Achieving One Million Hits on My Second Life Blog!

 Only those who attempt the absurd can achieve the impossible.

Albert Einstein

         

          Be forewarned – This story is a brag!

          Yes, it’s about me!

          Why shouldn’t it be?  After all, it’s my blog!  (Significant Other’s eyes rolls while asking why should this be any different from any of my other brags, er, stories.)  

          What’s the big deal?

          Well, I’ll tell you!  (Significant Other threatens to leave the room if I don’t get to the point.)

          My blog went over the one million hits mark at about midnight SLT on Sunday, April 24, 2016!  (Significant Other wouldn’t let me stay up to see it happen and insisted that I go to bed.  No, Significant Other isn’t my mother.) 

          In just over five years of blogging about Second Life (SL), I’ve managed to hit this goal.  Yes, some have done it quicker, but most don’t get anywhere near this mark at all!  

          How’d I do this?

          You mean besides writing over three hundred blog posts?  

          First, my blog of choice here is Google’s Blogger.  While I’ve since moved onto WordPress in Real Life (RL), Blogger is a very safe way to start blogging, is free, and is plugged into the Google family of products.  

          I did have some false starts along the way.

          CNN iReports unceremoniously dumped their SL community onto the street not long after I’d started there and I had to scramble to find a replacement.  That’s where Blogger came in.  (I’ll bet CNN iReports wishes they had this traffic going to their site!)

          I initially posted inworld distributing links to my weekly stories via notecards until I discovered social media.  

I started using Facebook to reach out to other SL residents until I got dumped by them in one of their purges. (No hard feelings, my offer to interview Mark Zuckerberg still stands!  And, even in the world of Facebook, a million hits is a big number which I bet they’d rather have than their competitors.)    

          Eventually, I started using Twitter and that’s when my traffic started to really pick up.  Adding Google+ helped.  Using Hootsuite, a social media account manager, allowed me to automate.  Twitter’s recent change in their timeline algorithm has set me back some but I’m working on some new ideas.  Keep an eye out for new social media channels and content!

          It hasn’t been easy!  (Not to complain!)

          I’ve posted weekly with only one exception over the last five years.  (Significant Other has been great about letting me build this posting routine into our lives.)  Thinking up new story ideas and researching them is harder than writing the stories.  

          But, I feel good about my progress!  (Significant Other says, “Enough already!”)

          There have been many other SL bogs that posted a few stories and then went dark.  (Sadly, some of these had excellent content.) Some post only once a year.  Others post regularly but get no traffic because they don’t do any promotion.  

          I’ve survived!

          A few observations about SL blogging after one million hits.

          First, this is only anecdotal, but SL social media activity seems to have been declining as if late.  I’m unsure if this has to do with less posting by writers or social media’s move away from organic growth to paid ads.  

          Next, many SL bloggers seem to be either posting less or stopping altogether.  I’m not sure why.  Could interest in SL be fading?  

          Finally, the next big thing in SL is sorely needed to revive interest in blogging and social media about this very important virtual world.  

          Now, I’d like to thank all who of you who made my achievement possible!

          I’m sure it was more than my three loyal readers doing this!  (You know who you are and not to worry!  I won’t out you!)  

          And, no, I didn’t hit this goal by reading my own posts!  (Sheesh, not even Significant Other accused me of that!)  

          I’d like to thank L’il Sis and her posse at First UCC for being the first to congratulate me in public for hitting this goal!  

          Then, to all those inworld who let me tell their stories to you, my readers! 

          I’m in your debt and will always cherish our time together!   

As always, I’m grateful to all inworld for their kindness and time in stopping to talk with a stranger who was passing through their lives!  

          My Twitter handle is @webspelunker.  Please feel free to follow me and I’d be happy to follow you.

I can be found on Google+ as webspelunker Ghostraven.

My flickr Photostream is located here.

On Skype I’m webspelunker Ghostraven.

I welcome feedback from readers, please either comment on my blog or e-mail me at webspelunker@gmail.com . 

          If you would like to read about my other adventures in Second Life please click here. 

          Open roads and kind fires!          

Can I Find Someone in Second Life?

Antarctica is otherworldly, like nothing I've ever seen before. Stark, cold, beautiful desolation.

Mark Hoppus

 

          After several years of wandering and blogging about Second Life (SL), I’ve come to the conclusion that from all walks of life in Real Life (RL), people have come inworld to become avatars and do whatever it is that they do.  (Sometimes totally contrary to what they do in RL.  I wonder does anyone ever come inworld to become more conservative?)

