I hadn’t intended to post anything today, but it seemed like too significant a landmark to ignore: As of June 1, Inside of Knoxville is five-years-old. In other worlds, five years is nothing. In Blog World, five years is beyond a lifetime. Most blogs last a few days or weeks at best and never find readers.
I’ve covered the journey pretty thoroughly at other times, so I won’t go into great detail here. The first month I posted some silly little things and searched for my voice. I had about 55 page views each day and felt pretty good about that. Five years later, 2,000 a day is pretty common and 3,000 in a day isn’t rare. That’s pretty decent growth, I’d say.
I’ve learned more than anyone through the venture. While I’ll never be a professional photographer, I’m a much better one. I’ve learned about urban planning, architecture and many urban issues. I’ll never be a technologist, but I know more about technology. I’ve learned about business, development and preservation. I’ve learned a lot about people.
The biggest benefit of all, of course, is getting to know so many of you. People continually introduce (or sometimes have to re-introduce – sorry for my poor memory) themselves and I really appreciate that. It’s gratifying to hear that so many of you look to this space for information about downtown Knoxville. And many of you have become my personal friends.
I’ve also learned more than I ever wanted to know about social media. I probably still wouldn’t have a Facebook account if it weren’t for this blog. We’ve had some great discussions there and others that have made me want to pull my hair out. Often the discussions lead to better understanding, sometimes not so much. But it’s always interesting.
So, if you haven’t, friend me at Alan Sims (Knoxville Urban Guy). Also, please “like” the Inside of Knoxville Facebook Page. I didn’t start that page until sometime around the spring of 2012, but it has been a great success, with 4,942 “likes” as of this writing. You can “like” it by clicking to the right of this article or by going to the page itself. It would be pretty cool to turn five-years-old and get to 5,000 likes all in the same week.
Finally, I really need to give thanks to my advertisers. Visit Knoxville, Preservation Pub and Tree and Vine/CitiFid-o immediately said, “yes,” when I asked and have been with me since I started accepting ads two years ago. Five Bar and Melinda Grimac of Sotheby’s are also long-term advertisers.
Without each of these and others who have purchased shorter term ads, I could not be doing this full time, and I’m very grateful to them. Please support them and tell them you saw their ad here because they make it all possible. And if you have a business, I’d love to add you to the list and expose you to tens of thousands of potential customers a month.
So, here’s to another five years! Thank you for reading and supporting not only this blog, but our city.