Where has the time gone? Skillful Means Turns 8 Months Old

I just checked my trusty calendar, scratched my head, looked back at my post counter for this blog, and took out my calculator to double check.  It was by accident when I decided to check how old Skillful Means is (I do this based on the number of posts) on the day it turned 8 months old!

If you have been keeping up with the blog for a while you probably know that I write a retrospective article every month to review where the blog has delved and gone during the month.  This blog was built of some ideals and goals, and at times I will write about those things that inspired and moved this blog forward just one more month.  You can read some of that writing in some of my other retrospective articles.  Here is a link to the list of those articles I have written specifically about this blog and some other blogging tools and things that I have learned: http://skillfulmeans.lotusbell.com/tag/blog/

How strange how the time went by this month.  It must be pretty hectic for me to skip right over a month of retrospective.    In truth, the writing the retrospective articles are very helpful for me. I do recommend bloggers writing one even if they don’t publish the posts to the public.  Looking back on those articles is a real mind blower; not only is it easier to witness how this blog has morphed and grown, but it is also an indicator of how I have morphed an grown both personally and as a writer.  I definitely recommend it.

Skillful Means Turns 8

So what has happened over the last two months?  Looking back at my “sixth month” retrospective post, I remember thinking, dang what is there left to write about?  I thought with getting the new job, with new stresses, and new focus on “work things” I would eventually run out of things to write, well things interesting to me.  What has happened is that although article topics can get kind of lean sometimes, I tend to pull through.  I think one major thing that keeps me writing was one of the things that the blog was supposed to help me do, to write every weekday.  I realize not every article is going to be the most exciting, but keeping focused on the writing has been very important.

But enough of that… I think I have written about all that good stuff in a previous retrospective.  Let’s talk about some of the back end changes to Skillful Means that have happened in the last two months.

Skillful Means Gets its Own Domain – Why Starting on WordPress Worked Out

When I first started this blog, I knew that I wanted to write everyday but I never considered that I would keep writing.  And I really mean “considered”.  It was not that I thought that I couldn’t do write everyday (or in this case weekday), I just didn’t consider that I would be doing it this long.  So when I went out looking for a free site to host my blog WordPress.com seemed a natural choice.  It was to try out this blogging thing and see if it would stick. I had started the blog without really looking at the Blogger site and services.  In retrospect, knowing what I know now, I would probably still have picked WordPress instead of Blogger.  I’ll explain more about that later.

It was not long after I started the Skillful Means blog on WordPress that I longed to go “independent”.  I do like to experiment with different tools, and although themes and plug-ins are available on the WordPress.com site, when using a free WordPress account, you lose a lot of options for functionality.  I knew eventually I would be moving my site, it really then only became a question of when.

There were a number of positive things that came out of starting off on WordPress.com:

• The number one good thing was, since I decided on using WordPress software to host my blog on my own domain it was a fairly clean conversion from the old WordPress site to the new one.  This was a great thing, because I could move the whole site to the new URL and have all of my content.  Of course there were some technical difficulties, but nothing that couldn’t be overcome.
• The WordPress blog platform is a good one, fairly easy to implement, and nice to administer.  It needs a more technical hand to add plug-ins than some other platforms that I have worked on, but overall for someone like me this wasn’t a problem.
• Since I had already used the WordPress software on WordPress.com, by the time it came to running my own instance, I had already become familiar at least with the ins and outs of administration and using some plug-ins, and some of how the themes worked.  All this knowledge came right over in the conversion.
• Conceivably if I had used a theme that was still supported I could have just used that theme in this new blog site.  I considered trying to update the theme myself, but then chose a different route and found a similar one that added some difference (which is good to tell the difference between the two sites) but with enough similarity that my readers would feel comfortable with the change over.  Kind of like coming home to the same house, just the curtains have changed a little.  I had hoped that the change to the new theme felt like more of a “sprucing up” rather than a major renovation (which it was under the covers).

Was there a con to using WordPress.com?

There are quirks to using the WordPress.com site, but I probably can’t complain since I was  getting a free service.  The only thing that was weird is that in order for me to redirect the traffic from the old site to this new one, I would actually have to start paying WordPress money.  If you think of the details of that and how they make money off of Google ads (free WordPress accounts can’t add Google Ads) it sounds like a thoughtful business model.  I wonder how much they make off of ads.

If this had been a money generating site the move from one site to another, without a redirect, would probably be heart breaking.  I mean, this site is slowly gaining its readers back over the last two months, but if this was a money generating site I would probably be hurting for the lost search hits.

Drum Roll Please … The 8th Month Skillful Means Top Ten!

