Saturday, November 04, 2006

Page 132's 2nd blogiversary

Mrs. Expat Teacher sent Page 132 a happy 2nd birthday e-card this morning. That is because today is Page 132's 2nd blogiversary. Mrs. Expat Teacher's card was a truly wonderful gift to me because she has become a blog-widow on more than one occasion, but she recognizes how much I've put into making Page 132 a fun and interesting blog. And how much it means to me to have a frequent visitors, new friends and good conversation.

I started Page 132 with this post back on November 4, 2004 as a way to vent my frustration at George Bush's reelection. It has evolved beyond what I ever imagined. My daily postings spawned great discussions in the comments, my own beliefs have been challenged and changed, the team has grown to 5, I've been asked to write on other blogs and I've made good friends.

Some facts from the last two years:
  • This is the 1070th post
  • That means we average about 1 1/2 blog posts per day.
  • In the last year, Page 132 has been viewed 20,100 times
  • By about 12,750 unique visitors.
  • Therefore, in the last year we've averaged 55 page views a day from about 35 unique visitors daily.
  • In the last 4-6 weeks, our activity has been twice that.
  • We started a Frappr map that has 14 members on it. If you aren't there, go place your pin.
  • There have been 2,825 total reader comments since we started. That is over 2.5 comments for every post.
  • I believe the most discussed topics in the comments have been about homeschooling and the War in Iraq.
  • Sunday Article Round-Up and Friday Prayer Blogging have become institutionalized.


There is probably plenty more I'm leaving out, so feel free to point them out in the comments.

As you can tell, I've given Page 132 a birthday gift of my own. A complete makeover. I've gone with a little bit of green to spice the place up. I have cleaned up the right sidebar because it was desperately cluttered. I got rid of some links and things that we never changed and became rather stagnant. I added a few more links to sites that I really enjoy. They start off with a Christian focus and gradually move into the political arena until it finally ends with The Unofficial Apple Weblog. I've reinstituted the "e-mail this post" link at the bottom of each post so you can alert your friends and family when we write something really good. I even jazzed up the Haloscan comment pop-up box to match the rest of the theme here.

Page 132 feels cleaner and easier to view and use, but I'm only one man on a laptop. How does it look to you? Any troubles viewing it in Firefox? Internet Explorer? On a PC?

If you like what we do here, why not scribble a happy blogiversary wish to Page 132 in the margins?

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