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 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.

It’s Saturday and that means the bloghallenge update is here again.

Things were slow this week, very slow. For the first time since the 1st of May (with 35 views) the number of pageviews dipped below the 50 yesterday, reaching only 38. If you read enough about blogging however you know that at certain times a dip wil occur in these numbers and so I’m not to depressed about it. The solution is not to give up and keep writing the best you can. I might just have to stop watching these stats every day and just have a peek on saturday for this update.

I am having a slight problem however. The guy how has my domain somehow doesn’t seem to be active online lately. His last tweet was a long time ago and he hasn’t commented here or otherwise let me know he’s alive. But let’s not let that stop us so it’s on with the numbers:

Average number of pageviews over this week: 83, a decrease as expected. I wonder where the counter will stop at the end of the month.

Number of subscribers to my RSS feed: 30, but that’s also to be expected in the weekends. Some of you might not know this but the number in the counter on my main page doesn’t resemble the number of people who have subscribed, but the number of RSS reading tolls that have requested the feed on this day. At least, that’s the simplified explanation. That’s why the numbers fluctuate so easily.

Where the traffic is coming from: The usual sources again. Forums (my signatures), blogs I’ve commented on, a bit of twitter and some search engine traffic. It seems more and more people are bookmarking my site and coming here directly.

What I have done this week to get my blog bigger and what I learned: This week I added a page about my RSS feed and what RSS is. Moulded after probloggers page. I also added a more attractive RSS button to the main page and a counter below it. According to various sources having a counter on your site can motivate people to subscribe. This works best when you have more than 100 subscribers but that will come in due time. Humans are followers by nature and if they see that you already have 100 subscribers (or more) they are likely to subscribe as well thinking “If this blog gets so many subscribers it must be good, I want in on the action.”

Yes it actually can work this way, amazing isn’t it.

I haven’t done much actively this week to get my blog bigger, shame on me. I’ll get back to the commenting on other blogs next week and see if there is anyone who wants a guestpost on their blog. If you want one just let me know (mail me) and I’ll see hat I can write that will appeal to your readers.

That’s it for this week. I hope the numbers will be up again next weekend. Have a nice day everyone.

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).

It’s time for the weekly update again, so here we go. The stats first and the lessons after that just like the last two updates I gave you.

Average number of pageviews over this week: 132 (spiked to 260 on Thursday)

Number of subscribers to my RSS feed: 28 

Where the traffic is coming from: The spike in visits came from one single post on one forum. My “a tour of my pockets” post has had 281 views as I’m writing this. More visits from the problogger forum, some from twitter and the blogging collaboration I’m writing about is starting to pitch in a bit. Had my first visits through stumble. The commenting on other blogs is still providing me with some traffic. Twitter is good for a few visits too, and the collaboration is helping with with retweeting, resulting in more traffic. 

What I’ve done this week to get my blog bigger and what I learned:

As promised I did the tour of my pockets and bag. My most popular post as yet. (More popular than my about page…) I’ve looked into forums in my niche (mainly in the direction of zen at the moment) and I’m starting to participate there and add value. Also I’ve discovered that the whole “blogging” theme in some posts isn’t what people are here for. These posts are less popular than others. To give people what they want I’ll be writing less about blogging save the weekly update on Saturday. I’m doing these because of the challenge I’ve been presented with: If I manage to get 500 pageviews over 7 consecutiveve days or 300 subscribers to my RSS feed I get “my” domain for free. For the time being someone has bought it and is keeping it safe for me. If I manage I get it for free, if I don’t I can buy it for the normal price. 

• So, less blogging on blogging and more blogging on zen, living and skills. 

Also, I’ve noticed that writing just to get a post out every day is not for me. A few of you told me how many posts you expect a week and it’s fewer than 7. To relieve myself from the self imposed “burden” of posting every day I’m from now on going to post 4-6 times a week with the idea of “Only say something if you’ve got something useful to say, not just to say something” in mind. A small sacrifice in quantity so I can steady my aim on quality. I hope you agree on this with me, please tell me what you think.

Another week has passed and this blog is slowly growing just as I expected. Thanks everyone who’s helping me achieve my targets. I couldn’t do this without you.

The weekly update is here again and by just looking at the numbers it hasen’t been a great week:

Average number of pageviews over this week: 70

Number of subscribers to my RSS feed: 21 (very nice!)

