Since this is my first year of really blogging actively, I thought I would take a look back at everything that’s happened, some people who have given JoeTech.com link love, and talk a little about what’s to come for 2008.
January
Even though I was still figuring out how to blog and, quite honestly, still just rehashing news from other tech sites for the most part, we had some exciting news as Apple unveiled it’s iPhone to the world, which was answered with rumors of the Gphone (Google Phone), and I posted about a bunch of other fun technology. Nobody really gave link love to any of my posts in January, but traffic was low, anyway.
February
I dreamed about owning an X-Hawk flying car, I met Jason from Gorilla Sushi, and my top commenter was probably Tisha. As well, Steve Jobs said DRM is bad for consumers, Nine Inch Nails launched a viral campaign with their new album, spurring one of my oddly more popular posts, and the world witnessed the attack of the iPhone clones. I got some link love from myninjaplease.com, my post about the OpenMoko open source cell phone got 13 diggs (this was a big moment for me), and I got even more link love from nexus404.com and podcasts.cc.
March through July
In late February, my father died and I spent the next few weeks flying to Iowa, Mississipi, and Alabama for things related to that. The next few months after that were largely devoted to more flying around, dealing with the estate, and catching up on work. I really got out of the habit of posting, but this turned into a good thing in a sense.
August
When I regained my focus in August, I decided to jump back in with an original post. This is where I decided I would much rather spend the time on my own content rather than just posting news others have posted. I also posted my first contest, giving away my Motorola Q Smart Phone, bringing in a lot of new visitors and a handful of new links. This is where my contest addiction began. This was also the month I found FeedM8, which turns your feed into a readable version of your blog for cell phones.
September
In early September, I wrote “I’ll Send You a Postcard From Space in 2010!“, and almost 2 weeks later, I promised my wife that she and I would be on a flight into space on September 17, 2017. While my head was in outer space, Apple treated us to the iPod Touch, Transformers left the big screen and touched cell phones, and Google put up some cash for the X-Prize. This month, I tried my first “Top 10…” post, thinking this would magically get one hundred bagillion diggs. It got 3. I tried again, too, but with something more original, 76 Web Ranked Candidates For President, which topped out at 11 diggs. My post about why BlugRush sucks and Bla.st doesn’t got some link love from My First Million Dollars and My Journey to One Million Dollars linked back to my post about eBay’s new features as the top post of the week. September started to make my writing feel appreciated, and gave me incentive to write more original posts.
October
October started off with a little giving back. I participated in the Donors Choose blog drive. I donated $40 and was able to convince absolutely nobody else to donate. I managed to invent Web 4.0, and nobody noticed, then promptly broke and subsequently fixed my TV. When I had to replace the heat sink and fan on my wife’s laptop, I decided to document the process, which turned into the most visited post to date (thanks, Google). I also found TNX this month and began to actually make some money on w3t.org and Pic.gs. The extra cash helped me to sponsor ShoeMoney’s RSS contest, which felt awesome. After Honda Asimo crashed my anniversary, Google dropped the page rank of many blogs.
November
November started a little slow, but then MyBlogLog had a contest, which made me decide to have my own. My new contest not only drove even more new visitors to JoeTech.com, but it landed me the 8th and 9th places in MyBlogLog’s contest, which brought even more traffic. I made a post that ruffled some feathers and gave some Thanks Giving Link Love. I made yet another post that riled some people up and wound up with a little Digg love. My post about Google Android and the $10 Million they’re giving to developers landed some link love from Fam5.com.
December
Although this month didn’t see a lot of posts as the holidays kept me busy, I managed to give JoeTech.com a huge makeover, which seems to have been met with open arms by my readers. Then I joined Entrecard (if you haven’t, stop reading and go do it right now), broke my phone, and then had another great contest, which had 1,055 entries and 20 blogs linking back to it. I also reviewed Zlio and got some link love for it from Search For Blogging, even though Zlio hasn’t made me a dime yet. I put in my bid to be an Entrecard Seller, which I am anxiously waiting to find out about.
2007 has been a pretty crazy year for me. Despite a rocky first half, the second half has been great and I’m planning to make 2008 even better. For starters, I’m having another contest (check back in the next couple days for the info). Here’s some of my goals for 2008:
- Reach 50,000 visitors per month (This month is 27,000 so far).
- 300 RSS subscribers (if you’re not one of the current 37, subscribe here).
- Earn enough to pay for my contests. =)
- Introduce some guest bloggers (contact me if interested).
- Guest blog on a couple blogs (contact me if you want me to guest blog for you).
- Have at least 1 contest a month
- More posts where I get to rip apart electronics (robot post coming)
- Review some geeky products (I’m talking to you, ThinkGeek.com!)
Thanks to everyone who helped make 2007 great! I hope you all stick with me for 2008. And remember… If you drink tonight, please do not drive!
Joe
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on December 31st, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Happy New Year Joe.
I look forward to seeing what JoeTech.com is up to in 2008.
Good luck
JB
on December 31st, 2007 at 4:53 pm
JoeT,
The part of your 2007 that most caught my eye was the death of your father. I am 20 or so years older than you and am fortunate to still have mine. I am truly sorry for your loss.
I have enjoyed your site and and learned some stuff. I will continue to visit.
Have a great 2008!
on December 31st, 2007 at 5:29 pm
JeffB: Thanks. Happy New Year to you, too.
FerdC: Here’s to a great 2008 for you, too, and thanks for your thoughts, too. My father was a partier, so he lived up to the “live fast, die young” theory.
on December 31st, 2007 at 5:59 pm
[...] Read the rest of this great post here [...]
on January 1st, 2008 at 12:42 am
[...] A Look Back at 2007 [...]
on January 2nd, 2008 at 12:54 am
People really love contests huh? I used to join and post about them but now I’m getting a bit sick of them to be honest because there are so many going around and people are getting wise to the fact that it is a really cheap way of getting back links. But your US$100 cash prize is a pretty good prize :D.
All the best for 2008!
on January 2nd, 2008 at 1:36 am
Entrepeneur: Ironically, you just entered by commenting on a post on this blog. =) Really, though, it’s about more than back links. It’s about getting people to view your sites. The comments requirement is about getting people to read your post in order to comment on it and hopefully turn that new visitor into a loyal reader. The RSS requirement is to get new people who will see your post titles daily and might come back to read them. Asking people to link to your contest is not about the backlinks. It’s about putting the contest in front of more eyes, which helps with conversion. There are more and more contests popping up, and that will eventually mean that the bad ones will filter out and the good ones will rise to the top, or we can at least hope so.
on January 12th, 2008 at 11:53 pm
[...] = “34d024″; var mooter_wrapper_url=”"; var run_method = “onload”; var mooter_target = “0″; A Look Back at 2007 saved by 6 others melisischazz bookmarked on 01/13/08 | [...]