600th blog post

This post is my 600th blog post for this particular blog, Gleamings from the Golden Dawn. Or my 1152 plus post if you consider all six of my blogs on Blogger.

(The "plus" is if you consider the dead LiveJournal, Multiply, Geocities and Wordpress blogs that I have started and abandoned over the years. I think that I might have done some blogging on MySpace also. There is probably a couple of other blogs that I have forgotten.)

Gleamings from the Golden Dawn (originally just Gleamings from the Dawn) was started on August 16, 2007. It was started because I wanted to separate my magic, wiccan, pagan, witchcraft, Golden Dawn etc. posts from my regular "I am a writer" blog, Musings from the Inkwell (originally Musings from the Pen, a title that I changed when I realized that it sounded a little prison-y).

Over the last four years, I have learned a lot. A short list of things I learned:

The Golden Dawn, witchcraft, ceremonial magic, paganism, etc. community is as incapable of getting along as it was in the 1980s and 1990s---the 2000s and the start of 2010s seem to be repeats of earlier discussions and arguments.

I still don't care what people think of me...nor am I willing to shut the f*** up as some people would like me to.

And that a certain amount of my writing will always be aimed at the esoteric community despite the fact that the quickest way to get disrespected in the esoteric community is to openly accept money for your work as a writer.

It is the last part that amuses me the most. The people who scream the loudest that occult information and books should be free are the very people who given half a chance would accept a paycheck to write and teach the occult. You have to laugh about it.

Another thing I have learned is that the esoteric community tends to have a sense of humor...despite the loud screams by the trolls who insist that nothing I say is funny or should be talked about.

Over the years, I have created a few other blogs as I noticed that some of my posts did not fit into either my Golden Dawn or writing blog. Bag of Tricks (my political blog) was created on April 5, 2008; Dreams of TARDISes, Warp Engines and Stargates (it is a nerd geek blog!) was created on December 8, 2008. This summer, I created Loki's Wisdom (which is meant for my own artwork and cartoons) and Celtic Soul Jewelry and Pottery (for the sole purpose of supporting my wife's pottery business).

One of the things that I learned was that I really do not have the time (while in college) to regularly post to six blogs. Out of the 1152 blog posts that I have done on Blogger (192 average per blog), 600 has been here on Gleamings and 406 have been posted in Musings. For me, that is a surprising number---I did not expect that to happen when I started them.

(Here are the other numbers if you are curious: Bag of Tricks:80; Celtic Soul: 18; Loki's Wisdom: 10; "Nerd Dreams": 48.)

Another thing I learned was that advertising does result in readers. I have the most subscribers here (or at least openly admitting subscribers). I average 54.98 views per post here; the next highest average is on Nerd Dreams with 12.23. By advertising, I mean stuff that I could accomplish for free.

(The rest is Bag of Tricks: 9.58; Celtic Soul: 7.38; Loki's Wisdom: 11.2; and Musings: 10.74.)

Earning-wise, it is hard to say what I have earned doing the blog posts. The hard part about earning from a blog is that you seldom earn directly from a blog---most of the income comes indirectly though pageviews and business done off the blog.

(Yes, website owners have contracted me to write for them based on my blog posts---sad, isn't it?)

Now, I should post a word of caution to the readers of my "blog advice for occultists" series. Never, never compare your numbers to another blogger (even someone from your own field). The audiences for blogs vary too much for you to judge if you are doing good by looking at someone else's numbers. Work on improving your own numbers---don't try to beat other people's numbers. You have an unique audience and therefore, unqiue numbers.

For instance, I occasionally look at the "views this year so far" widget that some occult bloogers have. The highest number I have seen, I don't actually trust. Why? Because it is on a blog that comment section features some rather entertaining arguments---which tends to prove that flame wars are good for business (or at least, their type of business). If I return to read the comments a half dozen times, I suspect that others do too. There is no way that I could duplicate their viewing numbers simply because it is not my style. And so it goes.

Here is looking forward to my 700th post...which is just a hundred cat pictures away...unless I get flamed for being a Golden Dawn writer (a possibility as I continue to work on SmashWords test projects that yes, I am going to charge good money for---heaven forbid that an occult writer, especially a Golden Dawn writer, wants to earn some cat food money for their hard work).

For the curious, my other blogs can be found through my Blogger profile located on the right sidebar.