My strange duty to 30,000 worried people per week

What if you knew that something you had written, one little article, was being read by thousands of people every day? And what if most of them were worried? Scared even? Really looking for help?

In mid-2017, I published “When to Worry About Neck Pain…and when not to!” I was filling in a blank. I get a lot of email from readers who have been spooked by neck pain that is probably not ominous, because most neck pain isn’t. So I wrote that article to guide and reassure them and make it easier to answer my email. Quite a bit of my writing has come about like that.

It started from nothing and now it attracts more than 30,000 readers per week. 😲 They spend an average of 7 minutes on the page (huge for the internet). They are really paying attention to it!

Imagine the sense of duty this inspires! What if there’s an error? What if I’ve neglected an important safety warning? What if anything about my advice is even slightly unwise? The multiplication of any inadequacy is daunting!

I don’t talk much about how successful PainScience.com is by any specific measure. I am shy that way. But I had to share this, perhaps because it feels like a burden. I just couldn’t quite believe my eyes when I realized how huge this article‘s traffic has gotten in just a year. It’s a bit dizzying.

And then there’s all the others!