To my complete astonishment, today marks the fifth anniversary of this blog. My first post was June 18, 2004. Since that time, I have posted 300 times (about 1.2 per week) and have somehow accumulated 7,000 subscribers (not counting those who are following by RSS feed). It's a perfect illustration of the adage from Field of Dreams: If you build it, they will come.
A few more statistics reveal that this blog averages between 35-50 different visitors per day, that during its lifetime, it has been viewed some 70,000 times, and that visitors generally hang around for 10 minutes or so before fleeing into cyberspace.
What does it all mean? Damned if I know. I can tell you that I probably jumped into this blogging thing relatively early because of my background in the newspaper business. I had written a column on a three times a week basis and I wasn't afraid of writing, nor of having people disagree with me and throw tomatoes. And I liked having a platform. Still do. When I was growing up in journalism, the only way to have a platform was to own a printing press, or work for someone who did. Blogging has put the means of publishing into the hands of everyman, and I think that's great.
My son is less impressed. Here's the video he sent me, commemorating this august occasion (lyrics here):
Congratulations!
Posted by: Kimberly T. Lee | June 18, 2009 at 04:07 PM
Dear Mark,
Well done! Your blog is always entertaining and thought-provoking. I appreciate your dedication to your craft and us, your students.
Rick Law, Law ElderLaw,LLP
Posted by: Rick L Law | June 18, 2009 at 10:45 PM
Good job Mark. You jumping into the blogging world is just one more indication of your vision when it comes to marketing.
Posted by: Grant Griffiths | June 19, 2009 at 10:06 AM
Congratulations Mark. I always look forward to your posts. Let's have fun for another five years.
Bob Kraft
Posted by: Bob Kraft | June 19, 2009 at 06:44 PM