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What To Expect: Your First Blogiversary

    Congratulations, Blogger! You’ve posted for one year (One Hundred Blog years). As you celebrate yourself yet again, take a few moments to pause for self-reflection and blog assessment.

    What You May Be Doing:

    By now you’ve probably trashed that Minima template in favor of some custom design. You may have hired a professional, or maybe your burgeoning self-confidence with html coding resulted in a painful extraction from your deskchair with the jaws of life after a 72 hour bender resulting in your return to your original Minima Template (but with three columns!)

    More than likely, you’ve found a peergroup and developed some friendships you value as much as In Real Life. You might even take your blog relationship to the next level, engaging in phone conversations about blogging. In fact, the mere suggestion that these friends are “imaginary” may send you into a spiral requiring you to scribe an entire post devoted to validating the genuineness of your blog relationships.

    Bloggy identity crisis are common at this juncture. For instance, you may feel that your dedication to iambic pentameter stifles your Sestina within. You may even experiment with multiple blogs. Rest assured, you need not conform to one bloggy identity, and may explore blogging along the continuum from humor, to soulfulness, and from parenting to product porn. Most people do–it’s a healthy part of blogging and nothing to feel ashamed of.

    You may experience a decrease in blog appetite. Your once insatiable desire for Memes, may now be reduced to reading only the first three-quarters of a post from people who visit your blog. Eventually you may visit only blog posts linked on Twitter. In fact, you may read very few blogs of even your dearest blog friends, and feel a fair amount of guilt. This guilt is appropriate, as many people are probably seething at your poor bloggy reciprocity. Never fear, eventually you will find a methodical system to sort of satisfy no one.

    You may begin viewing your blogging habit as part of your “career development” justifying large expenditures for equipment and travel to conferences. You may even begin referring to blogging as “working” and feel disdain toward the word “hobby” You may or may not wear your “Born To Blog” t=shirt in public, rather than just for night night. Don’t minimize these instincts–they comprise a healthy part of bloggy individuation and maturation.

    By One year, you should be able to:
    hyperlink with ease
    upload audio and video
    utilize basic statcounter or google analytics

    …will probably be able to
    identify complex bloggy acronyms
    superstrike text
    orchestrate a paypal transaction

    …may even be able to
    create your own button
    hyperlink within a comment
    understand the functionality of backlinks

    What You May Be Wondering About

    “My friend just had her first blogiversary and she did this huge giveaway and got dozens of new followers. Should I do a giveaway just to get followers? Why isn’t my blog more popular? What’s it all mean? Where’s Godot? Is he with Meme?”

    After one year of blogging you might begin questioning yourself about the best use of your time. You might start obsessing over your audience, and how to increase your readership. . You may find yourself perseverating over who your friends “really are” and “what it all means, anyway.” Twelve month bloggers thrive when clear limits are provided, and this might be a good time to provide yourself some structure. Take comfort in the fact that you will never find satisfactory answers to these questions, so you might as well continue to show up and keep writing.

    **I couldn’t resist this bloggy rendition of Sarah Schmelling’s What to Expect: The 39th Year. Do not miss it.

    0 thoughts on “What To Expect: Your First Blogiversary”

    3. Joanie M

      You mean, in a short 23 days, I’ll be able to change my blog to a 3 column blog? Cool! I’ve been trying to do that for months! Good to know I can do it soon!

    7. Jack

      At 5.5 years you wonder why you are still writing and cringe about how bad you’re writing used to be.

      And then you realize that your writing is still bad, but somehow you conned a group of people into hanging out at your place. That simple fact is enough for you to decide that maybe your blog is interesting to others and that you should double the rates for ads.

      Or so I have heard.

    8. A Mom on Spin

      Still don’t know how to upload audio and video. . . and having great problems with the acronyms. . .
      but, apart from that, we’re all the same deep down. . .

      Congrats!

    11. IB

      I too can relate. I had my first blogiversary a couple of weeks ago and have been going through just about everything you list. Which means I’m not as unique as I like to think I am (and that’s comforting and disappointing all at the same time).

      IB

    15. beansgood

      (I deleted my post for typo reasons… I’m bad for proofing after posting)

      I haven’t been blogging very long but I did think about blogging for about a year. Does that count?

      All I’ve managed is a custom background but I do have SEVEN followers, 3 of which comment from time to time. If that never changes, I don’t mind. If only a few others breeze through my blog, I don’t mind. It’s a “for me” blog – a good practice for my typing and grammar skills. But if NOBODY ever visited my blog, I’d mind a little bit, wondering if my life and blogging skills are that bad or boring. Then, I’d shake my head and get over it.

    16. JD at I Do Things

      FUNNY!

      I’ve made it past my two-year mark with the same theme. Should I be worried?

      I would add that after one year not only should you be passing up memes but also not getting quite so excited over the blog awards. In year one, you stick every award in your sidebar, tag your fellow bloggers, and write a gushing “thank you” post. By year two, you’re doing well if you can bother yourself to visit the “I just gave you the Bloggiest Blogger award!” link.

