Photo by Rob Beernik

One year ago to this day, on September 10th, 2007, I published my first post on Monkey In My Mind.

My inaugural post was entitled, Making Mike Vick Wrong, or Why I’m A Vegetarian, making the case that before we render judgment on Mike Vick for his involvement in an underground dog-fighting ring, we should first ask ourselves what role we are playing in the Society of Death by eating meat, especially meat that is not raised ethically and organically.

Since then, I’ve written 52 additional posts on a variety of subjects covering politics, the National Football League, culture, film, personal development, and business.

Build It, And They Will Come

During that first September, Monkey In My Mind only attracted 10 unique visitors for the entire month. The following month, that number quadrupled, then doubled. It took until February 2008, for my blog to attract over 200 visitors in a month. In July 2008 I had nearly 2000 monthly visitors. August increased that total by 50%. Not even halfway through this month, I am currently on pace to attract nearly 6000 visits in September 2008. I project that by the end of December 2008, this site will attract at least 15,000 visits per month from over 10,000 unique visitors.

And It Was Good

Is this photo the reason why this post is most popular?

By a cavernous margin, Monkey In My Mind’s most popular post is: A Landslide Victory in 2008? Using Primary Results to Predict a Winner, with nearly 2,500 unique views! In second place are my 2008 Oscar Predictions, followed by the lead two articles in my series about the Comcast Conspiracy to remove MSNBC from the Standard Cable lineup, which attracted, and continues to attract, a lot of attention and links from the Wicked Local Blog. Next is my follow-up post about Army baller Caleb Campbell who was drafted by the NFL’s Detriot Lions and drafted back by the military when they reneged their own rule about allowing Cadets with special abilities and talents to pursue alternative service options. This post received a ton of hits when CNN linked to it the very day I posted it, setting off a flurry of comments from new readers. Rounding out the top six is my first post under Personal Development, simply entitled, “Overcoming Defensiveness.”

A Monkey’s Eye Forward: 2009 and Beyond

In terms of quantity of content, my goal is to publish about four posts per week through 2009.

In terms of type of content, my goal is to continue to provide a Monkey’s Eye View on politics, sports, culture, film, and personal development, with a special emphasis on graduate-level Law of Attraction work, featuring the work of Melissa Zolo, as well as presenting and applying some of the concepts found in U.S. Andersen’s seminal work, “Three Magic Words,” including a new review for the “post-The Secret” era.

One post that I am already looking forward to publishing is my very first official press review. My debut online review will cover a soon-to-be published book by acclaimed personal development blogger Steve Pavlina entitled, “Personal Development for Smart People.” Look for that early next month, as well as links on Steve’s site to my review.

My other goal is to transform Monkey In My Mind from a mere Wordpress blog into a full-fledged website. I am currently in the process of manifesting a designer and that re-design will be accomplished before the end of 2009.

Enormous Gratitude

It is with all-encompassing gratitude that I recognize all of my readers for their support, comments, and overall readership this year. It is so wonderful to hear from many of you in the form of comments, emails, and personal congratulations. It is a truly magical experience to reach out to other like-minded souls and I continue to welcome you into the peaks, valleys, and plains of my Monkey Mind.

–The Monkey. And Paul. September 10-11th, 2008.