Saturday sample.

As promised, a couple of weeks ago, and never fully delivered..... I bring to you.... A Saturday Sample of "next blog" activity.

I sample twenty "next blog" examples and summarise the findings.

Today's results:

Twenty blogs sampled.

8 Blogs were spam.
4 Of the spam blogs hijacked me (got rid of the next blog button and removed the "back" functionality of my browser and tried to install software) and launched further adverts.
6 Blogs written exclusively by women.
1 Blog written by dogs.
2 Indian blogs.
1 Norwegian blog
1 Italian blog.
0 British blogs.
1 Blog features pictures of roses and poetry and made me feel sick.
1 Blog was entirely about kitchen interiors.
1 Blog featured really poor jokes and quotes.

The standard of blogging on offer to me today was VERY poor. The best blog I found today was written by dogs. I ONLY wish they would not use a camera with a flash, that fires directly into an animal's eyes!!

Here it is!

The state....

The state of blogging?

Well, I don't know what sort of state blogging is in. I decided to make a random sweep, using the little "Next Blog" button.... up there..... go on, keep going, right at the top .... got it?? Right... well.... no.... don't click it JUST yet!!

Ok, so the "Next Blog" button will take you magically to a random blog. I had heard that the chances of finding anything other than advertising spam and porn were actually VERY slim.

I decided to click through twenty blogs, and to record the type of blog and move on. Here's what I found:

7 Advertising and financial spam blogs.
1 Explicit gay porn blog (no warnings).

2 Japanese blogs.
2 Malaysian blogs (one in English, the other not).
2 Spanish blogs (one political, one about dancing).
1 Blog about taking a whizz in a public bathroom/toilet and the etiquette.
1 Very strange football blog (that was just a bunch of emails).
1 Blog of Dutch poetry.
1 Scrapbooking American mum of 2.
1 German yo-yo blog.
1 Random, quite funny blog.

Quite a sorry bunch, I am sure you will agree. Of the twenty sampled, I would only go back to one of them, and it wasn't the one that had pictures of young men whizzing into each other's mouths!!!

So, what's the state of blogging?

I can't say that this experiment really tells me very much, other than the fact that I am lucky to have such a nice bunch of blogging friends. I am lucky to have found so many interesting and worthy blogs to read in my time.

Not many people take the time or effort to read or write blogs at weekends, so maybe I will make a regular Saturday and Sunday feature out of this random blog sample and the search engine criteria that I enjoy so much.

The "Next Blog" button is pretty much worthless!!

PS: I accept absolutely no responsibility for what you might find if you use the Next Blog button.... Do so at your own risk!!

So what?

So what is my blog worth?

Well according to "Pingoat", as of today, my blog is merely worth $28.06.

However, according to Technorati, it's worth a whopping $5080.86.

Now, I don't really believe these values, and wouldn't expect anyone else to either. They're simply a bit of fun. I presume there's some spanky algorithm back there, that ranks you based on outgoing and incoming links and your update frequency. Not really rocket science, and probably a little too black-and-white to be of any real accuracy.

So what's my blog really worth?

I'll tell you....

As a vehicle, a tool for expressing myself, for getting all the thought-mush out of my head and onto a digital notepad, it's bloody priceless.

As a commercial venture, for the purpose of raising advertising revenue, completely worthless.

For its potential to turn into a best-selling book (or "blook" if you're swept away with such nonsensical mumbo-jumbo), such as Girl With a One Track Mind, or Shaggy Blog Stories, my potential is less than nought.

As a domain name, that might tread on some multi-millionaire's toes, forcing them to buy it off me, the chances are slim. Someone already beat me to arctic-fox.blogspot.com, and they haven't updated it in two years!!

As a resource for people to come and go as they feel fit, and to plunder my head for anything useless...... maybe, a penny for my thoughts?

Letting my family know I am still alive, and although I am now a cave dwelling hermit with a beard down to my knees, that has taken the oath of silence, am still kicking, maybe another few pence. They could always text me if they wanted to know whether anyone was inheriting my DVD collection yet?

So, in summary, my blogs worth two thirds of sweet Fanny Adams.

The only person who gains anything from it at all, is me.

Let's face it, who the hell would want to buy a blog, and what the bloody hell would they do with it when they got it?

My blog is worth $5,080.86.
How much is your blog worth?