“Just about a year ago, I set out on the road. Seeking my fame and fortune, looking for a pot of gold.” – John Fogerty

Exactly one year ago today I made a step towards drastically improving my life. Unlike Mr. Fogerty (the best song writer of our time), however, I didn’t set out for fame or fortune or a pot of gold.

What I did set out to do was change my world and inspire you to change your world.

How I did that is simply stated:

I started this blog.

The first article ever published here at RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com is called “An Unlikely First Post: Notes From How To Build A High Traffic Blog Without Killing Yourself.” These were my notes from a presentation by Tim Ferriss.

If you read the article you’ll see that I followed quite a bit of the advice … lots of it subconsciously since I haven’t actually read that article or watched the presentation in a year.

The most important piece of advice in the presentation is actually a quote from Tucker Max: “Important thing is not being a good writer, but having a voice.”

Voice and Promises

When I first started my voice was still in its infancy and the words weren’t coming out quite like they should have been. But I made two promises.

First promise: I would focus on a set schedule and stick to it.

That schedule has changed a couple of times, but I did stick to it and this is article #112. (Currently the schedule is Monday, Thursday, Saturday.) Whether an article was perfect or not was not as important as simply shipping. Practicing, getting my words out, and improving.

Second promise: I promised myself that I wouldn’t give in to convention and I would just be myself.

What you get here is essentially what you would get from me in person. In a way, this blog gives me a little more freedom with my persona, because sometimes I hold back in person (out of respect for others).

Being A Polarizing Figure

Some people get upset with what I write. Some people get upset with who I am. Some people don’t like me.

You don’t see any of that because as much as I hate censorship I don’t tolerate personal attacks. When someone is negative or attacks me it’s much more fun to delete it than get into an argument. :) (Life Lesson #8: Arguments are pointless.)

To be honest, I’m still on a quest to be more polarizing, but I’ve done an OK job so far.

I’m not afraid to be the same person in public and in private even though I very well know that it affects me negatively as far as certain contacts and business prospects. Social climbing isn’t worth it to me if I have to be fake. You will find very few bloggers (with non-personal blogs) who are truly open. That’s neither good nor bad (well, it’s good for the aforementioned social climbing), but I can’t do that.

Now I’m going off on a tangent. :) (You know how I love those.)

Opening Up My World

The first time my life drastically changed was when I joined CouchSurfing. It was a revelation. “Wow, I can literally go anywhere in the world and hang out with awesome people.”

With blogging it’s similar, but different. It’s a more natural progression of friendship with you and other bloggers. E-mail/skype/in-person meet ups. There is a natural arc to relationships built through this blog.

Similarly to CouchSurfing, blogging has opened up the world to me. I’ve met other bloggers in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, and Germany. I’ve met readers all over the place as well.

5 Ways Blogging Has Changed My Life

I’ve read a lot of blog posts about blogging changing people’s lives. I actually got an e-mail a few days ago from a reader who asked me how it has changed mine.

1) I’ve made great friendships with quite a few awesome people.

I’m not well known in the blogging world by any means. That’s much less important to me than actually connecting with the people who do know me.

2) Blogging has given me an outlet for my writing.

I’ve always enjoyed writing, but I never knew I would absolutely love it. There are not many pursuits I’ve undertaken that have been so fulfilling as writing for you.

3) I’ve connected with like-minded people.

This is different than friendships, but just as important. I’ve received so many amazing e-mails that break down to: “Wow, you are exactly like me” and reading that never gets old. :) It’s very rare for me to meet people similar to me in every day life, but blogging has made it happen more than I could imagine.

4) I’ve been incredibly inspired by you.

I have a label in Gmail called Awesome E-mails. A lot of times I forget to mark e-mails as Awesome and I only started the label on January 22, 2010, but even so there are currently 47 e-mails under that label. This label consists of positive, inspiring e-mails from you.

5) I’ve discovered my future without even knowing I was looking for it.

I’ve tried to deny it many times over the past few months, but this blog is my future. There is not as much money in blogging and releasing products through a blog as through doing affiliate marketing, but it is much more fulfilling. As you already know money, in and of itself, is not what makes me happy.

5 Reasons You Should Start Blogging Today

I’m going to preface these reasons with the following: you should start a blog in a niche that you love and that you can see yourself writing about for the next 10 years.

1) You will meet awesome people. There is no denying that. It takes time, but it will happen.

2) Fun opportunities are everywhere for bloggers. Depending on what your goals are you can make sweet contacts, get a new job (assuming you want a job), earn your own income through your blog, and sometimes even get free stuff (if that’s what you’re after; I’m not). I could go on for a few hours on the opportunities available to you. Suffice it to say there are many.

3) You don’t have to be a great writer (as stated above). What you need is a unique voice. That may take time to develop so starting today will give you an edge.

4) You don’t need any technical knowledge. Get a Web host, install WordPress, and start writing. Follow Darren Rowse’s 31 Days To Building A Better Blog (free article series) for guidance.

5) You will begin building a legacy. If you die tomorrow what gift are you leaving the world? A piece of you via your blog is a great gift to leave behind.

Closing It Out

If there was a more epic expression for thank you I would use that, but there isn’t one. Thank you.

