Mind the Beginner

Chances are that you’ve read the four hour workweek, it’s also very likely that you know who Seth Godin is and the name Leo Babauta might even ring a bell. Just a few resources (almost) all people into lifestyle design have heard about.

But names these to just about anyone in daily life and they will have no idea what or who you are talking about. The whole idea of Location Independence (after all, a goal for most lifestyle designers) is completely unknown to them and they are certain you are out of touch with reality. Or at least have very romantic views on how the world works. The possibilities of Internet in the field of generating passive income streams is shrouded in mystery and above all, in disbelief. What are the actually chances of setting up such an income?
Maybe 1 in 1000 people will find a way to generate such an income, and just a few of those will be able to life from that income alone.

Blogging isn’t the way to make loads of money, we all know that right? Yes there are a few bloggers out there who have managed to do very well indeed. (Leo and Darren for example) but most Location Independent Professionals (LIP’s) have different ways of generating their income. Through sales on their blogs/websites, through affiliate programs and general advertisement.

Although I don’t have exact numbers (if you have them, please do share them) I like to believe that it’s not that hard to set up a passive income online. They key here is knowledge.

• Americans under age 60 with incomes under $30,000 per year and those with a high school education or less are considerably less likely to use a computer than their higher income and more educated counterparts
• 49% of adults say they’re keeping up (with computer development); 49% say they’re being left behind
• 75% of Americans use the Internet and spend an average three hours a day online
• Only 30% of cell owners send text messages – but that’s double what the number was two years ago
• One in three cell owners doesn’t know how to use their cell properly (that is, simple configurations)
• a new blogger [joins] the crowd every 40 seconds
• 94 % of high-school seniors have Internet access

A few random statistics that tell us that certainly not everyone is keeping up with all the online developments and there are enough people who -quite harshly said- simply aren’t tech savvy enough to make full use of the networks on offer. Yes, there are millions upon millions of bloggers out there. But what percentage of those bloggers has heard of lifestyle design? It’s a small niche. I’ve been asking around in class and nobody seems to have taken a serious look at things. (and mind you, I’m talking about future software engineers and information scientists here)

If you think what you know about lifestyle design is general knowledge, ask around on the following topics: polyphasic sleep, speedreading, outsourcing, raw food, flashpacking, purple cows, tribes and vagabonding to name but a few.

Grasping the possibilities

If these people, who spend almost every waking hour in the vicinity of a computer with Internet access don’t seem to grasp the full potential of the passive income stream chances are very few people out there really give it a go. Of those who try, most will fail, quite simply because they haven’t done enough research to find out how things actually work. Finding a niche is one of the toughest things you have to do if you want to be successful at this game. Mind you, although in your real life you might be the only one thinking about these things (I know I am…) there are thousands out there trying to do the same. Of those thousands there are a few hundred with enough knowledge to make it work, of those a couple of dozens found a viable niche….

Now putting it all together: Although the Internet is huge and expanding faster than the universe right after the big bang there is just a statistical handful of people who seriously explore the possibilities of lifestyle design and location independence. We’re right there at the front edge of the field, the early adopters. And being here gives us a huge advantage. We know what others don’t know yet. If you’re able to put all the knowledge to action and really give this a go you’re a very rare breed indeed.

You can be the one type, those who don’t try and those who don’t know are the other. Who do you want to be?

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?

This will be the first time I’d rather not do the weekly update. It would probably scare away some people who just discovered this blog. I have however made an obligation out do this post and so I am going to do it however. It’s a Saturday post after all and traffic is slow during the weekend. The great stuff will be back on Monday, stay tuned. You can expect around 3-4 proper posts a week from me and the weekend update.

For the newer readers here, my target is to reach 500 pageviews a day for 7 consecutive days or 300 subscribers to my RSS feed, whichever comes first. The deadline is the 12th of August. If you’re curious as to why I have that deadline you can read more about it here.

It’s all about getting known and being appreciated.

Average number of pageviews over this week: 104 With some help of a powerful retweet the numbers went up on Friday. My estimation for traffic on Friday was way off as you might imagine.

Number of subscribers to my RSS feed: The subscribers are at a steady increase. I have counted 35 of you who have subscribed to my feed. Thank you for that. It feels good to know that you like my content enough to want to read more.

Where the traffic is coming from: Traffic is getting more diverse every week. More people are coming in through search engines. Mainly around the topic of “minimalist living” (even had one reference from Google through “Living in a truck”) Although I didn’t know it at the time of writing the post on living on a small footprint is proving popular. Twitter is pitching in as always, the forum I talked about last week is still generating some traffic as well. Other than that, there are no real big sources, it’s all over the board.

What I have done this week to get my blog bigger and what I learned:In accordance with what I write about I have rewritten the subheading to my blog (on my about page) it now states “Zen and the art of living the beginner’s life” In stead of “Zen and the art of beginning” I feel that it suits my niche better as I slowly but surely make a name for myself and settle in this quite comfortable niche. It’s very important that people get a good idea on what the blog is about after seeing the about page for a second. If it’s not clear you just lost a reader. I might start blogging a bit more about freedom businesses in the near future and where the zen is in that. It seems freedom businesses are becoming more and more mainstream these days and beginning one is exactly what I’m about. (The “beginning” is where it’s at or me.) Blogging is freedom after all and every blogpost is a new beginning. Setting up a business is also beginning. Let’s explore that further in future blogposts.

This week I started to really chase around the people in the collaboration to get everyone to pitch in. It’s not working exactly as I hoped but there is some traffic being generated by it and I’m seeing consistent growth everywhere. I also started digging other blogposts of course. I’m not just in it to grow my own blog as quickly as possible over the backs of others but to really help everyone get to where they want to be and to get them noticed. I have used several lessons I learned in the 31DBBB to make friends. I gladly provide links to other blogs and pick out specific people to “make famous” as Darren puts it. It might not get my blog bigger directly but when the time comes and people see I’m honest about my links to them they will remember me. It’s all about getting known and being appreciated.

On a sidenote: I feel more and more hampered by having a wordpress.com hosted blog. The last few days thoughts have gone through my head about buying the domain I wanted (and is now in safe keeping) and just get on with things. All the links out there that point to my blog point to the wordpress hosted site. I’ll loose all those direct linkbacks as soon as I transfer. Also, setting up a little bit of advertising is very hard to achieve on a wordpress hosted blog. I’m restricted by this theme (that I like a lot but would redesign to add a third column I think).

This week I want to get more structure to my blog. To do so I need your help, there are a few questions I really would like your input on. Please do answer them in the comments, as the answers will help me build a better blog for you.

I’ve numbers the questions so it’s easier to answer them in the comment section:

1. How would you describe the niche this blog is in?
2. How many blogposts a week do you want to see here?
3. What is the optimal postlength for you?
4. Are there things on this blog that you are missing?
5. Are there things you think I should do more?
6. Are there things you think I should do less?

As a second option you can of course mail me the answers if you feel uncomfortable about posting them publicly or have other reasons not to use the comment section. The mail is Mindthebeginner(at)gmail(dot)com. 

Also, if there is anything else that isn’t covered by this inquiry but you feel I should know please do tell me. I need your help.

Thank you, I really appreciate it.