Where the traffic is coming from: Again it’s mostly from problogger but twitter is pitching is as are the blogcomments I’ve posted elsewhere. I think it’s getting a bit more stable now. The initial hype is over and now I have to work even harder than before, jut to keep it up.

What I’ve done this week to get my blog bigger and what I learned: I have added a lot of people on twitter in the hopes if getting to know more of my readers. A lot is defined by going from 158 following to over 400 and doubling my followerd to over 250. As I said last week I havn’t jumped on every blogpost at probloger anymroe and I don’t think it has caused my to much traffic I musts say. Most traffic is comming from the forum, not the blog comments. I’m also working on a collaboration of bloggers and it’s growing, we have about 10 members at the moment and it’s still growing. Somewhere this week I’ll be posting my plan in how I would like this collaboration to function. So stay tuned and hang on to your hats. This is going to be a wild ride.

Another post comming this week will be ” What’s in my bag” . I’ve always loved these things and I just have to do one of these. (I’m a regular at the EDC forums after all) Besides, I saw one the other day at The simple dollar and wrote in the comment that I would be doing one too. I have to keep that promise. 

Have a nice weekend everyone.

As some of my readers already know I’m working on a challenge to get my blog to grow big enough so that I can reclaim my domain. Big enough is defined here as >500 pageviews a day for seven consecutive days or >300 subscribers to my RSS feed. There already have been several occasions where readers have asked me how things were going. So I’ve decided to give an update every weekend on how things are going. I’ll split those up into four items:

• Average number of pageviews over this week (Monday-Friday)
• Number of subscribers to my RSS feed
• Where the traffic is coming from
• What I’ve done this week to get my blog bigger and what I learned

The observant reader will also know that not only has my domain been bought and I’ll get it for free if I manage to succeed, but another benefactor has stepped in who offered me free web hosting for a year.

Average number of viewers: 117
Number of subscribers to my RSS feed: 8
Where is the traffic coming from:

Mostly it’s getting here through the problogger.com forum (31DBBB)at the moment, a few more get here through my twitter and a few find their way through comments I’ve left on other blogs. The remainder get here through all sorts of little things I’ve done such as putting up a link to my blog in the signatures I have on all the forums I visit.

What I’ve done this week to get my blog bigger and what I learned:

I’ve become quite active on the 31DBBB forum and that alone has doubled my pageviews. I’ve also managed to be (one of) the first to comment on the new 31DBBB blogpost as it hit the net and as the assignment got announced on the forum. These both have resulted in a lot of traffic coming this way but it’s not the kind of attention you want to be getting in the long run. So as of next week I will no longer react to the assignments within minutes but will wait until after 7 pm to act upon them. That’s a good three to four hours after problogger posts the new assignment for the day. It’s not always good to be first. 

On the problogger forum I’ve set up a topic searching for other bloggers so we can help each other through Digg, StumbleUpon, Del.isi.us. and other means of promotion. As I’m writing this I’ve only gotten two other bloggers to join me but I hope more will follow. Perhaps I’ve turned the 31DBBB forum visitors against me already by being to omnipresent. 

I’ve received several mails of people who did a quick review of my site. Stating what they were missing and how things felt to them. The biggest issue is that the niche of my blog isn’t clear right off the bat although the minimalistic style and the “relaxing” green header combined with the title of my blog gives a vague idea as to what it’s all about. So far people are positive about its as a whole. I’ll tweak the layout when I get Wordpress.org. I like this layout a lot but there are minor things I’d like to change. I’d like a three column layout for instance and a subheading to go with the title of my blog.

I’ve seriously edited my “about” page after getting numerous comments (I asked for a review on the 31DBBB forum,worked like a charm) that my picture was portraying me as very inaccessible. People thought I was a speaker of sorts. Truth be told I was a picture taking during my final presentation in order to graduate as B. Health. I’m not a regular suit wearer though. So the picture got swapped for something friendlier. 

The text on the about page also got an overhaul, I hope it’s now much clearer on what this blog is all about as well as who I am as a person and blogger.

At the end of this article I now realize that getting more than 500 views on both Saturday and Sunday will be the toughest of all. As it stands I’ll only keep everyone informed on the average views Monday – Friday just to keep the excitement.