Post 100 - Blog Stats and Post Highlights
I was digging around recently and came across an interesting fact... My blog gets more views per month (~150%) than Microsoft official site for my team's product, VSTS Team Developer. Cool.
This is post #100 on my blogs.msdn.com blog. So I thought is was a good time for a blog recap post. Though I've only made 166 posts total (including the 66 on msmvps.com) (as compared to Scott's or Jeff's 1,000s), they seam to have made a reasonable contribution to the community.
A Google search for "serial C#" brings up my article as #1 and follow-up blog post as #3 (alternates slightly day-to-day). The article, Serial COM Simply in C#, was written well before blogs were popular. Googling "rs232 C#" brings up my post as #1. These posts have generated a steady stream of several e-mails a week from people asking for help over the last few years.
Here are some highlights though the years...
Whitepapers / Articles
- SerialPort (RS-232 Serial COM Port) in C# .NET
[has over 150 comments] - Removing Dissatisfies: KANO Analysis, a Decision Making Tool
Reference Materials
- C# Resources
- Favorite Web Design Links
- Seattle Downtown Tour, Coad Style
- Local: Free Wireless Internet (WiFi) in the Seattle Area
- Assimilate XML RSS Feed from URL in C#
- Get a Web Page's Title from a URL (C#)
- Outlook C# Extensibility: Contacts Without a Photo
- Register a Custom URL Protocol Handler
- Copy Paste HTML From MS Word: IE's DHTML Editing Control (in a .NET WinApp)
- Automating iTunes with C# in .NET
- Simple FTP Upload in C# w Free FTP DLL
- Obtaining Indented XML as a String
- Associating a File Extension and Context Menus with an Application in the Registry
- Assimilate XML RSS Feed from URL in C#
- Edit File with Shell Registry Settings
Tools & Reviews
- 4NT - Powerful Command Prompt + My All-Time Favorite Utility
- Task Management Software (To Do Lists)
- Master Config Your PC
- ChoiceMail - 100% of Junk Email Gone
- I'm Using Windows Live Writer Too
- WinKey - Windows Key Assignment Freeware
- Blog Crawler - Blog Backup Tool
- VSWindowManager PowerToy - VS Plugin for Tool Windows Management
- XPathmania - XPath in VS
- Insert Formatted Clipboard plugin for Window Live Writer
- CoadNet VS Project Templates, Quick Code + Console App for C# in VS05
- Logitech Harmony Remote - The Ultimate Universal Remote
- Getting a Small Virtual PC Image - WinXP Pro in 550MB
- MS Word Tip: Automatic Bold on Bulleted Lists
Visual Studio Team System
- Profiling a Unit Test
- TFS Work Item Hierarchy
- Managing Lots of Work Item Queries
- Real TFS Command Line Help
- VSTS Love w/ Korean Rap Music Video
Life Hacks
- Driving Directions Syntax (Coad Style)
- Life Hacks - Improve Your Life
- Noah's Rapid Pickup Process
- Calculating Stats on Sent Mail - Do you do a lot of e-mail?
- Work Life Balance, a Perspective
- My Wife, Dawn
- You are: Iron Man
- Music I Wrote as a Kid
- Gang Green Team Photo [my hockey team]
- Favorite Movies
- Texas Renaissance Festival
- I've Been Tagged - 5 Things About Me
- Lego PDA Digital Photo Frame
- Wedding & Honeymoon Photos
- Moving to Microsoft
- Engaged to an Angel
- Exploring Ice Caves
Old Blog Tags: C#, General, Personal, Scripting, Tools, VSTS, XML
Favorite Bloggers
- Jeffery Palermo
- Scott Hanselman
- Jeff Atwood
- Microsoft Guys: RobCaron, BHarry, & JeffBe
- Gizmodo.com
- LifeHacker.com
Blogging Lessons Learned
Some tips I've learned while blogging...
- Fresh original content is a must!! You've got to have good innovative thought provocative stuff to keep people coming back for more, otherwise you're just aggregating info.
- For me, blogging comes in spurts. So if I write a few posts, I save them and publish them once-a-day at the most. That way new content keeps coming out and is not overwhelming.
- A picture, even if it's not really relevant, makes a post more enjoyable to read.
- Nicely formatted and colored code always looks nice in a post.
- People ask "how much time do you spend on a post?" My answer, 20min to 3hrs.
- It's good to keep a list of topics for posts when an idea pops up. Sometimes I'll start writing a post with just an outline and finish it later.
- An offline writer is very handy. I use Windows Live Writer.
- You've got to post what you're interested in. Otherwise it won't be interesting to the reader either. A blog is a personal perspective on the world.
- When posting code examples, its always nice to include a downloadable example that can be quickly and easily run by the reader.
There you have it, a recap since my first post 3 years ago. It's been a fun, thanks for coming alone for the ride, and get ready because there's only more good stuff coming up!
Comments
Anonymous
March 17, 2007
Great post, very interesting to read your page, thanks :)Anonymous
December 09, 2007
How often or at what rate do you usually post or blog? I’ve heard from somewhere that blogging should be done in a regular rate but not too much otherwise you’ll lose any SEO-related benefits that may be provided by your new post.