Back from sabbatical

Well, kind of.  I think a sabbatical is where you are supposed to get away from it all and maybe concentrate on learning something new or writing a book.  I haven’t gotten away from anything except blogging.  Work has been busier and family time is all the more precious.  I have, however, been continuing my quest to seek the things above where Christ is seated and I’m starting to fill up again on thoughts about my journey that I need to get out.  Blogging is a great release when things are piling up in your head.

There have been some key influencers on my life the last few months that I hope to brain dump over the next few weeks.

• Getting so close yet still so far from being able to bring our new son home from Ethiopia (see Hipp is My Middle Name for more on this process).
• Two simultaneous discussion groups on the book Don’t Waste Your Life (one with my accountability men’s group and one in Sunday morning bible study).
• Getting back to listening to sermons on my IPod rather than talk radio – in particular – Paul Washer, Mark Driscoll, John Piper, and Francis Chan.
• Attending the Christian Alliance for Orphans conference in Dallas.
• The mediocre success of our church goal in sponsoring 57 orphans in Liberia through BrightPoint for Children.
• Watching the video of Rachel Barkey talk about the glory of Jesus as she faces death from cancer in the next six to eighteen months.
• Reading Same Kind Of Different As Me by John HallDenver Moore and Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God by Francis Chan (still in progress).
• Completing 12-weeks of Body for Life (still maintaining the healthy lifestyle one month later).
• Loss of 401k, loss of jobs, loss of perspective…

Please visit again or better yet subscribe for updates.  Maybe something that leaks from my head will challenge or encourage you.  Maybe what I write will seem idiotic.  In either case, comment and let me know.  If what I write bores you to tears, don’t worry, I’m not quitting my day job.

Grace and peace.

tc

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Moving to Wordpress…

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Hospitality, Stewardship, and Link Love

I want to thank Carol from A Second Cup for honoring me with the “I Love Your Blog” award.  I have mixed emotions about these meme-type awards.  On one hand it is an honor for someone to appreciate your blog enough to post an award for it.  On the other hand, I know through experience that it can be daunting to find additional bloggers with whom to pass on the award.

Finding other great blogs is not an issue.  I have a list of favorite blogs just from the Entrecard community alone that I follow.  The problem I’ve had in the past is finding great blogs that have not just recently been presented the same award or ones that don’t decline the award when I tell them about it for various reasons.  I had such a hard time finding enough bloggers to take the first award that I was presented that I passed on one myself the next time I was offered the privilege.

I decided this time to rethink how I think about these types of awards.  An award like this from a fellow blogger is like a neighbor bringing you a gift and telling you what a great job you’re doing in your community.  I should receive such a gift with honor and humility.  I should eagerly show hospitality by joining in the community of bloggers and pass the gift along.

1 Peter 4:8-10 (ESV)
⁸ Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. ⁹ Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. ¹⁰ As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:

Of course Peter wasn’t talking about the blogging community or blog awards.  However, this award is a great reminder of how God wants us to live – loving each other, sharing with each other, and building each other up.

In this spirit, I gladly recognize the seven Entrecard blogs below.  However, I want all these bloggers to know that there’s no expectation on my part that they post this award or forward it on.  Carol provided me with this “out” when she passed this award to me and I really appreciated that.  This is a free gift of on my part with no strings attached. 

If you are not familiar with these blogs I encourage you to take a peek.  They have certainly helped me as I seek the things above both on their blogs and with their contributing comments here.

A Godly Woman
Ima Blogger – Where False Doctrine Gets PWND
Random Thoughts – International Blog
Sound of a Soft Breath
Sheepleblog
Sojourn
The Plunge N2

And of course, although she does not like the recognition, if your looking for a good blog on family, home schooling, and all the joys and trials involved, I always highly recommend:
Hipp is My Middle Name

P.S. I’m supposed to include the rules for this award so here they are:

1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog;
2. Link the person you received your award from;
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs;
4. Put links of those blogs on yours; and
5. Leave a message on the blogs that you’ve nominated

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StumbleUpon Just for a Day

There are lots of reasons to take time during your week to blog.  Many bloggers are trying to make a go of it financially.  I’m not sure how that works.  Most visitors to my blog are other bloggers rather than people looking to buy something.  However, I guess if you get your Google rank high enough and get enough traffic, the numbers work in your favor and you get enough clicks to make some income.

