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Happy 5 year anniversary to The Wonder of Tech!
On Saturday, January 23 The Wonder of Tech will mark its five year anniversary. That’s five years’ worth of articles about personal technology to make your life easier and more fun.
In those five years, 889 articles have been published and over 10,000 comments have been shared here by readers. Β In the past year, readers from over 200 countries have visited The Wonder of Tech and traffic to this site grew by more than 40% over the previous year.
The growth in traffic was surprising because in 2015 I reduced the number of times articles were published weekly from three to two. But reducing the number of articles certainly didn’t reduce the traffic. Go figure.
[tip] You can find older articles at The Wonder of Tech by clicking on the Archives link above or by going to the Start Here page. [/tip]
I originally published articles five times a week here (check the Archives if you don’t believe me), but that pace was too much for me to keep up. Three articles a week became my comfort zone until last summer when I switched from publishing Monday-Wednesday-Friday to Monday-Thursday.
The transition from thrice to twice a week came at an opportune time because in September I started writing a weekly tech column for Voice of America Learning English.
Thank you very much, dear readers, for taking the time to visit The Wonder of Tech, letting us know your thoughts in the Comments section, sharing articles with others on social media and contacting me with the best suggestions for article topics! The Wonder of Tech truly has the most brilliant and wonderful readers on the Internet, don’t you agree?
In the past five years, I’ve seen many blogs come and go but some have been around the entire time and continue to grow strong. The blogging community is exceptionally supportive and I do want to thank all of my blogging friends who have given me advice, written guest posts and continually inspired me to continue to improve The Wonder of Tech.
I especially want to thank Adrienne Smith of Adriennesmith.net and Harleena Singh of Aha!NOWΒ who have been with me since the beginning and who always help and inspire me to be a better writer. Before I started The Wonder of Tech I didn’t realize that making true friendships would be a tremendous benefit of blogging, but that has certainly been the case.
The Wonder of Tech uses WordPress and each year I get an annual report of how this site is doing. Here is my annual report for 2015 from JetPack (owned by WordPress):Β Annual Report from Jetpack.
The Wonder of Tech allows me to combine my passions for technology, writing and helping others. Thank you for being a part of The Wonder of Tech.
Poll
What types of articles do you enjoy most at The Wonder of Tech? Which topics would you like more of?
Please vote in this poll to share your opinion. Note that you can vote for more than one topic:
Your Thoughts
Which articles, if any, have been the most helpful to you at The Wonder of Tech? Is there something you learned here that has helped you with your daily life? Do you have any suggestions for future article topics?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
* 5 image (edited) courtesy of Stuart Miles at Freedigitalphotos.net
Hi Carolyn,
Many, many congratulations to The Wonder of Tech, and of course to you, my friend π
Your blog’s just a month younger than mine! How wonderful is that…though it’s 2 days more to your Blogiversary, but the celebrations have started already! Let me add here that this is THE ‘bestest’ of the best tech blog that I visit, as it’s got SO much to learn from, especially for non-tech people like us. That’s because YOU make things so easy and simple to understand for all of us. Just love everything you share, so keep going!
Yes, I remember when you were blogging thrice a week, and later made it to twice a week with the additional post at Voice of America Learning English, which adds another feather in your cap! I can remember the time we connected, and it’s been an association of so many years now, which has lead to this wonderful friendship. Thanks so much for the kind mention and I am honored and humbled indeed to be a part of your journey.
Wishing you and the readers of The Wonder of Tech lot’s of success and many more years of happiness. Thanks for sharing it all with us. Enjoy the celebrations. π
Hi Harleena, Thank you again for all of your help and support for me and The Wonder of Tech. You’re my first and best commenter and sharer of my articles. You’ve been so kind to help me every step of the way.
Yes, it really is a coincidence we started our blogs within a month of each other. I’m so glad we’re both going strong still!
Thank you also for your kind words. I do try to make tech easy to understand because there is so much great tech to help us.
You were instrumental in me reducing my schedule here to twice a week. Thank you for keeping me sane so I didn’t take on too much here. My fears of reduced traffic never happened!
I look forward to many future years of us blogging together, Harleena!
Happy Anniversary Carolyn! I appreciate your functional approach to technology!
Thank you very much, Amy. I truly appreciate all of your support.
Hi Caro,
Wishing WonderofTech happy birthday π Congratulation on successfully completing 5 yrs.
Wish You + WOT all the success in year 2016.
Hi Sasha, Thank you so very much for your good wishes and for being a Wonder of Tech reader!
