Yeah, I said I was going away for good in March, but I’m back. I am not committing to regular blogging. If something of interest strikes me and I want to share, I’ll publish something. That might mean days, weeks, or months between posts.
I like how GettingStronger.org and 180DegreeHealth both remain active, even though at times months can pass with no new posts. Then all of sudden, a new post appears. I think that model will give this blog more flexibility.
Now I’ll bring you up to date on what I’ve been doing the last few months.
Speed and Traffic
All my websites are much faster now, especially outside of North America. Even though it has been months since you saw anything new on this site, I’ve been tweaking the performance. I have a CDN (Content Delivery Network) for the site now, which means parts of this site load from servers closest to the reader.
The result is my traffic never went down. It actually went up slightly. Pages should load much faster in Europe and Asia now.
Medium
I wrote two articles specific to WordPress resource reduction on Medium. I think less than 10 people have read them.
- How to Change Your Default RSS Path in WordPress Without Touching Code
- Reduce Your WordPress Resource Usage By Hiding Your RSS Feed Link
As a reader, I love Medium, however, as a publisher, I haven’t figured it out. Maybe I’ll keep my technical articles there and other stuff here? I’m not sure how to use the website. It does seem to benefit those with massive followings on Twitter the most.
INeedCoffee
I’ve redesigned my coffee website and wrote a few more articles there. It will continue to be my primary focus. Today I just launched an advertising program. If you know someone in the coffee field that would like to reach 75,000 and 140,000 users a month, send them my way. The money I earn from INeedCoffee pays for the hosting for this blog.
Health
I’ve done really well in the past few months. I’ll save that story for my next post.
Going Forward
I know a lot of readers come here for fitness posts. I think that topic has been well covered and I don’t think there will be many more posts on fitness. Beyond staying safe and staying interested, is there really more to say?
I am still interested in Nutrition but I also have concerns about posting things health-related, so I will do my best to discuss this topic in an honest and transparent way.
Chris
Aug 1, 2017 — 9:18 am
Good to see you back. I always enjoy your writing.
Colin
Aug 1, 2017 — 11:46 am
I too always enjoy your stuff. Feel free to post as irregularly as you see fit.
John
Aug 1, 2017 — 2:11 pm
Yay! I agree with the others. Glad you sent the email. I’m going to try and add you back to Feedly now. Then I’ll read your 2 new posts.
Øyvind
Aug 1, 2017 — 2:28 pm
Boring as it is, I am in agreement with everyone else here – great to have you back!
Joe Crawford
Aug 1, 2017 — 3:32 pm
A writer writes. Rock on MAS.
Jim
Aug 2, 2017 — 6:02 am
@MAS
Yes. Please use graceful degredation to reduce the frquency of posts to whatever is comfortable, without a full shutdown.
That being said, i really liked the “shut down format” of your blog with it’s explanation and index of posts. I think it could be a useful template for other bloggers if they shut down a particular site. Maybe post about that on Medium?
Marc
Aug 15, 2017 — 8:59 pm
So glad you are back blogging!
Geoff
Aug 28, 2017 — 3:33 am
Mind. Blown. Rolled in this morning looking for some of your urban hiking posts and found “the lab” back in action. Looks like “Walt” is back with new product to share. 😉
Welcome back, MAS. I’ve really missed seeing your content.
MAS
Aug 28, 2017 — 8:03 am
@Geoff – Thank you. It took a few months to realize that “the lab” would always be generating new product. 🙂
Jeremy
Sep 7, 2017 — 4:23 am
I’ve been following your Blog for a while now, and your recent upsurge in blog posts has inspired me to get back blogging myself.
I loved the style of this post and your writing style; so much so that I’ve decided to take my own blog in a new direction (https://www.shirtandtiefitness.com/change-of-direction/) outlines this, may be of interest.
Keep up the good work Michael,
Jeremy
MAS
Sep 7, 2017 — 7:57 am
@Jeremy – Thanks. Good luck on taking your blog in a new direction.
I started CriticalMAS in March 2000. I’ve rebooted and refocused a few times. Sometimes the audience stays with you and sometimes you find new readers. For me, this project has to be interesting to me. I’ve lost half my audience in the last 2 years since I moved away from fitness. Oh well. Nutrition is what I find most interesting now. And I have no idea what topic will capture my interest next.