Everybody get ready to blow out some candles! My blog is two years old. I read somewhere that only about 5% of blogs remain active as long as two years, so I think this week calls for a celebration! Thanks to all of you for reading and encouraging me! You are all awesome.
When I first started the blog, I asked some friends to help me publicize my efforts and build readership. I explained that I read that a “successful” blog unassociated with some particular company or service has about 1,000 unique visitors per month, but that I could not imagine recruiting that many people to read my blog on a regular basis. One of my friends, who used to be my boss and knows too well how obsessive I can be about metrics, asked me what I would do if I did not attract those 1,000 blog readers. I don’t know if he was worried that I would take random people hostage and force them to read the blog at gunpoint or that I would simply take a long walk on a short pier. Having gained some perspective in retirement about my need to succeed, I assured him that I intended to blog whether anyone read it or not. I told him that Terri LaBonte would keep talking to the blogosphere until she had nothing left to say. After two years, I am still talking.
To my constant amazement, delight, and befuddlement, the blog has been attracting over 1,000 unique visitors per month on a pretty regular basis. So I guess I am not just talking to myself. Many of you comment, either on the website or by sending me an email. Your insights are so beautiful and valuable. We have rich, respectful, and real discussions. I think I am a better person (certainly, a healthier and less neurotic one) because I write the blog and because I read your perspectives.
I hope that we can continue on our journey together for a long time to come. I hope I still have stuff to say and am not just rerunning old ideas. Not that old ideas are always bad. Didn’t someone say that there is nothing new under the sun? All that will ever really be new is our way of looking at the world. Thank you all for helping me to see the world in a new way.
So have a piece of virtual birthday cake. Blow out some virtual candles. Make a real wish. Then make that wish come true!
What are your birthday wishes for our blogday? What topics would you like to discuss? Please share your perspective by leaving a comment. In the alternative, you can email me at terriretirement@gmail.com. By the way, if you’d like another helping of Terri, I did another guest blog post at retirementandgoodliving.com. You can visit at http://retirementandgoodliving.com/lessons-i-wish-i-never-had-to-learn/
I hope all your wishes come true today!
Terri 🙂