I started reading blogs in 2005. At the time, the landscape consisted of Xanga, LiveJournal, and the like. The blogs I read were personal blogs, mostly like a “Dear Diary” sort of thing.
In 2006, it became apparent to me that blogs were going to be big. The first blog I followed that was cultivating a particular presence online was Posie Gets Cozy–a craft blog where I first saw someone photographing, creating, and writing in a particular personal style. She was writing for her readers rather than for herself. I mostly followed the early craft bloggers, these are the bloggers that got book deals and were early adopters of Etsy. I felt like I’d already missed the boat–there were too many bloggers and there wasn’t room for my voice.
In 2007 and 2008, a lot of the current “big names” I read now began writing. The Nester, Simple Mom, The Inspired Room–they all started around this time. Mind you, I had been reading blogs for ages at this point. But, I still didn’t create my own. In Tsh’s podcast with Darren Rowse of ProBlogger (listen to that webinar, it’s excellent!), she mentions that she thinks 07-08 was a good/big year to start a blog. I think it would be easy to think the ship has already sailed if you didn’t start then.
But, alas, Tiny Twig Goes Out on a Limb did not originate until January 2010. It didn’t exist in it’s current iteration until October 2011, when I did a complete redesign and rebrand.
So take heart. The ship has not sailed. It is not too late for you. There is still room for your voice. There is still time for you to do big things. Pull your seat up to the table, join the conversation, ask to be heard. I’ll listen.
When did you start reading blogs? What were the first ones your remember finding?
All of the posts in the series can be found here.