One consequence of moving the site (and I was kind of hoping that this would be the case) was getting a more realistic view of some of my posts.  If you have noticed in previous retrospectives and top ten lists, one of the highest ranking posts month after month was one that had an image “named” for "that specific part of the male body”.  I had a feeling that the ranking was less about the content of the post and more about the name of the image.  When I moved the blog over to this site, I renamed the photo, and so far there have not been the THOUSAND a day hits to that particular article.  I mean the article was good, but personally I don’t think it was THAT good.  Here is the new URL to that article: WTG: A Masochistic Approach: My Left Testicle? – Part III

P.S. I don’t really expect to get over a 1000 hits a day on this site anymore

And now for this new site’s top ten:

Note: These statistics are not based on those requests from the “home” page, these stats are from search, comment, and direct page access only.

Number Ten: Adjusting to the Big Sit – Jus
t Twittery About It

I have to welcome my new twitter friends to the blog.  It has been fun getting to know some of the others participating in the Big Sit this year and interacting with them on Twitter.  I suspect that the high number if Buddhist topics in the top ten this month is because of the interest and participation of my new friends.  If you are interested in the Big Sit or want to chat about it check out some of these articles or send me a comment. 

Number Nine: More Photos… A Visual Meditation » or19-thumb.jpg

This post making the top ten is really an honor.  I never considered that one image would get so many hits.  It is actually one of my favorites that I took that day.  One of those accidental lovely moments with my new camera.

Number Eight: SL Buddhism Discussion Group – Topic Schedule – Tuesday Night @ 6PM (PST/SLT)

This post is our topic schedule.  We have been getting new people in the discussion group, and that is always a good thing.  We welcome more.  If you would like to participate and don’t know anything about Second Life, give it a Google search.  Second Life is a free service, all it takes is a download.  Once you are there all of us friendly people will be happy to help you out.  Just send me an IM.

Number Seven: Greetings from His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Buddhist Women

This article was one that was sent to me by a friend.  I’m glad to see that this article got some reading.

Number Six:  Try Wordle – Neat Visualization Tool

A wonderful tool that I have been having a lot of fun with.  I plan to Wordle a bunch more.. hehhehe

Number Five: The Impermanence of Online Communities: The Ma.gnolia Debacle… A Community Shattered

An article about important lessons on the internet.  I hope it is helpful to remind us our personal responsibility for our own data and relationships.

Number Four:  Quitting Smoking – Part Deux

On the old Skillful Means site, the mix of Buddhism and quitting smoking was something that many were looking for.  As I continue my challenge of quitting smoking (I’m still quit, not a butt!) I will continue to write about it.  The two articles about quitting in this list are actually “a first” for Skillful Means, these articles actually got mentioned on Reddit!  Reddit is a social internet/blog/news aggregator and ranking tool, so seeing the links from Reddit was really cool.

Number Three: The Big Sit – Wanna Share A Challenge?

Nice to see this get so many hits!  Well… do you feel lucky?

Number Two: Quit Smoking : Is There a Buddhist Way?

This article has been one that I think has been on the top ten since I wrote it.  In a way it is sad that so many people have had to suffer from this.  I know that at times while I have been quitting smoking, knowing that someone could understand what I was and still am going through has been a big help.  If you have found this and are quitting feel free to send me a comment

Number One: Discussion Points for March 10th- “Big Sit” Dharma Talk Week 1

This is nice to see too.  This is really not an article at all!  It is going to be a collection of discussion points from our SL Buddhism Book Discussion Group.  I’m glad there is so much interest in the Big Sit.  It has only been a little over a week, and it has been just really good for me so far.

A little bit of a difference?

I suspect that some of the difference in posts has been a little more heavy concentration on Buddhist topics for the time being.  Both the opportunity of the “Big Sit”, the wonders of finding a new community on Twitter, and my battles with quitting smoking have probably lead me to a little more focused learning and practice.  I will no doubt get back to mixing up a bit more

In Thanks…

This month again is full of some firsts for Skillful Means, one is the twitter community which has been a great way to learn how others practice, learn and participate in the Big Sit.  I’m very thankful for those who are willing to share their experiences and thoughts on the subject.  I have to say it has not been easy getting up early in the morning… but you know it hasn’t been that hard.  I think knowing that so many people are experiencing this with me, adds a whole new fun layer to something that I thought would be wonderful to start.  Thank you for sharing.

And thanks again for my virtual SL sangha, there is no replacing you.  It has been just terrific learning and sharing with you.  There is no question that if our paths no longer cross, I will think of this time in the most positive way.

Thank you!