Sometimes, when we have a good idea and get to work on it, we see that idea through even though it might not be our best idea.

In late March of 2009 I had an idea for a blog. I bought a domain name, got a few different logos designed, wrote content, and had the site almost ready to go …

That site was TRVLGR.com. TravelGear without the vowels.

It was going to be a weekly travel gear review and travel tips site. Benefits would be three-fold. One: I’d get free travel gear. Two: I’d get to test said free travel gear. Three: I’d get to connect with bloggers.

I didn’t plan on writing the blog to make money. (Sound familiar?)

A New Idea

By now it was the end of May 2009 and I was getting close to launching. And then … I had a new idea for a blog that I felt really passionate about. It would be about inspiring people. Helping people. And connecting with people.

That is what you’re reading right now.

Once I had the idea for Ridiculously Extraordinary (I didn’t have the name yet, just the concept), I immediately dropped TRVLGR, and got to work again.

If you look in the early archives of this site you can see a couple articles that were originally written for TRVLGR:

Zero The Hero or How To Pay 0% Credit Card Transaction Fees When Travel Outside The US

Powder Is For Babies (or How I Keep My Only Pair Of Shoes From Smelling Like Boiled Rat Piss On Extended Trips)

When I had the idea for Ridiculously Extraordinary it was like a fire was lit under my ass. I spent all of June 2009 writing, writing, writing at least 1,000 words/day. Sometimes upwards of 3,000. It was all coming so easily and it reinforced that I made the right decision. (Now in hindsight I’m definitely sure I made the right decision.)

Don’t Be Afraid To Kill Good Ideas

My point is, don’t be afraid to kill a good idea when you have a better idea.

But here’s the rub: don’t make that a habit.

Some of us jump from “good idea” to “good idea” and never get anything done.

That’s not at all what I’m advocating. What I’m advocating is to focus all your energies on an idea until you see it through or until a fire is lit under your ass for a better idea. This won’t happen often.

If I would have launched TRVLGR.com it would probably currently be languishing amongst millions of other blogs. The passion would have died. I’m not passionate about writing travel gear reviews, although it is fun every once in a while.

Should You Continue With Your Idea Or Kill It?

This is a difficult question to answer.

If you’re truly passionate about something you won’t give much thought to trying something else.

Since launching RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com I’ve had tons of ideas for other Web sites, but none of them hold a candle. I’m having too much fun with this to do something else. More than that, I’m not going to stretch myself thin and start another project in addition to this one. Focus is as important as passion.

How about you: how do you handle all the ideas that come to you? Do you try every single idea hoping something sticks? Do you focus on just one until it’s a failure or success? I’m interested in your idea vetting process …

“Stuff that I do, if I have one or two or five or eleven peaks, as long as I’m productive and make enough stuff, maybe I have more chances at making some really good peaks, whether they’re sketches or jokes or drawings.” – Demetri Martin

I gave you the answer to the title of this article without even writing anything unique. Damn. I guess you can stop reading now. ;)

Demetri’s quote really resonated with me because of how closely it’s associated with blogging and virtually any other form of work or art.

Let’s say you’re writing a blog: most of your articles will receive an average (relative to you) level of visitors and comments. This is your core audience and they’re very important. Then some of your articles will resonate with another, larger, audience and you’ll get an extraordinary amount of traffic. These are the home runs, Demetri’s peaks.

You could take the stance that it’s better to focus only trying to hit home runs, but a lot of it has nothing to do with you. I’m consistently surprised which articles get lots of visitors/comments and which ones don’t.

As artists we have to focus on producing what we believe to be quality content for our core audience.

We’ve prepared. We’ve gone to batting practice. We’ve hit the weight room. We’ve shot the steroids. (Oh wait, not the part.) There is not much left to do.

Whether any piece of content ends up being a home run or not is mostly out of our control after that point.  That said, hitting home runs is fun! Let’s start from the beginning …

How To Never Hit Home Runs

Before we can figure out how to hit home runs let’s talk about how not to hit home runs.

Don’t swing. Ever. Keep telling yourself: “I’ll do it some day. Maybe tomorrow. Next week sounds good. Oh, but next year. Next year will be amazing.” And so it goes. (Life Lesson #11: Some day never comes.)

My friend John used to say, paraphrased, “Just do something. Create something. Anything. Throw shit at the wall and see what sticks. Then figure out what works and do more of that.” There is a lot you can do as far as research and planning that will make the “sticking” more likely, but if you’re at a point where you haven’t swung the bat, the time is now.

When you’ve taken a swing, know this …

Base Hits Are Better Than Home Runs

Ask any baseball coach if he’d rather have 10 base hits or 1 home run, and unless he is an utter fool, he will go for the base hits. A hit is an opportunity. A home run is a rarity.

Take lots of swings, because most of the pieces of content you create will be base hits. Every base hit is a step closer to a home run. (You’ll probably also have a few strikeouts, which are creations that simply don’t resonate at all with your audience. Don’t worry about it. Keep swinging.)

Consistently getting base hits is important because they put you in a position to win. And they help you deal with the strikeouts. Home runs, or massively popular pieces of content, can be complete game changers, but they won’t happen often.