Some bloggers write because they love writing.  Some write as a way of journaling their thoughts.  Some write as way to express their opinions to the world.  I’m sure there are many other reasons to blog. My reasons for blogging are probably most related to the latter two examples.  I blog to journal my thoughts as I seek a closer walk with Jesus.  However, I am also eager to share my views and receive feedback from others that may be now or have walked a  similar journey.

I’ve had various ads and Amazon links on my site before.  I don’t believe anyone ever clicked on them or purchased anything through these ads.  I’ve since taken them off as I noticed all they seemed to do was slow down my page loads.

Anyway, the point of this long introduction is that I do want visitors to my blog.  I want to share what I’m thinking and hear from others that have an opinion or view, regardless how much it may differ from my own.  In the blogosphere with thousands of blogs, how do you find readers for your blog?

Before joining Entrecard, I probably had anywhere from 1 to 20 visitors in a given day.  With Entrecard, that number quickly increased to 50 to 200 visitors in a day.  Of course, we all know the Entrecard game and most of those visitors are just there to drop.  That’s ok though.  From time to time a post may catch someone’s eye and they’ll stop and read and they may even leave a comment.  I do the same myself.

Suddenly, last Wednesday, I had a crazy day of activity on my blog.  The hits spiked to 1,300.  The craziness actually started on Tuesday with 700 hits and then faded on Thursday with only 400.  By Friday, life on Seeking Above was back to normal.

So what caused all this increase in traffic?  StumbleUpon.  For some reason, a post from July 1, Radical Christianity, had caught on in the StumbleUpon circuit and increased traffic to my site 10X.  I don’t know if many folks were stopping to actually read the post, but Seeking Above gained quite a bit of exposure that day, at least compared to what I had seen in the past.

I used to Stumble all of my new posts myself, just to try and get my blog on the StumbleUpon circuit.  I guess StumbleUpon sees that as spam and they no longer accept a post from my own site.  I can understand this limit as a way to prevent spam.  However, now I’m dependent on other bloggers to Stumble my posts for me.

Traffic is back to normal now.  I have plenty of other posts that have been Stumbled, so I am not sure why one post really took off last week.  However, I still see a steady stream of StumbleUpon traffic, just nothing like a thousand in a day.

I don’t know why others blog.  However, I am going to assume that most of my blogging friends out there do want other people to know about their site and enjoy new visitors, either just to share or maybe to make some income.  Whatever the case, I’m now a strong believer in StumbleUpon (in addition to Entrecard) as a great source to let others know about interesting blogs.  One of my routines now, as I visit other blogs, is to make sure I Stumble all the good posts and especially my Entrecard favorites.

If you come across a post here that you like, comment if you want to share and have the time. However, if you just want to show some blogging love, Stumble it with a Thumbs Up!

Grace and Peace.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Wordpress Envy

The grass is always greener, isn’t it? When I first signed up for blog space I went with Blogger.  I didn’t do a lot of research.  My wife was reading blogs from some of her friends in College Station and they were all using Blogger.  Best of all, it was free.

So, I signed up with Blogger and started blogging away.

For whatever reason, I cannot stay satisfied with my blog layout.  I quickly tired of the standard Blogger templates and started trying out various custom templates.  What I have noticed, is that the best customized blogger templates are actually modified Wordpress templates.

After tinkering with various customized, modified for Blogger, Wordpress themes, I thought I should just get a Wordpress account and try it out.  After all, Blogger is ok but Wordpress is for the serious blogger.

What I found out with my new Wordpress account is that just like real life,  the grass is not really greener.  It’s those green envy glasses that make everything else look so green.

Wordpress (the free Wordpress.com version) did have some nice clean and professional looking templates but the variety was not as plentiful as I expected.  However, what really got me is that you can’t just open up your template and modify it however you want.  I’ve spent a lot of time at Blogger Buster and now I’m spoiled.  I have to be able to tweak my template to make it unique.  My current template at Seeking Above is an extremely modified Cool Blue 2.0 template from Blogger Buster.

So, my Wordpress account just sits unused.  I might do something with it someday just to learn it better.  However, I really don’t have time for experimenting right now.

All this said, there is one feature in Wordpress that I truly wish we had available in Blogger.  I really wish we had the static Page feature.  It took me awhile to figure out how to fake this in Blogger by using a back dated post pages.  However, it’s really not the same.

I’d love to have this feature to add additional web pages to my site.  I could set these pages up to be in the same theme as my current blog but look and behave more like a static web page.  Off the top of my head I would replace my “Who Am I” and “Testimony” pages with these static pages.  However, I would also like to build some additional resource pages with widgets and links that I don’t necessarily want on my homepage sidebar.  Maybe I’d start my own customized template download page.

