to leave a comment won't see the message.

Whatever - it's better than having to get rid of the number of spam comments I have been receiving everyday!

Google is very definitely NOT on top of spam comments and those who leave them and pay for them

Google owns Blogger and needs to get a LOT better at removing those firms which keep sending/paying for the same spam comments - because I keep reporting the spam and the spam keeps on coming - with a significant proportion being from the same people.

If their policy was to BURY every website in the Google Index that is left as an unrelated and spurious link in comments - UNLESS the blog owner approves it - that would be a start.

What would be the point of paying for spam comments if you effectively achieved the reverse of what you, in theory, are trying to achieve?

I think the message might get around pretty fast about that one.....

Will Chrome 68 label your website as "NOT Secure"?

Starting in July 2018, Google's Chrome Browser (Chrome 68) will start labelling all websites which start with HTTP as "Not Secure". (see 

Below is an illustration by Google of what this means.

• The top line shows what a URL currently looks like in the URL window.
• Below it is what this will change to when Chrome 68 is introduced 

In Chrome 68, the omnibox will display “Not secure” for all HTTP pages.

My expectation is that the "Not secure" will be really obvious - like this "Not secure"

Now a lot of people thought that this would all happen yesterday 1 July 2018 - because Google said it would happen in July.

They missed the bit that said

Beginning in July 2018 with the release of Chrome 68, Chrome will mark all HTTP sites as “not secure”.

(Chrome 68 has not yet been introduced in the UK - but may have happened elsewhere. I'm on Version 67.0.3396.99 )

Below I look at:

• what does being labelled as "not secure" mean?
• what you need to do re. Google's Blogger (I had a hiccup!)
• How do I make my website/blog/ secure?

What does being labelled "not secure" mean?

The reasons for making your website/blog secure are:

• it protects the integrity of your website
• it protects the privacy and security of your visitors and those shopping via your site
• it's where the web is going. Security is ever increasing and there is a cost to not keeping up with developments in this area.

There are also a number of implications of Google's ongoing drive for better security of all websites

• Your website may not rank well in response to Google search queries. Google is already downgrading all websites in search which are currently marked as "Your connection to this site is not secure" which is what comes up if you click the "i" icon prefacing the URL
• Your website or blog traffic may take a dive - as in "off a cliff". It all depends on whether you depend on your email list of Google for visitors to your website or blog.
• If you are selling art via your website you may notice sales drying up. 
• Obviously your website MUST also be super secure if you are taking any payment transactions via your website - even if you are routing them via a secure process. 
• You can't have an insecure website with PayPal or whatever and expect to get away with it!

So what about Google's Blogger?

This is where it gets interesting - then tortuous - then interesting again. Bear with me!

I'm in the spotlight!

Vuelio recently rated my blog as one of the 10 top art blogs in the UK and has now also done a blog post about me.

See BLOGGER SPOTLIGHT: KATHERINE TYRRELL, MAKING A MARK

As it says

In this spotlight, Katherine chats to us about how she measures the success of her blog, how she likes to work with PRs, and how she uses social media to promote the content on her blog.

I'm really not at all used to having two "much larger than I would normally use" photos of myself in a blog post. You can have too much of a good thing! ;)

Can I go back to blogging in my PJs now?

See also Making A Mark is a Top 10 Art Blog in the UK 2017

How to stop spam comments on specific Blogger posts

This is tip for how to stop frequent attempts by spammers to post a spam comment to specific blog posts on a Blogger blog.

• This is NOT how to stop spam comments from appearing. I can do that very easily through the use of moderation of all comments
• What this post addresses is the utter tedium of having to keep reviewing and moderating  spam comments!

I noticed that very many of these spam comments tended to arise on the same blog posts.

• I've published 3,220 to date but it's only a few which attract spam comments.
• The trigger seems to be if you use a particular keywords that people want to get links for AND that post has been popular AND it has had a lot of traffic.

The saddos who don't realise that all Blogger comments are automatically "no follow" (i.e. they cannot add weight to somebody else's website) all target these posts - which is why I ended up moderating endless spam comments each day.

