Mind the Beginner

Hello again everyone, My weekly update is here again though the name “weekly” does seem a bit off. I’ve ben swamped lately and am not practicing what I preach. My time management is a bit fubar I guess. Many issues to solve but that won’t stop me in the end. We’ll get through this and in the mean time here’s another update for you.

For those of you who are new to this: I’ve set myself the goal of reaching 100 subscribers on my RSS feed as my current blogchallenge. After that the goal will be to reach 500+ pageviews per day. Upon reaching the 100 subscribers this blog will be transferred to its own domain. A huge step in blogging for me.

In the mean time, to keep you all a bit updated on the situation I’m writing these weekly updates on how things are going. So here are the numbers:

Average numbers of pageviews a day this month so far: 242 (period 9-1 till 9-11) A huge leap when compared to last months numbers which was somewhere in the 170’s. Interesting, I regularly break the 250 mark nowadays.

Number of subscribers to my RSS feed: 84, the number doesn’t seem to be rising like it used to. But I’ve got some things planned to work on that. Stay tuned.

Where the traffic is coming from: Okay, this is the last time I’m going to post this item on the list. There is no single source that generates all the traffic, save google. Twitter, stumble, Facebook, other blogs, they all chip in and I no longer see the use of mentioning this as it has been this way for months now. If anything special happens I’ll mention it in the updates, otherwise I’ll let this point off the list.

What I have done this week to get my blog bigger and what I learned: Blogging is hard work! Although I already knew this, time management is becoming more important. I need to sync all my agenda’s a bit better and let them rule my day a bit more. Yes you’re reading that right… letting a schedule dictate how I spend my day. I’m doing too much slacking, and that’s to much of a good thing. I’ll be reworking my workspace in the oncoming weeks:

- New desktop pc

- New desk (going to collect that one tomorrow)

- Proper time management utilities (sync my PDA with my desktop calendar functions)

- Kick my own ass for overdoing the laziness.

Well, that’s all folks. Monday will see a new week, and new opportunities to develop. Enjoy your weekend.

Introduction period at University is over, I start next Monday. As announced in a previous post I wouldn’t do a weekly update last weekend. Well, things got a bit worse, I did only one blogpost this entire week! I could apologize, but I thought better of it and wrote a blogpost on the power of silence. Nice way of solving the issue don’t you think?

The month is almost at an end and just a few minutes ago I reached a new all time record. I was planning to have more pageviews this month than last week and I just passed that number with one whole pageview! So again, another month of continues growth on my blog.

Let’s have a look at that first number first. I’ve got some bad news that I’m keeping for the end of the blogpost.

Average numbers of pageviews a day this month so far:176 (period 8-1 till 8-28) A number that’s significantly lower than my last update but at the same time is a bit higher than last month’s average. With only 49 hours to go until the end of the month (according to my pc) I’ve managed to reach the goal I set myself. The goal of having more pageviews than last month. Although not a huge increase it’s growth and so I’m content.

Number of subscribers to my RSS feed: 85, Not my all time record (that was 87 on August 19th) But the 100 subscribers will be here by the end of September and you know what that means :)

Where the traffic is coming from: I’m feeling more and more that this part of the update is useless. There hardly ever are any huge sources of traffic, most come through google and others through blogs all over the place who refer to me. Everyone please do spread the link, it’s the single most effective way to help other bloggers out there.

What I have done this week to get my blog bigger and what I learned: Another useless item on the weekly update as I’m not actively doing anything at the moment, I’m just writing what’s on my mind and comment on other blogs from time to time. I also keep using twitter although I’m rarely really there. I usually autopost on twitter. Seems unfair somehow, I really should become more active again. But that’s going to claim resources.

Which brings me to my bad news: I quit Project Mojave. For one simple reason, I currently don’t have the resources to participate and with a new semester starting in two days I doubt I could invest as much time as I wanted/needed to. I will be back there when the time is right, but for now I just don’t have enough resources to spare. Time to cut my losses so to speak.

Well, that’s the weekly update again. Next month will bring me my long awaited goal of 100 subscribers. I’ll transfer the blog to it’s own domain then and I’ll need to find a new goal, how does 500 views a day sound?

Today I’d like to present you with a long list of things to increase your comfort zone. But before we have a look at that, I’m sure you’re wondering why in Buddha’s name would you want to do that. After all, you’re sitting there in your comfy chair, air conditioning, coffee at hand and not a care in the world. Nice little plush bubble your in, nice and safe.

