Satellites From Tacoma: How One Blog Found Its Orbit Across the World

From a One-Bedroom Apartment to the World

When I started my blog in March 2024, it was just me, my laptop, and a corner of my one-bedroom apartment in Tacoma. My “office” wasn’t much more than a desk pushed against a wall, but it was enough. I’d sit there at odd hours, typing out essays on finance, psychology, survival, and the lessons I’d learned from clawing my way into stability.

What I didn’t realize then was that every time I hit publish, I was launching something far bigger than I could see in that moment. A blog post might feel small, just words on a screen, but in reality, each one was a satellite, sent out into orbit, waiting for its signal to be picked up.

How a Post Travels

Here’s the surreal part. I can type something in Tacoma, close my laptop, go to sleep, and hours later, someone in Singapore might open it on their phone during their commute. A reader in London might find it at midnight, searching for financial clarity. Someone in Botswana or Malawi might click through from a search engine, scanning lines I wrote in solitude. Across the ocean, in Australia or New Zealand, a student could pull it up in a café.

The physical distance is thousands of miles. The cultural distance even greater. Yet in that instant, when they read my words, it disappears. It’s just me and them, across a screen, connected.

That’s when the satellite metaphor became real to me.

The Blog as a Dividend Portfolio

When you invest, you don’t expect instant results. You put in the work upfront, research, capital, patience, and then you let compounding do its job. My blog works the same way.

• Each post = a share. A single unit of value, with potential to grow over time.
• The backlog = dividends. Older posts continue to bring in traffic month after month, like dividends paying out long after the initial investment.
• New posts = reinvestment. Each time I publish, I buy another share. Sometimes it pays quickly; sometimes it sits quietly until its season arrives.

The numbers prove it. In July 2025, my blog pulled in about 235 views. By August, it crossed 400 views and 250 visitors, my best month yet. But here’s the kicker: most of that traffic didn’t come from brand-new posts. It came from the backlog. Articles I’d written months ago finally found their orbit, picked up by search engines and shared across countries.

That’s compounding in action.

Global Proof of Concept

Seventeen months into this journey, my blog has reached 64 countries. Over 50 of those came this year alone. Some are single visits, yes, but even a single view is a seed planted in foreign soil.

Think about that: a blog written in Tacoma has been opened in places like Singapore, London, Botswana, Malawi, Australia, and New Zealand. Countries I’ve never set foot in, but where my words still travel.

This is more than stats, it’s proof of concept. Proof that:

• My voice resonates beyond borders.
• Content written in solitude can have a global life of its own.
• Legacy isn’t something you wait until old age to leave, it’s happening in real time, post by post.

Satellites and Orbits

Every blog post is a satellite.

• Some shine immediately, drawing attention from day one.
• Others drift quietly, waiting for months before their orbit aligns with a reader’s search.
• A few may never find traction, and that’s okay, because the constellation keeps growing.

Together, they form a network circling the globe. Each satellite beams out its signal, and somewhere, sometimes in Tacoma, sometimes across an ocean, someone picks it up.

This is why publishing is an act of faith. You can’t control which satellite will shine when. Your job is to keep launching.

Seeds, Not Explosions

I used to think growth meant big bursts, viral spikes, instant success. But now I see it differently. Growth is a series of seeds planted everywhere.

• A post today might get 3 views. Next year, it might get 300.
• A single visitor from Malawi might lead to three more from nearby countries.
• A quiet essay might eventually be your most consistent traffic source.

This is why I don’t panic if I take time off. The backlog carries me. Google crawls my site daily now, not because I publish constantly, but because I’ve proven I have a library worth crawling.

Legacy in Real Time

It’s easy to imagine legacy as something you build toward, something far away. But this blog has shown me that legacy is happening right now.

Every post I write plants a marker: I was here. I had something to say. I made it out of survival, and I want to help others do the same.

I used to think legacy had to be grand. A foundation, a scholarship, a name etched into something permanent. And yes, I still want those things. But the truth is, legacy is also in the quiet posts read by strangers across the globe. Legacy is in the unseen reader in Botswana who clicks through, the night owl in London who scrolls my essay, the commuter in Singapore who finds comfort in a line I wrote in a one-bedroom apartment.

Investing in More Than Money

When people hear the word “investing,” they think of stocks, ETFs, dividends. And that’s part of my life, too. But there’s another kind of investing, investing in the work that matters, even when it doesn’t pay right away.

• Blogging is investing.
• Writing is investing.
• Health, reflection, learning, these are all long-term plays.

The payoff isn’t just in pageviews or traffic. It’s in the compounding effect of showing up, building, and letting the work take on a life beyond you.

Pulling Back the Lens

It’s easy to get caught in the weeds, checking stats, worrying about posting frequency, second-guessing strategy. But sometimes you have to pull back the lens.

When I zoom out, I see a bigger picture:

• Nearly 400 posts published in 17 months.
• A readership spanning 64 countries.
• Month-over-month growth driven not by constant grinding, but by the compounding of what’s already built.

From that perspective, I don’t need to panic about taking a few weeks off before school starts. The portfolio is strong. The satellites are already in orbit.

Just Getting Started

Here’s what I know now: I’m only at the beginning.

I’ve built something rare out of a one-bedroom apartment in Tacoma. I’ve launched satellites that now circle the globe. I’ve planted seeds that will keep sprouting next year, the year after, and the year after that.

It’s not about being the biggest blog on the internet. It’s about knowing that my words, written in small corners of my life, are traveling further than I ever imagined.

And that’s enough to keep me going.

Final Thought: Publish Like You’re Investing

Every post you write is an investment. Not every one will shine right away. Some will drift. Some will bloom later. But together, they create a portfolio that compounds over time, reaching places you may never see in person.

So whether you’re in Tacoma or Tokyo, whether you’re starting with one post or one hundred, remember this:

Your words are satellites. Launch them. Let them orbit. Someone, somewhere, is waiting to hear them.

This blog is read in 50+ countries (and counting). If you’re a student, teacher, or lifelong learner from anywhere in the world, I’m honored you’re here. Economics belongs to all of us.