(The 2005 blog post by Google below outlines their solution to the comment spam problem - which was subsequently implemented on Blogger)

If you're a blogger (or a blog reader), you're painfully familiar with people who try to raise their own websites' search engine rankings by submitting linked blog comments like "Visit my discount pharmaceuticals site." This is called comment spam, we don't like it either, and we've been testing a new tag that blocks it. From now on, when Google sees the attribute (rel="nofollow") on hyperlinks, those links won't get any credit when we rank websites in our search results. This isn't a negative vote for the site where the comment was posted; it's just a way to make sure that spammers get no benefit from abusing public areas like blog comments, trackbacks, and referrer lists.
Preventing comment spam (January 18, 2005) | Official Google Blog

I got so frustrated at one point with the endless stream that I needed to review that I just turned off ALL comments by anybody at all.

That was before I found out how to switch off comments for specific blog posts.

How to stop spam comments on specific Blogger posts

All you need to do is change on setting for individual blog posts.

This is my choices under the Options menu on the right side of a blog post window.   (That's the one at the bottom - underneath the bit where you insert the "search description"

Blogger options

In order to stop spammer comments on specific posts you need to change the option for Reader comments so it looks like this (see below).

In other words, you don't allow any more comments at all on that post - but you do allow your existing moderated comments to continue to appear.

I also include a comment before I make the change stating "COMMENTS ON THIS BLOG POST HAVE BEEN SWITCHED OFF DUE TO ABUSE BY SPAMMERS".

It's not obvious that the commenting function has been switched off for that post - until you click comments and try to post one.

That's when you get a message - New comments have been disabled for this post

What the spammer sees when they try to leave a comment

What happens now is if I get a spam comment, I look at the blog post and try and recall whether it's attracted other spam comments in the past. If it has then I go to the blog post and change the comment settings for that one specific post to "Don't allow". That way there will be no more spam comments generated by that post.

The new strategy seems to be working so far. Spam comments are much reduced.

10 million page views!

Making A Mark achieved 10 million page views at 2.15pm this afternoon! I've been looking forward to this for a while.....

I was slightly slow in catching up with the event so this is what it looked like when I took a screendump at 2.20pm.

The page view count (courtesy of Blogger in the side column of Making A Mark
followed by the Visitor Count generated by Statcounter

Blogger has only been counting page views since 2008 whereas this blog is coming up to 11 years old having been started at the end of 2005 and went public in January 2006

That means that there's actually around 2 years worth of page views somewhere!

What's the difference between page views counted by Blogger and Google Analytics?

I found out the difference between page views as counted by Blogger and page views as counted by Google Analytics yesterday.

• Apparently Google literally counts page views - and as we know a view of a blog on one page may have several blog posts. 
• Whereas Blogger counts the views for every blog post - as if every post was its own page - which of course it is since it has a unique URL.  

That's why I'm minded to say that the Blogger count to my mind is more accurate as it's counting visits to blog posts - by URL. Only those who come to the domain name page get treated as one visit even if they read every post on that home page!!!

Blogger also counts your own page views unless you turn them off as I do.

Statcounter seems to come between the two - but has a different length of time for how long the cookie stays before a visit from the same person counts as a repeat visit.

The geographical dimension

Of course things have also got complicated due to the fact that Blogger now uses geographical endings for all Blogger blogs on the basis that this allows them to cater for different requirements of the laws in every country. I've never quite got that one worked out - however I am totally convinced that Google Analytics does not count all page views properly when a blog is read globally.

The importance of your archive

The other interesting thing about page views is that if you have a lot of blog posts as I do (this is the 3,183rd!) about niche topics then you continue to generate traffic for that post long after you wrote it - via search traffic. (If you get your titles and meta description right!)

That's one of the reasons why the traffic to my blog is remaining pretty steady despite the fact I'm not writing as many posts.

The stats from the stats page for Making A Mark on Blogger!

In fact, you could day that the 10,000,000 page views are down to one of the things I learned very early on - which was the importance of making your archive accessible 

I commented to Alyson Stanfield earlier this year that...

