Happy Blogday to…ME?

Indeed, it’s hard to believe the blogging bug bit me a year ago today. A couple months before, I’d discovered WoW Insider. From there, I found Big Red Kitty. After that, I discovered Egotistical Priest, Resto4Life, and The Hunter’s Mark. It was about the time I discovered Lassirra’s site that I thought, "Hey…there’s more than one Hunter blog out there; why not a Rogue blog?"¹

How naive was that? Kestrel the rogue gets out once every few days to disenchant stuff Osprey and Talonis pick up. Falken the other rogue is relegated to mining, prospecting, and battlegrounds.² If you look waaaay back in the archives, there is an article on Rogue Macros, which continues to get a lot of hits via Google.

Since that day a year ago, I’ve generated 243 articles³ in 34 categories (most have multiple categories) with 75 tags. You, my wonderful readers, have conversed with me across 1,183 comments. My very first comment was from Mania, of Petopia and Mania’s Arcania, and she continues to be a loyal reader and commenter. Thank you for all your support, you lovely person!⁴

An amazing 454 of you subscribe to the Aerie through my FeedBurner feed or through e-mail.⁵ My Technorati rating is currently 90, down from a high of around 110, plus or minus; as many as 82 of you follow me on Twitter (why you do this, I have no earthly idea, but I’m flattered nonetheless). 

While interpreting webpage statistics is much closer to art (or magic) than science, we’ve enjoyed over 37,000 visits and 55,000 pageviews. Not bad for someone who doesn’t do theorycrafting or WoW humor, and doesn’t have a big bear butt.

The three most popular articles have been:

• What do you mean, you didn’t train First Aid??, 1,842 views⁶
• Some Quickie – and Handy – Pet Macros, 742 views
• Five Life Lessons Learned From Gaming, 517 views

Along the way, I’ve made scores of friends, many of whom have inspired me, and some I’ve inspired and encouraged. Considering how much I’ve taken from the former, I’m grateful to be able to give back something to a few.

I’ve also been there for the opening of Blog Azeroth and PlusHeal, as well as Twisted Nether Blogcast and Wiki. Thank you, Phaelia, Valenna, Matticus, Breana and Fimlys!

There are probably some milestones I’m forgetting, but I still want to get this posted before midnight.  Thank you all again for a great first year…here’s hoping Year 2 is even better!