Month: September 2024

HAVE JUST ONE HIGH PERFORMING BLOG POST!!!

HAVE JUST ONE HIGH PERFORMING BLOG POST!!!

Did you know that just ONE HIGH PERFORMING BLOG POST ON YOUR BLOG can significantly impact your blog’s success in terms of Google search? Even if you have 50, 150 or even 500 LAME BLOG POSTS and only ONE of them is doing well, your blog will be ranked higher than other blogs. This means people are more likely to discover your blog in the long run.

Let’s reiterate: Never underestimate the power of just ONE high performing blog post. This happened to me a few years ago. I continually reap the benefits of that one single post. Everyday I’m getting views and blog traffic from simply having one high performance entry. People stumble on my blog via that one post…often, they check out other posts. That one post has served as a hook– and it’s become very effective for my blog, overall. After some research, I learned that this is a strategy that most of the prominent bloggers have used to attract a steady stream of viewers. These individuals have taken steps to further their “brand” with books, YouTube videos, podcasts or various items related to their theme that they can ultimately MONETIZE.

When you have a blog, you want at least one GOTCHA POST where people spend some time. It doesn’t matter if you have a ton of content that doesn’t resonate with very many people or if they’re thinking MEH. BORING. We all have that experience WITH EVERY BLOG OUT THERE.

 All you need is one high performing post. Additionally, you will need several other blog posts on your blog to establish your presence as a blogger—at least in terms of Google’s analytics and algorithm; this will help you stand out compared to other blogs. Those posts don’t have to yield a ton of engagement time or views. Just make your blog appear active, current and make certain it has some content.

Try to post at least twice a month. Make sure you’re writing posts in your own words! People can easily copy and paste your writing into an AI to determine if you’re legit or if you’re simply regurgitating copy and paste blocks of text from another AI generator. This tool is called AI Detector, and more and more people and companies are using these detectors to screen out computer generated writing from REAL human generated writing.

Something else I recently learned? Did you know that if you’re simply copying and pasting swaths of text from an AI generator, you’ll be NATURALLY PUSHED DOWN IN GOOGLE’s SEARCH ALGORITHM? YEP! The entire purpose of blogging is for humans to struggle with their thoughts, emotions and inner experiences–and TO WRITE THEM DOWN. Blogging is by definition the BLOGGERS THINKING. It’s your own thinking…what you’re currently learning and how you’re dealing with it. Writing is a wrestling act with your own thoughts and emotions and coming up with solutions in the form of WORDS. AI generators will not have the same human touch, that similar finesse with human experiences and situations in the human would. AI written content is quickly identified by complex computer algorithms and it’s pushed down in search. But if you’re a blogger you naturally adore the writing process, so this won’t be an issue for you! You’ll use AI to help you fully understand phenomena or learn the definitions of words and ways to improve your grammar. You won’t dump a bolus of text on a page constructed from another entity.

As you start to blog and write regularly, you’ll notice that you’re improving both your writing and thinking skills. You’re also developing a habit of writing! You’ll feel that surge of dopamine as you can both use your words to influence others and to simultaneously provide information about various topics. These topics INTEREST YOU. So, you’ll be motivated to learn and then watch and see if anyone else happens to enjoy your interests as well. You get to learn and write, learn and write! It feels like you’re building a memorable tower of knowledge that even you will go back to from time to time.

Anyone, even a SINGLE PERSON SPENDING TIME ON YOUR BLOG FACTORS INTO THE METRIC OF ENGAGEMENT.  If they happen to find your blog and then leave quickly, this prices into the calculation called BOUNCE RATE. A blogs bounce rate is how fast someone finds your blog and then leaves after visiting one page. When your blog has a HIGH BOUNCE RATE it means visitors are not finding what they’re interested in. They’re less engaged so they leave after one shot. Google’s algorithm will lower your blog’s presence in search. Fewer people will find your blog. You have fewer chances of getting big. You have fewer chances of reaping any money.

In my opinion, The BREAD AND BUTTER of BLOGS are VIEWS. Not subscribers, not followers. These come and go. It’s easy to get into an emotional tither when people leave or unsubscribe. You express a political or religious view and people leave. You say something dumb. You get boring. You feel awful when you lose followers and your motivation dips. You stop writing and creating.

But views? Daily views are a signal that your blog is still providing relevant content to those asking questions on various search engines/platforms. Keep track of your daily views and let that inspire you! That’s been my main go-to in term of motivation for blogging. At least I’m getting views, even if not from loyal followers or subscribers. At least the algorithm is favoring my blog and engagement is UP!

