Name of your website?Wide Awake Living
Your name?
Alice Gardner
Your Location (city, etc)
Stanford, CA
Please give us a short summary of your website?
Wide Awake Living is a place where people can come for support and inspiration for the process of spiritual awakening. It includes various writings and poetry by Alice Gardner, as well as nature photography. It offers a free monthly newsletter of original writings. Alice has now also had her first book published. It is titled: Life Beyond Belief, Everyday Living as Spiritual Practice. It is about how no matter what our religion or tradition, we all come alive in the process of learning to live the truth of who we are each day in the midst of our everyday lives. This reality is actually THE WAY for us, and can no longer be considered a distraction to being spiritual people.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
In the fall of 2002, I had an experience of radical awakening in the presence of Eckhart Tolle. It was so interesting how this happened without my having any personal conversation or contact with him. I set up the website to share my experience and to pass this on in whatever way it was possible to do so. The book goes into detail about what happened with Eckhart and there is some of it on the website also.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
This was my first website, and it went up in March of 2003 after an amazing series of events made it possible including a tenant who couldn't pay rent but who knew Dreamweaver. I did not know how to create a web site, but all was provided that was needed, and it happened so easily. I have been having fun with it and learning more as I go ever since.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
I just pulled it out of the air is all I can remember. It wanted to be about how to live this spiritual awakening stuff, not just about awakening itself and how to get there. A lot of what people write about is how to awaken. Even Eckart Tolle spends a great deal of his time on that topic. When my awakening occurred in his presence, I then was very disoriented for quite a while and didn't have any idea how to live any more. Wide Awake Living came out of looking for answers to that. Funny but the real answer to that turned out to be that there are no answers. Its about learning to live without knowing any more.
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
It is different I suppose because it is colored through and through by my personality, my writing abilities and shortcomings, my photography ability and shortcomings, my technical ability or lack of it. It is different because each of us is so totally unique. My uniqueness will be a fit for certain people. It's amazing how it works.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
I don't have a goal, but it seems like life continues to be actively doing something through me and the web site.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
I don't know. It takes time to keep it up but I do it because it feels like it wants to happen and I serve that freely as best I can amidst the other things I do. Maybe someday it may generate income, I don't know. It would be nice to not have to do the 9-5 thing at some point--then I could write more.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
I guess maybe I'd hire a spiritually oriented computer whiz to help so that the site didn't have to wait for me to learn new technologies. At the moment it only grows and incorporates new technology if I learn it first and I just don't persue it. I'd rather spend time writing. Right now I'd like some help with getting the blog to where it really is a supportive community place for people to visit. Its not there yet. Could be a few hours with an expert would help that a lot. Also it could use some improvements with SEO for sure.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Well, hmmm... my 9-5 job is ending soon... I guess the answer is yes, if life wants it to happen. That's how it has happened in the first place and that's how it will be. If it is serving life in an important way then somehow it will work out.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
Upgrading to Dreamweaver 8 was a bit of a headache, cascading style sheets and all. It got expensive because I couldn't figure it out on my own.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Time to do everything, write and work full time too I suppose.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Not sure. Maybe the free monthly newsletter. I think people forward it to friends and that sort of thing. It just grows and grows. Now that I have written a book, that seems to increase traffic on the website, and I suppose the website also is helping the book. It is really cool to see it all grow.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
I guess I might have thought it would have been harder, but its not. Sometimes I just get waves of energy for doing something on the website and then it eats up whole days of my time, other times a few months go by and all I do is the e-newsletter, but the subscriptions have steadily continued to grow over the years. It is so amazing how the subscribers are so worldwide. The internet really does break the barriers and unite like-minded people.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
Since 2003. Indefinitely. There are a lot of people from all around the world who write to me and tell me that finding the website, and recieving my free monthly e-newsletter is a real support for them. So often people are isolated in communities where there are no spiritual teachers available, and so it can be really helpful to have this kind of contact with others who are in the midst of the awakening process at various junctures along the way. I'll pay the monthly fees to keep the website going as long as people are feeling that way about it, or as long as I can.
What is your book "Life Beyond Belief, Everyday Living as Spiritual Practice" about?
It is about how our everyday lives actually are the perfect setups for our awakening. When we accept what our lives are bringing to us, and don't assume that its the wrong thing, our everyday living BECOMES our spiritual practice, no matter what our religion or tradition might be. It is also a deeply personal account of one woman's experience in the territory of spiritual awakening, told not from a mountaintop, but told from the midst of the process, making it accessible to ordinary people. It is available on my website and on amazon.com and for stores through New Leaf Distribution.
What is your website address?
Wide Awake Living
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