Re-thinking, evaluating, re-structuring

Evaluating my ways of working is part of being self-employed, so it is something that I like to do on a regular basis.  I make a lot of notes, and have a lot of thoughts, and eventually put some plans into action.

I started reducing – or should I say concentrating – my websites and domains a year ago.  Over the years some of those ideas that I had, actually made it into reserved domain names.  But then, for whatever reason, the project did not get off the ground.  A few years ago I consolidated these domains into a single package, and last year every one of them got re-evaluated.  The first step: cost reduction.  Each of these domains was costing me a small mount of money each year, so if they were not doing anything, and not even earning me some advertising revenue from being parked somewhere, then I really did need to decide whether the project would ever happen.

I cancelled around 70% of those domains during the course of 2018, so that they did not renew automatically.

At the end of 2018 I then started looking at the statistics and earnings of some of the websites that I no longer write for.  Again, was there a reason to keep them? [Read more…]

Why there might be less Facebook “Like” buttons in Germany tomorrow

Brandenburg Gate - ©iStockphoto.com/archivesGermany seems to have a problem with new technologies, especially when it comes to privacy and data protection laws, as I’ve commented on before.  I’ve often heard the regulation of the internet here referred to as “out-dated” and sometimes even compared with internet restrictions in China.

As if the situation wasn’t complicated enough, each of the 16 German states has its own Data Protection law and agency, in additional to the national law and Data Protection Officer.  Theoretically, the law can therefore differ from state to state, or at least be interpreted differently.

Which explains why businesses in one part of Germany have had to decide whether to remove their Facebook “Like” button (called “Gefällt mir” in German) from their websites and close their Facebook fan pages.

What is unusual is that [Read more…]

Blogging in Germany: the final straw?

A man holding his head in despair - ©Can Stock Photo Inc. / alexandrenunesBloggers in Germany have only just recovered from not having to classify all of their posts.  Yet other Government officials are still finding ways to make our life difficult.

Last week, data protection officials in one part of Germany decided that using 3rd party advertising on a website constituted an unauthorised passing on of personal data, ie. the IP address.

In a similar issue to the use of Google Analytics, this would mean that unless you host all of your banner adverts on your own server or webspace, you would need permission to show them from your visitors.

Can you imagine visiting a site and being asked if you would like to see it with or without banner advertising?  What would you click on? [Read more…]

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