I submit that if we’re going to think about hitting home runs then we should focus on hitting game changing home runs. Otherwise known as Grand Slams.

A Home Run Is Only A Game Changer If …

What happens if you hit a home run with no men on base? Game changer? Not at all.

So here’s the rub: A home run isn’t a game changer unless you’re consistently getting those base hits.

Let’s say you run a small blog and are consistently writing good content. One day you write a really awesome article that explodes your site traffic. If not for all of your consistently good content the visitors from the really popular article probably wouldn’t stick around.

My goal is to consistently hit base hits. I’ve had a few strikeouts and I’ve had some home runs (again, this is relative). But the base hits are what will win this ball game for me.

And I like winning.

How about you? Do you consistently produce so you have more chances at reaching the peaks? Do you hit lots of base hits and some home runs? Let me know what you’re up to below …

If you’re not interested in the behind-the-scenes of what happens if one of your blog posts goes viral then please skip this article. If you have a blog, or are just interested in this sort of thing, this is for you.

My last article, 21 Reasons To Quit Your Day Job And Travel The World, hit really big on StumbleUpon:

It’s the first time this has happened on such a large scale to one of my articles and the funny thing is I almost didn’t post that article.

I woke up Monday here in Chiang Mai and didn’t realize it was Monday. Since I posted the first Sweet Shit Saturday article on Saturday my blog posting internal clock was a bit off.

I went about my day and got back to my apartment around 3pm. That’s 4am EST in the US. I post my articles around 7am EST on posting day. (There’s a reason for this which I’ll discuss another day.)

I turned on my computer to do some writing and immediately remembered: “It’s Monday, I need to post an article!” While it’s really no big deal to me if I miss the 7am EST deadline I do like to stick to it to keep that habit going (<– must read article).

I opened up my Wordpress Drafts (at any given time I have ~20 draft articles in some stage of completion) and picked a draft called 27 Reasons To Quit Your Day Job, which stood out to me.

The problem was this draft was only 60 words and had only 3 reasons. Some of my other drafts were very near completion, so I had some work to do by choosing this one. Over the next few hours I worked on the article, edited it, and finally decided to make it 21 Reasons instead of 27.

Server Crippling Traffic?

3 hours after posting someone with a big StumbleUpon following Thumbed Up (StumbleUpon lingo) my article and traffic started going nuts. ~2k views in 20 minutes. Thankfully, even though I use a shared server on Bluehost.com, my site didn’t go down. (Although it did slow down and the database crapped out for a minute). I have some safeguards in place to handle huge spikes in traffic which I will write about another time.

Tangent: When I first launched this blog I had some problems with Bluehost. At the time I was receiving less than 100 visitors/day. As my traffic increased, their reliability increased. So if you’re looking for a Web host, Bluehost is a good (and very low cost) option.

At about 3,300 views the SU traffic slowed down considerably. I thought to myself, “hmm, well, that was cool!” Then I asked myself “hmm, I wonder if I can keep it going?”

How To Keep The Traffic Going?

I e-mailed some friends, explained what was going on and asked them to Thumb Up the article. As far as I know only 1 person did the Thumbs Up, so I hardly gamed the system. (I’m talking to you StumbleUpon police!)

Then I installed the WP Greetbox Plugin, which greets visitors with a message based on how they come to your site. So new StumbleUpon visitors were greeted with a message similar to: “Greetings fellow Stumbler! If you like this article please give it a Thumbs Up and don’t forget to subscribe to the RSS feed.”

By this time it was late here in Chiang Mai so I went to sleep.

When I woke up the stats more than quadrupled. More people I don’t know were doing the Thumbs Up. According to StumbleUpon itself the article received 14k views that day. But my own internal stats tell me StumbleUpon sent 16,937 unique visitors. I’m not sure why there’s the huge disconnect.

The Surprising Truth About Viral Traffic

I always thought traffic from social sites would be worthless. You know, stick around for 5 seconds and move on. I was dead wrong.

As you can see StumbleUpon visitors stayed for an average of 2 minutes 21 seconds. That rocks! That means that StumbleUpon visitors actually read the article or maybe checked out some other stuff on my site.

In addition to that my RSS subscribers increased by 136, which is about 3-4 times any normal day, so I would attribute ~100 RSS subscribers to StumbleUpon. (Thank you if you found this site on StumbleUpon!)

How To Guarantee Viral Visitors

I’m not sure you can. To be honest, I’ve had tons of articles I thought would do better on StumbleUpon or Digg than 21 Reasons To Quit Your Day Job, but none of them have done much of anything as far as viral traffic goes.

My recommendation is to focus on writing consistently high quality content and don’t worry about viral visitors at all. If they come, it’s a nice bonus. That said, there are things you can actively do that will guarantee you increase traffic to your blog.

