Happy 10th Blogiversary! – A Decade of Blogging
10 years ago today I decided to start blogging.
10 years of blogging!
Where has the time gone? Oh, right 1679 posts and 3045 comments, supported by 16,890 flickr photos and countless social media spaces… and of course so many friends and readers!
So I am setting myself a challenge because a Decade of Blogging seems to be a topic that deserves some consideration and commentary.
Over the next month I’ll be posting a series of 10 years of blogging posts celebrating this anniversary a look back, a look forward and some thoughts on content from a personal and professional perspective.
I also have a lot of backlog content sitting waiting to be shared – some are stories, some are photo essays, and some a yet to be written. I will be rolling these out through March, steadily and progressively. From a personal perspective these are things I want to share, but simply have been so focused on business and other activities they haven’t gotten the attention they deserve.
And finally, by the end of March, I’ll be sharing a revamp of a number of sites we’ve been working on. Why not kick off the second decade of blogging with some fun new projects.
I hope that you’ll keep reading (or just popping by to see the photos) and share the journey.
In the meantime since I’m actually working on a couple of deadlines, I’m going to give you a couple of posts that stood out over the years.
First post:
- Day 1 – On the Road Again – because this site started as a way to keep my family up to date as I was traveling and working on the road, it was originally called “Postcards from Lex” and I foolishly started counting days in the post titles. That stopped quickly!
Posts that started something:
- Take My Books, Please. – the start of Mini Book Expo which in it’s final season connected 505 bloggers from 11 different countries, with 72 publishers & authors who shared 465 titles and 1185 individual books.
- Plight of the Pickle – this post was the start of the birthday tradition of posing with Pickles, and by extension the start of the Secret Pickle Supper Club
- Day 1 – On the Road Again – well by now most of you know about Travel Bunny but did you know he was in the very first post on unsweetened.ca? Something Travel-Bunny-esque is coming that I hope will amuse you. So in the meantime Who is this Travel Bunny?
- Every 100 Paces – this one post started the 50 Paces Project which resulted in photographers worldwide participating in a floating art gallery on a frozen river sharing photos taken every 50 Paces as they walked out from their homes. More than just a fun opportunity to share our photos and our neighbourhoods, The 50 Paces Project inspired people. I received a letter telling me that based on the project a community support organisation implemented a new way of working with families to reconnect them with each other and their communities. It’s amazing to hear what a small idea can do to change perspectives and worlds.
Some of my favourite series:
- No One Cares What You Had For Lunch – this series came from the book of the same name which listed over 100 ideas for blog posts that went beyond your lunch. Of course I know people DO care what I had for lunch, but I thought this would be a fun way to try to use the list to push my writing. It worked, sort of. Of course it also inspired the blue cherry posts – #0 What I Had For Lunch Today aka The Blue Cherry
- Chefs #LoveCDNBeef – a series of Chef profiles and beef recipes which feature some of my favourite Canadian Chefs sharing their recipes for using beef in tasty and interesting ways. This series was done as part of the work I did with Canadian Beef.
- Live Below the Line – a hunger experiment where Gerry and I lived on a $1.75 food & drink budget per day. This was a game for me but a serious reality for 1.4 billion people in our world today. The photo of our food for the 5 days is one of my most re-pinned photos on Pinterest on people talking budgeting. It is a little scary that people see this tiny amount of food for 2 people over 5 days as inspiration on how to shop and save money.
- #LexGoFurther – A Ford Escape – I loved this series because so many people joined in my solo drive east to keep me company. Comments and recommendations came in on all channels as I was driving through snowstorms and looking for great places to eat, visit and pose Travel Bunny. It was such a great reminder of how much fun you guys are to travel with, even when it’s virtual. This series was done as part of the work I did with Ford Canada and Tourism Quebec joined in as a sponsor too.
Most viewed:
- Longo’s Week of Daily Dinner Deals & Longo’s Meets CheapEats: A Day Of Longo’s Meals– turns out people are always googling Longo’s daily dinner deals and looking for info and feedback on their prepared foods.
- HoHoTO Says Goodbye – and then it said “Hello” again with a brand new organising crew rising from the #SaveHoHoTO movement. Kudos to the new crew for throwing a great party and raising even more funds for Daily Bread Food Bank.
- What’s Being Served At The Ex – Cronut Burger, Nutella Fries, Bacon Lasagna. – think this might have been popular because of the Cronut Burger fiasco? Ya, me too.
- Avocado Caesar Salad Dressing Recipe – because this recipe is tasty, healthy and egg-free. (and mine!)
- Got Lay’d – Taste Testing Lay’s New Flavours – so potato chips and taste testing… sounds like something everyone would want in on. They certainly are searching for it regularly.
- Choices–Live Below The Line – this is the one I mentioned above that people seem to think is a goal to achieve in their budgeting. Ouch!
- T-fal and the Hot Spot – my fiasco trying to figure out how to use a new pan. Embarrassing, yes. Funny, well I think so. Google-friendly, turns out I’m not alone in not understanding this kitchen technology.
- Kingston Eats – who knew so many people need to know where to eat in Kingston. This post is a pretty comprehensive of the basics. Needs an update, but only a slight tweak.
- Contest: Tell Me Your Canadian Chef Obsession, Win Dinner at Fabbrica – Sponsored by S. Pellegrino, this post produced a great list of Chefs!
Most commented
- Contest: Tell Me Your Canadian Chef Obsession, Win Dinner at Fabbrica
- Take My Books, Please. – the start of Mini Book Expo.
- Your Thoughts On My Next Cell Phone
- Knit With Me.
- #LexGoFurther – A Ford Escape
But most importantly, thank you!
Without you guys coming along for the ride, reading, commenting and talking back this would not have been nearly as much fun and it certainly would not have lasted 10 years. So thanks and happy anniversary!
Note: this post is part of my Decade of Blogging series celebrating unsweetened.ca’s 10th blogiversary
happy blogiversary
happy blogiversary
happy blogiversary
happy blogiversary
happy happy happy happy
happy blogiversary!
grrrr thanks for being a part of it, doing the stylish plating, posing, playing and listening to me reading the long posts out loud over and over again.
AlexaClark grrrr I’ve learned a LOT from watching you brainstorm, write, edit, pick pictures and post articles on unsweetened!
You still impress me with the amount of content you create and all of the creative trouble you get into and tell the world about!
It’s been a fun ride being a backseat blogger 😉
grrrr funny! Though you are a Category of posts as well as a backseat blogger. http://unsweetened.ca/people/gerry/ Guess I should have mentioned you as one of my favourite series 😉 Certainly a muse.
Any reason to have cake is a good one! Congratulations. In the young world of new media, you are a wise veteran.Well done!
@Marichka Melnyk welll, that isn’t strictly the blogiversary cake, but perhaps I should poke https://www.facebook.com/gerry.thorpe and get one. Mmmm extreme fudge cake. Thanks https://www.facebook.com/marichka
Wow, congratulations! Going to check out your post …
thanks. Hope you liked it.
Thanks Marlene Cornelis! I hope you’ll keep reading