I’ve had a blog in one form or another since late 2011. But I didn’t really start blogging until October of 2014. That’s not when I started Hip Diggs. That’s when I started Hip Diggs as you know it today.
What Happened Before Hip Diggs Led to Hip Diggs
This blog, danerickson.net, was my first blog. I started it in 2011, but I really had no clue what I was doing. I experimented with a variety of topics and creative works. Until a few years ago, this blog was an eccentric mix of poetry, songs, posts about leadership, writing, forgiveness, public speaking, simple living, and more. I gained and lost followers because I kept changing my focus.
So I decided on a solution. I’d start more blogs. I bought domain names to suit a variety of ideas: music, writing, blogging, politics, and tiny houses. These were all topics that I thought might work. I discovered a couple of things:
- Having more than two or three blogs is too much: For awhile I was trying to operate as many as six blogs simultaneously. It didn’t work very well. My effort was too scattered. I posted too infrequently and couldn’t promote that many blogs effectively. Currently, I operate two blogs and only focus on promoting one: Hip Diggs.
- Some topics get old fast: As much as I love to write about writing, it gets old fast. It felt like I ran out of things to say after the first 20 posts and then I just kept repeating myself. The same goes for music. I love to play music, but I couldn’t write about it on a daily basis.
- I’ll never own a tiny house: I was intrigued with tiny houses early in the movement. So I bought the Hip Diggs domain with the intention of starting a tiny house blog. I quickly discovered that a tiny house blog is very specific. One really has to be directly involved with tiny houses in order to write about them. So the Hip Diggs’ domain set idle for a couple of years.
And Then I Bought a Not-So Tiny House
In the fall of 2013, I bought my first home. It’s not big, but it’s not tiny. But that’s when I decided that I might be able to salvage my unused Hip Diggs’ domain. A mid-century modern home, my house was cool, or hip. And it was my diggs. So I started a blog about my homeowner’s journey. I posted about buying a house, real estate agents, loans, a few home-improvement projects… and then, I ran out of ideas.
I started posting less and less often on Hip Diggs through the first part of 2014. And I was almost ready to let the domain go when it would expire later that year. After all, I’d had handfuls of other domains that I’d started and trashed. But that would not be the fate of Hip Diggs.
Enters Minimalism and Simple Living
Shortly after I became interested in tiny houses, I discovered minimalism. I’d been paying attention to blogs like, Zen Habits, The Minimalists, and Becoming Minimalist for a couple of years by 2014. Plus, I realized that I’d always been one to keep things fairly simple in life.
Even so, I’ve collected more stuff than I’ve needed along the way. That’s when it clicked. Why not turn Hip Diggs into a simple living blog? I could document my own journey into a more simple lifestyle.
I published my first post, Welcome To The New Hip Diggs, on October 14, 2014. And I found a new WordPress theme and created a simple logo. To match the minimalist philosophy of the blog, I used no sidebar, no advertisements, and no popups. I still keep the blog uncluttered, and I still use the same theme.
My second post, Take The 10-Step Challenge To Simple Living was published on October 19, 2014. I thought it was one of the best blog posts I’d ever written, so I shared it with Michael Hyatt. He gave me a nod of approval. And so Hip Diggs was born as we know it.
Three Years And 324 Posts Later…
I’m still going strong. One thing I love about a simple living blog is that it lends itself to such a wide variety of topics. I can discuss minimalism, time management, healthy habits, writing, music, and much more and still stay within my “simple” niche. For someone who loves a variety of writing, that suits me well.
But the future is still uncertain. As much as I love Hip Diggs, there are days when I think the blog might be better off with a different name and an even a slightly wider scope of subjects. For now, I’m leaving things as they are, as it would be complicated to change the domain name. Hip Diggs and danerickson.net are interwoven. But as with everything I do, my blogs and writing are always evolving. I’m always thinking about my next creative adventure.