Now, let’s have a small experiment before we begin with the list. What if the air conditioning failed on you right now and slowly the temperature starts to rise. Quickly it will become less comfortable right? You’re used to room temperature and now it’s very warm here indeed. You’re uncomfortable, perhaps sweating a bit.A single drop of sweat starts rolling down your back.

If this never happened to you before that single drop of sweat might just make you want to take a shower right away. It’s ” icky” or whatever… or at least, you do your best to avoid such things (even though sweating is human) and so this is definitely uncomfortable. What if someone can smell your body odor?! Hell on earth for some people.

But what is it exactly, a single small drop of fluid slowly making it’s way down your back. Is that really so terrible? When taking a shower you’ve got millions of drops. Get the idea? You’re not comfortable with a single drop, even though it’s not the end of the world. It won’t matter in a few hours let alone in a week or so. Don’t make such a big deal out of something small.

The list

To get more comfortable I suggest looking for slight discomfort every now and then and here are a lot of ideas:

1. Postpone  showering for a day
2. Turn of the air conditioning
3. Do NOT drink that coffee
4. Sleep a few hours less for several nights
5. Turn off the TV
6. Turn off the PC
7. Turn off ALL power for a day
8. Limit your food to just bread and water for a day
9. Under-dress/”forget” your jacket
10. Leave the car in the driveway and take the bike
11. Leave your mobile phone at home
12. Same goes for laptop/iPod
13. For 30 seconds, run as fast as you can. (not as fast as you think you can)
14. Don’t sit down if standing is possible
15. Get off the bus a stop earlier
16. Drink nothing but water for a week
17. Don’t eat until your stomach has growled for an hour at least
18. Sleep on the floor
19. Take a short walk, barefoot
20. Eat something you’ve never eaten before
21. Drink something you’ve never drank before
22. Take a cold shower
23. Lie down on the floor in a public place
24. Cut all your nails short
25. If you’re a clean freak, make a huge mess
26. If you live in a pig pen, clean up

I could go on endlessly but what I’m actually talking about is: Do something you normally don’t do, experience something new, explore your discomforts and inflict them upon yourself. Right now you have the choice to do those things. Next time the air conditioning breaks down, that single drop won’t phase you if you’ve experienced it before and know it’s not a big deal.

An exercise in discomfort

And now an extreme challenge in comfort, try the following:

Grab your backpack and pack a change of clothes, a toothbrush and perhaps a book. (No laptop, other electronics or food) Do this all in less than 5 minutes.

Now walk out the door, close it, and don’t go back inside your home for at least 48 hours. If this is too easy for you, I’ve got four aditional levers for you:

1. Get away longer than 48 hours, let’s say 72
2. No hotel/motel or other payed place to sleep
3. Leave all types of money behind, you’re not allowed to spend a cent
4. No contact with anyone you know

Of course, if you level up, the restrictions of the previous level still apply. I dare you, give it a go.

Over time people get all to comfortable and become afraid of things that only a few decades ago were daily life. Get out of that comfort-bubble and refuse to get back in. If it’s comfortable it’s potentially dangerous, anything comfortable will have power over you if you don’t watch out.

Good luck and enjoy the discomfort

WOOSH, there we are again. It’s going so fast I actually typing this on Sunday. Better get crackin’ right away:

Average numbers of pageviews a day this month so far: 187 (period 8-1 till 14-8) Every so slightly lower than last week but still on track.

Number of subscribers to my RSS feed: 82

Where the traffic is coming from:The usual suspects, although you might think it’s getting old it certainly is not. A special mention goes out to Frugal Bachelor who put me up in his “good blogs I read” resulting in a small trickle of traffic. Although it might seem small he managed to get my attention and so I’m returning the favor.

What I have done this week to get my blog bigger and what I learned: Nothing, absolutely nothing. No lessons, nothing done to get the blog bigger. One lesson outside of blogging: paying attention to someone and really listening and caring for that person makes a whole lot of difference. Something we all know right? Something we don’t all practice though.

There is a huge gap between what we know/say we do and what we actually do. More on that later this week.

As you probably noticed my posting frequency is still a bit lower than usual,it;s because the topics I’m currently writing about (and reading about) are quite tough to get to grips with. In a comment on my last post John Bardos pointed out that:

In the west, it (Zen) has been co-opted to mean “simple,” but I don’t feel that really encompasses the idea.

