Category: Website

One of the lessons in life is that something you do does not always work, this is what I learn from when it comes down it. Sometimes it does not work first time around, sometimes it does work second time around. Sometimes it just does not work at all. My change in focus on this blog falls into the last group. It does not seems to work in my opinion of my readers. While only few have expressed this opinion to me. I take it seriously. Based on the opinions that I have heard so far. I have come to the following conclusions and made this decision following it.

From midnight UTC time. This blog is going to be renamed back into being Iceland volcano and earthquake blog. This means my focus is only going to be Iceland and nothing else (well, maybe I make an exception or two if it something really interesting) . As has been told here in comments there are other bloggers how cover other parts of the world and do an good job of it.

So from midnight. This blog and the forum is going back to the name “Iceland volcano and earthquake blog”. This also covers the forum. But the change is going to be more dramatic there. As I am going to arrange it in accordance with this change. No posts are going to be deleted, but are going to move around a bit. No blog posts are going to be deleted from this blog do to this name change. It is part of history in my view.

This are the web site news for March 2012.

More pictures planned for this blog

I am planning more pictures and graphic stuff for this blog. How exactly I am going to do so is bit unclear at this moment. But this is an idea that I am currently working on.

Infolinks

Infolinks is an advertiser that inserts links into web pages by links. I am considering setting it up here to increase my income from this web site (being always broke is getting really old for me, more on that little later). But I want to know what the readers feel about such change. But the ads would insert them self into the text automatically based on keywords. Some people find this annoying. But the ads would only show them self if the links are hovered over.

Broke again, need help

I am travelling in Denmark at the moment and I am waiting for an apartment. The downside of this the fact that I am yet to pay my hosting bill of 800DKK for this month. But I did just send donations of 1102 DKK to my bank account from paypal. But give that my bank account has an -407DKK already. It means that there are only going to be around 695DKK available when the bill is due. I might be able to run an overdraft for few days without actually having one as I am doing now. But that is not welcomed by the bank that I am with.

What did create this situation is that I had to buy an air-plain ticket to Iceland both ways. This air-plain ticket did cost me 2394 DKK and when I did buy it. I did think that my balance was around 4000 DKK. Sadly, that was not the case and I was 2000 DKK less then I did was expecting. So now I am broke, with an air-plain ticket to Iceland and no good way to surviving the month without having to cut into my savings before I move to Denmark. But that is something I really do not want to do. As it would delay me on several things for many more months to come.

I also have to pay for glasses (I am going to pay for them slowly over several months (12 or 24 months)). That is not the big problem. As that is all accounted for properly and in an good plan.

What was not planned was getting broke now. This is also what I hate about my life at current time. I can’t move one inch with out getting broke or to have some money problems in the short term or the long time.

If anyone is willing to help me in this problem. It is possible to donate with paypal or directly to my bank account with SWIFT number. I really hate to ask for this. But I am having big problem now. I am planning some emergency plans so that I can pay the hosting bill on time. But that is going to mean that I have to cut into my saving a little bit to keep this web site up and running.

My current status is due to small income from the social welfare. But my income is only 151000 ISK. But that is at current exchange rate only 6713 DKK, 903€, 1.192$. It is my opinion that nobody should live on this small amount every month. But sadly this is what I have to deal with at current time, due to small traffic to my web page and that fact I have not been able to publish any book as of yet.

Thanks to everyone who support me!

Update 1: I am moving back to shared hosting soon as possible. I do this to cut down cost. As current lack of traffic does not support me buying dedicated hosting. But I need no less then 5000 pages loads pr day in order to support me buying dedicated hosting package. I am going to announce it when the move takes place.

Update 2: I have changed my mind. I am going to keep shared hosting. It is going to be worth it in the long run I think. What I did yesterday was an rather typical response due to the fact that I am most of the time broke. Something that I have to stop doing.

Update 3: Here is the traffic data for the years 2010 until 2012 (today). This gives an good idea of the traffic to this web site and how it spikes around earthquakes or volcano activity in Iceland.

