On the fifth anniversary of eHappyLife.com, which was celebrated on March 1st, 2007, I decided to do some research to see what kind of impact our little non-commercial website has had on individuals searching for a Happy Life. Without ever spending one dollar in advertising, our little site worked its way from total obscurity five years ago to the number one search on "almost" every search engine for the phrase HAPPY LIFE. According to data from Nielsen Net Ratings, who measures traffic on the internet, in January 2007, Google, Yahoo, Ask, AOL/Time Warner, Comcast, and Earthlink, represented around 90% of all searches performed on the internet. Of these search engines, eHappyLife.com held the # 1 non-sponsored ranking for the phrase HAPPY LIFE. The only exception of any significance was MSN, who according to Nielsen had an 8.9% share of searches in January 2007, and eHappyLife ranked # 6 on MSN for the phrase HAPPY LIFE. Also according to Nielsen, There were at least 6.86 billion searches performed in January 2007.
Another stat reported by comScore Media Metrix is there were approximately 175 million unique visitors or users on the internet in January 2007 who performed those 6.86 billion searches or about 221 million searches a day. So what does all this mean? Here's the staggering stat I would like to share. Even though we were ranked # 1 for the phrase HAPPY LIFE for 90% of a potential 6.86 billion searches that were performed in January 2007, it was totally insignificant. We only yielded 382 visitors to eHappyLife in January or a little over 12 per day from the search phrase HAPPY LIFE. I don't know about you, but I found this astounding.
It's easy to conclude that virtually no one is searching the Internet for the phrase HAPPY LIFE! The numbers are staggering for individuals who searched for words like DEPRESSION, BIPOLAR, OR INSOMNIA. And according to Lycos, during the week ending February 24th, 2007, Paris Hilton was the number two overall search phrase on the Internet; followed by Britney Spears at number three and Anna Nicole Smith at number four. To rank that high there would have to be millions of people searching for those phrases every single day.
So what happened to everyone? Do we all take leading a happy life for granted? Has being happy lost its significance and importance in life? Are we all too busy focusing our time and efforts on how to deal with depression or do we only care if Britney Spears wears underwear or shaves her head? These are serious questions that we need to ask ourselves or we will let life pass us by without ever realizing true happiness and harmony in our lives.
Here's an excerpt from our "About eHappyLife" webpage: "We believe that happiness is not something to always look forward to. Happy Activities should be incorporated into your daily journey through life, if you plan well; make good choices; and live life in balance and harmony each day." Now that sounds straightforward and not too difficult or complicated. However, the key is to find and surround yourself with others who believe in similar philosophies and want to share in at least some of the happy activities you value and vice-versa. The challenge of finding people to "share happiness with" can certainly be the most difficult part of this equation. What may be a happy activity for you is an annoyance to your partner at home or your boss or co-workers. To achieve the harmony and balance necessary for a happy life, we need to recognize that we are all different and respect our differences and opinions. What's right for me may be wrong for you and vice-versa. However, I have to respect your opinions and wishes and you have to respect mine, or we will both be on the internet searching for the word DEPRESSION like so many others are doing.
Living a HAPPY LIFE is not really that complicated. You just need to discuss what happiness means to you with others and hope that they listen and respect your opinion. Then you need to do the same to create harmony. It's all about awareness, good communication, and making fair and balanced choices where everyone wins and no one loses. The keyword is to respect the differences of others.
To conclude this lesson, there's one compelling fact to mention. Life will pass you by at warp speed, regardless of who you are. Time plays no favorites to anyone. You could be John Doe who has a difficult time making ends meet or Anna Nicole Smith who had millions of dollars pass through her hands – the clock ticks the same for both individuals. It's best to surround yourself with people who appreciate you and care about you and don't spend all their time trying to change you or prove to you that your are wrong. Think happy, be happy, and the next time you are on the Google search engine, search for the phrase HAPPY LIFE instead of the word DEPRESSION. And Smile!