You can let people go their way if they decide, but getting random views REGULARLY simply by speaking your mind will give you the impetus to keep going…to keep writing. Why would you want to be a slave to AUDIENCE CAPTURE? This is the phenomenon when a content creator starts to feel anxiety because they have to fulfill the expectations and interests of their audience. They become trapped. As a blogger you know you need A TON OF CONTENT TO GET NOTICED. How can you continually generate content that ALWAYS reflects the interests of your followers?

You can’t have it both ways. Either you generate a ton of content on various topics where you’re shrill and vocal–some that makes you lose active followers OR, you focus solely on what you think your readers WANT TO HEAR. Don’t do that! Be yourself. If you’ve created one momentous blog post, you’ll still be discoverable. There are so many fish in the sea and there’s way more to gain than lose if you keep presenting YOUR OWN VIEWS.

Cheers to blogging and creating that ONE POST that gets you noticed! You’ll get YEARS of success from that one single blog post.

NO FEMALE FRIENDS in my 40’s

NO FEMALE FRIENDS in my 40’s

Here I am, a heterosexual female in the midst of my 40’s. I don’t have a single deep connection with another female. I know, I should have a handful of female friends by now…friendships that I can truly count on for venting or sharing my truest thoughts without retaliation or friendship loss. Friendships where I feel both heard and accepted even with someone who wholly disagrees with me. Friends who I can see regularly and debate over a coffee or an alcoholic beverage. I’ve never done this before, but it sounds fun.

Back when the website “Meet-Up” first emerged, I started a philosophy group. I wanted it to be in a “Socrates Cafe” style. We would meet at coffee shops, Panera Bread and other venues and discuss philosophical ideas. But guess what? I DIDN”T HAVE A SINGLE FEMALE ATTEND. NOT ONCE.

I’ve tried two strategies for gaining female friends:

  1. Be completely open, frank and honest about my views of various subject matter, not all at once but in a punctuated, timely fashion as the friendship gains ground. And, when I say “share my views” I’m not in any way suggesting my judgment or thoughts about them or how they live. I specifically mean, my thoughts about philosophy, religion, AI, AGI, economics, the paranormal, politics or general ideas about life.

2. Be superficial, pleasant and continue on with the banal niceties and platitudes that are typically exchanged in almost any conversation. Don’t bring up tough ambiguous subjects. Don’t bring up anything that could be remotely thought of as “controversial”. Don’t ever offer an opposing viewpoint. Just go with the flow. Talk less. Respond in an automated, predictable format.

I’ve found that with females, neither strategy has brought me any real, lasting relationships. For the first strategy, the more opinionated females will quickly become my friend…but once they know more about my thinking, they often decide to stop connecting me. They may briefly acknowledge my existence, but the second they find out some aspect of my philosophy, politics or life-experience that they disagree with, they IMMEDIATELY START COOLING OFF TOWARDS ME. They may outright reject me, or they’ll slowly pivot away until my connection with them has dissolved.

With the second strategy, I don’t find myself plunging into anything intriguing or mind-grappling. I find it both a waste of words and time. I’d rather be listening to Sam Harris and learning about mindfulness or Diary of A CEO and learning about health topics. I’d rather take a peek at simulation theory by Donald Hoffman. Instead, exchanges with my female acquaintances are almost always a trip down “Let’s say almost exactly the same thing we said yesterday”.

What I’m finally coming to realize is that the best strategy when it comes to FEMALE FRIENDSHIPS is to have none. Sure, I have acquaintances and connections, but anymore I don’t dare state what I’m actually thinking or more nuanced thoughts about any given topic. Furthermore, I’m learning that I don’t really need these kinds of experiences. They make me swell up with unnecessary anxiety after they are over. And that’s exactly it–these connections create so much unnecessary anxiety after they are over.

Often times I blame it on myself; okay I’m just weird or awkward or unsophisticated. I allow these people to dictate how I think about myself and ultimately how I feel. I’m becoming more assertive with myself and learning that no, It’s not me. I’m nice and kind. I listen to other people’s views, and I ASK THEM QUESTIONS. I don’t simply dominate with my own topics. I ask plenty of questions and show interest in others. But asking lots of questions and showing interest in the other person DOESN’T SEEM TO WORK EITHER. It just doesn’t. If people have decided at the outset that they don’t like you, they won’t be swayed by your interest in them.

What a bland day to day life. But let’s be honest, human beings that really do speak their minds are punished or quietly ignored. It’s better to live having your own mind and not worry about amassing a bunch of superficial friendships where you’re not learning anything…or deeper friendships that instigate feelings of anxiety or a constant fear about losing them.

