100th Post Review

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Here we are, my 100^th Post! I'm going to give you an unprecedented look behind the scenes of ihumanable.com to see the magic that is my technology blog.

This blog started on October 2nd, 2009 (158 days ago). I have had a great time writing and have more or less kept up with my goal of blogging every weekday. I want to recap the numbers so far, talk about the best parts of the last 158 days, and talk about where I plan on taking this blog in the future.

By the numbers

• Posts: 100


• Comments: 440 (239 rejected as spam)


• Subscribers: 183


• Visits: 32,395


• Pageviews: 46,664


• Most viewed post: hustle

Best of the blog

It is hard to sum up what has been my best experience so far blogging. This blog has always served as a dumping ground for my day to day thoughts about developing software and exploring the fantastic world of technology all around us. One of the best outcomes of this blog is getting to know other bloggers, people who you may not always agree with but that are friendly and thought-provoking. Some of the great bloggers that I've had the pleasure of communicating with more through my blog have been:

• Rick Kierner


• Jeremiah Peschka


• Mark Essel


• Brent Ozar


• David Stein


• and the many people whose comments have enriched this blog

I have had a few of my blog posts go viral mostly through the amazing community at Hacker News where I occasionally submit a post. My biggest honor by far though was having hustle featured in Lifehacker. It came as a big surprise to me, I got some pingbacks and before I knew it my server was feeling the squeeze, but thankfully (and with a little help from SuperCache) it stayed up.

If I had to pick my all time favorite post though, it would be one of my snarkiest, rantiest, and at least in my humble opinion, funniest posts to date. Making a sandwich, it's not a very funny title, but if you haven't read it, click through, it will at least make you smile.

This blog has been a great source of strength and a fantastic point of release for me over the last few months. I have used it to share my triumphs as well as my despair. It has been my megaphone, my confessional, and my soapbox. This has been the home of my baby and has sparked numerous discussions and debates that have made me a better person.

Into the future

After 100 posts, is there anything left to say? Of course there is, I plan on continuing this blog for as long as people still want to read it, and probably a good while past that as well. I recently attended codemash and the one thing I remember most was sitting at a table blathering away like normal and my good friend Jose says, "I didn't understand how you could blog everyday, but now that I've spent a few days with you I understand completely." Suffice it to say, I have a lot to say and I can't wait to start saying it. I'm not sure what I will fall in love with next, but rest assured you will be kept fully informed.

Takeaway

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Here is what I want you to take away from all of this. I started this experiment in social media with a simple free blogspot blog and a twitter account. I scaled out to this WordPress install on my own domain after I got a bit of a following. Then I just wrote, and I kept writing, and I promoted what I thought was important or particularly good, and you can too. For years I wanted to blog and just kept putting it off, one excuse or another would pop up. Then one day I decided to do it, and I made a deal with myself that I would blog every weekday, and I kept that promise (with a few extenuating exceptions).

There is no time like the present, if you have something to say, fire up a free blog and start typing. At first you may just be talking to yourself, but over time people will listen, people will comment, people will come to understand you and the things that are important to you in a way that they never could otherwise. There is no reason to hold out now, go out there and make a mark, you may be barking at the moon but it's better then staying quiet and wishing you had later.

Thank you to everyone that has taken this ride with me so far, the last 100 posts have forever changed the person that I am, and I'm excited to see where the next 100 will take me.