It has been precisely a year since I started this site, on my birthday, 26th October 2007 with this post. It was also a day when I quit my regular job and started pursuing my personal quest.
I was charmed then as I am still now with this new and magical world of blogs, unparalleled communication and connection between people throughout the planet.
That really opened my eyes and I jumped from topic to topic, from day to day, discovering new, exciting things.
My first "big post" was Webmaster essential tools, my first WordPress plugin - Theme test drive. I wrote about topics as they crossed my mind. All sorts of interesting stuff like finding jobs in Antartica, Open source banking, impeding demise of Google world and What makes a man happy. I ranted a lot, perhaps more then I should have.
I mentioned quitting my job. I was not sure what to do at first so I wandered a lot at the beginning. I knew it had to do something related to Internet as this market was unmatched by any other and a clever man could really take an advantage of the "early crops" still to be harvested for a couple of years.
I launched successful WordPress based consulting services and made many useful connections. I started several websites which now earn enough passive income (I do not have to work in order to make revenue) to cover my basic needs. And at this moment I have a plethora of ideas waiting for the right moment.
Blog Stats
I promised some stats so here they are. I remember how hypnotizing looking at the other blog's stats was for me when I started out.
First month of the blog a year ago was really slow but I had a plan with my "big post" which worked and brought the first over 1,000 visitors day, at the end of the very first month.
Months went by, I discovered posting interesting images could really draw attention from social media sites like Stumble upon and in June I had a day with nearly 30,000 visits. I always wanted to draw attention to my rants instead but that never worked. Rants are rants and images are images.
Last month stats show how this blog breathes now usually having around 1,500 to 2,000 daily visitors. Average of 2.19 pages per visit is something I am proud of - I find that a good number for a blog as dull as mine for an average visitor.
In this year I wrote a total of around 180 posts means one every two days, which is not that bad I guess. 3,200 comments means nearly 10 every day on average, now that's good for me.
Subscriber count is now at 277, jumping up and down. I know I am tough to follow, with all kind of topics I write. From me driving a fast car to wordpress plugin development (come on, get focused Vlad!). People like to subscribe to highly on topic blogs, so that's a tip for you how to get more subscribers. Write about one topic and write with passion. I write with passion but it's spread all around, not to everyone's likening.
The main page of the blog is now a respectable Page Rank 5, a gift from Google for my birthday. Several internal pages are PR 6 and most of the posts are at least PR 4.
Plans ahead
Next year will be crucial. If I manage to focus on few projects I have in mind it will be a very good year. It's just too easy to get distracted on the Internet today so it won't be easy.
So the future looks good. I wonder what would global financing instituations say (why I always have to finish with a rant? :)
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Posted in: Startups
TAGS:1st year pictures, car ins quotes, congratulations success, congratulations sucess quotes, cool stats projects, first year birthday image, first year birthday images, first year birthday text, first years blog stats, pics vladimer first, pictures first year development, retrospective wordpress theme, word press seo statistics, wordpress analytics, wordpress services, wordpress statistics
14 Comments
There is never passive income when I am concerned. I just love to work and create new things. GeekWithLaptop.com is one of the successful projects I am part of.
Vladimir, Happy Birthday!
I wish you to be WP productivity evangelist! :)
Also I'm curious what type/subject of the sites you have with passive income on the board?
Thanks for that Kathy.
When you say you have been saving something for 30 years (which is almost my age) it just sounds very - important I will say in lack of a better word.
I am looking forward to you sharing more of your wisdom with the readers of this site.
Hi--I wrote a comment a few months ago and then completely redid my site. Thanks again for Amazing Grace. I found another Floridian using it--http://www.sarahintampa.com/. I was 68 on Oct. 26th so I see you and I share the sign of Scorpio. They say Scorpions only trust other Scorpions. Happy Birthday!
Although I have been online since Nov. 2004,I am only this week beginning to comment on other blogs. For years I closed off comments because I had so much material that I had been saving for over 30 years. And I wanted to get it all online. I have worked 10-12 hour days for most of the 4 years. And I had a lot of false starts. I now have about 40 blogs and lenses (Squidoo) that I have on my main site.
I am using Amazing Grace for my 6 WP.org sites--have set up my WP.com sites each with a different theme and have 14-15 Squidoo lenses.
I have you as a link for WordPress work and have chosen you with some other sites to start commenting on your sites.
Thanks again,Kathy
Congrats with your weblog. It's one of my weekly drop-by logs on the web. Keep up the good work.
belated....was surfing through your site trying to learn more about your plug-ins. Good work!!
Happy Belated Birthday.
I like your story... Find it exciting.
Press on and keep blogging!
Happy Birthday man. You designed and developed really nice and cool themes and plugins. I am really inspired by the growth of your blog in just a year.
Happy Birthday. You are an inspiration to other bloggers who aspire to your very same success.
Happy B'day. Your plugins help me a great deal on a regular basis. I can't imagine how tedious things would be without them. And working with FTP is so much easier now. Very basic stuff. But helpful and patient tutoring for a beginner.
Vladimir - Congratulations on your success. I find this post particularly interesting and helpful as we work to build our "baby blog," now 3 months old. Thank you for sharing this overview of the past year, and I expect you to be even more successful in year 2.
Happy Birthday to you and your blog!
Great work V!
I am using your theme currently and it "owns".
Thats a great Idea Vlad ! Lets Focus and take the internet by storm !
:) Me thinks 2009 is going to be a vintage year ! Now get those flights booked ! :)
Belated birthday. I was just looking at your theme at wordpress.
nice work.