Congratulations to my very favorite Tech Lady!
And welcome back to the world of technology, where it’s a lot safer.
Hi Gramps, Thank you for your good wishes and for being a supporter of The Wonder of Tech from the very beginning.
Yes, tech is safer but I do have to step away from my computer every so often…
Hi Carolyn
Congratulation with your blog-anniversary. Not many bloggers are able to stick to their plan for so long and with such a big work effort as you have. 889 articles are quite a lot and I guess that is why you have made it so far. Keep up the good work Carolyn ο
Hello Thomas, Yes, you started your tech blog right before I started mine. I’m so glad we’re still going strong. Best wishes to you for many more years of success, Thomas.
Hi Carolyn,
Happy Anniversary. I have to catch up on all your posts. I have been busy. I started a new Facebook page to promote my blog and I’ve been photographing events. I even photographed a pantomime mostly from the gallery with a long lens. Irun the history page on Facebook too and the reach briefly went to 80,000 just before Christmas. Photographing indoor events is a different type of photography but I’m getting used to it. I bought a new Speedlight too which is great for indoors, the light is adjusted by the in-camera light meter.
I also find your posts on social media interesting, especially Twitter. I am getting better at posting on Twitter. My great niece is in a competition singing on TV so I can support her with shares on Facebook and retweets. She has been interviewed 3 times on the radio in the past few days, so she’s doing well. We have to know about promoting now! I’m getting invited to events too and a photography club that has a studio!
I’ll look around at the posts I missed now. π
Hi Mike, Thanks for your good wishes. As shown in my Jetpack report, you’ve been one of my top commenters at The Wonder of Tech. I appreciate your support throughout the years.
I haven’t been by your site much since I started with Voice of America, and I’m sorry for that. The learning curve has been steeper than I anticipated but I do hope to visit your site more in 2016.
Congratulations to your niece and to you for continuing to master social media!
Congratulations but it feels like only last month we were celebrating your 4th anniversary.
Thank you, Lee. Time does fly when we’re having fun!
Congratulations, Carolyn! Five years is indeed a milestone. Thanks for all your good tips and user-friendly help.
Hi Louise, Thanks so much for your good wishes and for helping me develop my writing skills. Who knew that I would put them to use this way? Hope you’re doing well.
Happy Anniversary Carolyn!
I cannot believe it’s been that long but then again, I recall us meeting right around the time I was just starting to be seen myself. It was early 2011 and I was a learning machine.
I SO appreciate what you share because you have a way of helping people like me who are tech illiterate. You are the only person to this day that I have found online who teaches us about tech and how to use tech so that we too can understand and easily start to navigate things ourselves. I think that’s why I gravitated toward you so much.
After meeting you and your family in person when you came through Houston, that was icing on the cake for me. And they say you can’t be “real” friends if you’ve met them online. They don’t know what they’re talking about.
I’m so thrilled you’re still going strong and it’s been sad to see so many others come and go. I hope we outlast them all my dear.
Thank you for the wonderful mention and there is to another 5 glorious years of sharing your knowledge of tech with us all.
Happy Anniversary!
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, Thank you for your words of praise and also for being an incredible source of inspiration and information about blogging. Before I discovered your blog I didn’t even know enough to respond to comments. Luckily I found your blog early in my blogging journey!
Yes, meeting you in person was such a special experience. You’re every bit as wonderful in person as you are online. Developing sincere friendships has been a huge benefit of writing for The Wonder of Tech.
I’m so glad you have learned about tech here over the years. Imagine how much you would have missed out on if your tech knowledge was the same today as it was five years ago!
That’s why I do this, to help people keep up with the fast-changing world of tech. We really do need to stay on top of these developments because tech is becoming a bigger part of our lives every day. If you don’t keep up you will be left behind.
I do miss so many who have left the blogiverse but I’m so glad you’re still here and growing strong, Adrienne!
Congratulations Carolyn! Reaching 5 years of blogging is a great milestone and something to be proud about. Many bloggers never reach this point at all. Keep up the good work and good luck for the future.
Hi Silke, Thank you kindly for your good wishes and for your support over the years. Yes, I didn’t expect when I started that I would still be doing this five years later but I really do love writing for The Wonder of Tech. I don’t get why people quit blogging because they’re missing out on the fun!
A huge double chocolate cake with 5 burning candles for you, Carolyn (you know where to find me to collect in person)! Congrats on your great achievement and here’s to many more.
WOT is a treasure trove filled with invaluable tips and information and many times I have found the solution to a problem right here. Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us.
