Tallskinnykiwi is ten years old today!
This blog you are reading was born on June 3, 2001 and it replaced my earlier blog, Andrew's Tea Salon (from 1997). My yearly blogiversaries have become a wonderful part of my life, almost as meaningful to me as my real birthdays.
Thanks for coming along all these years and making it an enjoyable ride.
A little history and some milestones.
In 2003, Tallskinnykiwi, then on the blogger platform, reached Number 3 blog in the world according to Blogger Forum. From that great and wonderful height, perhaps never achieved by a religious blog, either before or after, it has tumbled embarrassingly and violently to nestle itself among mortal blogs and the hoi polloi. But among Christian and religion blogs it still manages to find its place.
It enjoyed the status of the highest ranking Christian blog for some time but since then has been bumping up and down the ladder, depending on how much time I have to blog (less and less) and how much wifi access I can find in the countries I visit. And of course there are much better blogs and bloggers than me and I am glad to blog in their shadow.
There are 3251 posts on this blog with 19, 622 comments. If it was a book, it would take a really really ridiculously long time to read. Heres a graph of what my blog looks like with your blogs attached to it.
I did the same graph exercise 5 years ago on my 5 year blogiversary
2 thoughts on the future of blogging:
1. As blogging continually finds itself supplemented by micro-blogging platforms like facebook and twitter, it is even more important to hold your own space on the web. Your blog is your playground, not someone else's. It collects the streams of your virtual life, organizes them, presents them, and its something that you get to control and add your own flavor to.
2. As blogging moves from the computer screen to mobile devices, having an online presence will be increasingly important to point people to your published work and to host the conversation and comment regarding it. In the new world of e-publishing, bloggers will have the edge. The web is shifting from sites to apps, from viewing/surfing to downloading/reading, and that means there will be greater opportunity to get your self-published posts and thoughts into billions of devices, and greater scope to make some money from your work if that is important to you.
Blogging has come a long way in the past decade, but it is still in its infancy and there is a lot more that will happen in the future. Its not as punk rock as the early days but its still a vital part of self-publishing and providing compelling and accurate information to the world.
So be part of that future.
Blog on.
If you are interested in starting a blog, and I totally recommend you do, I have some friends who can help. I recommend Darren Rowse's book Your First Week of Blogging, as well as checking out Tentblogger John Saddington. Both these guys are Christians and both will help you be a better blogger.
Earlier Blogiversaries:
June 3, 2004 - some thoughts on the blogsophere
June 3, 2005 - remembering the birth of TallSkinnyKiwi blog
June 3, 2006 - 5 year blogiversary and some games
June 3, 2007 - 6th year and thanks a million.
June 3, 2008 - 8th year. Taking a break
