While the first post was published on October 17, 2012, I consider it close enough to give a brief review of the past year’s efforts.
This is the first time I have ever shared a blog with someone else. I believe Alisa makes the blog quite a bit more informative and more interesting than it would be otherwise. I consider having an international, multilingual blog to be an accomplishment in and of itself.
This the 157th post so far. I’ve written 133 posts, Alisa has written 12 posts in English, and 12 posts in Russian. In blogging about the 365 steps of Steps to Knowledge, I’ve gotten to Step 51.
Ascending Knowledge welcomed its 4,000th visitor today. 2,862 of those visits were unique. I consider it remarkable that there were visits from 1,320 different cities in 120 different countries. It took 281 days to get the first 2,000 visits, and 84 days to get the second 2,000 visits, so visits are definitely on an upward trend.
What did they come for? The picture of the mosque in Samarkand (from the post about the dervish tale “The Man With The Inexplicable Life”), the poem “Today” by Mary Oliver, the picture of Spanish poet Antonio Machado, and the Mulla Nasrudin story about the Hindustan chili peppers.
Did they stick around? Some of them did. The 4,000 visits resulted in 7,349 pageviews. The bounce rate was 72%, which means roughly 3 out of 4 visitors left after viewing one page. The 1 out of 4 visitors who stuck around viewed an average of slightly under 4 pages each visit.
Did they like anything Alisa and I wrote? Some of them did. The greatest hits are the posts “I Wish To Venture Forth,” “‘Few’ Is Not ‘None,’ ‘Rarely’ Is Not ‘Never,’” and “I Am The Self I Deserve (And Other Self-Esteem Issues).”
Did they inquire further about the New Message from God, or Steps to Knowledge? Maybe. I am currently working on tracking referrals, but I was recently told by someone with access to hosting statistics that there were 25 to 30 referrals each month to the New Message from God website.
I believe someone is wondering, “Ok, Douglas, so you’ve blogged about Steps to Knowledge up to Step 51. How many of the Steps have you actually studied?” I was on Step 199 when the blog launched, and I am currently studying Step 292. It may take a while, but it is my vision to one day write a blog post about each step.
Is this blog worth the effort? Absolutely!
What’s in store for the future? You’ll find out soon enough, but it seems to be helpful to write a little bit more about some of the other books of the New Message from God besides Steps to Knowledge. It seems to be helpful to tell a little bit of the tale of the New Message from God community.
What’s inside me regarding Ascending Knowledge: Press on! The apostle Paul wrote, “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14, New International Version).
A fellow student of Steps to Knowledge encouraged me with the words “Press on!” after commenting that Ascending Knowledge was a sort of reader’s companion to Steps to Knowledge. It’s not like Steps to Knowledge really needs a reader’s companion, but I’d like to think that any encouragement I can give helps.
The 11th-Century Persian poet Baba Tahir wrote this poem, which I found in the book The Way of the Sufi by Idries Shah. The last line captures how I feel on the inside:
When you have not studied the Celestial Science,
While you have not put foot inside a “Tavern”,
Since you do not know your own profit and loss;
How will you attain the Friends? – on, on! On, on!
Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.