Three years…I can hardly believe it.

In the process of reimagining the look for this site, I actually clicked my Archives widget, and what do you know…I have been doing this for three years. Three years. Damn. Frankly, I find that pretty amazing, as I usually have the attention span of a five year old in a toy store, and if you told me three years ago that I would be blogging about my third year anniversary blogging, I would have bet against myself. I haven’t been using Google Analytics anywhere near that long, but I’d say a safe estimate is that I’ve had better than 50K page views…not bad for something I do as a lark.

The night I decided to write a three year anniversary post, I had a dream…I was in Mexican costume period late 1800s, and my co-hack Gabriel was too, though he rode up on a horse and I was standing on the ground. The ensuing conversation went something like this.

Ed: I have put many beautiful categories in my blog, each of them filled with posts.
Gabe: Many posts?
Ed: Oh yes, many!
Gabe: Would you say you have a plethora of posts?
Ed: A what?
Gabe: A *plethora*.
Ed: Oh yes, I have a plethora.
Gabe: Ed, what is a plethora?
Ed: Why, El Gabo?
Gabe: Well, you told me you have a plethora. And I just would like to know if you know what a plethora is. I would not like to think that a person would tell someone he has a plethora, and then find out that that person has *no idea* what it means to have a plethora.
Ed: Forgive me, El Gabo. I know that I, Ed, do not have your superior intellect and education. But could it be that once again, you are angry at something else, and are looking to take it out on me?

At that point El Gabo drew his pistol and shot me in the arse. I don’t blame him. Would you say I have a plethora of posts? I would you say I have a plethora of posts. I also have a plethora of YouTube videos, some regular readers of RSS, a handful of email subscribers, and some great followers on Twitter. Hi to you all. Thanks for keeping me company as I toil away. I also learned some things doing this blog that I’d like to share.

• Comments….good, bad, or indifferent, whether short or long, really let me know folks are reading my stuff. A lack of comments can be a real downer.
• Comments don’t tell the whole story. I have to check my clicks per day. If they weren’t reading it, they would not click my links.
• Some of the best comments come from out of the blue, and from folks I’d never think would dig my stuff. I’m looking at you, Pastor Jon! Some of the most commented articles were ones I never expected to get much exposure, and that I wrote on a lark.
• Speaking of, writing for the joy of it beats writing for what you think someone else will want.
• The Internet likes conflict. The rant I wrote about Hyper-V and USB got more exposure than any other single post, and my daily hit counts doubled following that, and haven’t dropped since. I picked up some followers, and followed them in return, and have learned a lot of good stuff from doing so.
• There are too many ideas to get them all down. Some ideas seem like they would make great posts, until I try to write them out and then I hit a brick wall. Someday I will release a series on network troubleshooting…but not today.
• Hasselhoff has Germany, Rourke has France. Apparently, I have Turkey. Hosgeldiniz. Memnun oldum.
• WordPress is the platform to use. Blogger was like a cookie cutter for geeks, with the recipes in secret code.
• Windows Live Writer is one of the only Microsoft programs I would actually pay retail money for…oh the irony that they give it away for free and it works on non-MS platforms. Thanks guys. It really is a great product that just works.
• Folks you work with/worked with/used to know/live around the corner from will find your blog. It’s a small world out there. Think before you type.
• Search engines are arcane and dark magicks. SEO is as much a pact with the devil as it is an art. Just ask Gabriel about the keywords his blog ranks highly on.
• Speaking of Gabe, I could not have done this without you. Thanks bro.
• It is so easy to get on a roll and churn out several articles on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Scheduled publishing is my friend.
• The hardest part of writing a series is resisting the temptation to publish them all at once.
• Twitter integration rocks socks…but it is better to have an account for my blog that is separate from my personal one.
• Google AdSense might never pay me a dime, but it is still fun to have.
• You will get pingbacks from some of the craziest sounding blogs…most are probably link spam, but not all of them. It is better for me to look before I leap.
• No matter how carefully you proofread a post, you will spot at least two typos only after the post goes live. You will correct them, republish, and then you are likely to find at least one more.
• Writing posts is a good way to cure insomnia. Good night.

Okay, considering how badly I misquoted that scene from The Three Amigos, I would be remiss if I did not include the actual scene. Hope you get a laugh. It’s one of my favourites.

Direct link for RSS and email subscribers…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKUnw1U4Ngc

Thanks again for reading. I’d probably still do this even if it was only for me (though I’d worry a lot less about spelling and relevant/entertaining videos,) but it’s a lot more enjoyable knowing you get a little value out of this too.

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