My Future’s So Bright, I Got To Wear Shades
What an amazing year 2007 has been. A year ago, I set a goal to make this blog into something big by breaking into the Technorati Top 100. At the time I made that goal, the blog was ranked 1,379. The blog will end 2007 with a Technorati rank of 45.
By any measures, the growth of John Chow dot Com has exceeded my wildest expectations. In 2007, the blog’s RSS readership went from just over a thousand to over 14,000 and blog’s income went from $3,440.66 in January to $27,240.83 last month. Here are some of the highlights of 2007.
TTZ Media Opens To Everyone
2007 was the year I open TTZ Media to the general Internet. Before then, the site was a private network of technology based sites. This was definitely my biggest project of the year. The webmaster and blogging community has received TTZ Media very well. Since opening up the network on October 8, over 1,300 sites have applied and over 900 have been accepted.
I expect TTZ Media Network to become a major force in online advertising and has set of goal of 10,000 affiliates for 2008.
Getting Slapped Left and Right
2007 will go down as the year that I got slapped left and right. I was banned by Digg (later unbanned and placed on auto bury), kicked out of the official Technorati Top 100, targeted by a SEO hacker and bitch slapped by Google. The blog took everything that was thrown at it and continued to grow, much to the dismay of all the John Chow haters. I’m hoping the ride will be smoother in 2008.
A Major Redesign
The blog got a brand new look in 2007. Thanks to the amazing skills of Nate Whitehill and the gang at Unique Blog Designs, John Chow dot Com went from free WordPress theme to its own custom brand. The new theme has already spun off a string of copycats.
MyBlogLog Hot Communities Record Holder
John Chow dot Com, along with TechCrunch, ruled the Hot Communities of MyBLogLog in 2007. We were the only two blogs that were featured in the Hot Communities for the entire year. Other blogs came and went, but TechCrunch and John Chow dot Com were like permanent members because of our ever growing community of MyBlogLog members. Despite being listed for the entire year, referral traffic from MyBlogLog wasn’t that great.
Becoming An Internet Superstar
I did not realized how high this blog had climbed until I attended the Blog World Expo. It was really amazing to see the number of people who knew me. Because of this blog, I got to meet a ton of new people in 2007 and I look forward to meeting a ton more in 2008.
Thank You for Reading
I want to thank every reader of this blog. You are the reason I keep writing. Your emails and comments help drive me to keep outdoing myself. Thank you for an amazing 2007 and I look forward to serving you in 2008.