Two Years Old Today: Happy Birthday AWR Blog!

on Friday, 11 June 2010.

This blog is officially a toddler.

It's come a long way since my first-ever entry aptly entitled Like A Virgin?

Who knows what the year of the “terrible twos” will offer, but if the past is any indication of what lies ahead, it’s bound to be an exciting time….

In yet another universal paradox, hardly anything has changed since last year’s birthday blog post. On the other hand, everything has changed since then.

These bits, penned in a bittersweet celebratory post one year ago today, still stand:

I still travel alone for the most part. I still get lost, stumble, trip, fall, take wrong turns (MANY wrong turns lol), double back, double back again, and then again. I often lose faith.
I wonder (pretty much constantly), what compels me to keep on with this blog, and this site, and everything else associated with them. It’s really hard work, and I feel frustrated, tired and discouraged on a daily basis. I frequently want to give up.  

So why do I keep moving, even though some days I’m not sure if it’s forward or backward?  I don’t really know. Maybe I never will. And maybe it’s not important that I do. Maybe it’s enough, as someone once said to me, that “the universe knows.”
One thing is certain: I wouldn’t keep doing it, if it were all drudgery. There’s joy in almost equal measure.

On the other hand, so much has changed!

Twelve months ago, www.amazingwomenrock.com didn’t have a presence on Facebook. Today, its Facebook page has more than 18,000 fans. This birthday post will be the 517th link to have been featured on the page since it launched in August 2009 (one year after AWR itself went live online).

Likewise, the site has blossomed: it’s now home to 1,500+ articles full of great stuff about (and for), amazing women around the world.

More than 94,000 visitors have viewed close to 200,000 pages on AWR over the last 365 days. Monthly traffic has risen in fits and starts, but the overall trend is up, up, up – it peaked at about 15,000 in March, and hovers around 11,000 / month. I wonder where it will be 52 weeks from now…?

The blog, whose second birthday is today, June 13, 2010, has flourished alongside the main AWR site. I've almost doubled number of posts (coincidentally this one will be number 200), and the subject matter continues to be at once interesting, fun and thought-provoking (if I do say so myself ;). My feeling about writing said content haven't change much since last year when I shared this:

I love to write (almost as much as I hate to write lol), and it’s interesting to explore topics ranging from loneliness and happiness, to Dubai and ducks.

It’s satisfying to have a positive impact on the lives of others, as well as on my own. It’s enlightening to hear the diversity of views generated by topics that challenge firmly held beliefs (again, my own and those of others). It’s energizing to be creative in what I say and how I say it.

And most of all, when it’s not frustrating the hell out of me, it’s…well….it’s FUN! LOL.

In last year's birthday blog bit I listed a dozen of my favourite posts. Here's a sampling of the past year's most popular posts:

Gotta' go now, it's time to blow out the candles. But before I leave, one final happy birthday: to Kamyar Houbakht, someone special in my life who, by design, shares the same birthday as my blog.