Mind the Beginner

Although I’m officially on vacation and so working a little less on my blog things still keep getting better and better. I even found the time to write this weekly update again. If you’re wondering where I’m at right now. I’m not going to disclose my exact position but I reached: “51.39943, 4.21195” within twelve minutes of leaving the front door to go running. Take the numbers and paste them in Google Earth. If I had a rod with me that spot would make for some great fishing. I’m still on the fence about buying a rod.

Now you have the numbers for my aproximate position let’s have a look at the other numbers:

Average number of pageviews over this week: 230, An insane jump from last weeks 142. I hit a new record yesterday with 465 pageviews. The rest of the week was hovering around 120-160.

Number of subscribers to my RSS feed: 59, I still need to be pinched. Before you know it I’ll go over 100 if we keep going at this pace and as I’ve said before, when I reach those numbers the feedburner counter is going back on my front page.

Where the traffic is coming from: There is still that single blogpost that keeps generating traffic through Google. For a few days it was even on the first page of Google results, right up there with blogsposts on blogs like zenhabits. To bad it dropped back though, can’t find it anymore within the first ten pages. But what a rush that was, seeing your blog up there. Now to analyze what I did to get there and replicate that strategy.

The big spike yesterday was again caused by su.pr. As soon as someone writes a review for stumble numbers shoot up. Add a few retweets and another spike is created. So please, write a review on the normal blogposts (not the weekend reviews..) and help create those spikes.

What I have done this week to get my blog bigger and what I learned: The only “lesson” this week was “What a rush to get to the front page.” Now let’s do that again.
I have another set of numbers I’d like to give you, these represent the real growth of my blog.

The number of pageviews a month:

March: 145 (I started this blog half way trough March)
April: 1637
May: 2904
June: 3598
July: 1787 so far

Although I don’t believe I will reach my goal of 500 pageviews a month before the 16th of July I’m very happy with all the progress that has been made and all the awesome people I’ve come in to contact with. You know who you are. As I won’t be reaching those numbers any time soon I think it’s time for me to just transfer the blog to it’s own domain somewhere in the near future (this month) and build from there.

A last note: I’ve started another blogging project together with LP and CN. It’s really in it’s infancy at the moment (Only two blogposts, both by LP) so I won’t disclose exactly where it is but it’s going to be great! All three of us are aspiring online entrepreneurs and we’ll be sharing our experience so far. Did I mention all three of us are taking part in Project Mojave?

Saturday sneaked up on me again. Had a long night celebrating my girlfriend’s graduation. Talking with friends and listening to music. It’s warm here (somewhere around 30 degrees Celsius) and I’m writing this while the neighbourhood cat is purring at my feet while sitting outside in the shade.

Average number of pageviews over this week: 142, another rise from last week which had an average of 141.

Number of subscribers to my RSS feed: 56, someone pinch me. I still can believe I went through the 50 barrier and even though I haven’t been very actively promoting my blog this week numbers are still going up.

Where the traffic is coming from: I get between 20 and 40 hits every single day on a certain blogpost I did. It seems search engines really like this post. The sources of traffic are the usual: su.pr/stumble, comment son oer blogs, incoming links, the few forums I frequent and twitter. Nothing special but in ever increasing numbers.

What I have done this week to get my blog bigger and what I learned: I got a mail this week from the publishers of a book on Stoicism I used to write my five part series. It seems my blogposts infringed copyrights and I’ve been asked to either rewrite the blogposts or remove them altogether. So far I’ve done some rewriting but I don’t have the book where I’m staying right now so I can’t check to see where things should have been cited. I’m going on a two week vacation tomorrow, taking the laptop with me. It will be another two weeks at least before I can get my hands on that book again so I can imagine getting another mail that I’m not acting fast enough. So be it, can’t change that anyways.

That’s about all the lessons for this week, I’ve been so busy with all sorts of things  that I’ve hardly had any time to get on twitter or work on Project Mojave. Vacation isn’t going to help either so don’t expect me to be online every single day for hours on end. I will however keep up the posting schedule of 2-3 posts a week + the weekend update and moderating this blog. Don’t worry, I won’t desert you. Keep stumbling the blogposts and telling everyone about this blog. I keep seeing new names in the comments and can’t stop smiling about it. Thanks everyone

Time flies when you’re having fun. It seems only yesterday I was writing the last weekly update. Well, here are the numbers again. I’ve heard from various sources that they appreciate these updates and are looking forqard to them every week. The end date of the challenge is slowly coming closer though and the person who has my domain still hasn’t shown any signs of life.

Average number of pageviews over this week: 141, a steady increase as every week. What more to say, I’m happy.

