Blog Years - Revisited

I wrote this piece in 2010, but I wanted to dust it off and update it to draw attention to the micro-poll I’m running on my sidebar.  The points raised by this post and questions it asks are still relevant, so I hope you enjoy it…again.

The first official post of my blog was on January 22, 2009.  It was an inauspicious little tale about a neighbor boy and his bike.  My next post didn’t appear until six months later, on July 6^th.  After that second post I began updating my blog on a regular basis, at least a couple articles a week.  Because of the long gap at the beginning, a misstep if you will, I consider July 6^th to be the real inception date of my blog.  DL trivia fans now know the truth. 

In just over four weeks my blog will be celebrating its birthday.  Three years, 312 posts (now 313), 73384 site hits, 953 Google friend followers, 49 Networked Blogs followers, dozens of blog awards and 8248 comments later.  This simple communication tool has cut a path through the obscurity forest and led me to this charming little village filled with acquaintances, friends, dear-friends, collaborators, critique partners, admired role-models, and wide-eyed beginners, all with “like minds”.  So much has happened while building and settling into my existence here in the blogosphere, that I’m amazed how short of a time it’s actually been. 

And countless numbers of you are having the same experience.  So many in fact, that I started taking a closer look at the age of the blogs I follow.  It turns out that most of them came into being right about the same time as mine.  The average looked to be about three years old…maybe four.  So I created this micro-poll (on my sidebar) in order to help gauge the ages of the blogs that visit.  Thinking about blog longevity makes you wonder…where are the older blogs…the ones that have been around for 5-6-7 years?  Are there any?  Blogging in general is a relatively young activity, so maybe 3-4 years is the norm.  But what about the elders, the ones that blazed this trail for us?  Where did they go?

Does a blog have a life span?  Personally, I think a blog doesn’t age the way we normally expect.  Maybe it’s more akin to dog years?  One blog year equates to seven years in the real world.  Think about how things seem to happen at such a fast pace in this community?  To an individual, the publication process seems so long and drawn out, but when we look out into the entire blogosphere something is always happening to somebody.  Drafts are started, WIP’s edited, critiques returned, revisions endured, queries offered, rejections suffered, THE CALL celebrated, manuscripts sold, cover-art debated, books launched.  With all that going on it’s easy to see how time feels accelerated.  So, how soon does it really take for a blog to reach adulthood, middle-age, the golden years?

Me, I see my blog as just beginning to mature.  I still catch myself making youthful, headstrong, selfish mistakes (aka pulling the plug on my blog last year), but I’m now comfortable with my place in this world and the expectations I’ve created.  I’ve gone from crawling in January 2009…to baby-steps in July…to confident strides today.  At this pace will I be using a walker in a couple more years?

There have been rumblings lately, not many, just a few whispers in dark corners about how blogging maybe dying.  Most of that seems to be fueled by a drop-off in comments left (for everybody except Alex that is).  My own opinion is that although the blogging community as a whole is reaching its prime, there are still many, many years ahead of it.  Agents and Publishers alike still agree that blogging is the best way to build a brand, way ahead of Twitter and Facebook.   

What do you think? How old is your blog (please take a moment to take part in my poll) and where do you fall in the blog aging process?