Today is my 2nd blogiversary. It seems like only yesterday I was desperately searching for a decent blogger name. I wanted Everything and Nothing, but it wasn't available. I tried Everything But Nothing...still no dice. In an act of sheer desperation, Everything And/But Nothing Was Born. (It was hell on the fingers, I tell you.) Here's my very first blog entry ever.
Seth Godin had an entry on June 3 that listed 50 different ways to get more traffic to your blog (in his usual great tongue-and-cheek way). One was specialize - become the expert. I have always been vehemently against blog specialization. (Read my first blog entry.) I don't care if you do it...as long as you don't do it on purpose.
I guess this blog has been, for me, the one place I don't have to specialize in anything. I don't have to be the expert. I'm just another student of life. I learn new things in writing this everyday, but it might just be 10 minutes of online learning. And that's enough for me. Because this blog is my avocation. It's what I do for fun and games every night from 10 p.m. till 11 p.m. (unless I get really into it, then it's sometimes 11:30 or even midnight).
I felt bad for rolling my eyes at Seth's specialization suggestion after his post a couple of weeks later:
For most bloggers, the point of blogging is to find your voice, to share your ideas, to let the world hear what you have to say.
But if you need to conform, to fit in, to follow the rules, you may very well find that you've lost the reason you had for blogging in the first place.
And the delicious irony is that those that conform often don't get more traffic. They often get less. Because following all the checklists can make you boring.
Safe is risky.
I don't know how much traffic I've built. (I personally don't consider the hundreds of Google searches that come and leave real traffic.) But I've made many friends along the way. And I honestly believe that my real life is much richer for all of my online (and some now flesh-and-blood, over the years) friends.
Special thanks to Rex, Joe, Riannan, Lisa, Joan, Becky, Paul, Jim, Susan, Hanan, Matt, Mike, Melanie, Trouble, Zoe (and all the ones I'm forgetting while typing this at 11:00 p.m. with heavy eyes) for reading and writing and taking photographs and buying Amazon Wishlist gifts and making me feel a real part of a great online community.
Your friendship is the best blogiversary present ever.
Happy Anniversary! I can't get over all of your neat finds on this blog. Always a treat.
Posted by: Joan | June 19, 2006 at 06:27 PM
Congratulations! A great amount of effort (good thing you enjoy it) and a wonderful result.
Posted by: riannan | June 19, 2006 at 09:54 PM
Mazeltov! Your celebration of life in these pages brings me back time after time.
Many happy returns to you!
Posted by: mattp9 | June 20, 2006 at 05:00 PM
Happy (belated) anniversary.
Posted by: Rex Hammock | June 20, 2006 at 05:40 PM
Do you have a mailing address you could e-mail me? I would love to send you something in celebration of your anniversary! You don't have to follow anyone's rules--your blog is a lot of fun and information for those of us who've found you, like me.
Posted by: Becky | June 21, 2006 at 09:46 PM
congratulations! in dog years you are at least three
Posted by: growabrain | June 22, 2006 at 12:01 AM