Take a look at zen habits for instance. Although on the one hand you could say that there’s a lot on the topic of Zen there, on the other hand in a nutshell Leo’s blog is about “simple productivity”. It’s a really tough nut to crack but if you’re really interested in Zen I recommend Alan Watt’s book, The way of Zen. My brother-in-law let me borrow his copy a while back (along with Raymond Smullyan’s The tao is silent) after he got wind of my interest in Zen. Although those who know do not speak Alan did manage to explain things in writing.

But this is not why we are here right now, it’s Saturday and so it’s time for the weekly update.

But first, I’d like to introduce a new number in place of the Average number of pageviews this week. Instead I’m going to give you the average numbers of pageviews a day this month so far. In my last weekly update I calculated an average of 163 a day for the entire month. As long as the number is larger than that my blog is growing. The number is a bit more stable and so gives a better representation of the current status of my blog. So here it is:

Average numbers of pageviews a day this month so far: 191 (period 8-1 till 8-7). Actually a bit larger than expected, very nice.

Number of subscribers to my RSS feed: 77, again, a nice leap here. Even though I feel I’m slightly letting you down by not writing so often. I guess it really is quality over quantity here, exactly how I want to be blogging. I don’t just want to churn out blogpost after blogpost just to say something. I’m a firm beleiver of “If you have nothing to say, don’t open your mouth” and apparently you appreciate this. Thanks!

Where the traffic is coming from: Absolutely no surprises here, although my blogpost ranks on the second spot in google as I’m typing this. Just search “minimalist living” in google. Good for 30 referrals a day by Google. Thanks you Google.

What I have done this week to get my blog bigger and what I learned: Again, absolutely nothing. I’ve been reading a lot and getting up at dawn to go fishing for several days now. It’s very relaxing I can tell you, even though I don’t catch a lot. Getting up this early and heading off into nature is something I should have done a long time ago. Yesterday I caught my first pike (Esox lucius), ever… a whole 33cm of fish with sharp teeth. I hope many more will follow. Call me crazy but I’ve dreamt of catching this type of fish for years. It’s a childhood dream that finally came true at 26 years of age. And here she is:

I did learn something from fishing already. As with all things, don’t expect huge results the first time, everything takes practice and patience. Growing this blog is exactly like fishing. It’s hard work and it takes dedication. But in time the results get better and better. You’re going to catch bigger fish either figuratively or literally.

Okay, so here it is again back by demand. I skipped number 13 and now it’s on to number 14. With further distractions here are the numbers:

Average number of pageviews over this week: 171 without going “viral” this week. So they’re real numbers. Last time I had 230, but that was with a huge spike in there. They didn’t stick, obviously.

Number of subscribers to my RSS feed: 68, yesterday it was at 69. That’s 10 more than the last upate. If this trend continues I should reach the 100 in a month. (And transfer my blog to it’s own domain as I told you in my previous post.)

Where the traffic is coming from: No surprises here as well, the usual suspects are getting me traffic. Stumble, Google, Twitter, other blogs. They’re all pitching in to make nice numbers.

What I have done this week to get my blog bigger and what I learned: Well, the biggest lesson is trying to stay focused is hard. I haven’t done much with Project Mojave for weeks now and I haven’t been online much. I could say “I’m going to do it this week” but those are just words on a screen. No, it’s action hat’s required and so action it will be.

I actually havn’t done anything actively to get this blog bigger. It’s slowly growing by itself. I think I’ll have another look at all the info I got through the 31DBBB challenge from problogger and see if there are little gems in there I can utilize to make the blog grow just a bit faster and get more sticky traffic.

I’ve also learned something valuable concerning good vs bad I’ll b sharing in a blogpost next week, so stay tuned.

Well, there you have it, the weekly update is back on Saturday. The new goal is 100 subscribers and after that I’ll hunt for those 500 pageviews a day. This topic isn’t exactly about zen, or lifestyle design or personal development for that matter. That’s why I write it on Saturday, a slow day on blogs in general (and Sunday is my day offline). This ongoing topic is to show you the process behind this blog, and to give you a more personal look at me, the grandma guy behind the screens as far as you don’t get it through my blogposts.

I’ve found an interesting new source of insiration by the way. I’ve quoted from it once via twitter so far in the last days. Here’s a challenge for you: Find that tweet and either send it back to my by direct message or (if I’m not following you yet) send me an @ tweet telling me I should follow you because you have the answer. The first three people to get it right get to tell me a subject they want me to write about and I will do so, along with a linkback to their blog (always nice to boost your technorati rank)  and everlasting glory.