Traffic of this web site since 2010 until today (year 2012). Picture is from Statcounter.com. I am unclear on copyright on this image at the moment.

Blog post updated earlier today.
Blog post updated at 01:24 CET on 06.03.2012.
Blog post updated at 09:54 CET on 06.03.2012.
Blog post updated at 17:51 CET on 06.03.2012.

I am sorry for this late website news for February 2012. But this delay has happened because there is not a lot to report on web site matters at the moment. Both January and February have been slow in terms of traffic on this website. This is mostly because nothing of interest has been happening in Iceland in few weeks.

Name change in January

This blog did go trough an second name change in January 2012. The reason for that name change was that I wanted to cover more areas of the world. Not just Iceland and Canary Islands. I do however have my focus points in my coverage. I mostly cover Iceland and Europe. Rest of the world comes last and I might not cover it in real time. So delayed reports of events that take place in the world might happen on this blog. Since information on what is happening in other place of the world might take an long time to reach me.

Going broke again

With less traffic it means less income from ads and all that. This also means that I am going broke when I start to rent again an apartment in Denmark and paying all those bills. On the bright side I am now debt free with the bank in terms of overdraft. So things are going to be bit easier on me then before in this terms (it is good not have to pay off any debt). But this is not going to be easy I believe. Besides ads, donations are the only other thing that helps me (I do get social welfare due to my disability, but I have a Aspergers syndrome). I am just happy when the ads pay for the hosting cost of this blog. But that cost is around 800 DKK every month. Most of the ads cover that cost, but nothing more in terms of extra money for me at the moment. But this depends on traffic, so high traffic months are better for me then low traffic months in terms of income. But this is all depenend of the whims of Iceland, Europe and other parts of the world in terms of what is happening.

Moving to Denmark

There is now an good chance that I move back to Denmark in April 2012. When exactly I do not know at this time. But there is an good chance that I get an apartment soon in Denmark. So all my life reading and high resolution data of earthquakes and other events is due to return after I have moved and connected back to the internet with ADSL connection. While I am moving there might be an brake in updates. But I am going to do my best on keeping this blogs updated properly if anything interesting happens in Iceland specially.

Blog post updated at 15:25 UTC on 22.02.2012. Fixed year error. Some part of me still thinks it is the year 2011.

Besides running this blog and two other blogs. I also have an volcano and earthquake forum. In there it is possible to share pictures, graphs and other useful volcano and earthquake stuff. There also an option for an good off-topic chat. I also offer an online chat for those how are interested in such things.

When I did change then name of this blog. I also changed the name of the forum. So they are now aligned in terms of names. The forum is now called Jón Frímann volcano and earthquake forum.

I hope to see as many people as possible there. 🙂

Welcome to the same blog, with a new name (again). This blog is now named Jón Frímann volcano and earthquake blog. My focus area is Iceland and Europe. But I also cover events in other parts of the world if I can do so. But that might not always be the case.

The forum has also changed about name, it is now in line with this blog. As they are connected on subjects and what is covered there.

Next is more coverage of volcanoes and earthquakes in Iceland and in other parts of the world. 🙂

I have made up my mind on how to deal with current identity crises on this blog. It seems that most people want to see this blog called “Jón Frímann earthquake and volcano blog” (or in that direction. This is similar to the name that my other blog has). At least that is what I read from the comments here. I normally make this type of changes in the beginning of the month. But I am going to make an exception this time around. The change is going to happen at 21:00 UTC on 18. January 2012. At the same time the forum is going to change about name. It is going to be called Jón Frímann Volcano and earthquake forum (in accordance with the blog, since they are connected).

The focus areas

While this move allows me to cover all the world. My focus areas are going to be Iceland and Europe on this blog. But I am mostly going to cover Iceland activity, volcanoes and earthquakes. Same goes for the forum. Its main focus is going to be Iceland and Europe. No major changes are going to take place there right away. Besides the name change. The reason for different focus areas is because of the difference in activity

If people have any other suggestion or issue with this idea. Please let me know in time. Thanks.