Yummy! I would love to visit you to take you up on that delicious offer, Barbara!
Thank you for your congratulations and for all of your wonderful support over the years. I’m so glad The Wonder of Tech has helped you and that we’ve become friends outside of blogging too.
Congratulations on your hard earned achievement. My own blog will be five years old this next month and it won’t even come close to the level of commitment you have made not only in numbers but the amount of content written. I do have a question: What do you do to over come writer’s block?
Hi Nick, Thank you. Yes, I have written a lot but only because there is so much tech to write about!
I rarely get writer’s block, mostly because I truly get excited about the tech and the ability to share that tech with others here at The Wonder of Tech.
If I’m not excited about what I’m writing about, then I just keep writing to push through and break through the block. My least favorite topic to cover is about hacking and the dangers of tech. I’d rather write about the positive aspects of tech, but it’s important for everyone to know the pitfalls of hackers.
Good luck to you with the next five years of your blog, Nick!
Congrats Carolyn on this 5 year anniversary as well as the other succesfull endeavors you have going. I love to check in on the web site, but unfortunately I think your tech skills have far surpassed my understanding. Every now and then I find a good tip so won’t give up.
Keep up the good work. What is your take on the iPhone 6 vs 6s? I’m reading that the 6 is really no better than the 6 and is heavier and thicker. Not sure I would want that but do want to upgrade from my 5. Keep a good thing going!!
Hi Pat, Thank you so much for your support since the very beginning of The Wonder of Tech.
I try to have an assortment of topics from the basics to the more advanced. No reader will find every article to be relevant, but I hope everyone finds plenty articles of interest.
If you’re considering upgrading from your iPhone 5 to the 6 or 6s, you should go to a store to hold them in your hand. Some people don’t want a larger screen size, the smaller size of the 5 or 5s is better for them.
I read a rumor this morning that Apple will be introducing a new iPhone with the same screen size of the iPhone 5 (4″) but with updated hardware. The announcement is due in March so you may want to hold off on upgrading your phone until then so you’ll have more choices.
I seem to learn something from your posts every week, Carolyn. You do a marvelous job distilling masses of information and sometimes (OK often for me, I suppose) technically challenging issues into fun articles that anyone can understand.
Congratulations on your landmark achievement. Here’s hoping you still have it in you for five more years ;-).
Thank you so much, Nanette. You’ve been here since the beginning and I truly appreciate all of your support through the years.
Yes, I still get a thrill from writing about tech so I have no plans to quit. Reducing the number of times I publish each week was actually difficult to do, but my schedule is much more manageable now.
I do hope The Wonder of Tech is still growing strong in five years. If so, it will be because of support from wonderful readers like you!
Hi Carolyn,
It’s pretty good knowing that you have been here for the last 5 five years – and are waxing stronger by the year. That is no mean feat and I must say a big congrats to you!
Concerning the articles I’ll love to read…heck, I’m a fan of all things you publish and always have something to take home and implement to make my life easier π
You’re going VERY great!
Once again, congratulations and a very happy birthday to this awesome site of yours – a site we all love!
Always,
Akaahan Terungwa
Thank you, Terungwa. Your words of support mean the world to me. Knowing that I’m helping people is what inspires me to continue writing The Wonder of Tech.
Congratulations and keep sharing tech knowledge and news with us.
Thank you, Adbul. That is certainly the plan!
I want more pictures….yep, I’m one of the deadbeats who couldn’t keep up the pace. I have other hobbies now….:).
It’s great to see you still have a core audience. I believe I have an anniversary coming up in March, but it will go by silently this time. I am much more of a reader these days than a writer, it is somewhat interesting how your mind thinks differently.
Best of luck going forward and don’t get covered up in snow. Take care.
Hi Bill, I like pictures of tech too!
Your presence is still missed in the blogisphere. It’s no coincidence that many bloggers departed after you left our world. The Life of the Party is gone, taking a lot of the fun with him.
I’m glad you’re finding other ways to fill your days but be assured that you would be welcomed back with open arms should you ever decide to return to your site.
I’m hunkered down during this blizzard, nice and cozy at home. Snow days can be wonderful!
Congratulations on 5 years. You have been doing a great job.
Hello Carolyn,
I just wanted to stop by and say,”Congratulations!” on your 5-year anniversary. You were posting 5 days a week. Wow! That’s a lot! I totally commend you for that. 3 times a week is a good pace. I have found your posts to be very detailed and extremely helpful. May you have many more successful blogging years to come! Thanks for sharing this with us!