I promise I wont go all blogiversary on you, but Rational Male has just passed the 2 year mark today, so I guess it’s time to do the yearly review.
First of all I want to thank all my readers for making RM the 5th most popular manosphere blog at least according to Vox. And also I’m flattered that my work has drawn more attention to the manosphere in general according to Alexa stats. I don’t generally keep track of web trends – hell, I thought over a million views just prior to year one was nothing special at first – so I was pleasantly surprised to see the numbers Vox tallied up.
In the first year my posts were primarily a more formalized re-telling of the 8-9 years I’d spent on the SoSuave forums, so I entered into year two knowing I would have to start pacing my posts down to well-thought topics and focusing more on crafting the essays on ideas that deserved more time in refining. Initially I felt bad about dropping from 5 posts a week to 1-2 deeper posts a week. I’m always very conscious of repeating prior ideas I’ve covered. I try my best not to go back over something unless I’ve had a new insight about it. Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn’t simply re-hash an old post for the benefit of new readers, but then I that’s what my upcoming book is really for.
Although I don’t participate as often as I wish I could, I would like to recognize the Red Pill Reddit Forum. Again I’m flattered that they promote this blog and my ideas in general as a principle source of red pill info. I’m also impressed by the number of outside the manosphere sites that link to RM. When I see incoming links from comment threads on sites like Forbes or NYT or even sites in India or Australia it’s encouraging to think that red pill awareness is spreading amongst men, and that they’re beginning to get more comfortable in addressing others about it.
Changes
A lot’s changed for me personally since January. I was basically made an offer I couldn’t refuse in my career around April and relocated back across the country from Florida. I’ve tried my best not to let this interfere with my essays, and I’m now glad I made the early decision to pare down to 1 or 2 posts a week, but I still wish I had more time to devote to writing. The demands of my new venture (and brands) means having to be much more disciplined about how I budget my time with RM. It’s actually easier when I’m traveling to write more now – it used to be the other way around.
I will still keep RM non-monetized (unless you’d like to donate something to my charity) and my future focus for the blog will continue to be connecting the gender dynamic dots and looking under the hood at how they work. Furthermore, Rational Male will, as always, continue to have unmoderated comment threads. I have always encouraged open discourse – even with those who diametrically oppose my viewpoints – this is the only way ideas can earnestly be tested.
The Book
One other reason my posts have been more limited is due to the book I’ve been compiling for the past 7 months. I’m happy to report that it is now finally finished and I’m presently looking at e-publishing options. I did look into traditional publishing avenues at first, but needless to say most publishers are still firmly rooted in the feminine imperative’s dictates. I expected this, but I figured I’d try it first. The good news is that The Rational Male will be more available as a result. I’m still exploring my self-publishing options and to anyone with a published book (Vox? Roosh?) I’m definitely open to input.
Don’t worry, my first priority is a printed book you can buy and read in your hands. In fact it was the request of one of my readers to publish a book of my essays to give to her son who was in real need of the red pill. I’ve never published a book before, so this is all a new experience for me. The problem I’ve been having with it was really knowing what to leave out than what to put in it.
Finally, I’d like to thank everyone reading for their input and discourse. Most of the best posts I think I’ve developed were the result of conversation threads submitted by readers or from consults I’ve done. Later this week I’ll be posting my ‘best of’ year two links once I’ve sifted through them.
Thanks for another great year.
