Double Journey

Despite the fact that gas is soon going to be $5 a gallon, I’ve decided that I’m done with the train.  I’ve been trying to take the train
on and off for the past few month but decided today that I have had it.   Like a typical Californian, I’m addicted to my car.

A couple of things killed the train experience for me.  While it is generally more convenient for a majority of people who can get on it easily, it really isn’t for me.  My commute isn’t that bad.  I do hit some traffic, but I know enough of the side streets to be able to get around any traffic jams.  The money hurts a little bit, it is taking me about $60 a week to fill up my tank, but it isn’t horrible.  Two things did it for me.

1. The train takes longer.  Door to door, it takes me 30-40 minutes in my car.  The train takes me about an hour.   Round trip, I can save 40-60 minutes a day.  That really starts to add up.
2. I get a headache when I ride the train.  Don’t know why, it isn’t bumpy or anything like that.  It just gives me one.  it usually takes me about an hour to recover from it when I get home, sucking up even more time.

So that’s it for me.  I was trying to do my part to help the environment and the horrible traffic congestion in Los Angeles, but in the end, my own convenience and comfort wins out.  I know, I’m a horrible human being.  Was it the right thing to do, or did I give up too easily?
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I have another website that actually gets more traffic than this one. I’ve had the site for several years, and it receives quite a few hits a day from search engines for various topics. Just recently, I started updating that blog much more regularly, daily instead of once or twice a month, and for some reason the traffic to my site is up a lot more.

Now I could understand this if people were searching and finding my site through new topics I’m talking about, but that’s not the case. My site gets 90% of its traffic from about 3 or 4 search terms and its still getting that from the same search terms. Either there has been a significant increase in interest for these 3 or 4 topics, or Google must be weighting these terms higher because I’m providing more recent content on totally unrelated topics. That’s the only thing I can think of, but if someone smarter than me knows what else might be going on, I would love to hear about it.

*Note - I’m somewhere on I-5 on my way from Seattle to L.A.  This post is being blogged via Wordpress’ delay post feature.  Be back next week with my thoughts on starting a new job!
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John Chow has a post today where he is offering to give away a Microsoft USB Lanyard. It actually isn’t even the main purpose of his post, it actually is only a small blurb at the end of the blog. But the number of comments he has gotten on it in a very short time is, as expected, very high as that is the way to enter the contest to win the Lanyard. I have TONS of Microsoft crap, as I of course worked there and received lots of stuff in my short time there.

This is of course a tried-and-true way to increase traffic in any arena. Give away stuff. I had one experience at Microsoft that actually scared me and made me shake my head at other Microsofties. At one of the product fairs that Microsoft has yearly for its employees, I was manning a booth. Some of the other booths were giving away SWAG like T-shirts, stress balls, etc. I made my way to the booth next to mine and tried to wait patiently in line for a T-Shirt. While waiting I was being pushed and shoved by people from all sides. People were grabbing T-Shirts out of the hands of other Employees! It was a mad house. And remember, these are Microsoft Full Time Employees. Almost all of them make close to six-figures. Yet they are willing to trample their fellow employees to get their hands on a free $5 T-shirt. Unbelievable.

I’m not sure I have the traffic yet to actually justify doing a give away. Also, I suspect that most of my readers actually work at Microsoft at the moment so not sure how effective giving away Microsoft stuff would be. Then again, given what I experienced above, maybe those employees would be the most aggressive at trying to get the SWAG. Does anybody want any SWAG?
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I had someone ask me if it was OK to link to my site. The simple answer is Yes!

I could use all the link love I can get right now. It’s hard when you are first starting out a website because you can feel kind of alone out here sometimes. That’s why the comments are always appreciated, and the links back to my site are always welcome. If I really wanted to keep this a secret, I wouldn’t put it out on the web for the world to see. In fact, the very point of me starting up a website and blogging about it is to solicit others feedback, and get ideas on what to do next. The more ideas and comments that come my way the better. So please, publicize my website. Talk and link all you want. And of course, please keep the comments coming

As I wrote this post, I started thinking about how I could encourage people to link to this site and to leave comments behind. One easy way would be to run a contest. I need to think about this a little bit more and fully develop the idea, but you can be sure it will be coming soon. If you want to get a head start though, please link to my site, or leave some comments. I’ll count any link or comment now toward that contest

Anyone else have any bright ideas on how best to increase traffic and participation?
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