    19. Amy@Bitchin'WivesClub

      Oh, Ann! You’ve come so far….

      I LOVE LOVE LOVE this post. I am linking to it from my site and tweeting all the other jaded bloggers immediately!!

      I love you. Mwah mwah mwah!

      (My favorite line (among many) was: Never fear, eventually you will find a methodical system to sort of satisfy no one.) so true, so true…

    21. Susan Berlien (warmchocmilk)

      I like this post. It’s a popular topic around the blogosphere these days. I talked a little about it all in my post today and linked to two others.
      I’ve been blogging for 2 months and am no where near competant on all the “by one year you should be able to” stuff…..I’ve got a ways to go. How do you learn this stuff??

    22. maggie, dammit

      In fact, you may read very few blogs of even your dearest blog friends, and feel a fair amount of guilt.”

      No, my friend, see, this is why I never blog–I do it for you! I do it for the people! You can forget me for weeks and when you come to check in, I’m right where you left me off! I’m like Days of Our Lives, and it’s for YOU, Ann. It’s for you.

      No guilt.

      xo

    26. CatLadyLarew

      Happy Blogoversary! Maybe some day I’ll evolve enough to use a custom design, or learn how to superstrike, or one of those other fancy professional blogger tricks… I’m afraid it’s going to take a LOT longer than a year, though!
      Congratulations to you!

    28. Jane Lively

      I read there are 94.1 million U.S. blog readers and 22.6 million U.S. bloggers. No wonder people may experience a decrease in blog reading appetite. It’s too damn overwhelming!
      Great post, btw.

    30. Suzy

      The first year will be the only one you really like. After 3 years you feel like you’re addicted to heroin, and not the GOOD heroin.

      Then you’ll stop reading and post infrequently and the rest of us will sigh in relief that we don’t have so many blogs to read.

    35. Heather of the EO

      Oh lady…

      HOW can I still know nothing about google analytics? It’s been two years, should I be fired from this “job” for not knowing anything about my google analytics????

      Yup, I’m totally fired.

    36. Lee of MWOB

      Oh Ann….I love this and other comments from some bloggy imaginary friends like Amy and Maggie and Heather sum it up
      perfectly for me. I love satisying no one especially myself. Next week is my one-year anniversary in this blogging fiasco and damn it does seem like 100 years. I think I’ll treat myself to a big blogging conference expenditure as a reward for my accomplishments. Wanna come??

      You are a rock star.

    43. ShallowGal

      I used to HATE that What to Expect chart, because my kids never did the “Your child Should be” but always did the “Your child May be doing” Also I could never follow the whole “in the eleventh month” crap ~ is that when your child turns 10 months old?

      xo, SG

    45. Secretia

      Hi Ann, it’s Secretia, from Secret Story Time. I found you from Bitchin Wives Club. Congrats on your one-year of blogging. I’m only two months and it’s the most fun!

      I am going to follow your blog!

      Secretia

    48. anymommy

      I knew it. I can’t superstrike. I’m blogmentally delayed. I need to see a blogcupational therapist.

      Aha. I’m done now. My funny pales in comparison to yours. This was awesome!

    54. mannequin

      One year, almost to the date and I’m wondering…where the heck is my peer group?

      I’ve come to the conclusion that just as in real life, I am a loner and a loner I shall always be. There is no peer group for loners because we are….loners.

    55. tony

      for some reason I seem have trouble leaving a comment on your page – depending on which computer I use. I think I may have missed my one year and even missed my 100th blog.

    59. Robin

      Wow I realize this is an older post ..but now that you mention it..I dont know if I want to celebrate or cry…you are spot on to the 10th degree…Ive crossed all those milestones, over-excelled in many, and fell short of a few…does that mean I can graduate and move on, or get left behind…and to what do we move on too..?..mmm Im at a point…2 years in and I still feel some of the highs and well, none of the lows..its fun, cheap and always accessible…I think Ill stay around to my silver at least..! Great post…EnJoY YoUr DaY..!

    60. bluecottonmemory

      I haven’t had my one year anniversary yet, but while I have not yet uploaded a video (which I plan to do around the first day of Spring), I can create my own button! I started out from day 1 with my custom header. I think the key to my being comfortable with blogging is that I started out with a mission statement, which helps me stay focused and organized.

      What an insightful synopsis!

    61. The Empress

      Is it Ok if we don’t know all that stuff…ever? I mean, can we just keep blogging cuz it’s kinda like an easy “Dear Diary?” and provides instant results from our labor, when we hit “publish post?” Is that alright?

    63. psychochef

      Oh, crap – I’m coming up on a year and I can’t do any of that! Basic template, straight writing, no pictures, no audio : ( I had to google the word meme. I have no idea how to create my own “button”, and I don’t know what I would do with that button if by some miracle I was able to manifest it. However, I finally figured out how to look at my stats, which enlightened me to the fact that I have a regular reader in South Korea.

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