September 17th, 2007

The Mighty StumbleUpon

I have now beheld the mighty power than is StumbleUpon. My The Only General Writing Advice You Will Ever Need list seems to have been noticed, and I feel the need to acknowledge the surge in traffic it brought about. Everything is relative, but for a humble journal of modest means having an avalanche of 15,000+ guests over two days is well beyond normative numbers. It’s not Perez Hilton numbers, but again, it’s relative, so it might as well have been.

The Potential for Connection

At this point we’re slowly returning to pre-Stumble numbers, which is fine by me. Traffic is nice, but let’s not mistake it for connection, which is more what I’m into. Most folks who came by way of Stumble seemed to have come and gone, which is, again, perfectly fine, and I suppose better than never having come at all. Some folks waded into the site more deeply, and for this I am thankful. Some left comments. Again, you have my appreciation. As does anyone who subscribed to the site, emailed me, wrote about it, or thought about it. This is the connection piece I spoke of above, and this is what traffic represents as I see it.

The potential for connection. The more people that amble by your site the more people you can learn from, listen to, and connect with. That’s the true power of the social web in my opinion. The connections it can engender among us. And for those of you who have yet to experience a relative surge in traffic, for whatever reason, I’d say hold tight cause if you stick with it you probably will, and here’s what it feels like: “God damn, look at all these people coming here. Jesus, I’m famous. Man, look at this will you. It’s a mob. I’m gonna be on Oprah dude.” Or something along those lines. I’m still waiting to hear from her though.

About The Site

I also feel compelled to briefly mention, for those of you that may have recently subscribed, or are following along now, that this site has no real pinpoint focus to speak of. It’s a personal site so I tend to follow the dictates of my own interest and attention, kinda where the spirit takes me. This could be great, or not.

However, where content may vary greatly there is some consistency by method. I’ll typically post a few asides each day. These are usually links and items that catch my eye, quotes I find amusing, or useful, or quick thoughts that compel me to bang the keyboard. Interspersed among the asides will be longer posts, and these might appear two or three times a week, give or take. So, I’m never quite sure what I’m gonna write about, but you can hang your hat on the way it will come out, either by the daily aside, or by intermittent long post. That seems to me to be the structure I’ve finally settled into, for better or worse. You know, do what works for you is my standard advice. This seems to work for me.