          While one never knows another’s true identity inworld nor should they unless it is given voluntarily, I get the impression I’ve met technical geeks, writers, educators, librarians, artists, university students, homemakers, the curious, the unemployed, retirees, and many others.  In conversation with many of them, I’ve come to realize that I’ve met people from every continent but one. 

          That continent is Antarctica. 

          This has now become my quest (Yes, one among many as Significant Other reminds me.) inworld, to meet someone who is actually in Antarctica when we get together.  With this, I’ll have met someone from every continent.  (What can I tell you?  I’m easy to please.)

          Now, some may argue, like those who deny Pluto is a planet, that Antarctica is not a continent.  (Significant Other has asked, that for the record, Pluto is a planet and Antarctica is not a continent.)  I being the traditionalist that I am firmly believe that Antarctica is a continent and Pluto is a planet.  (Significant Other and I have learned a long time ago to reconcile our differences.  As long as I’m OK with being wrong, we have no issues.)

          Somewhere under all that ice is a big rock anchored to the bottom of the ocean.  (My apologies to geologists who may be cringing right about now.)  There is native life.  Maybe just some penguins and seals (Again apologies to any life forms that I may have omitted.) but they’re alive and they were born there.  There are human inhabitants.  Admittedly, SL probably has more on any given day than Antarctica does but they’re there.  Even if their survival depends on the navies and air forces of several large countries who may have ulterior motives (Don’t worry, I’m not going to start any conspiracy theories here.) they live and work there.

From my traffic analysis on Blogger, I get some very rough high level data on the geographic distribution of the readers of my blog.  (No need to have any privacy worries, very high level and I’d call it metadata except that term seems to have fallen out of fashion lately for reasons that I won’t go into here.)  North America, Europe, and Australasia typically have the most readers followed by Asia, South America, and Africa in that order.  But, never once have I seen anyone drop in from the South Pole.

Why is that?

I watch enough shows on the National Geographic channel to know that the inhabitants there aren’t exactly living in igloos chewing on seal meat to survive.  In fact, their accommodations look better than some RL hotels former employers have dispatched me to. 

          Watching the recent world news about the Russian exploration ship trapped in the pack ice off the coast of Antarctica, I know they have broadband access (and pretty good bandwidth from the looks of it.) 

          Many of the inhabitants are the technical sorts who love to surf the Internet and visit virtual worlds.  (I gotta believe that if you’re in Antarctica then you have some desire to travel and explore.  Either that or you did a really bad job of reading the job description you just posted for.)  They must have lot of time on their hands.  What do they do with it?  (Keep your minds out of the gutter!  This is still not that kind of blog.) 

          There are Americans there after all!  I believe that it’s impossible for my fellow country folks to go anywhere without smart phone access.

          Does Blogger perhaps lump the traffic into some nearby place like Australia?

          To date, despite my best efforts, I have no good explanations.  (We won’t go into Significant Other’s explanation that maybe an entire community is just showing good sense and avoiding me.)  I’ve made inquiries inworld.  I’ve searched the Internet.  I’ve tried to contact Antarctica.  (I’d hate to think what government agencies may be trying to figure out who I am.)  I’m beginning to suspect that they really like their solitude down there. 

          So, as always I turn to my readers for help.

          Does anyone have any ideas as to why we don’t seem to have any representation from Antarctica?  If anyone is reading this and they’re down there I’d really welcome a reply.

          Does anyone know anyone stationed down there and would they be willing to reach out on my behalf?

          Finally, if folks could ask around in their SL or RL (academia might have some promise here) about how Antarctica is connected to the Internet I’d be grateful. 

          I also plan to try and contact other places in RL that theoretically could access SL like the International Space Station, submarines, and any other places people might care to suggest.

          I’ll keep everyone posted on my progress and thanks in advance to all who help!

          And, if you’re following in Antarctica please drop us a line and let us know you’re there!  We’d love to hear from you!           

My Twitter handle is @webspelunker.  Please feel free to follow me and I’d be happy to follow you.

As always, I’m grateful to all inworld for their kindness and time in stopping to talk with a stranger who was passing through their lives.    

I welcome feedback from readers, please either comment on my blog or e-mail me at webspelunker@gmail.com . 

          If you would like to read about my other adventures in Second Life please click here.