2010: The Best Of Blogging Calwell
Wow, 2010, what a year. This is my 96th blog post on Blogging Calwell – so you could say it was a good year! We all felt the pinch economically and personally this year, but technology was as interesting and fascinating as it’s always been. You may have already seen my Year In Review, so you know exactly how 2010 was (and how I think 2011 will unfold). Perhaps, though, you are new to this blog or just wondering what kind of stuff might be in those 96 blogs of 2010? Well, you’re in the right place, so let me show you.
One thing you should know, this is a modest blog. I don’t get millions of hits – nor is this what I’ve been trying to do (sure, it would be nice though). But, what has happened over the last year is a steady, consistent growth pattern of people reading – which I feel is a wonderful affirmation of what I do. If you take a look at the graph below, you can see that this little blog has grown from nearly flat line, to upwards of 30-40 visits a day. Thank you everyone who takes the time to read!
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| Total Visits in 2010: 4,174 |
That’s a consistent increase in readership! I look forward to seeing these numbers increase even further in 2011 as I understand what you guys enjoy the most. One way I do that, is look at what was the most popular on this blog.
Most popular of 2010
One thing that’s clear – is, to become most popular here, the blogs had to exist for a long time. None of the top five were written in the last two months and most have been around for at least 6 months. You also seem to really enjoy looks at new products and product reviews. Also, look at #2, my review of the Sony PRS 650 shot to second place quite quickly. For most of the year though, my first look at Microsoft Office Starter was the most popular and stayed that way. Here are the five most popular blogs of 2010:
#1 – First Impressions – Office 2010 Starter – May 25th
#2 – Review: Sony eBook Reader PRS-650 – Oct 28th
#3 – Android-x86 on a netbook, is it ready? A review. – July 25th
#4 – A guide to preparing bootable USB drives for Windows/Linux installations – Mar 5th
#5 – Automating log analysis with LogParser, Log Parser Lizard and sendEmail – Feb 8th
My Favorite of 2010
I certainly have my favorite articles too. I may have spent a lot of time on them, or found that, as I wrote the blog – I was learning more than I set out to learn about the subject. here is the list of blogs I loved this year (and why):
#5 – Using an Unlocked Blackberry in Venezuela – Jan 18th – It should be no surprise that travelling is near and dear to me – so when I was planning to visit Venezuela, I planned to bring my unlocked phone there and understand what it would take to get it working on the local network. At the time, this was with a Blackberry Bold, a phone I would keep for the more months before switching to Android.
#4 – My brush with a pyramid scheme – how to spot the signs of multi-level marketing – Aug 13th – Inspired by a chance meeting in a Starbucks, I wrote the story of meeting a muli-level marketer. There were a number of signs that I picked up early on in our conversations too. This was a great moment of discovery and writing about it was even more interesting. After the article, I wouldn’t have any more contact with Kash.
#3 – Android-x86 on a netbook, is it ready? A review. – Jul 25 – One of my first forays into that of HD Video was this piece. It was a situation of many things lining up together, I had a supported computer, Android x86 was available, and I was ready to show of some HD video. The result is in the final product and I was pleased with the way this blog came together.
#2 – Look! An Apple iPad in Canada – here’s what I think of it: Impressive – Apr 19th – Wow, what a whirlwind time this was. I had personally broken up with my girlfriend (which was unbelievably painful) and I had been working on getting the iPad into Canada early. After waiting for about a month, the iPad finally arrived and it was great. For a device I was planning to hate, the iPad was very impressive.
#1 – CONTEST! Make a guess, win a Netbook! – Feb 9th – This was, without a doubt, the highlight of the year. I was able to give back to the readers and offer a Netbook computer. The computer was not exactly current, but it was totally the thought that counts! The lucky winner ended up being from the U.S. and shipping the machine to her was a breeze. I’m already thinking of what I can do in 2011, stay tuned!
That’s it! The New Year is upon us and I think I understand a little more about you. I look forward to lot’s more interesting blogs and reviews of new products in 2011. Happy New Year everyone.