1000th Post!

This is the 1000th post on this blog! In the words of Kool and The Gang: "Celebrate-good-times, come-on!" And for the main part of the celebration, here is a potted history of my blog.

I began this blog on Saturday January 22nd 2005, that's eight years of blogging. I'd get fewer years for commiting a serious crime and a lot of relationships don't last eight years. My first post was a fairly innocuous one about President Bush's second term of office. What seems odd now is that there was no special introductory post.

What have I learned about blogging over the eight years?

• Keep posting
• Read and comment on other blogs
• Use drafts to capture a thought or idea that you think could turn into a post later
• Be yourself but be thoughtful of who could find your blog (I personally would never be explicit or too personal in my blog)
• No thought is too small or trival
• Photos and images help to lighten the page
• Use memes when inspiration is low but don't rely on them
• You own photos are more engaging than clip art (when you have them to hand)
• If inspiration is fading, challenge yourself (in 2010, I bet myself I could post 9 blogs a month)
• If your life is going though a busy or stressful period, it doesn't hurt to take a break (I moved house in 2011 and posted a lot less)
• Don't be disheartened by 0 comments when you start, keep going
• It's okay to change direction, change design, change name of your blog...but not too often

That's a brief summary. I've read other commentators who suggest keeping your blog on one theme and not wondering too far. That's okay for some types of blog, it probably helps you target an audience but I'm a personal blogger and I do it for my own enjoyment first. I'm not blogging to find an audience interested in exactly the same things as me, if I do that's a bonus. I don't invest a lot of time in exploring random blogs, if I did I could probably do more to build up readers. A certain amount of exploration is probably healthy though. I do maintain a videogames blog separately to this one to keep those thoughts and ideas separate. I also share a random drawing and doodling blog for when I want to post drawings.
That about wraps up my thoughts on eight years of blogging. Come and celebrate my tenth anniversary in a couple of years!