How To Guarantee A Consistent Stream Of New Visitors To Your Blog

The big one is guest posting and another one is gift giving. I’ll write about giving gifts another time. It’s something I stumbled onto without even realizing I was doing it. It has nothing to do with buying anybody anything. :)

Guest posting is not easy. Even for me. I’ve had a nice long streak of guest post after guest post being rejected (ignored would be the proper term). Don’t worry, I have thick skin, I’ll be fine. ;)

Wrap Up

1) Viral visitors from StumbleUpon are actually awesome!
2) Don’t focus on trying to get visitors from social networking sites, because you’ll lose track of what’s really important: your current audience/readership.
3) To guarantee new visitors write an article for somebody else’s Web site and submit it as a guest post. You’re much more likely to get traffic this way than via social networking sites.
4) Give gifts. (Any guesses to what I mean by this? Comment below…)

Making decisions isn’t always easy, but procrastinating on making a decision is worse than making a wrong decision.

I’ll tell you where this is coming from.

After closing down registration for the Ridiculously Extraordinary Member’s Area last Friday I got a handful of e-mails asking where to sign up. Because I’m a man of my word, once registration was closed, it was closed. Maybe I closed it a few minutes early, maybe I closed it a few minutes late, but around 10:30am EST it was closed.

As I’ve said before, this isn’t about money.

The Right People Thing

It’s about, as Havi from FluentSelf.com would say, finding my Right People.

As she states in that article, just because you’re not my Right People, it doesn’t mean you’re my wrong people.

And here’s the thing: I don’t necessarily decide if you’re my Right People. You decide that on your own.

My Right People don’t have to be pushed or prodded.

You comment on this blog, you share posts with friends on twitter and facebook and elsewhere, you send me a short succinct e-mail with a question or comment (or sometimes a long e-mail thanking me for something) and you take action when there is action to be taken.

You respect my time, my views, and my information. And in return, I respect yours.

And most importantly, you respect the fact that when I say I’m going to do something, I do it. So while it would be cool to let 4 additional people into the Member’s Area, it’s just not “Right.”

It’s A Touchy Subject

It almost feels like it’s an exclusivity thing, doesn’t it? Like if you don’t fit perfectly into the puzzle we shouldn’t be friends.

It goes beyond that.

“The people who need my message in my form will get it.” – Havi Brooks

Maybe my message isn’t right for you and that’s cool. It’s OK if we don’t vibe or if you don’t want to be here. That’s the beauty of all of this.

You can choose to be a Ridiculously Extraordinary Freedom Fighter or you can choose not to be. Everything I do is a filter. Everything I write is a filter. It helps make your decision easier. You’re welcome. :)

Freedom Fighters come in all forms, but there are common traits. It’s more of a feeling, actually. It’s not something I can synthesize into words on a blog post. It’s not something you can put a finger on either.

It just is.

You Should Create Filters Too

There is no sense in spending your life attracting people who aren’t your Right People. But the only way to find your Right People is to create filters. Your favorite hobby is a filter. Your lifestyle is a filter. Your point of view is a filter. Your job, where you live, what you eat, what you don’t eat, the type of music you listen to, how you treat others … these are all filters.

How A Filter Filters

Your Right People don’t have to have the same interests as you. They don’t have to have the same hobbies. You can actually have almost nothing in common. What it boils down to is respect. Your Right People will acknowledge everything about you, whether they agree or disagree, and still support you.

More …

I’ve been meaning to write this article ever since I read about Havi’s Right People concept. It took me a while to get it out and I’ve already begun adding more filters here. There are even more on the way.

I hope, if my filters filter you away, that you find your Right People. It’s important and I want you to have your Right People.

Because if you’re not living life with your Right People you’re not living life.

If you’re reading this via e-mail please click here to watch the video.

The dynamic on this blog has changed. Now that I have a product for sale it might seem to you that I only want you here to spend money.

That’s not the case at all.

I want you to know that I want you here and I appreciate you being here even if you never spend a penny with me. This site wasn’t created for me to make money.

I explain more in the video (with a summary down below):

Video summary:

- I want you here even if you never spend a penny with me.

- The best way to pay a blogger is by letting them know you appreciate them: leave a comment.

- Even if you don’t have anything profound to say, leave a comment.

- A comment as simple as “Thank you” is payment enough. We thrive on comments like that.

- If you want to go above and beyond: subscribe to RSS feeds, newsletters, and tell your friends about your favorite blogs. In short, spread the word.

Your Mission:

Today and for the rest of your blog reading life, if you read an article that you really like, whether it’s on this blog or another, leave a comment.

If you’re extra bold leave this comment:

“I don’t have anything to add to this conversation, but Karol Gajda told me if I like a blog post just to say Thank You. So thank you!”

Hey hey!

I did something different here with this video. Different is the wrong word. Maybe time consuming would be better. I don’t think I’ll do it this way much in the future. Too much editing. :)

Watch the video here:

If you can’t watch the video, the gist of it is the question:

“How does location affect your productivity?”

Bonus question: “How does location affect your feelings of happiness?”

Personally, when I’m cold (in any location) my productivity goes down considerably. As does my happiness. :)

I thought long and hard about revealing all of this in public, but it needs to be. It sucks when the “small guy” gets taken advantage of.

That said, it’s almost 3 months after the fact and I’ve been able to turn my original negative article into a positive learning experience.

Originally, this article started off like this:

The beauty of Ridiculously Extraordinary Freedom is that I don’t have to worry about if exposing what needs to be exposed will hurt me. I don’t have to worry about book deals falling through, or advertisers dropping me, or revenue falling, or readers leaving.

