Thanks to everyone who wrote in with kind words for the 10-year anniversary of the site.
If I didn’t reply—or if my reply was especially short—it’s only because responding to purely complimentary messages makes me feel like a lunatic: “Why yes, good point. I am something special, aren’t I?”
Rather than respond to a bunch of similar emails in this post, here’s a representatively nice one…
Just wanted to send a quick note to thank you for ten years of consistently thoughtful and hilarious writing. In a world where so much feels uncertain or heavy, it’s meant more than you probably realize to have your voice show up with such regularity. That kind of creative consistency is rare and weirdly comforting. You’ve built something special, and I’m really grateful for it.—I.S.
Thank you. I get a lot of emails calling out specific tricks I’ve created or concepts I’ve written about, and that’s always great to hear. But I especially appreciate being recognized for the consistency, because that’s the part that actually feels like work. It’s not work to have a good idea—those just show up (or they don’t). So getting called out for that (while nice) is like being complimented on my gorgeous ass. Sure, it’s stunning. But I’m not out here doing squats. That’s just genetics.
The real work is in sitting down to put together daily posts, monthly newsletters, and a book every 18 months. Sticking to that rhythm—that’s the hard part.
This is only possible because of the people who support the site.
Not just in the sense that money coming in allows me to devote time to magic that would otherwise be spent doing other work/creative ventures. But also because I can look at the list of supporters and think, “Oh, here are some people willing to put a little of their money behind something they see as a good thing in their life. Let me keep showing up so that good thing stays there for them.” That’s a powerful motivator for me.
[Congratulatory message then…] Do you have a plan for how much longer you’ll be doing the site? I hope it continues for many more years to come. It’s part of my morning ritual. —DH
I was looking at the site analytics for the first time in a few years and noticed that 82% of the traffic is direct—people typing in the URL or using a bookmark, not coming in from search or social. I didn’t know if that was good or bad, so I asked ChatGPT, which said:
🤖🤖🤖
📉 Average Direct Traffic for Blogs:
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Typical blogs:
10% to 25% of total traffic is usually direct. -
Established brands or newsletters:
May see 30–50% direct, especially if they have loyal repeat visitors.
Interpretation
Given your traffic volume, your 82% direct traffic is way above average, which strongly implies:
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You’re not easily discoverable by casual readers via search or social.
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Your audience is returning deliberately
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You’re functioning more like a closed circle or personal newsletter than a growth-oriented blog.
🤖🤖🤖
Those last three bullet points are all things I wanted, but didn’t really think possible when I started the site. I figured if I wanted it to last, I’d need to worry about “optimizing for SEO,” “building content funnels,” “social amplification,” “engagement metrics,” and a bunch of other subjects that sound genuinely depressing to me. For that reason, I assumed the site would quietly fizzle out after a few months.
The only reason that didn’t happen is because you kept coming back—and more specifically because of those of you who choose to support the site without me having to beg you.
The moment this writing gig becomes a sales job, that’s when I’ll bail. I’m not a salesman.
But if the current relationship holds, I don’t see myself stopping anytime soon.
I was about to let my Genii subscription lapse, but there was a rumor going around at the Michigan Magic Day (and I also read it on facebook) that there’s going to be a cover story or at least a big article about your site for the 10th anniversary. Is that true. And if so, when?—N.N.
lol no, that’s not true. You can let it lapse.
Congratulations on the hitting the 10-year-anniversary mark. I’ve really enjoyed following your work during this time. Do you have any plans for the next 10 years? Any changes coming to the site or the support structure?
[…]
I hope you continue to develop the Carefree model of performing, it’s totally changed the material I’m working on and I’ve been performing so much more. —DH
Yeah, I definitely have more to explore with the Carefree concept. It’s evolving in real time, and I think once it’s more fully formed, it’ll be genuinely valuable for anyone who connects with the idea.
I don’t have any major changes planned for the site or the support structure. That’s not to say things won’t change—just that nothing’s in the works at the moment.
Going forward, I’ll probably be more open to sharing ideas from others. When I first started the site, people would regularly ask to write guest posts, and I always turned them down for two reasons. First, I didn’t want to become dependent on looking to other people for content, which is likely what would have happened if I began farming out the writing to other people in the early days. Second, I didn’t want the site to just be a bland hodgepodge of multiple viewpoints. I thought (and I was right) that it would be more engaging to people to follow a site with a strong, consistent perspective—even if they don’t always agree with it.
Now, a decade in, I think readers have a better sense of what this site is about. This is never going to be the type of site where I just post someone else’s chop cup handling or something like that. And I doubt I’ll ever have traditional “guest posts” either. But if someone has a trick, or an idea, or a non-traditional performance approach they want to send me, I’m happy to share it if I think it makes sense with the ethos of this site.
