Happy Blogging Birthday to Me!

by Chris on April 13, 2009

Today my blog is 1 year old. Woohoo – I didn’t think I’d make it this long!

cake

Considering when I started blogging I used to read a lot of information about how to grow blogs, and how a lot of them have don’t survive past a few posts I think I have done fairly well. Also with my track record for losing interest in things, I’ve done especially well. That’s enough of a pat on my own back there.

I’ve never subscribed (no pun intended) to the ‘post everyday to build content’ way of doing things on blogs. Firstly, although I have no problem churning out that many ideas, I do have a problem with producing that many completed posts. As I have talked about before I find that hardest thing about blogging to be the actual polishing and finishing of my posts.

Blogging in an interesting past-time and certainly has it’s up and down moments. Here are some of my highlights and lowlights from the last year.

Highlights:
1. Getting my first comment on my about page, a very positive it was too.
2. The day that my post 10 Ways To Implement GTD Simply was listed on the front page of Wordpress.com I got a lot of hits and comments that day, and my post got listed on Stumbleupon. The good old days of when I wrote about productivity.
3. When I moved to being a Self-Hosted Blog: I enjoyed the process of setting up my blog and though “wow now I can have advertising”. And boy did the advertising pay off – a whole $45 I have earned out of my blog in a year. I need $50 of earnings for the affiliate to pay out! Anyway, making money is not what the blog is about.
4. The day I ran a competition – it did increase my subscriber numbers quite a bit, but I was doing other activities to try and get my subscriber numbers up at the same time. It was nice to run a competition in a small attempt to ‘pay something back’ to my readers.
5. Reaching the 1 year milestone.
6. I have never received a negative comment. Maybe I’m not being controversial enough. I’ve had lots of spam – really what is the point?
7. Getting linked to on Zen Habits (albeit a small link).

Lowlights:
1. Not really getting that bigger a subscriber base. I am very thankful to each and every one of my subscribers and I am deeply grateful for every genuine comment and piece of encouragement I receive. It really makes a difference.
2. When blogging feels like a chore – This is something I’ve experienced in my other hobbies, namely when my triathlon training became like a chore or something I ‘had’ to do, rather than something I wanted to do.
4. When google migrated the feedburner to their system – seriously what went wrong?
5. I’ve only a couple of guest posts, and none on blogs really that stand out in my niche, though the posts I did were great and on great blogs.
6. Staring and not finishing my eBook. Maybe to be resurrected in the future.

One year on and I’ve made some great friends and contacts in the blogging world. I’m still not sure if ‘writing’ as opposed to blogging is something I want to pursue. There is obviously some difference between being a blogger and a writer. I like the idea of being a writer, but I still find the process very difficult. I think I need to pursue another path for my passion and money making potential. As many of you know I have started another blog, WorldTroubadour.com which is my foray in to travel writing. One thing’s for sure, I love to travel and experience new cultures place and meet new people – but will I love (and be any good at) writing about it. Who knows, but It’s a slow start that will get more involved as I quit my day job and travel the world.

Goals Update
I’ve certainly learned a lot about blogging and online in the last year, but I’ve also learned a lot about the subjects that I cover of productivity, lifestyle design, goal setting and beyond. When I started this blog I coined the team Lifestyle Project as encapsulating what we are all working towards in our lives. A very successful part of my site has been the ‘What’s your Lifestyle Project’ section.

I have learned that Personal development is both under and over rated. It is underrated because I think that a lot of people could benefit from making a more conscious attempt to improve themselves. It is overrated by the fact that I think that there is a lot to be said about making a change (talking action) rather than just talking about or researching it. Personal Development is all around us, and essentially we are all the result of the people we meet, the places we go and the experiences we have. Go out and grab these rather than sitting in front of endless blogs learning about how to keep your inbox to zero. Think about what you will regret on your deathbed and make sure that it doesn’t happen. You can be sure having an empty inbox won’t be one of them.

1. Quit the 9-5 – Although I’m still very much working on it, we have set a date and by October we will be free of our day jobs and seeing the world. Financially I don’t know, I’m working on that. Do something that scares you and don’t hold back on what you might regret.
2. Maintain Fitness. I’m still doing this and I’ve managed to persevere through injury, etc.
3. Be in a band – OK this is where I have slipped. Although it might now be sort of happening in directly. The reason it hasn’t happened it because I haven’t taken my own advice and taken the direct action to make it happen. I’m sure if I had I would have made a big progress if I had taking the right actions to achieve this goal.

My personal goals and development have been what has driven the content on the blog on the whole, and that is how it will continue.

Thanks
I would like to thank you each and every one of my readers who has made it to this part of my article. I hope that my waffle strikes chord with you, as does my open and honest style of blogging.

The Future
So what does the future hold for Lifestyle Project? I suppose the question is more what does it hold for Chris, the blogger, the potential writer and / or online entrepreneur. As I’ve said several times, I have learned a lot over the past year and now I am putting this all in to practice. I have aligned my lifestyle project with the required actions to make it happen and this leads me to the unknown territory of traveling the world without a full time job. To make this happen I need to create an income so I’m working on my 4HWW muses, my Location Independent Business and my internet marketing stuff. I won’t be writing about this here, well it’s unlikely. Lifestyle Project will continue to explore lifestyle design in it’s purest and dirtiest forms (yeah like I’m that cool). Stay along for the ride.

Happy Blogging Birthday to Me!

Image by PinkCakeBox

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