Where Does My Traffic Come From?

I’m a marketer by trade, so I can’t help being interested in where traffic comes from and what people do when they arrive.

This digital garden is built on Blogger, and I like Blogger for what it is. It’s simple, familiar, and lets me publish without turning the whole thing into a project. But Blogger’s own stats are ridiculous.

You can publish a small article, make a cup of tea, come back, and suddenly Blogger tells you ten people have visited it. I’m never convinced those figures are real. Sometimes it feels as though Blogger adds a visit every time I merely think about a post.

Google Analytics sits at the other end of the scale. It’s powerful, but it feels far too big for this site. Using it here feels like running a combine harvester through my digital garden.

So I use Umami.

It’s simple, clean, and easy to set up. I can see which posts people are reading, which ones are being ignored, and which pages are quietly doing better than expected.

That helps me make better decisions.

If a post gets attention, I can refresh it, expand it, or write something related. If people seem interested in a topic, I can give that topic a bit more care. Not because I want to chase numbers for the sake of it, but because it helps me understand what people find useful, interesting, or worth their time.

I still take care writing every post. Even the little ones.

But it makes sense to give more attention to the posts people actually read. A digital garden still needs a bit of tending, and Umami helps me see where the green shoots are.

Private: A Fast-Paced Start to the Series

I’ve just finished Private, the first book in the series, while away on another break in Spain. I tend to only read fiction when I’m on holiday, and this time I brought this and Private London with me.

Written by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro, this feels like a strong introduction to the Private series. It’s a fast-paced crime thriller and another real page turner.

Set in Los Angeles, the story feels very cinematic. I’ve never actually been to LA, but it all felt clearly laid out, almost like watching it unfold on screen.

What stood out most was the way multiple storylines move along at a quick pace. The authors trust the reader to keep up, which keeps things engaging without over-explaining.

That said, the plots aren’t especially deep or complex. But I’m on holiday, and this is exactly what I want. An easy, exciting read that keeps the tension moving and tightens nicely towards the end.

Another Patterson book that I couldn’t put down until I’d finished it.

Score: 9/10

Others in the Private series I have read and reviewed:

#1 Private
#2 Private London
#22 Private Dublin

I Need To Be More Organised

 I really don't know what's wrong with me, I have a wealth of technical and apps available to me, but I still seem to be very unorganised! I don't get it!

Antisemitism and the Semitic Confusion

This note comes off the back of an online discussion I had with someone who believed antisemitism means racism against any “Semitic” people; I would have thought that a grow man would have understood the difference, but you live and learn I suppose.

I spent time explaining that “Semitic”, originally coined in the late 18th century originally refers to a group of languages, including Hebrew and Arabic. It was (and still is) a linguistic label, not a race or a single group of people.

“Antisemitism” came later, in 19th-century Europe. This term was used specifically to describe hostility towards Jewish people. From the start, it was used in that narrow sense, and that meaning has stuck.

So while the words share a similar root, they don’t line up in meaning.

You can criticise countries, governments, or policies without it being antisemitic. The line is crossed when it targets Jewish people as a whole or leans on old stereotypes.

This is one of those cases where knowing the history of a word clears up a lot of confusion.

I'm on Holiday ... but I'm not!

I used to find it really difficult to switch off from work when I was on holiday.

In fact, I got to loathe the idea of a “holiday” because it often became another way of saying I was working from a different chair, or a different country, I would respond to emails and messages no matter where I was, what I was doing, or who I was with. Even when I was on holiday with my children, work still found a way in.

But over the last couple of years, something in me has changed; here I am now, waiting for a flight to Spain with my wife, and work could not be further from my mind.

And honestly, it feels brilliant.Want to know how I flicked that switch?

1. I’m gone

As my holiday gets closer, I let people in the business and key suppliers know I’ll be away.

Not half away. Not “still checking emails” away. Properly away.

I’m on holiday, and I’m gone. Period.

I think giving people clear notice before you leave is a great form of professional respect. Everyone knows where they stand, and nobody is left guessing. And you can start to get support to get some major projects closer to a answer before you leave.

2. The handoff

I hate the soft handoff with a passion; you know the one: “I'm going away, but you can contact me if it’s an absolute emergency.”

It's a statement that sounds helpful, but it keeps the door open; and once the door is open, work starts to creep in, and lots of things become an emergancy and need your attention ... but you allowed it.

So now what I do is I assign clear owners to every active project and/or task before I go away. Everyone in the business knows what is happening, who is responsible, and what needs to move forward.

More importantly, they know I trust them to make decisions while I’m not there, and I have some decent processes in place with plenty of checks and balanced.

My goal is to return to projects that have moved on, not a pile of “waiting for your approval” emails.

To be honest, I’m not that important anyway. I only thought I was 😀

3. Become a digital loner

I never used to mute work notifications; then I started muting them, but that still meant I could check them whenever I wanted. And of course, I did.

Now I go further, and II now delete key 'work' apps from my phone while I’m away, Outlook, Teams, and the softphone app, they all go, so I physically can't be interrupted, or be tempted to take a look. I can always easily reinstall them when I get back anyway. 

If I’m not looking at work messaging apps, I’m not thinking about work problems. It sounds a bit extreme, but the psychological weight that lifts is pure bliss. 

4. Buffer day(s)

I used to get back home after a holiday and go straight back to work the next day. In fact, once we got back early in the morning during the week, and by the afternoon I had logged back on. 

Now I make sure I have at least one full buffer day, preferably two. This gives me time to acclimatise and get back into a normal daily rhythm before I get cracking with work again. 

