Archive → July, 2010
Discard WordPress Previews from Google Analytics
Recently I’ve noticed that my traffic is way higher on the day that I write posts. This would be normal if I posts where published on the same day I wrote them. But that’s not always the case. Sometimes I get inspired and write a bunch of posts and publish the most relevant one immediately and delay others for a few days. I could also just write a draft on one day and then finish it later on.
So I went investigating why the traffic was significantly higher on those days. I poked around my Google Analytics reports and in Content » Top Content I saw entries like these:
Wordpress previews in Google Analytics
The p=<number>&preview=true part of the highlighted URIs was the key. Apparently the WordPress plugin I’ve got installed for Google Analytics and stuff like Bing WebMaster Center, Yahoo Site Explorer, Google WebMaster Central added the JavaScript code that counts visits even in previews. This wasn’t OK, because it blurs the real traffic results.
So I had two choices. Either change some PHP code of WordPress or the plugin or make Google Analytics discard the preview visits. Neither of these choices isn’t perfect. The problem with the first one is that when WordPress or the plugin get updated my code will be gone and I’d have to do it all over again. The second one on the other hand only works for Goolge Analytics. If you’re using any other traffic analysis services or tools, you’d have to do this for every one of them. I chose the second option as Google Analytics is my most used tool for traffic statistics.
The way to get rid of unwanted URIs in Google Analytics is via filters. The sad news here is that they only work from the moment you add them. You cannot change any data from the past. So I suggest doing this as soon as possible.
So to add this filter I went to my Google Analytics account and clicked on the Edit link in the actions column of the profile I use for this blog. There I clicked on the Add filter link in the upper right hand corner of the Filters Applied to Profile box. I’ve highlighted it here:
Add filter to Google Analytics
I didn’t have I filter like this in my Google Analytics account yet, so I had to create one. The was to be a custom filter that would exclude all of the URIs that have preview=true in them. I called it Discard Previews and when I filled out the Add filter form it looked like this:
Discard WordPress previews filter for Google Analytics
And that was it. The filter was set up and the traffic stats will be much more representative now.
Samsung T240 Showing Vertical Lines
My Samsung T240 is starting to brake down on me. As you can see in the pictures 2 vertical lines and a yellow patch are showed up. The lines are running all the way from the top to the bottom and the patch makes quite a few pixels yellower.
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- A yellow patch and yellow and blue vertical lines on Samsung T240
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- Yellow and blue vertical lines on Samsung T240
This started about a week ago. First I noticed the blue line and then the yellow patch, but the yellow line appeared just yesterday. Don’t know what’s going on really.
I bought this LCD about a year ago. It’s my second 24 inch monitor. The first one, a Samsung 2493HM, died on me after just 7 months. Fortunately I’ve got a laptop so I wasn’t left screenless, but going from a 24 to a 15.4 is quite a shock. But it seems I’m going to have to go through it again. I just hope that Samsung service in Slovenia works a bit faster this time as it took them 2 months to return the money last time.
UPDATE (July 11th 2010): Today I noticed another 2 vertical lines. They are in between the previous blue and yellow lines. One of the new ones is red and the other is blue, but not as bright as the first blue one. I also think that the yellow patch got a bit bigger as well.
UPDATE (July 15th 2010): A bunch of new vertical lines started appearing. Some of them are full strength now and I could swear that the patch is getting bigger by the day. This is starting to get a bit annoying now.
Wakeboarding at Planksee
Wakeboarding @ Planksee, Austria
Wednesday was a great day. First I passed another exam – only 4 left now – and straight afterwards we packed our swim shorts and headed off to Planksee. That’s a cable wake park in Austria located just across the boarder with Slovenia at the
A Melody Softly Soaring Through My Atmosphere
Death Cab for Cutie – Soul Meets Body
Get on Amazon
This song is just amazing. I’ve been listening to it over the past few days and I still can not get enough. Especially the para para pa pa… part gets me. The song is a part of the Plans album:
Here are the lyrics as well, because if you’re like me you’ll be signing along in a jiffy 
My First HostGator Commission
Today I finally received, my first HostGator commission. It’s actually my first earning online and the $50 I made isn’t that shabby
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- PayPal HostGator Transaction
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- HostGator Commissions
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- HostGator Commission Pay-outs
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- Email from PayPal
This all started 3 months ago. My friend was massing around with affiliate marketing and showed me what great payouts HostGator has. So I made an affiliate account. I knew I’ll use it once, but wasn’t planning on it yet.
I’m also a member of Aardvark, a Q&A network. Have been for quite a while now. A year, maybe more. So I was just doing my own thing when a MSN window pops up. It was a question from Aardvark and this is what happened – http://vark.com/t/2ac765. I know my marketing techniques aren’t the best but it worked here. The guy liked what I said and bought the hosting. And so I made my commission.
HostGator has a bit of a confusing payout schema. According to When and How Often Will I Be Paid section of their Affiliate FAQ, one is eligible to get paid 60 days after the commission was made. That’s 2 months. I made mine on April 7th so I was all good on the June 7th. This means that I should have gotten paid last week, but I wasn’t. No really sure why. But that really doesn’t matter now
This money will probably go towards buying my own hosting as I’m currently leeching of of my roommate’s. It’s a shame HostGator doesn’t have any shared Windows hosting plans as I need it to host my ASP.NET MVC websites. Although they did have beta testings late 2009. I wonder whatever happened with that…
All in all I am extremely happy about my first few bucks earned online
