1600 Blog Posts . . . and Counting

This is the 1,600th post on this blog.

I started in February of 2006, so that's about 145 posts per year. An average of more than ten per month.

From this blog I have managed to create a delightful group of readers all over the world. Thank you for your support.

I've also used it as a platform to create some major projects. Most notably: The first edition of Managed Services in a Month - the #1 selling book on managed services on Amazon.com for more than ten years.

Thank You All!

I also spent three years writing up SOPs every Friday for the SOP Friday series. Those are indexed and archived at www.sopfriday.com.

And that collection of SOPs eventually became about 70% of the product that became the Managed Services Operations Manual - a four volume set that is also very popular on Amazon and on my site at www.SMBBooks.com.

My goal when I started was to provide about 90% business and operational information rather than technical. I love the technical, but  there's no end to the technical information you can find online. There was almost no business-oriented information for SMB IT providers back in 2006.

Biggest Lesson Learned: Ignore Advice

Social Media have evolved non-stop since this blog was created. By the standards of 99% of all advice you might receive on blogging, I am doing everything wrong.

For example, here's some advice you'll receive from professionals.

1. Don't use Blogger. It's limited. Instead, use Wordpress.

In a word: WhatEVER! Blogger is owned by Google. So it works very nicely with YouTube and other services owned by Google. Also, it's their job to keep up with labels, tags, mobile look and feel, plug-ins, etc. And there are zero limits on traffic or bandwidth.

This has always been a Blogger site and I do essentially nothing to maintain the site or the infrastructure it's on. I have other blogs on Blogger, and I have some on Wordpress. Big picture: Blogger is easier and no one seems to care.

2. Write short blog posts.

Ha ha ha ha ha! I have written several blog posts that run to 7-10 pages. People read it because they need the information. I like to write and my readers like to read. It's a fit.

If I were posting cat videos I would write shorter blog posts. Instead, I write whatever I want and you folks seem to read it. Thank you.

3. Don't piss people off.

I don't intentionally piss people off. But sometimes it happens. I tell it like I see it. If you're insulted, you might spend five seconds evaluating what I say. But if you just get mad and leave, that's okay too.

I read lots of blogs and web sites. I don't agree with everything I read. And sometimes I have to decide whether the advice is worth anything at all. But that process keeps my mind working so I try new things.

There are no right answers of perfect answers. There are only a few ways to do something technical (e.g., backup a registry). But there are a billion ways to run your business. Be open to ideas!

The bottom line: You Be You

Here's my formula for blogging: I do whatever I feel like at the moment. Sometimes that's good for me and sometimes it's bad for me.

But in the end, it connects me with an audience that is interested in (or entertained by) the stuff I'm doing. It might not be a large audience, but it's an audience that I have enjoyed connecting to and working with over the years.

Thank you all. With luck, we'll do this for another 1600 posts!

:-)