Posted by Luke in 
It’s true. This blog has been in operation for over a year. What have I achieved in this time? Several things:
1. Grown from a readership of zero until I broke the psychological “65″ barrier. Thanks to all my feedreaders!
2. I have managed to keep the same template for 12 months.
3. Written over 170,000 words
4. Nailed 250 posts!
5. Received 182 comments (by some standards that’s lame… not by mine though… I have LOW standards).
Have these five things made my blog what it is today. Of course not. What has made it worth while… the odd flame? The comments? No. The fact that I have spent a year talking about what I love to talk about and I am still going. I worked fairly hard to get 65 feed readers, and I am not finished yet. Mind you I wish I had more time to plug into this… because it’s been fun.
Some Highlights…
Believe it or not my post on failing has proven to be the most popular by a long shot. I would say that it has more to do with my selection of picture that the actual article itself. You have to recognise that failing is what you do most of the time. Success is the one time you tried and it worked out for you. Writing this post on failing was a highlight but not my personal favourite. I don’t have a personal favourite. I tend to like the one’s on the heart. You don’t really get to teach that stuff.
Low points…
Too many to mention. The forum. That sucked. Getting flamed out by some random on stumbleupon. I was labelled a spammer! Me… yes that’s right… gratitious self-promotion has it’s downside. The lowest point I think that made me question whether or not I could continue believe it or not was not whether when my forum concept didn’t take off. You get over things like some weak coward calling you names on the internet. What makes up for it is the lovely people who leave meaningful comments. People like this one and this one. These make it worth while.
Blog earnings…
I am happy to say that my blog earnings thus far less than what I would like. As matter of fact I thing I have cleared $30! Mind you I have made no real effort to commericalise this… well I have. Every time I try I seem to get so far and then time and other matters take over my life. I know that if I had more time and drive I could make a go of this. But in truth… I think I am just too comfortable where it is at the moment. The forum concept was appealing… but I had no idea what I was doing. Mind you, I haven’t given up on that yet… I am still interested. I am just not sure where I can take it from here. Hey, if anyone is reading this give me a shout with any ideas… I would love to hear them.
Meeting new people…
At the moment I am not really firing on all cyclinders. So, I had considered last week… closing the blog for ever and just going back to the drawing board. The main reason for this motivation was to try and find a way forward that didn’t involved copious amounts of time and energy in my already fairly full life. What dawned on me was that I had met some interesting people through this blog. Namely, Alan, Jamie, Fazrul, Tristan, Lorraine, Gamy, Lola, John, Dr Purple, Ellese, Corey Smith, Sir Jorge, Lawrence, Peter, Erica, Chris, Jonathan, Alex Blackwell, Al, Robert, and heaps more just through having this blog. And of course all the people who have read my stuff, stumbled, dugg or delicioused me… I am forever grateful.
If you are a reader please stay with me. I intend to keep writing for at least another year! Jokes aside… I enjoy my little space on the web and remember… the best is yet to come!
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Congratulations Luke!
It’s a nice milestone. It’s taken me a while of experimenting on topics I’m really passionate about. I feel like I’m hitting my stride!
Thanks for the mention. Meeting new people is part of the fun!
Cheers,
Lorraine
http://www.powerfull-living.biz/blog
Dr Purps sounds too much like Dr Turps! I haven’t been on the turps for ages. Maybe it’s a sign of my impending maturity. … Nah, probably not…..
Congratulations, Luke!
You know I’d miss you if you stopped posting… Many thanks, not only for your generous thoughts and kind words (and mentions), but just for being yourself and keeping going.
Here’s a tip from the TynerBlain blog: re-post articles from a year ago, perhaps with an update. I notice you often go several days without posting
so it could be a fairly easy way to keep the content coming. I confess that I still haven’t made time to work my way back to your earliest posts…sorry…:)
Congrats on the birthday. I’ve really enjoyed reading your blog… Hopefully I’ll comment more this year too.
Regards, John
Hi Luke,
Happy, happy 1 yr anniversary! Thank you for mentioning my name here, hey I am just as grateful for you too.
Haaha.. your Chocolate cake looks very mouth watering.. I feel like eating chocolate cake now .. yes! I am going to get one now..:D
Enjoy your next journey, Luke!
Blessings
Gamy
Hi Luke, congratulations on your blogging anniversary. It’s great to see how you have managed to go this far, a year of blogging, with the high and low points. Wish you better year ahead!
And thanks for the link love! And much stumbles you’ve given in my articles. Let me know when you need a help in the future!
Robert
Hi there everyone… thanks for your comments.
@ Alison I used to live in East Brisbane well before it was cool. There was a guy down the road who used to drink turps every day. I often wonder which one of us saw the pink elephants and who was the sanest!
Hey Luke, I realized I missed out this! Congrats on the 1 year anniversary! You know, it’s kinda of an achievement to stick to just 1 template? Haha, the fact that you’ve refrained from wasting time to do so is admirable! Serious… When Goal Setting College was first started, although I’ve only made 2 official changes, the older minimalist one and the current revolution template, I’ve made many unofficial ones.
Goodness knows how much time I’ve wasted on that… Anyway, keep the great stuff coming..
Cheers,
Ellesse
Hi Luke – just wanted to say Happy Blog Birthday and I’ll be sticking with you as long as you are!