Number of subscribers to my RSS feed: 51, awesome! For the first time since this blogs conception has the number of subscribers gotten out the the forties and into the fifties. A huge morale boost I can tell you. And I was already happy.

Where the traffic is coming from: The only single source that I can identify is stumble. Through using the shortened url’s generated by su.pr my blog gets stumbled more. And because of this I would like to ask you a favor:

Dear readers,

If you visit this blog through twitter (As in, you use the short url’s I supply there to see the latest blogpost) you will not only see my blog but a stumble toolbar at the same time. Please, please hit the “thumbs up” or “I like this” button on the bar, it’s in the top left corner. If you’re the first to do so you’ll have to write a short review. Doing so will help get more and more traffic this way. so more people can enjoy this blog and join the community.
I’d really appreciate it you guys (and girls), please help this blog grow.

Thanks!

What I have done this week to get my blog bigger and what I learned: The biggest change this week is actually a present I got. A new header for my blog showed up in my mailbox and is now proudly being used. Thanks again! Finally my niche is easily recognizable on the front page. I’m a total noob when it comes to photoshop so I couldn’t have made one myself. (Both my desktop and laptop can’t even run PS, they’re both old.)

Something else I’ve done to improve my writing is get a model M keyboard. This blogpost actually is the first one I’ve written on this keyboard and I must say, it’s a deafening joy to type on this plastic monolith. To bad I can’t plug it into my laptop.

Well, that was the update again this week. I hope you’re all enjoying this blog and the updates as much as I am. Thanks for visiting and do come back every few days or so to read the latest blogposts. Have a nice weekend everyone. I can already tell you what the next blogpost will be, it might not be for everyone but I’ve had the request to describe what “Lifestyle design” is. So on Monday I’ll going to give a few definitions I use a lot here and explain them. After all, you have the power to influence what I write about. Thanks for the question and keep them coming.

Another week has come and gone, another weekly update is in order. I’m getting more into the routine of blogging, so I’d better watch out for the “routine-trap” and keep the quality high. I have no idea yet what I’m going to write about next week but I promise you, it will be great!

Average number of pageviews over this week: 120. If I wouldn’t count yesterday all the days of the week generated more than 100 views. I can clearly remember the day that I was exhilarated that I had over 50 views a day.

Number of subscribers to my RSS feed:It’s at 44 today, but I’ve seen spikes reaching a bit higher over the week and I regularly see that the link to my feed has been clicked so the number of subscribers is rising. Thanks Sarah Mae for suggesting that I remove the subscriber counter while I have few subscribers. It’s definitely working although you might not see it if just looking at the weekly numbers.

Where the traffic is coming from: I’ve been using su.pr to promote my blogposts through twitter. This has contributed a lot I can tell you. The blogposts I promote this way now get traffic not only through twitter but through stumble as well, almost doubling the effectiveness. My name seems to be getting out there more and more. My blog’s name even gets searched with google. I’m regularly wrapped in conversation with people I used to thing of as unreachable to me. Also, I’ve done a guestpost over at Sudeep’s blog and have gotten several links back to my blog from Carl over at Slacker Reform. I really do think he’s putting out some serious quality blogposts. If you haven’t visited his blog yet here’s a link: Slacker Reform
I’ll be looking into doing more blogposts and I need to get back to commenting more on other blogs, I’ve been a bit lazy this week.

What I have done this week to get my blog bigger and what I learned:There have been some changes to my blog, mostly subtle. I deleted the feedburner subscriber counter. It will be back up when I reach more than 100 subscribers. I’ve also deleted the “Copyright” page. Somehow I didn’t feel it was adding anything and it has been weeks since someone looked at it. In it’s place I’ve created the Teapot Flow page. If you haven’t seen it yet please do take a look. I like the photo in particular.

Yesterday I actually learned something very valuable while I was running. (Did I tell you already? I’ve taken up running, I’m running almost an hour every other day and have been at it for about three weeks now.) I can to the insight that I currently have something very valuable in hand and that I better act upon it while it’s still in my hand. Before you know it the moment is gone forever. I could tell you all about the insight but then I would have to talk about seeing a cloud dragon with wings of light holding a golden orb. In short, you’d tell me I went insane. Also, it’s not very zen-like to see things that aren’t there. Let’s keep it at a very strange cloud formation with a setting sun strategically behind it. My highly active imagination did the rest.

Well, it’s a short update again but as things are going I’m very happy with the progress. Not only with my won blog but with a few other blogs that started out roughly at the same position I was three months ago. It’s good to see them having success and being there to witness it.

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?