Good luck, and spread the word about my blog. As a last note, is it wrong for me to shamelessly ask you to linkback to my blog if you have a blog yourself?

[update]

Alan Perlman found it, two more to go…

Ralph Carlson found it, who will be number three?

[/update]

As you might have noticed, I didn’t do an update last weekend and wasn’t planning to do one this week because they were there for a reason and that reason is no longer applicable. So far nobody protested but I wonder if there are people out there who really liked them and want me to continue them for the time being.

Although I no longer have a true goal seeing as the end date for the challenge has passed there is always something to learn, something to strive for and at the moment it’s a self-imposed goal of 100 RSS subscribers. As soon as I reach this number I’ll transfer my blog to it’s own domain and put the feedburner counter back on the site.

If you’re wondering where that number is right now, last time I looked it was 69. Only 31 more to go before I transfer.

Well, that’s it for the challenge. Now onto a different subject. The comments I’ve been getting here really are amazing me. To be honest I never thought it would even get this far and still more and more people are flocking to this blog. I’m at a total loss for words with all this… it’s awesome. I can clearly recall the day I was jumping with joy over 50 pageviews to my entire blog in a single day. Nowadays I get that number on a single post. Don’t compliment me about it or anything or things will start to go to my head.

Here’ what will be happening the next few weeks:

If there is a demand for it I’ll keep doing the weekly updates on Saturday for the time being.

As soon as the number of subscribers reach 100 I’ll make short work of transferring this blog to it’s own domain and of course will let you all know so you won’t miss a post. I’ll be choosing a slightly different layout. I’m currently using a two column press row theme, I’ll change to a three column version of this theme so I have a bit more room. Yes I’ll be using that room to promote some things, a domain of your own isn’t free after all and I’d like to break even. Forgive me for this high-treason but it’s the only way I can manage. I will be selective however and promote only stuff I feel good about. (Think certain eBooks and affiliates) The last problem I’m struggling with is a discontent with the current categories on my blog. They’re to fuzzy around the edges, and need some sorting. If you have a good idea about what the categories should be please do let me know.

Last but not least I’ve had a few mails requesting certain topics. Your mails have been read an the topics will be handled soon. Keep those mails coming! I love reader input.

Some time ago I started a blogchallenge. My challenge was to grow my blog by 1600% in three months, which ment the following

• OR I have more than 500 pageviews a day for 7 consecutive days.
• OR I have more than 300 subscribers to my RSS feed

This challenge is the reason why I’ve been writing those weekly updates you’ve come to expect every saturday. The deadline for the challenge was last monday and as expected, just extrapolate the numbers in the weekly updates and it was very clear. I didn’t reach either number. Things went slow and even backwards a times. Maybe I hexed myself by choosing the snail theme for all the updates. (You did notice didn’t you?).

Subscriber number is hovering around 60 and pageviewnumbers are a roller coaster between 100 and 450 a day (rough estimates)

So, am I now a failure? I’ll leave that to you to decide. I’ve learned so much these months and have been reaching more people every week. A few have been around since I started and have been commenting on a regular basis either through twitter or on this blog.

The challenge is over, although I still want to reach those goals. I was planning on transferring this blog to it’s own domain but someone bought it, this was what actually started the challenge, he would give it to me for free is I made it. There is one huge problem however, the guy who bought it seems to have dropped off the face of the planet so I can’t get the domain I wanted. Although this does suck a bit it’s not the end of the world. I will reach those numbers, and beyond.

I’m currently on vacation but when I get back home next week I’ll start working on several things:

1. Getting this blog on it’s own domain
2. Writing more posts (of course)
3. Project Mojave, I’ve been slacking A LOT
4. The blog side-project with CN & LP
5. Buying a new computer (A desktop windows system)
6. Picking up the guitar
7. Something I haven’t done in 10 years: go fishing
8. Prepare for university
9. Writing guestposts for several blogs and hopefully receiving some as well (hint!)
10. Finishing that “bucket list” I talked about a while back

I’ve got a lot to do and as always so little time to do it in, good thing I have a “black belt” in productivity and am a master of the upside down swan. So if I seem busy I’m actually not, or am I truly busy and not to be disturbed…

I would like to thank everyone who has helped me to get this far. Thanks for all the diggs, retweets, linkbacks, comments, stumbles and what not. This blog wouldn’t be the same without you!

