It was one year ago this very day that - after a few friendly phone conversations with a Seattle blogger and IT consultant named Howard Hansen - I went to his home, where he kindly sat me down, and we fired up Rosenblog.

And looking back at the archives, apparently, I was a bit fired up that day. I posted items on:

San Francisco's whack local politics, courtesy of Adam Sparks in the SF Chron;

the desire of Iraqis for self-determination and democracy;

the importance of grassroots media, via blogging;

and, a warning to John Kerry, via Zell Miller.

It's been quite a year, and I've not only been able to continue as a work-at-home-dad caring for two kids (thanks to my marvellous wife); but also as a freelance journalist getting paid actual money to write about stuff that captures my fancy; and as a contributor to the two great group blogs. Those are Sound Politics and Red State.

Rosenblog's SiteMeter numbers only kicked in in early June '04, when I installed the feature. And the numbers are subject to certain limitations, which I won't go into just now. More generally, mine happen to leave out not only my first four months of traffic (Feb-May, '04) - but as well, the daily average figures fail to factor in two site crashes of a few weeks each. I'll adjust the numbers soon, I hope, to the best of my calculations.

But the June '04-to-now numbers still show more than 100,000 page views and approaching two-thirds as many visits. Piffle compared to the uber-bloggers of course, but as some of them and others note: it's not all about that. Not at all. And to a modest blogger such as myself, it's fairly thrilling to see that on some days 500 visitors come here, or on other days 800 or 900.

I've taken some pride and pleasure in mentoring other bloggers, around the U.S. and here in Puget Sound, and serving as an unoffical blogging evangelist. I'm glad to say I've helped draw some folks in, and give them some advice along the way.

My strengths are writing and news mining, not site graphics, as you can probably tell. Though I am happy to report that a Rosenblog site makeover is in the works, with the help of a very talented Portland, Oregon Web designer.

At any rate. The thing about blogging - I've found - is to keep at it. On top of which: Follow the news, mine unique material, know what you want to do, and don't be afraid to reveal something of yourself. That last part is pretty essential, I'd say.

My thanks to everyone who has visited and especially y'all who've left comments. Please continue to disagree with me, and/or add your own perspectives.

Or bow down in supplication if you wish; but actually that makes me slightly uncomfortable.

Slightly.

If you haven't joined in the fray here yet, please do.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at January 27, 2005 08:34 PM

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