I am also sorry for this issue that showed it self. I do this because I was not happy with the name, and I also read almost everything about volcanoes everywhere in the world. I also feel that Europe activity is not getting good enough coverage as Iceland once was (that allows for all manners of wrong information to be put forward). Before I started to write about it. I also want to evolve this blog and its subject. I find that to be important thing to do with my work on the internet.

Blog post updated at 18:31 UTC on 18.01.2012.

In the beginning of the new year I changed the name of this blog to include the area that I now cover with this blog. I added Spain and Canary Islands to it. But many people have been asking since I started this blog if I covered events that take place in Europe, as well as Iceland. I have not done so yet. But that might be about to change, if I get a positive feedback from this blog post. I would also change the forum to cover the whole of Europe. How exactly (there are many countries in Europe) I am not sure yet. But I am working in ideas how to deal with it already.

If I expand this blog to whole of Europe it means a lot more work for me. But that also mean that I cannot cover every single small event that happens in Europe. But I would do my best to cover all the major events as they take place. But this change would mean that I would cover whole of Europe as one area. It would not be country special as such. I would name the country with the location in Categories tags.

There are benefits as drawbacks to expanding this blog to whole of Europe. I get more to write about, as dead times in Iceland, Spain and Canary Islands can be covered with other events taking place in Europe. The drawback is that I do not know every fault line, or volcano in Europe. So it might take me a while until I know about all the other volcanoes in Europe. But I can learn about those volcanoes like any other volcano on the planet Earth. This however does not change the fact that I know more about earthquake and volcano activity in Iceland then in other parts of Europe. As I have been watching and studying the activity in Iceland for a lot longer time then I have been watching the activity in Europe. But I have been watching earthquake activity in Europe and around the world for about 14 years now. It is also added benefits of expanding this blog is that I should get more revenue from advertisements. As I should get more traffic then when I am just covering Iceland, Spain and Canary Islands. But donations are often not enough to cover my costs (+other things) of running this blog and my other web pages. This is just the way that is I guess.

It is different how I report earthquake activity in Iceland. For instance. I am not always writing about small earthquake activity that always takes place in many places. Doing so would be waste of my time. Same goes for Spain and Canary Island, where I now report only events that are worth reporting.

It is also an important factor in all this that from this year I am going to move back to Denmark. But I already cover earthquakes that take place there when they happen (every 2 to 10 years) since I have moved to Denmark once before. I want to expand on that to all of Europe. For the reasons I mention above. But I wanted to hear from my readers if this is an good idea or not for me to do. Even if I sometimes think that might be an good idea. Sometimes it turns out that the idea that I had was not.

I am unsure on the name change date if I go trough with this plan. But I would not change it in the middle of the month. I would change it in the beginning of the month. So I have this date to choose from. 1 February, 1 March, 1 April, 1 May, 1 June, 1 July (the latest date that I want to use).

The area that I already cover to date.

Iceland, Jan Mayen (Norway), Spain, Canary Island, Denmark

So please let me know what you think about this in comments.

Here are the web site news for January 2012. This is the first web site news on this blog after the name change.

Name of this blog has changed

On the 1st January 2012 this blog changed about name. It did go from being Iceland volcano and earthquake blog to Iceland, Spain and Canary Island earthquake and volcano blog. This name change had been announced in the beginning of December. I now cover what happens in Iceland, Spain and Canary Islands with best efforts. Currently I do not understand Spanish, so that might be a bit of an problem when it comes to understanding what officials are saying if an eruption or an earthquake happens in Spain or Canary Islands. But in any case I am going to do my best interpretative the data that I have access to.