Because I don’t depend on this blog for income I have absolute freedom.

You can see, I was writing from a defensive standpoint. And while defense may win ball games, it’s not pretty.

So I thought to myself: “How can I turn this negative into a positive?”

My answer: “Instead of exposing the culprits, expose the situation so we can all learn from it.”

That way everybody wins.

After Accountability Statement #1 I got an e-mail requesting a guest post from a big site with a top 10,000 Alexa Ranking.

While I was excited, my first suspicion that something wasn’t on the up and up was the e-mail: It was obviously cookie-cutter, sent to multiple (dozens? hundreds? thousands?) of bloggers.

It did have my first name and my blog’s URL in it, but it was a lame, horribly impersonal pitch.

Lesson #1: If you’re seeking guest posts personalize each e-mail instead of using the cookie cutter approach.

(This works for so many other communication situations, but I’ll keep on track with the guest post topic.)

My second suspicion was that their “blog” is hosted at wordpress.com, but their Web site is on their own .com domain. But I checked out the blog, and it gets posted to regularly so I was cool with that. I’m not above writing for a blog hosted on wordpress.com instead of an actual domain.

Then I went to the company’s Web site and clicked on their Blog link. It didn’t go to their wordpress.com blog they wanted me to write for, but to their actual blog. Hmmm…

Lesson #2: If you’re seeking guest posts for your Web site, make them for your actual Web site, not a “throwaway.”

It seems like that would be a given, no?

My third suspicion came towards the end of the pitch: “X blog receives over 10,000 unique visitors each week.”

While I have no doubt their actual blog receives 10,000 uniques/week, the blog they were asking me to write for had no comments. A blog with over 10k uniques per week should get comments, shouldn’t it?

Lesson #3: Don’t lie.

Again, that should be a given.

The Final Straw

By this point I should have ran the other way, but I convinced myself that it still might be a good opportunity.

After a few e-mails it was decided that I’d write an article about staying healthy while traveling. Although I had planned on writing a similar article here, I wanted to spread my best content out amongst the blogosphere. Keeping it all for this site would be selfish.

So I wrote the article in about 3 hours. And just before I was about to send it off I got this message in an e-mail:

“We do kindly ask for a link in return, do you think is feasible?”

I don’t have a links section on this blog and I responded as such.

So I got this as a response:

“What a link within a post, informing your audience the guest blog and including the WEBSITEINQUESTION.com link in this instance?”

Can you tell they’re outsourcing this particular part of their business?

I responded with “No thank you, you guys are shady.”

Lesson #4: Don’t outsource important aspects of business building without proper training.

What they were trying to do was get links to their .com from other bloggers by offering these bloggers a “potential exciting affiliation” (their words) that goes like this:

- Write a great article for us.
- We will link to you from our unofficial wordpress.com blog that gets no traffic.
- You have to link to our .com Web site which also hosts our official blog. Sucker!

What we can learn from this:

Simply: stick up for yourself if you think somebody is trying to pull a fast one on you.

As you can tell, I’m very trusting, and I gave the above company the benefit of the doubt until the very end. At that point, I called them out and never heard another word.

I hope this company has changed their ways by now and I hope if others were considering taking a similar route that they will reconsider.

###

You’d think, by the title of this post, that I was a reader of the National Enquirer. :) Hint: Reading The National Enquirer headlines is a great way to learn copywriting.

Before I begin: thank you. Thank you for reading what I write. Thank you for sharing articles with your friends. Thank you for commenting. Thanking you for e-mailing me.

There are a lot of blogs out there and the fact that you take the time to make mine one of your worthwhile reads means a lot to me. I hold myself to a high standard and I don’t take it lightly that you and I have connected.

Here’s the deal with blogs: the archives are where you can find some of the greatest hits. More than likely, you’ve just arrived at this blog within the past 2 months.

Due to the nature of blogging, with a constant stream of new content coming in, those older articles don’t always get the attention they deserve.

If you’re anything like me, when you discover a new blog that you connect with, you go back and read through every article on the site.

Quite a few of you have e-mailed me about doing just that on this blog and that thrills me to no end! :)

But, being that we’re all busy people, it’s not always possible to wade through the archives. So I’ve done it for you in a slightly atypical fashion.

What I mean by that is there is a lot of commentary and a bit of info about the future (such as a possible product launch) below. Specific traffic stats, most popular and least popular articles, and other fun stuff like that is also included.

This is, by far, the longest article I have posted. Over 2,600 words. I obviously decided not to edit for brevity as I usually do.

Oh, if you have your own blog and have done a Best Of post please comment with a link to it.

(Note: all links open in a new window/tab.)

Top Post Of The Year

That award goes to…you ready?

How To Wash Your Clothes While Traveling aka 15 Minutes – Clean Clothes – Anywhere In The World

That’s in terms of visitors: 9,371. And there’s a very good reason that particular article had more visitors than any other.

It’s linked to on my ZenHabits article: The Beginner’s Guide To Minimalist Travel

In terms of activity though, the top post goes to:

Travel Light, Travel Anywhere: The Ultimate Light Packing List

It has almost 100 comments (granted, about half are mine) and, with 6,972, just a couple thousand visitors shy of the How To Wash Your Clothes article.