I’m sure there are at least of dozen or more creative uses for these “pages” if only Blogger had them.  I don’t even see it listed as a possible future option on the Blogger Wishlist.  Sometimes the grass still looks greener.

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Seeking Above Gets an Award?

Now this is a testimony of faith and perseverance. When you blog just to share your faith, it can be discouraging, wondering if anyone is bothering to read what you have to share. Karen from Karen & Gerard Zemek has been an ongoing source of support and encouragement. I thank her, not only for this award, but for her gracious comments and support in general.

The Arte y Pico award was created and to be given to bloggers who inspire others with their creativity and their talents, also for contributing to the blogging world in whatever medium. When you receive this award it is considered a “special honor”. Once you have received this award, you are to pass it on to 5 others.

“What a great way to show some love and appreciation to your fellow bloggers!!!

The rules for passing this honor on:

1) Pick 5 blogs that you would like to award this honor to.
2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.
3) Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.
4) Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of “Arte y Pico” blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award. http://arteypico.blogspot.com.

Here is my list of recipients:

Hipp is my middle name: OK, this is my wife and I know she really does not want me to give this to her – but I really like her blog. Check it out; you’ll see what I mean.

Truth in Context: Theology 101. Lots of good information if you’re looking for insights on how to get deeper in your scripture study. Alan is preparing to start seminary. It will interesting to see his posts as he takes on the challenges that lie ahead of him.

The Bobo Files: Great conservative political commentary. Definitely a minority perspective in blogland from what I can tell. However, it is a much needed perspective for balance if nothing else.

Investigations and Ruminations: This is not a theology blog. It is just a great blog about daily, real life spiritual issues. I enjoy reading the authors “ruminations” on her daily journey.

Lofty Matters: A blog about important events happening around us, that for the most part go unnoticed in the mainstream. You’ll find interesting posts here about new inventions and world events that you probably won’t find on the nightly news.

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Why do you blog?

Why do I blog?

That’s a good question. Sometimes I’m not too sure. I have quite a few friends that know I blog but they don’t bother reading it. I guess that’s ok. So does that mean I’m mostly blogging for strangers? Do I really have anything to say that would interest a complete stranger?

I actually started to blog a few months ago with the intent of sharing my faith-based opinions with strangers and perhaps making new friends along the way. For the first couple of months I received very light traffic to my site. I probably had less than a half dozen visitors a day and probably most of those were family and friends. I was fortunate to meet a few fellow bloggers by posting on their sites. However, usually if I left a comment for someone, my comment would be the last one on that post. I guess once I shared my viewpoint there was nothing left to say.

Recently I started joining a few social networking communities in hopes of increasing the traffic to my site and increasing my network of online friends. Now I have between 75-100 visitors a day. Are they interested in what I have to say, or is everyone just stopping by to drop their card for points and add me to their friend’s list for more link exposure?

I don’t mind the random drops or being added to a friends list as part of another blogger’s campaign to increase their exposure. After all, that’s part of the game, right? Drive enough people to your site and you’ll have some small percentage that click on an ad or leave a comment. Some bloggers make a good income on click ads.

I’m just as guilty about not stopping long on all the sites I drop on. If I drop 50-60 cards each night, I certainly can’t read through 50-60 posts. I do skim the headlines however, and I do make an effort to leave a comment if I think I have anything useful to add. I also try, if time permits, to make it back to anyone’s blog that has left me a comment and return the favor.

I think over time that is the way to build a blog community. Just like in the world outside of the blogosphere, you can’t get to know everyone. However, if you treat everyone as a potential friend, your circle of friends will grow.

I still blog to share my faith-based opinions with strangers and and perhaps make a few friends from around the world, even friends that don’t share my faith but enjoy discussing different opinions. It’s not my job to win any arguments. It’s just my job to share what I know.

Psalms 40:9 (ESV)
⁹ I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; behold, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O Lord.

So, why do you blog?

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Called to post but will they come?

People blog for different reasons. Some blog as experts. Some blog to make money. Some blog just because they have to get it off their chest. I fall into the latter category. As I take my Christian journey I feel called to share what I learn as I seek. I hope that maybe if someone reads what I see and experience in my walk it will inspire, encourage, and even convict them in their own walk or search.

How do I get people to come to my blog if I’m not selling anything or an expert on any anything? I’ve found a service called Entrecard that is working great for me.

Entrecard has now improved their service so you can add new blogs to your account and link them together. Find out more about Entrecard from their new e-book.

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