Take a look at the layout of this website. If you use some kind of adblocker, try turning it off and compare One Universe at a Time to other popular science sites. Go ahead, I’ll wait. Here you won’t find any ads. No “sponsored links.” No articles that are actually ads. Just articles written by me on various topics in astronomy and physics. I like it that way. I intend to keep it that way.

Rather than ads, this site is supported through donations from readers. Funding a site through donations means that I can focus on writing clearly and honestly instead of striving for hits and page views. If I consistently produce quality work, readers will see value in supporting it. And many of you have.  Readers have been quite generous in their support.

You’ve also been generous in sharing my work with others on social media and the like. Over the past several months readership has started to grow. But with more attention there is the occasional post that goes viral. When that happens the server load spikes sharply, as you can see in the image above. As a result, I’ve had to upgrade the hosting service again.

The vast majority of visitors from such a spike hit the site for less than a minute, and then move on looking for the next clickbait. They aren’t long-term readers, and they certainly aren’t interested in donating to the site. They do, however, add to the overall cost of hosting this site. What this means is that you generous long-term readers are supporting those who visit and run. The solution isn’t to keep asking long term readers for more and more donations. The solution is to gain more long term readers.

So I’m asking you dear readers for help. I’m asking you to work together with me to build a larger pool of long term readers. Part of this will involve sharing posts on social media, which many of you already do. But part of this involves finding ways to break through the noise of hype and clickbait to grow a larger and stronger community. I don’t know much about marketing, but I’m sure some of you do. The larger the readership, the broader the support, and the less server spikes will matter.

To everyone, thanks for your support in all its forms. We now return to our regularly scheduled program.

The post A Word From Our Sponsors appeared first on One Universe at a Time.

Given the rising popularity of One Universe at a Time, I’ve had to upgrade my hosting level. If you’re reading this, then the upgrade has already happened.  Everything should be the same with one exception, and that is the site is now working on https rather than old school http. Now you can read about the universe with encrypted security. There shouldn’t be any glitches, but if you notice anything, please let me know.

I would like to note that this switch to https and to a faster, more reliable plan has been possible thanks to you. So thanks to all of you who read, comment and share my posts across the internet. And a very special thanks to those of you who generously support this site on Patreon.

I am humbled by your support, and will continue to strive for honest and clear science writing.

The post Did You Feel That? appeared first on One Universe at a Time.

There’s no new post today because I’ve been transferring things to the new server.  If you’re reading this, then it has worked.  There will likely be some changes due to the transfer, but overall nothing should change.  I’ll return to the regularly scheduled programing soon.

The post Welcome to the New Server appeared first on One Universe at a Time.

I’ve turned off WordPress comments for now.  I just don’t have the time to delete 30 spam messages a day, and since comments aren’t too active at the moment, it’s easier to just shut them down.  You can still comment from Google+, Facebook, or Disqus.  I may open WordPress comments back up in the future, but I’ll need to find a way to manage spam first.

The post Spam and More Spam appeared first on One Universe at a Time.

It’s now been a week since I started this website, so now that the dust has settled a bit I’d like to ask a few questions.  Specifically I’m interested in what format or tools you might find particularly useful.

Is there a comment system you like to see on a blog?  Do you like seeing “follow me on …” links or do you find them annoying.  Is it useful to have related posts, etc.

As I mentioned in my first post, I’m most familiar with Google+, and that has its own community.  I’m hoping this site will draw a wider readership, so I’d like to make the site as useful as possible with few annoyances if I can help it.

So any suggestions you more experienced blog readers have would be greatly appreciated.

The post Blog Questions appeared first on One Universe at a Time.