I fully expected my light packing list to be my most popular article. I’m a big fan of reading packing lists and I know other travelers love reading packing lists too. Light packers are a passionate bunch. :)

This Article Can Change Your Life

The first article on Ridiculously Extraordinary that got any traction (i.e. links, comments, and e-mails) was:

How To Stop Having Problems or “The Eighty-Fourth Problem”

It’s one of my favorite articles and also in the top 5 (in terms of visitors) on this site.

Most Likely To Help With Your New Year’s Resolution

If that Resolution has anything to do with weight loss or exercise that is. :)

Get Fit In 1 Minute or “Am I Gonna Die From Heat Exhaustion?”

After I wrote this article I felt like “Wow, this is gonna be huge.”

I was dead wrong. It’s one of the least popular articles I’ve written. 503 visitors, 7 comments, and 0 links. wonk wonk

That’s OK though. Maybe this mention will give it new life. ;)

While we’re on the subject of unpopular articles. How is just 194 visitors (the least of any article on this site) and 0 comments?

I had an idea about doing Field Reports while traveling, but after Australia Field Report: Sandboarding The Stockton Sand Dunes bombed I decided against it.

Eventually I did something similar with my Friday Updates, which have been a little bit more successful, although I’ve only written a few thus far. :)

Most Search Engine Traffic

Based on comments and e-mails I’ve received on this article, it seems like I could also call this one Most Helpful.

How I Cured My Dandruff and Itchy Scalp

I think the reason it has helped so many people is because, as far as action steps, it’s the easiest to accomplish. There are no costs or barriers to entry.

My Favorite Article

Similar to the Get Fit In 1 Minute article, after I wrote this one, I thought it was going to be huge. It’s still my favorite article, if only because it helped me personally clear things up in my own head.

“Go into my head and come back out and tell me I’m wrong.” – Mitch Hedberg

Whoa, tangent!

Part of the reason it’s not popular may be because I posted it, oh, 3 days ago. :)

That article is, of course, How To Achieve Perfection.

I Almost Didn’t Post This One

Being that my goal here is radical honesty, and as much as possible, transparency, I’m glad I posted this:

How A 19 Year Old Made $5,000 In 30 days While Simultaneously Breaking Every Copyright Law In The Books, Getting Kicked Off Of eBay, and Going To College Full Time

Being young and dumb is no excuse, but it’s my excuse.

I left that article off with a cliffhanger:

I did procure another eBay account so I could continue selling strictly legal items, but I was out of the copyright violations business for good. That is, until 4 years later when I became a search engine spammer…

Nobody has asked about that and I haven’t posted it, but the story starts off with a death threat.

Sometimes my life has been like what you’d read about in a novel or watch in a movie. Usually it’s not, but sometimes …

I’ll Post This One Soon

In keeping with the novel/movie theme: I caught on fire once.

If you’ve never felt the pain of melting flesh you’re in good company. Just not my company. :)

The reason I haven’t posted it is because there aren’t really any lessons to be learned and it’s a fairly long story.

But sometimes a blog can be pure entertainment. So I’m posting it on January 20, 2010 which will be the 2 year anniversary of my first real brush with death.

But I digress, this is about the archives, not the soon-to-be archives. :)

How To Get Started With The Freedom Mindset

Get rid of stuff. Plain and simple.

Give it away. Sell it.

7 Tips: How To Declutter Your Life Using Craiglist

While we’re too attached to material possessions we can never be free.

But I’m no monk. I do own “things.”

Ridiculously Extraordinary Freedom means I can lose everything and still come out on top. I mean that. I can lose every. Single. Material. Possession. Including money.

None of it matters.

The only possession that matters is what is in our heads.

I’ve invested countless hours and tens of thousands of dollars (not University, that was free) into acquiring knowledge and that’s more important than anything else.

You will never regret getting rid of stuff and investing that extra time and money into knowledge acquisition. I promise.

This Article Needs A New Headline

How I Cured Years Of Excruciating Stomach Pains Without Doctors Or Medicines

This article should be more successful. But I think since the title talks only about stomach pain it keeps people from reading it. The article will actually teach you how to figure out how to deal with almost anything that ails you.

If I had to change the title today I might call it “How To Use The Elimination Diet To Cure Virtually Any Health Problem” or something along those lines.

The Rest of the Bunch

If you haven’t read through my archives, following are links to every article on this site with commentary, and in order of popularity (in terms of visitors).

About Karol Gajda and RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com – This is actually the 3rd most popular page on this site. At first that surprised me, but after analyzing my own blog surfing habits, it makes complete sense.

On Achieving Goals (or “Just Fucking Write”) – I’m a little bit surprised that an article with the word “Fucking” in the headline is the 4th most popular on this site, but you can’t fight with facts.

The Iron Mind – If somebody were to ask me “What is your life’s philosophy?” I’d point them to this article. I see The Iron Mind shine through in a lot of my writing. It has enveloped every fiber of my being.

How I Cured My Seasonal Allergies Forever – After the How To Stop Dandruff article I linked to earlier I think this one, based on e-mails/comments, has been most helpful. Much like the dandruff article, I believe it’s because the action steps are easy. And the barrier to entry is ~$15.

