Two years ago today I began my blog with a post about the DEFAULT keyword. I set out with the goal of building a blog I could be truly proud of in three years. One that was well liked and provided value to the community.

Little did I imagine how much fun I would have in the process and how much satisfaction I would get from the result. In order to get where I wanted to go I started out with a goal of writing at least one post a week and then later expanded that to two posts a week. I wanted the majority of my posts to be technical and would provide value, either by answering a question or discussing a topic I felt was important. Obviously I’ve done a few fluff pieces (Who’s on call is my favorite) but for the most part I feel like I’ve stuck to technical posts pretty well. Along the way I planned on writing a few articles and working on my certifications.

As of my today (my two year anniversary) I have done the following:

• I have posted 190 pieces on my blog.
• Written sp_dbpermissions & sp_srvpermissions
• Written 4 articles for SSC (bringing my total to 6)
• Earned my MCITP in both Administration & Development for SQL 2008

And because it’s my two year anniversary I’m going to brag a bit. At this point I’ve achieved the following amazing (at least to me) statistics:

• 145,000 views to date
• A daily high of 2015 views
• A monthly high of ~16,000 views
• ~600 comments, the vast majority of which have been positive.
• 140 followers of my blog and 180 followers on twitter
• Earned the very first SQL Pro of the month from Toadworld (and boy do I stand in some awesome company)
• I’ve been listed four times on the Brent Ozar Unlimited’s Weekly links (Thanks Kendra!) (FYI this was one of those “wouldn’t it be cool if” goals when I started.)

 
I’ll admit it, I’m a geek. I love this stuff. Once I got over some “stage fright” I found that I really really enjoy writing about SQL Server and my experiences with it. Some of the best feelings in the world are when someone you know says “I love your blog” completely out of the blue. In fact in the space of one day I had a guy I know tell me he loves my blog and a co-worker tell me that he really likes the fact that when he reads my blog I give him answers to specific problems.

 
So what are my plans for the next year?

• Continue to try to reach a goal of 2 posts a week for the year of 2014 (probably 2015 too).
• Write one or two more articles for SSC
• Write an article on ways to use sp_dbpermissions and sp_srvpermissions
• Continue to improve sp_dbpermissions and sp_srvpermissions
• Finally get my MCSA and maybe my MCSE

 
After that, well hopefully we will both be around to see. Thanks for reading my blog and helping to make it all worthwhile!