Saturday is here again and so is the weekly update. Yesterday was the 12th of June, which means I’ve got one month left to reach my goals of either 500 pageviews a day for seven consecutive days or 300 subscribers.

Well, I can tell you I no longer believe I will reach those numbers within a month, but I’ll get close. Somehow I don’t believe I’ll get my domain after all, the guy who has it hasn’t responded to any messages for a while now. It’s almost as if he’s dropped of the face of the earth or something. It won’t stop me however. Here are the numbers of this week:

Average number of pageviews over this week: I was hoping to give you a nice number that was slightly higher than last week. The number of pageviews has been quite steady after all. However, with help of @Victusfate my pageview numbers exploded. He put my Stoic series up on some social media sites. The results are staggering. I woke up Friday hoping to see some 30 pageviews, the counter was already on 158. Mostly through Reddit where my Stoic series ended up on the top of the list of hot topics on philosophy. The average number this week is 147  with a  range of 273. Insane…

Number of subscribers to my RSS feed: As you might have noticed I took down the RSS feed counter. The low number was likely costing me subscribers. I’ll post it back up when I go over100. The number right now is 40. My prediction of one or two new subscribers every day didn’t seem to come true. Oh well, lesson learned.

Where the traffic is coming from: More traffic is coming through twitter, some is also coming here through blogcomments on other blogs as well as my blog being mentioned on other blogs. The huge spike on Friday came from Reddit. Although that traffic won’t stick, it’s exposure and will inevitably get my blog out there more.

What I have done this week to get my blog bigger and what I learned: I’ve started looking more into using the social media to promote my blog. I was quick to jump on an opportunity to get a “beta tester” status on Stumble’s new service Su.pr and will be using that to promote my blog from now on. What it does is simple, it creates a short url just like tweetdeck, but at the same time that short url can be tracked and stats will be given for it. (How many clicks, most active time and thus best time to publish them.) The added bonus is that the url wil automatically be submitted to Stumble. All in it will drive more traffic even if just by showing me the most effective time to post. I’ll be experimenting with this over the next few weeks and I’ll let you know.

I’ve added the possibility to subscribe to a feedburner Email subscription on my blog. So far the only person receiving those mails is myself (After all, I need to see what I send out right?) But I’m sure more people will subscribe by mail. I’ve also edited the “Subscribe” page to show these two options.

There is a new button below the RSS feed button on the main page. A way to submit my blog to various social media sites which will hopefully drive more traffic this way.

Last but not least I’ve given my “about” page a small makeover. Mostly cosmetic (I’ve moved my picture), the most significant change is that I have defined my niche more tightly “Lifestyle design and personal development with a Zen twist.” I think this is exactly where I am with this blog. Do you agree?

Another week passed and my blog is stabilizing.

Although things are slow the roller-coaster ride of pageviews is becoming less bumpy.

Average number of pageviews over this week: 81 within the range of 71-88. This trend has been here for at least a week now. I can expect roughly 70-80 views a day, every day now. I’m happy with that, very happy. Let’s see if this Saturday and Sunday we can keep that number up.

Number of subscribers to my RSS feed: I added a counter to the left side column on my page last week so you can see the number every day. It’s now at 42 and on the slow increase. I get one or two additional subscribers almost every day.

Where the traffic is coming from: Some traffic is coming from the “thank you” page accompanying the digital nomad survey. Other than that it’s all over the place as usual, more and more is getting here through search engines. Roughly 25% of visitors get here through search engines now. I’ve identified what the popular topics are and I’ll be sure to implement that knowledge in further writing.

What I have done this week to get my blog bigger and what I learned: I’ve started a five part series on Stoic psychological tactics and so far it really seems popular. It certainly made people sticky which was one of the goals (at least, if we’re talking in blogging tactics). There is also more interaction and I’m seeing new names in the comments which of course is the best thing I could wish for. I even get some tweets about it which is great.

A short blogpost this time, there isn’t so much to tell. I feel the wildly varying pagesview numbers I had in the beginning is stabilizing and now is getting ready for the slow and steady growth.

I’d like to share a last set of numbers. The numbers of visitors in the first three months:

• March: 145
• April: 1673
• May: 2904

Totally unrelated but also a part of progress: I’m working more and more on Project Mojave, slowly homing in on niches I like and can commit myself to although there still is a lot of brainstorming and statistical analyses to be done.