Best of Zen Habits, January 2008

Another month has gone by, dear readers, and once again you’ve made it a wonderful month for Zen Habits!

In this past month, Zen Habits moved into the Top 50 in Technorati, and moved from 26K subscribers to about 36K. Thank you, all of you!

In case you missed them, here are the best posts from January 2008:

In addition, I had four announcement-type posts that you might have missed:

Also see:

Posted on 1 February 2008 in Aboutzenhabits |
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Comments (18)

banji - LessonInLife.com Says:

February 1st, 2008, 22:18 pm

Congratulation Leo, on successfully be in the top 50 of Technorati and of course the amazing increase in subscription. :) I know you really deserve them.

Still, can I ask? What do you think are the factors of the success? Besides the obvious which is your quality writing.

Annie Says:

February 1st, 2008, 22:51 pm

Haha, congratz! We all love you here. We nominated you once for something, we did it again, and we’ll keep doing it! :P

Israel Says:

February 1st, 2008, 23:53 pm

darn good posts each time. how do you do it bro? teach me…

Charlie Says:

February 2nd, 2008, 0:08 am

Congratulations, Leo! 10k subscribers in one month is amazing; you’re an inspiration to myself and many others. Keep up the great work, I love reading what you’ve got to say.
Cheers,
Chaz

Chaz’s Notes
http://ich4z.blogspot.com
personal development for the modern age.

Keet Says:

February 2nd, 2008, 0:57 am

I share your joy! Simple peace to you & your readers.

Eugene (Editor, Varsity Blah) Says:

February 2nd, 2008, 1:56 am

It just keeps getting better! I can’t think of anyone more deserving. Really, I tried!

etavitom Says:

February 2nd, 2008, 12:41 pm

Thanks again for all the profound wisdom! Looking forward to more of it, Brad

Carlos Says:

February 2nd, 2008, 15:43 pm

Leo: you obviously have learned the ways of the “force”. congratulations on reaching the Top 50 on Technorati. you’re definitely an inspiration!

Nazreen Essack Photography Says:

February 2nd, 2008, 16:44 pm

Congratulations! You’re an inspiration to us all. :)

Kristy Says:

February 2nd, 2008, 18:12 pm

Way to go Leo!!

I would love to hear your reply to Banji and Israel.

Truly, a really good blog post every single day is hard to find (for the reader and the writer). Do the ideas flow through you as naturally as you write them?

Oh, and by the way….wasn’t yesterday your last day of work away from home? Congrats on that, too!

Alex Liu Says:

February 2nd, 2008, 21:23 pm

Yup! Those are really good post. I find those 30 tips that allow me to be productive when I stay at home very useful. It’s amazing you can provide many good post every month!

Thanks!

Leo Says:

February 3rd, 2008, 8:28 am

Thanks guys! I appreciate the encouragement, as always.

What’s the secret of my success? Well, I think it’s three things:

1. Creating extremely useful content. (That’s the goal, anyway — I don’t always succeed.)
2. Writing fairly catchy headlines so that people will be drawn into that content.
3. Finding ways to share that content with people who haven’t read it.

By far the most important is the first one. For more on that, I will be writing about blogwriting at writetodone.com in the coming months.

The other two steps are just to help people find it.

At this point, things are snowballing for Zen Habits as more and more people find out about the blog. But in the beginning, the thing that helped me the most was writing guest posts for other blogs — it was the best way to show new readers that I have good content on my site. I wrote a lot of guest posts. :)

Now, social media such as digg and delicious and stumbleupon seem to find me the most new readers — and I have you guys to thank for that, as you’re the ones who vote for my articles and help spread the word.

I could probably go on for a long time about this stuff. :) Read more at Write To Done in the coming months — I hope to share some of the stuff I’ve learned in chunks and pieces.

Val Ann C Says:

February 3rd, 2008, 12:39 pm

Hi Leo
I’m looking for a link to your new writers blog. I don’t see a link anywhere on the Zen habits pages. Are you still doing the writers blog?

Tom Furman Says:

February 3rd, 2008, 21:43 pm

These posts comprise a real blueprint for personal success in the art and science of simplicity. Making the utmost out of the minimum.

Tom Furman
http://www.physicalstrategies.com

Leo Says:

February 4th, 2008, 0:49 am

@Val Ann C: Yep, it’s WriteToDone.com … sorry, haven’t put the link up in my header yet. :)

Navtej Kohli Says:

February 4th, 2008, 21:26 pm

The main thing I’m enjoying while reading your blog is the way you write, you are a really charismatic person and your posts are wonderful, keep it up!

dani Says:

February 7th, 2008, 23:58 pm

Congratulations! I look forward to reading about quitting your day job especially. A few years ago I committed to a yearlong project of letting go of fear, guilt, shame, and controlling assholes as my new years’ resolution, and quitting my day job quickly became a huge part of that!