Just over a year ago I decided to start a blog and I put an item on my calendar to look back to see how things had gone, look at what things I want to change going forward, or if I even wanted to continue. My original goal was one post a week and it wasn't long before I saw that I could sustain a higher frequency; right now I typically post 5 days a week, which I guess answers by default that I plan to continue as I find value in the process and it has not been painful. I've also moved towards longer posts, trying to avoid the 'here's a link' type posting except in rare cases.

Part of my goal in the blog was to evolve my professional 'voice', to speak about the professional things that interest me and try to open doors on various subjects that I think don't get enough attention (and that doesn't make sense to publish on SSC in most cases), and are not really technical writing. I feel like I've partially achieved that goal, in particular the posts around SQLSaturday and mentoring have reached a group of people that were ready to hear those messages. This is also a limited forum; I don't get - or necessarily seek - the kind of volume that comes with writing 'real' editorials like those my friend Steve writes as the editor of SSC. Perhaps eventually I will, for now I'm continuing to learn and practice.

I knew in the beginning I wasn't going to just blog about SQL; I have a wider range of professional interests and wanted to include those, but also wanted to avoid personal topics. I wasn't sure how that stuff would be received, but since I have the luxury of writing for fun/self improvement rather than profit it seemed ok to take the risk. I'm surprised again and again by the number of people that find value and then time to mention to me about reading a non-SQL blog post. Perhaps I shouldn't be, because I too enjoy the accidental learning that comes from reading anything that isn't 100% focused on a topic. It's a fine line, too little SQL coverage and no one has a real reason to read it, too much (if thats possible) and you're not adding much of that accidental learning that can be so valuable.

One area that I knew I was going to revisit was my tag cloud. I just spent an hour pruning it down some, and there I had two goals. The first was to see what areas I was emphasizing (or over emphasizing) or perhaps neglecting. The other was to make it easy for those that do read the blog to easily subscribe to a subset (SQL Server and SSC Articles probably being the most two useful tags on my blog) though I suspect most just subscribe to the entire feed. Pruning and reworking some of the lesser used tags possibly helps the second goal - hard to tell. The only area that I'm thinking about changing is splitting off the SQLSaturday stuff (other than if I do a presentation) to a separate blog - undecided, but thinking about it.

I updated my blog roll as well. I subscribe to about 100 blogs, but few are consistently rewarding. The ones I have posted now - and will try update more freqently - are blogs of stuff that might broaden your horizons.

My one undone task is to get a tools page set up. I've got a lot of small tools I use frequently, just a matter of getting it done. I'm going to set a goal of having the first loaded by the first week of August. This is one task I should have done sooner, nothing makes my day more than stumbling across a tool that solves a problem neatly and that's worth sharing.

Over the next year I expect to continue to focus on SQL, community, and professional development. Was the review worth the 2 hours it took? I think so if only because I believe in sweat equity - nothing worth having comes without earning it.