I just realised I have been blogging for a year. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started, but I have ended up really enjoying it, pumping out 189 posts to date, some of which are hopefully not pure drivel. I thought I’d post a quick summary to celebrate in a moment of self-indulgence. :-)
When I started blogging my main purpose was to just store some information that I found in other blogs. Basically just more advanced bookmarks. Once I started I noticed there were other benefits, so I have revised my motivations a bit.
My main purpose for blogging has shifted to using it as a personal tool for learning. I find by explaining concepts I am learning or using to an imagined audience I get a much better understanding of the concepts. There is a big difference between being able to apply a concept and being able to explain it. My secondary purpose is related to my original purpose, to record information that I might need later. And my final hope is that some of that information will be useful to some other developers out there that stumble across my blog.
Since counting stats in August (I reset the stats then) I have had around a thousand visitors stumble across my little patch of the Internet which is nice, as I haven’t been promoting it or anything. I toyed with the idea of submitting stuff to DotNetKicks, but when it comes down to it I am really just blogging for me. If someone finds something they need in here via Google then great! I hope you found something that helped!
My most viewed posts to date are:
- Sending an email to a group with a SharePoint workflow
- SharePoint aware workflow activities
- Example of deploying web apps using WiX
Over the next year I’m hoping to really improve the technical articles in my blog. I am getting to do loads of development in my current role that gives me lots of opportunities for learning/blogging, as well as getting a bit more free time to research and experiment now that my eldest daughter is heading off to “big school” and probably won’t want her old man hanging around embarrassing her anymore ;-).
To all my former colleagues that I forced to subscribe, looks like you’ll have to put up with at least another 12 months of nonsense being spewed from my feed. And don’t even think about unsubscribing – I know where you work! :-)