I have recently redesigned my weblog and am planning to posting more frequently in the past. There are a few additional steps to enhance my weblog.

Blog Design & Usability

First, I am attempting to free my blog of the Top Ten Blog Design Mistakes according to Jakob Neilsen (via Jeff Atwood).

1. No Author Biographies
2. No Author Photo
3. Nondescript Posting Titles
4. Links Don't Say Where They Go
5. Classic Hits are Buried
6. The Calendar is the Only Navigation
7. Irregular Publishing Frequency
8. Mixing Topics
9. Forgetting That You Write for Your Future Boss
10. Having a Domain Name Owned by a Weblog Service

I am guilty of almost all of these abuses save 1, 2, and 6, most of which I will correct. In addition to these ten design mistakes, I am also attempting to become more proactive in responding to comments as Jeff Atwood  recommended.

Monetization

Second, I am also looking to monetize my weblog in a non-intrusive way through Google AdSense and Amazon links. It’ll be more like product placement rather than in-your-face advertising; I don’t want to scare my readers. 

For advice, I looked to Steve Pavlina’s podcast How to Make Money Without a Job. He, by the way, makes thousands of dollars through AdSense every month.

I don’t expect a substantial income, but I do believe that this will provide me with the incentive to produce more posts more frequently, cover my costs and be quite educational. So far, my first half a day of using AdSense netted me a dollar.

Not counting Craigslist, I made my first sale on the Internet through eBay in August, when I sold the book Windows Graphics Programming for $108 (substantially more than the $60 I originally paid) after a bidding war ensued. I was very surprised by my ability to sell the book at above cost, because previously I gave away for almost nothing some very nice books to the local used books store.