Blog Birthday: Has It Really Been A Year?

Wow! Has it really been a year?  Beyond Blinking Lights and Acronyms is having its first birthday.  When I first started this, I had a list of about 15 topics to get me going and was hoping I'd be able to come up with enough new ones to keep the blog going.  Fortunately I'm now at 170 so I'm hopeful I'll be able to make a go of it.

I originally started this as a way to "brand" myself during a job search.  However, it has grown to more than just a branding effort.  So much so that I've kept it going even after I landed a new job.  Looking at what's happened this past year:

• 13,000 site visits
• visitors from 6 of the 7 continents (I wasn't watching too closely, who knows maybe I actually got Antarctica)
• 1/3 of my visitors are from outside of the United States from over 75 countries
• 130  - 150 subscribers by RSS and email
• I broke into the Technorati top 100,000 ranking (although I've since slipped some) but out of 70+ million blogs tracked thats pretty good
• recognized as one of the top IT/CIO blogs in Smart Enterprise magazine
• recognized as an SOB by Liz Strauss
• recognized as a "You Get It" winner by Jason Alba
• developed a more robust network that has led to requests for me to do book reviews and a recent interview in the Wall Street Journal

Compared to the big blogs this is nothing.  Some of them can get as many visitors in a day as I get in a year.  Although I may not be the largest and most popular blog around it has far exceeded my wildest expectations.  I couldn't be happier.  It's been a wild and fun ride.  I've learned a lot, met some great people and we've had some pretty good conversations.  I'd rather have that than the big rankings.  I look forward to the next year.

Thanks to Kent for convincing me to start this blog and to Jason and Dan for convincing me that Kent was right.  And most of all thanks to my readers for making it worthwhile.

While I look to the 2nd year I'd love to get some feedback.  What would you like to hear more of?  less of?  Can we talk?

Comments

[Liz Strauss]

Happy Birthday, Mike!
What fun!

There's not such thing as a big blog really. Only big ideas and you've got plenty of them!

[Eric Brown]

Congrats Mike. Happy Birthday!

[Paul Wallis]

Congratulations Mike,

Quality is much better than quantity.

[JibberJobber Guy]

Mike, it's a great milestone. You know what makes me smile? After all these months, after getting the You Get It award, and after accepting a senior level position with a new company, I was wondering what you would do with the blog. I'm happy to say that I still think that "YOU GET IT!" Congrats on keeping it going, and improving the conversation as you go!

Jason Alba
CEO - JibberJobber.com
Author - I'm on LinkedIn -- Now What???

[Phil Gerbyshak]

A year? Wow! Congrats Mike! Kent turned me on to your stuff (I play an IT guy during the day) and I'm glad he did. Congrats on making it this far. Here's to many more years of blogging and insights.

[Mike]

Liz, Eric, Paul, Jason, Phil

Thank you. It's been a fun and interesting year. I'm looking forward to what year 2 will bring.

Mike

[Daniel Sweet]

Happy Birthday, Mike!

You've done some great things to set a new, higher bar for those slacker managers (if I can steal a term from Phil...) out there.

For your next year, just keep leading positive change in the IT field!

Dan

[Mike]

Dan,

Thanks, there always more to do out there.

Mike

[Jonathan Babcock]

Congrats on a very successful first year, Mike. You've definitely become one of my favorite reads.

I found your post on establishing a personal brand through blogging especially inspirational - not to mention timely - as it was published just a few weeks after I decided to give it a go.

I only hope my blog will have similar success over the coming months and years. My "1st blog birtday" will be in February of next year.

Anyway, here's to many more happy blog birthdays!

[Mike]

Jonathon,

Great to hear from you again and thanks for the kind thoughts. I look forward to celebrating your upcoming 1st blog birthday.

Mike