During these buffer days, I do not reinstall apps. I still count them as holiday days… because they are!

 

These four things alone have made my breaks calmer, cleaner, and far more peaceful.

And to be honest, they are usually well overdue.

My Fantasy Dinner Party Guest List

I’ve always kept a list on my phone of people I’d invite to a dinner party.

Now that I’ve got this digital garden, it felt like the right place to share it. It’s a bit of a mixed bag. Some are still with us, some are long gone, and a couple aren’t even real… but they’ve earned their seat at the table all the same.

I don’t even know if there are rules for this kind of thing. Should it be a set number of guests? Should it only include people who are alive and could actually turn up? Or is the whole point that there are no rules?

I’ve got no clear answer yet, so for now I’m just letting it grow. I’ll figure out my own rules as I go… or maybe I won’t.

Here’s the current guest list:

• Derek William Dick (Fish) – for the great singalong
• Warwick Davis – grounded, funny, and quietly wise
• Stephen Fry – effortless intelligence and warmth
• Norman Wisdom – nostalgia and so funny
• Stan Laurel – gentle humour, perfectly timed
• Richard Branson – big ideas and bigger stories
• Paul Daniels – a touch of magic at the table
• David Nixon – classic showmanship
• Bobby Ball – warmth and one funny guy
• Paul Gascoigne – unpredictable, but unforgettable
• Sandi Toksvig – sharp, kind, and brilliantly funny
• Tim Allen - for his wit, entertainment stories and I'd like to talk politics with him as I'm particularly interested in his Libertarianism views.
• Richard E Grant – energy, honesty, and joy
• George Best – talent and tales in equal measure
• John Cooper Clarke – sharp words, delivered perfectly
• Dick Van Dyke – pure charm
• Bruce Wayne – because why not
• Charles Hawtrey – chaos, comedy and my grans fave
• Lee Mack – quick wit, no pause button
• Fred Dibnah – stories from a different world
• Ade Edmondson – a bit of edge
• Steve Harris – the stories and a quick lesson
• Karen Carpenter – a voice you’d want to hear live
• Steve Pemberton – clever, dark humour
• Audrey Hepburn – grace and perspective
• Buster Keaton – silent, but says everything
• Tom Hanks – easy company
• Herbert Henry Scaife – my great grandfather; I’d just love to meet him
• Steve Davis – calm, thoughtful, unexpected humour
• Freddie Mercury – presence that fills a room
• Paul Heaton – grounded, sharp observations
• Grayson Perry – perspective and honesty
• Monty Don – calm and balance

I suspect this list will keep changing. New names will come in, others might quietly drop out.

That probably says more about me than it does about the guest list.

I might do a seating plan at some time, that will be fun! 

AI just can't write copy

I’ve been using AI for a while now at work, and one of the tasks I have tried to use it for is to help me with website descriptions for our construction products.

And if I’m honest… it keeps missing the mark.

It gets close sometimes. The structure is there. The words are there. But it rarely feels like something that would actually make a customer stop, think, and buy ... and that’s when it clicked for me. AI doesn’t struggle because it’s slow or badly trained. It struggles because it simply isn’t human.

It has no empathy. No lived experience. No real sense of what it feels like to be the person reading the page and deciding whether to trust you or not!

So instead of sharp, persuasive copy, you get something else. Safe. Repetitive. A bit hollow.

You can throw better prompts at it. You can guide it, tweak it, refine it. I’ve tried all of that. But it still falls into the same patterns, because that’s what it’s built to do.

AI has been developed to spot patterns in data and leans into them. It writes in a rhythm that feels right on the surface, but it doesn’t really mean anything. There’s no intent or passion behind the words, and for me, thats the fundamental problem. Good copy isn’t just about sounding right. It’s about understanding people, then choosing words that nudge them to act.

That part still needs a human.

That said, I don’t think AI is useless. Far from it.

It’s great for getting started. It helps with structure, rough drafts, and getting ideas down quickly. It speeds things up, especially when you’re staring at a blank page.

But the real work still happens afterwards. That’s where tone, judgement, and experience come in. That’s where something average turns into something that actually works.

It’s also why proper copywriting still matters. Not just words on a page, but words that reflect your business, your brand, your customers, and the way you want to be seen. That kind of work is hard to fake.

If you’re interested in that side of things, there is more chat over at Yorkshire Writers. It’s just two of us, writing in a way that sounds like real people, because that’s what readers respond to.

AI has a place. I use it most day ... but writing copy that connects with people… that still comes down to people.

PSPO Zones for All

Last summer we had a terrible time on our main road; cars, motorbikes, and even quad bikes were roaring up and down the road at all hours. At times it genuinely felt like certain people were using it as their own personal race track.

I mentioned it to our local Liberal Democrat councillor and, to be fair, within days they had contacted the Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police and managed to get the road designated as a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) zone.

PSPO zones are designed to tackle anti-social behaviour in specific areas. They can cover things like nuisance driving, public drinking, begging, intimidation, and other behaviour that affects local residents. Breaching a PSPO can lead to fixed penalty notices, fines of up to £1,000, or even prosecution.

From what I understand these zones normally last for three years, although they can be renewed if the problems continue.

But it did get me thinking...

Why do we wait until residents complain before action is taken? Should busy residential roads, shopping areas, and city centres automatically have some form of PSPO protection in place from the start?

I’m sure there’s a cost involved in creating and enforcing these zones, but in our area it genuinely seems to have worked. The road is noticeably quieter and calmer now.

So if they work this well, why not use them far more widely?