RORY HANSEN

Stumbled across 3 things this week that have me excited:

• Yahoo! Pipes
• Code Igniter
• Facebook API

I’ve been looking for a quality, light-weight PHP framework for a while now, and Code Igniter seems to be exactly what I’m looking for. I’ve known about CakePHP, but never bothered with it… seemed to be bloated with a bunch of crap that I’m not interested in. A bonus is that tests indicate that Code Igniter is faster than CakePHP.

With regards to the other two (the Facebook API and Yahoo! Pipes), it’s just plain exciting to see companies releasing fun, geeky tools and making their APIs publically accessible.

Have you seen the updated Yahoo! Sports website? What do you think?!

Personally, I like most of the new look. Not sure I dig the excessive use of graphics on the homepage, but whatever, it’s their website not mine. (I mean, the main reason I visit the Yahoo! Sports website in the first place, instead of TSN.ca or Sportsnet.ca is because it’s quick loading and the information I want is readily accessible. More graphics mean it takes longer to get to what I want.)

I do like the sharp new look and the fresh colors. Out with the old off-white and grey and in with some bolder, more vibrant colors.

Commentary: During the course of the month, I noticed conversions were steadily decreasing. I began to cut back on some of the traffic which was less targetting (ie, the content network traffic) so my costs are slightly below where they were for December. But you’ll notice that my revenue is off by more than 50%. This all adds up to a profit which is about 1/3 of the profit I had back in December.

Why? Really, I dunno. I suppose the easy answer is to suggest that it’s becoming harder and harder to attract users to my site that haven’t already installed Firefox or the Google Toolbar at least once in their past. Either that, or I’m not properly advertising to the right audience.

In any case, if profits decrease again next month, I’ll have to seriously think about whether it’s worth it to keep the Firefox/Google Toolbar site running.

Adsense: $98.05

Yahoo! Marketing: $291.44
Google Adwords: $369.26
MSN AdCenter: $6.24
Ask! Sponsored Listings: $7.40

Referrals: $955.60

Profit: $379.31