Donations

As I did say in December. My main income of this blog is from advertisements and donations. Due to my plans on moving to Denmark. I have to make a little shift in my personal economic setup until I am back to Denmark. But I have been transferring money from my social welfare to my danish bank account to pay for the cost of this web site and my danish phone number (I want to keep that number). From January February 2012 I am going to stop doing that until I move back to Denmark (at least, I am going to try to do so). But that should work I hope, if it does not. Then I have to resume sending money to Denmark to pay the bills there. The reasons for this is that I want to save as much money that I can before I move back to Denmark. For that reason I am going to be more depended on donations to keep things afloat for me. As being poor is not cheap at all. The cost of running the web hosting has also increased from $14 to $145 during the month (about 800 DKK with current exchange rates). But I had move this blog to an dedicated server as the traffic had gotten too high for the shared hosting plan that I was on before. But traffic on slow day is around 3000 to 4000 page loads. It gets up to 30.000 page loads or more if something is going on in Iceland. I do not yet have any idea on how traffic is going if something happens in Spain or Canary Island. But that is going to become clear one day.

As I say here above. I am currently trying to save for the moving cost to Denmark. But that puts strain on my other financial parts as I have limited income at the current moment. But I am on social welfare and that is fixed income, as I have written about before here on this blog. Donations also help me to maintain the hardware that I run in connection with my geophone network.

Geophone network

In January 2012 I am going to fish expanding my geophone network for the time being. But I am going start the geophone at farm Skeiðflöt. But that farm is located just south of Katla volcano. That that is going to give me really good overview of what is happening in Katla volcano. However, the geophone station at Skeiðflöt has been a bit more expensive that I did originally plan. As I have to buy lcd screen, keyboard, mouse, wireless network hardware and few cables. The extra cost is about 28050 ISK, 1.313,58 DKK, 176,72€, 228,61$, 147,54 GBP. This is not an cost that I like (I am trying to save money, as I planning on moving to Denmark). But I have already bought the computer that did cost 25.000 ISK, 1.170,75 DKK, 157,50€, 203,75$, 131,50 GBP, for the Skeiðflöt geophone station. So any donations to cover this cost are welcomed. But the geophone station is important because it is located close to Katla volcano and is hopefully going to give good information about the activity in Katla volcano, earthquakes and harmonic tremors. That is why I am doing my best to setup this geophone station soon as possible. As Katla volcano might erupt sooner rather then later.

The move to Denmark

As I have sad before. I am going to move back to Denmark later this year. I am not sure when exactly. But I do know that this going to happen. Until that happens, I am working with limited options. My main earthquake computer is down (offline) and is going to be offline until I move back Denmark into my own apartment. That means no high resolutions traces of earthquakes. As the software that I use to make that is on my main earthquake computer.

I am also looking for apartments outside Copenhagen. The max price that I can handle is about 3500 DKK for the monthly rent. I like to deal with rental companies that are in Denmark rather then with individuals. So any suggestions for 2 rooms apartments are welcomed. Just leave the suggestions in the comment.

This is also (as sad before) why I am still dealing with a bit of economic hardship until I move back to Denmark. But I think that I am still going to be dealing with money issue after I move back to Denmark. I am not yet out of those problem until I start publishing e-books and normal books. I am not yet sure when that starts for me. But it is in the works.

E-mail newsletter

For those who like to watch what is going on in Iceland, Spain and Canary Islands in terms of earthquake and volcano activity. It is now possible to subscribe to an automatic email list that sends you the newest blog posts update on what is going on in this blog. Just fill out the form here below, or click on this link.

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Volcano and earthquake forum

I also want to remind people of the volcano and earthquake forum. But it has been having slow traffic since I did start it in December. But on the forum it is possible to add pictures, ask questions, discuss volcanoes and earthquakes, among other things that do not fit so well into any discussions on this blog.

I do not think that there is anything more for web site news for January 2012. But if there is. I am going to update this blog post with that information.

Update 1: So I did start my extra savings from January 2012 rather then February. As that allows me to save more money faster then I otherwise would have done.

Blog post updated at 14:36 UTC 3. January 2012.