The Persistent Shower Companion (or Early Mornings At The Munich Airport) – Your guess is as good as mine as to why this is one of the most popular articles on this site.

Refine Your Signal (or Fuck The Fluff) – 2 of my top 10 articles have the word “Fuck” in the title. I’m not stupid though, it’s not a formula that will consistently work. The reason it does work is for the very fact that it’s inconsistent.

How To Travel Anywhere In The World, Live With Locals, and Enjoy Outstanding Experiences By CouchSurfing! – My first Black Book. I spent more time on this than anything else on this site. In terms of traffic, links, and other quantitative measures it wasn’t worth it. In terms of exposing CouchSurfing to just one more passionate person (which I know I accomplished!) it was a tremendous success. I owe a lot to CouchSurfing and will never stop extolling the benefits of being a CSer.

Accountability Statement #1 – The effects of this article is probably why you’re reading this site right now. Thank you for reading. :)

How To Be Socially Unacceptable (or Why I Quit Drinking) – Still going strong. I hope this article will help people for years to come.

Mind Control For Fun and Profit! (or How To Brainwash Yourself) – The day I posted this article I purchased MindControlMethod.org. I’m considering making it my first “big” product. I don’t know that I will, because I haven’t asked you yet to find out what you really want. But you can see where my head is at. I believe a fully fleshed out Mind Control Method course will help a lot of people get into a Ridiculously Extraordinary Freedom state of mind.

Needs vs. Wants or My Mom Thinks I’m Crazy or How To Be Congruent – I don’t have much commentary about this, but I think, if you haven’t read it yet, you should. :) I’m proud of this article. Biggest takeaway: Wants are dictated by outside influences. Needs are dictated by biology.

F!&k “Doing It While You Can” (or How To Make Things Happen) – It’s OK to be a follower (sometimes).

Steal This Blog! – Not an actual article, but an important part of this site. Feel free to steal whatever you want from it. :)

Permission To Do Nothing – Sometimes the best course of action is no action.

Enjoy The Process – Is it all worth it? Are you on the right path in your life? Here’s how to know if you are.

Why I Quit Traveling – I had a feeling this one would get a bunch of comments after I posted it. And it did. Sometimes my gut is correct. :)

How To Procrastinate Like A Bad Ass (or How To Overcome Writer’s Block) – I’ve used this writer’s block cure at least once since I posted this. It works so well.

Announcing Ridiculously Extraordinary Black Book #001! – OK, I shouldn’t even post this here because it’s really just a post linking to Black Book #001. But it’s here and it’s more popular than a lot of other articles! WTF! :)

Why We Do What We Do (or How To Be Present) – A recent article that had good comments, even if the visitor count may not be high. I’m proud of this one. The original version of this article was written in June ‘09 prior to the launch of this site. By the time I posted this version it was a completely new article and about 1,000 words shorter. Tangent: I spent the 30 days before launching RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com writing over 30,000 words of content. About half of that content has seen the light of day. I don’t know how much of the rest will ever make it.

Powder Is For Babies (or How I Keep My Only Pair Of Shoes From Smelling Like Boiled Rat Piss On Extended Trips) – I use Gold Bond instead of Baby Powder now. Maybe I should update this article?

Zero The Hero or How To Pay 0% Credit Card Transaction Fees When Traveling Outside The US – Must read if you live in the US and are planning on spending time anywhere else. It includes info on banks in addition to credit cards.

An Unlikely First Post: Notes From How To Build A High-Traffic Blog Without Killing Yourself – Useful notes from Tim Ferriss’s presentation.

I Love My Mom So There Is No Cursing In This Article (or Why Cursing Is Good) – Lively comments, even if the visitor count isn’t exceptionally high. Censorship gets people talking. :)

I Spent A Night In Jail + L.A. meetup soon! – A Friday Update with video from the Jailhouse hostel in Christchurch, NZ.

90 Second Smoothie To Kickstart Your Day – Mmmmm…the tastiest article I’ve written. :)

What It’s Like To Tour With A Rock Band – The Swellers Record Release Edition – If you’ve ever wanted to know what it’s like to spend 24 hours/day for 3 weeks in a van with 4 other guys this one’s for you.

How To Pay $82/month For Health Insurance (For The Self-Employed or Uninsured) – I thought this one would get a lot more traffic. I guess people don’t want to pay a penny for health insurance. That’s cool and maybe it’ll happen some day soon. Moving on…

How To Quickly and Easily Clean A Blender – I had one of those “aha” moments when I figured this out.

Friday Update: Thank You Edition #1 + RE Black Book #001 – Yes, thank you!

9 Essential Books For Bloggers and Freedom Seekers (or How To Save $50,000 On An MBA) – Considering this was posted on Christmas Eve I think it has been fairly successful in terms of traffic.

Jumping Into Canyons + Go Go Goa, India – A Friday Update with some awesome videos. :)

How To Drive 1,802 Kilometers With A Cat In Tow (or How To Pull Kitty From A Thorn Bush) – I still have daymares (nightmare while awake) about this. I can deal with Jessie dying in the natural course of life (which I hope won’t be for a while!). But losing her like this would have devastated me. None of these comments make sense unless you read the story.