I thank the day I read the article by Jakob Neilsen in which he pointed out that your assets (and your traffic) are in your Archives and you just need to find new ways of unlocking them for others!

[I think it was this particular Alertbox - in which he highlighted the statistical verification of making Archives accessible]

Of course - I guess you also have to have content that people think is worth reading! ;)

Display your art online - for free

The fourth article in my series of "Cost effective ideas for artists" is all about how you can get your art online for free.

'Display your art online - for free' is now available in the May edition of The Artist.

A sample of the latest article in the May edition

This article looks at:

• how to share your art and ways to get your art seen online for free
• how you can improve your chances of your art being seen using social media
• why it's essential to be mobile friendly
• how to avoid some nasty surprises - in terms of time, effort and money
• what costs are involved if you choose to pay third parties for your site
• tips relating to the money side - and selling your art online

In addition you can find out more about ​E-commerce for artists on my website. 

Before you start selling online you NEED TO KNOW the rules and regulations which relate both to selling online on your own account and via third parties.

You can buy 'The Artist' at all good newsagents in the UK - but you can also subscribe and read it online as a digital magazine. It also has a lot of other good content of interest to many artists!

Problem uploading images to Blogger via Chrome

I'm having a MAJOR problem uploading images to Blogger when using the Chrome browser

When I click the picture icon while writing a post - to upload an image - instead of getting the normal 'upload an image' screen, I get this huge pop-up with a completely nonsensical message

The message says "in order to select an item from your online storage, please sign in"

The problems with uploading images to Blogger via Chrome are:

1. I don't want to select an image from my online Google storage - I've no idea what the popup is talking about. I don't store my images on Google - except as a byproduct of writing a blog post (i.e. after a post is published)
2. Why would I need to sign into Google when I'm already signed in to write my blog?
3. I'm offered no other options - despite the fact that 99% of the time I upload images from my computer. 
4. I'm having to use another browser to write this post as I can't use Chrome and upload an image
5. That browser offers me the option of uploading an image from:

• from this blog
• from Picasa web albums
• from your phone 
• from your webcam
• from a URL
• I ignore them all and select files from my computer's hard drive and upload those!

If anybody else has had similar problems I'd be interested to know if you've come up with a solution. 

In the meantime I'm going to be using Google Chrome Version 47.0.2526.73 (64-bit) an awful lot less

Until they fix the problem!

Can you believe it? 8 million pageviews!

While I was out sketching in Cambridge on Sunday, somebody took a look at a page on Making A Mark and notched up the 8,000,000th page view - according to Blogger!

Magdalen Bridge and Scudamores, Cambridge
pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils
I got a non-stop commentary from the Punter Guides of the history of Magdalene College as they went past below!

Isn't it absolutely amazing that one woman's interest in art and willingness to share can turn into an art blog which gets visited by people from all over the world (see below)?

I have to say I still can't quite get over the fact that when I go to sketchcrawls and exhibitions I meet lots of people who all know who I am even though I've never ever met any of them before.

I'd love to say "Thanks!" to the person who viewed that 8 millionth page - but all I know is that you live in one of the places listed below!

Instead I'll say "Thank you" to you all - and I do hope you come back again and look at some more! My archives are extensive! :)

