Do you remember what you were doing ten years ago today?
I certainly do because it was a very important date for me. I was struggling to write my very first blog post. It was all of 100 words and probably took me longer than most of the 1000+ word posts I’ve written since. I had no idea what to say and doubted anyone was interested anyway.
After months of no readers and no comments, I started getting both. I was so excited to read my first comment and to see my first subscriber!
In the early days–before the popularity of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and other social media sites, blogging was social media. We enthusiastically followed each other’s blogs, linked to favorite posts on our own blogs, commented volubly, and built large networks of online friends. I am still in regular contact with many of the bloggers I met ten years ago, but today I’m more apt to read their Facebook posts than to visit their blogs.
I miss having comments on my blog. I loved interacting with my readers and carrying on conversations with them. However, comments dwindled as online activity moved from individual blogs to social media communities. Spam grew exponentially until it just didn’t make sense to spend the time getting rid of the spam to find the few legitimate comments. So if you want to respond to this post or any other, feel free to comment on Facebook, Goodreads, LinkedIn, Twitter, or Google+.
Like all milestones, in some ways it seems that I wrote that first post just yesterday, and in other ways, it seems like blogging has always been an important part of my life. I know for sure, I’m very glad I wrote that first post–and the almost 1900 since then. I plan to keep on doing this for a long time.
Happy blogiversary to A Writer’s Words, An Editor’s Eye!