Six Months of QLE
/The end of December marked the six-month anniversary for Quarter-Life Enlightenment.
Six months is not a long time, but I’m proud of what the site has become. When I first started writing back in July, I wasn’t sure how I would take to it. I liked the idea of writing a web column, and I was inspired by the many individuals who make some or all of their living writing on the web, but I wasn’t sure if my enthusiasm would last beyond the first week or two. I’m happy to say it has.
Even though the site is still in its infancy, I hope to make 2012 a big year for QLE. One of my goals is to write more original articles. I greatly admire writers like Randy Murray and Seth Godin, who publish something every day without fail. It’s something to aspire to. I find original pieces more challenging and fulfilling to write, and I hope you feel the same in reading them. Look forward to more this year.
I don’t plan to stop the shorter link posts. I think they’re beneficial, and I enjoy spreading the word about the writers who inspire me. I wouldn’t share them if I didn’t think they were worth your time. My goal continues to be to post something useful to the site Monday through Friday, whether that’s an article by me or a link to someone else.
For those of you who have been reading all along, thank you. Your support is tremendously appreciated. I hope you’ll continue to stick around and give me feedback about what you like, don’t like, and would like to see more or less of. And if something I write benefits you, please do share it with others. It’s the best way for the site to grow.
As a reminder, there are several ways to subscribe to the site so you don’t have to remember to check back every day. You could bookmark it, but you probably have a thousand bookmarks.
RSS. Whenever you see this icon on a website, it means “Subscribe via RSS”. RSS is very simple, but many people don’t know what it means or how it works. RSS stands for “Rich Site Summary” or “Really Simple Syndication”. Basically, it’s a way of consolidating new content from many websites into a single feed. To start using RSS, you first need a feed reader. Google Reader is one of the most popular, and it’s what I use to keep track of over 100 websites I read daily. If you have a Gmail account, you already have access to Google Reader. Just click my subscription link, hit the Google button, and choose Add to Google Reader. You can do this with any site that supports RSS. Now, instead of typing in 100 different URLs and visiting each site directly, you can just check your Google Reader as you would your email account. New posts will be there waiting for you. You can also use an RSS reader app on your computer or mobile device. NewNewsWire and Reeder are two of the best. (I use Reeder on my Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Here’s what the Mac version looks like.) For further explanation about RSS, please see What Is RSS?
Email. You can have the previous day’s posts emailed to you each morning. I’m working on redesigning the email template, so please stand by.
Twitter. Quarter-Life Enlightenment has its own Twitter account, which automatically tweets links to the latest posts. You can — and obviously should — also follow my personal account.
Facebook. I don’t love Facebook, but if you use it regularly, it’s a good way to get the latest QLE posts in your News Feed. If you’re on Facebook, please do Like Quarter-Life Enlightenment.
Google+. Occasionally, I will post an article to Google+. When there is a good solution for auto-posting to Google+, I will use it and let you know.
The choice is yours! Collect all five.
As an addendum, there’s also a Tumblr where I collect videos, links, quotes, and other things that aren’t specifically QLE-related. Please reblog liberally. Wink wink.
Thank you, again, for visiting my little corner of the Internet these past six months. I’m going to continue to show up every day, so I hope you continue reading.
I wish you all a peaceful 2012.
— Andrew