Current Country Totals From 1 Aug 2015 to 25 Aug 2015

	United States (US)	12,478
	United Kingdom (GB)	6,683
	Canada (CA)	1,160
	Australia (AU)	1,101
	India (IN)	449
	Germany (DE)	330
	France (FR)	306
	Netherlands (NL)	235
	Philippines (PH)	224
	New Zealand (NZ)	207
	Ireland (IE)	194
	Spain (ES)	179
	Italy (IT)	150
	South Africa (ZA)	148
	Singapore (SG)	144
	Brazil (BR)	120
	Europe (EU)	110
	Japan (JP)	98
	Korea, Republic of (KR)	97
	Belgium (BE)	95
	Malaysia (MY)	91
	Russian Federation (RU)	89
	Pakistan (PK)	80
	Sweden (SE)	75
	Poland (PL)	70
	Mexico (MX)	61
	Turkey (TR)	60
	Romania (RO)	57
	Portugal (PT)	56
	Hong Kong (HK)	54
	Israel (IL)	54
	Indonesia (ID)	53
	Norway (NO)	51
	Greece (GR)	48
	Finland (FI)	47
	United Arab Emirates (AE)	46
	Thailand (TH)	45
	Czech Republic (CZ)	42
	Switzerland (CH)	41
	Denmark (DK)	39
	Argentina (AR)	39
	Ukraine (UA)	35
	Taiwan (TW)	30
	Austria (AT)	29
	Asia/Pacific Region (AP)	29
	Bulgaria (BG)	28
	Hungary (HU)	26
	Croatia (HR)	25
	Bangladesh (BD)	24
	Egypt (EG)	24
	Saudi Arabia (SA)	20
	Slovenia (SI)	19
	Jordan (JO)	18
	Serbia (RS)	18
	Colombia (CO)	18
	Slovakia (SK)	17
	Cyprus (CY)	17
	Trinidad and Tobago (TT)	16
	Vietnam (VN)	15
	Nigeria (NG)	15
	Chile (CL)	15
	Nepal (NP)	12
	Sri Lanka (LK)	10
	Peru (PE)	10
	Iceland (IS)	10
	Jamaica (JM)	10
	Cayman Islands (KY)	9
	Algeria (DZ)	9
	Morocco (MA)	9
	Uruguay (UY)	9
	Lithuania (LT)	9
	Estonia (EE)	9
	Puerto Rico (PR)	9
	Mauritius (MU)	8
	Luxembourg (LU)	7
	Albania (AL)	7
	Malta (MT)	6
	Lebanon (LB)	6
	Latvia (LV)	6
	Brunei Darussalam (BN)	6
	Isle of Man (IM)	6
	Guernsey (GG)	6
	Ghana (GH)	5
	China (CN)	5
	Venezuela (VE)	4
	Ecuador (EC)	4
	Costa Rica (CR)	4
	Dominican Republic (DO)	4
	Botswana (BW)	4
	Kazakstan (KZ)	4
	Cambodia (KH)	3
	Kenya (KE)	3
	Armenia (AM)	3
	Maldives (MV)	3
	Georgia (GE)	3
	Macedonia (MK)	3
	Tanzania, United Republic of (TZ)	3
	Montenegro (ME)	3
	Zimbabwe (ZW)	3
	Namibia (NA)	3
	Jersey (JE)	2
	Belarus (BY)	2
	Bosnia and Herzegovina (BA)	2
	Oman (OM)	2
	Ethiopia (ET)	2
	Bolivia (BO)	2
	Qatar (QA)	2
	Guatemala (GT)	2
	Virgin Islands, U.S. (VI)	2
	Uganda (UG)	2
	Palestinian Territory (PS)	2
	Iraq (IQ)	2
	Paraguay (PY)	2
	Panama (PA)	2
	French Guiana (GF)	1
	Nicaragua (NI)	1
	Netherlands Antilles (AN)	1
	Guyana (GY)	1
	Papua New Guinea (PG)	1
	Madagascar (MG)	1
	New Caledonia (NC)	1
	Faroe Islands (FO)	1
	Vanuatu (VU)	1
	Zambia (ZM)	1
	Seychelles (SC)	1
	Aruba (AW)	1
	Rwanda (RW)	1
	Mongolia (MN)	1
	Bhutan (BT)	1
	Macau (MO)	1
	Cuba (CU)	1
	Kuwait (KW)	1
	Bermuda (BM)	1
	Gibraltar (GI)	1
	Syrian Arab Republic (SY)	1
	Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (LY)	1
	Lao People's Democratic Republic (LA)	1
	Antigua and Barbuda (AG)	1
	Azerbaijan (AZ)	1
	El Salvador (SV)	1
	Guam (GU)	1
	Honduras (HN)	1
	Cape Verde (CV)	1
	Myanmar (MM)	1
	Belize (BZ)	1
	Barbados (BB)	1

Source: Clustrmap