The Do Shit You Love Show Bonus Footage – Good times with Baker from ManVsDebt.com.

I Make You Wanna Jump, Jump + Being Vulgar – Oh wow, do not watch this karaoke video. :)

How To Get Lost In Notoriously Dangerous South Central LA (or How To Get A Free Ride From The Police) – Good times in Watts almost 10 years ago.

End of the Road + Extreme Ziplining – A Friday Update with video from the free public zip line in Auckland, NZ!

The End

There we go. Every article from 2009.

Tonight I’m going to party it up (sans alcohol) at my friend’s 3rd annual NYE party. Lots of my favorite people will be there along with a few guitars. That means there may very well be video of me singing Creedence Clearwater Revival songs in the near future. ha!

In that regard…

When it’s time to party we will party hard. – Andrew W.K.

But more importantly…

We do what we like, and we like what we do. – Andrew W.K.

It feels kind of odd doing a list post. It’s not usually my bag, but it’s refreshing. A few days ago, as I unpacked a box of books I mailed to my Parents, I came across my marketing library. I ran to my computer and immediately pumped out this article. It’s that important.

Learning about marketing is essential no matter what you want to do in life. Whether marketing yourself to prospective employers, marketing a product to the public, or marketing your blog online, you can learn a lot from old school marketers like the ones in this list.

Marketing isn’t about being sleezy. It’s about understand people. It’s about understanding yourself. It’s about doing a great job at giving people what they want. Which, in turn, will get you what you want.

As always, all of the links are Amazon affiliate links. Click on them or don’t. No worries.

1) Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
by Robert B. Cialdini, Phd

I’ve read this book and listened to the audio so many times I can’t even count. (OK, that’s a lie, I’m sure I can count to 1 million!) If you haven’t read it yet go buy it, borrow it, or steal it now.

2) Breakthrough Advertising
by Eugene M. Schwartz

First published in 1966 and if you ask anybody who knows anything about copy writing they’ve read this book.

Fortunately, it’s $95, so that keeps it out of too many hands. :)

Yes, these books are listed in order of how I think you should read them. Get The Psychology of Persuasion first, then get Breakthrough Advertising.

When your world view has been sufficiently rocked move on to…

3) My Life in Advertising and Scientific Advertising
by Claude C. Hopkins

This one’s from the 1920s.

The quote on the cover is from David Ogilvy (I didn’t include his book in this list, but it’s also a must-read): “Nobody should be allowed to have anything to do with advertising until he has read this book (Scientific Advertising) seven times. It changed the course of my life.”

Enough said.

4) Method Marketing
by Denny Hatch

This book dissects how 8 successful multi-million dollar businesses were built. Companies you’ve heard of and companies you haven’t.

Getting into an abundance mindset is critical if you want to have Ridiculously Extraordinary Freedom. Not much else puts you in that frame of mind like reading how other people built successful companies.

5) The Boron Letters
by Gary Halbert

I paid $100 for my copy. (It’s the big book with no cover in the picture above.) You can have it free at the late Gary Halbert’s Web site: http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/newsletter-archives.htm

The actual letters are linked in the middle of the page there. Scroll down or do a search. 25 chapters of gold. Enjoy. (Then read every other letter at Gary Halbert’s Web site.)

6) Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got: 21 Ways You Can Out-Think, Out-Perform, and Out-Earn the Competition
by Jay Abraham

I love this book and I will review it in only 2 words: “host beneficiary.” Learn about it. Use it.

Host beneficiary helped me pocket 5 figure days a couple of times. I’m using it on a top secret Freedom project at this very moment. I’ll probably write about that project some time in the future.

7) The Robert Collier Letter Book
by…uhh…Robert Collier! :)

Written in 1937, another old time classic. ~500 pages. Read every word.

8) The Ultimate Sales Letter
by Dan S. Kennedy

I hate to list this book here. Why? About 5 years ago Dan ran a seminar that was promoted as an “absolutely no pitch all content” event. That meant the speakers would be providing massive value and not just standing up and selling us their garbage.

The cost was over $2,000. Add in a flight to Cleveland, a hotel for a few nights, and food and the total was over $3,000.

And guess what? It was a non-stop pitch fest with almost no content. There were a lot of big name marketers there (I won’t name names) who all agree with this statement, but not one of them would state it in public for fear of retribution. Me? I’m proud to commit commercial suicide.

So it’s bittersweet that I’m listing The Ultimate Sales Letter here. It’s an absolutely phenomenal book about copy writing and you should read it. But don’t pay the $3,000 idiot tax that I paid. ;)

9) Tested Advertising Methods
by John Caples

Proven headlines. Proven ads. Proven techniques. Tested Advertising Methods.

There you have it. Want to save $50,000 on an MBA? Read those books and go fail in a business or two. ;)

If you follow my Twitter you may have already read this but:

“Success can be built upon repeated failures when failures aren’t taken personally.” – Brendan Moynihan in What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars
(read that one too)

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Did you participate in Ridiculously Extraordinary Challenge #1: Quit Drinking Alcohol For 30 Days? If you made it until today, congrats! You can drink again if you so desire. If you didn’t make it, are you going to start over? As we just learned, don’t take failures personally. I know you can do it.