If you do happen to have large chunks of your thinking/ideas that resonate with a large portion of the population, you’ll have no trouble making friends. You’ll find it much easier to gain friendships because people usually base their friendships on common-themes and commonalities and like-mindedness.

I’m realizing that as much as I want connections and to be part of the group/community because I might need the community to help me someday, it’s a bad way to think about it. I fear that I may become dependent on others and so I better stop speaking so freely or become ostracized. Again, this is not a good or productive way to think. Always thinking about the larger community and… how will they treat me if I ever do need their help?

It’s not worth my time to keep reaching out and trying to befriend females who are either extremely repetitive or are so attached to their religious, political or philosophical views that nobody else can offer a differing opinion without them UNFRIENDING ME.

I feel free and I’m truly done with the game of trying to make deep and lasting female friends. My husband will do just fine. And he’s the best conversationalist I have discovered so far.

STOP WASTING TIME SCROLLING

STOP WASTING TIME SCROLLING

You aren’t spending very much time on blogs or reading anymore, are you? You are perhaps in some of the most dreadful moments of your life. You’re not finding your own life. You’re like an automated machine sucked into LONG PERIODS OF SCROLLING. There are so many platforms that encourage just another quick glance and so on and so forth. This is not a happy place for the mind.

The mind wants to peace and rest. It wants reflection. It doesn’t want incessant interruption from short bites of information. It wants your own thoughts to bubble up from the subconscious caverns of the brain and form deep and complex relationships and understandings. With other people CONSTANTLY IN YOUR FACE and importing their own thoughts into the shrine of your own mind–think reels, short videos, memes, or any extremely sliced and diced ultra refined content (as I like to think of it) — there’s very little reserved time and space for self-reflection.

Even worse, it’s tough to discover your own passion for creativity and your zest for life because so much of your time is invested in other people’s interests and pursuits--namely, their hobbies or career of making short reels that have to do WITH THEM and THEIR LIVES and THEIR HOBBIES or even, THEIR SENSE OF HUMOR. What about YOU? You’re just the mindless spectator helping them achieve their goals.

Much of our diet is ultra processed refined food. At some point factories and companies realized that we tend to prefer anything easy, quickly tasty and satisfying. In the same way, our digital diet for our minds is becoming plagued by ultra processed, short-form media like reels and memes or even facebook or Instagram stories. These short form pieces of content almost always make us think “Wow, I wasted my time on that?”. Very rarely are we thinking, “Wow, that was super insightful, and I’ll be using that technique today!”

Make no mistake, the reason why people make these pieces of content are for increased viewership and gaining more followers. The more massive one’s audience, the more money they can make with online content. The bigger they get, the more marketer’s will see them and make them affiliates with their company. Ultimately, they can push out products for big companies and generate revenue from this strategy. THEY ABSOLUTELY NEED YOUR CONTINUED VIEWERSHIP AND ATTENTION. Without you, without the masses doing this, these creators would have very little incentive to keep making such inane (often thoughtless) barely funny content.

Yes, sometimes we accumulate novel ideas from reels and stories. We gain fleeting moments away from boredom. But…. we lose way too much time compared to the insights that we gain.

I know this is old, but my suggestion is, why not adopt a DIGITAL FAST of sorts? Spend some time being alone with your own thoughts–without the internet or a screen. Try to force yourself to read even part of a book. Write 2 paragraphs about something you’re thinking about. Meditate alone and quietly. Make some tea and commit to being mindful throughout the entire process. Don’t ride on someone else’s thinking. Ride on your own thinking. And again, if you must ride on someone else’s thinking, make it come from a LONG FORM SOURCE or a written source. Books are great for this.

If you have to spend time on social media platforms spend it on YOUTUBE: LISTENING TO INTERVIEW PODCASTS that are LONG and that probe into the nature of thought and reality or that dedicate time for self-help and health, think Alex O’Connor, Tom Bilyeu, Lex Fridman, Ed Mylett, Rich Roll, Sam Harris, Stephen Bartlett–Diary of a CEO, Dan Koe, Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal, Lewis Howes, Dr. Rangan Chatterjee, Andrew Huberman, Andre Duqum, Chris Williamson–just to name a few. I love listening to discussions between two different minds and I love how the above podcasters are willing to pose hard, thought-provoking questions that get my brain engaged. It’s amazing how much better I feel when/after listening to these individuals. I have more stamina for harder, more ambiguous, difficult content and I can listen while I’m doing housework or driving.

These are just some ideas. I will not demonize modern society and technology. As with everything, there are tradeoffs. There are goods and bads that come with all of this ultra processed media. I tend to see more bads than goods because as we know, time is the most valuable resource.