It has been one heck of a crazy year. On this day in 2009, I finally launched Indydrafter.com to existence. It was without fanfare and I didn’t have a clue of what I was getting myself into. All I knew was that I had a lot rattling around in my head for a long time and I wanted to share it. After planning for several months, I registered the Indydrafter.com domain name, purchased a host service, deployed a decent looking WordPress template and thought I had it made. Boy was I wrong.

Although I researched tips from many of the blogger “pros” and implemented them in my creation of this website, I still had no clue what kind of time commitment and effort the website was going to require. I was never satisfied with the look of the layout and constantly toyed with it (I still tweak from time to time). I also went on crazy posting spurts with 8 posts one week followed by none for a few after that. I expected instant followers and readers flocking en masse. Again, I was so very wrong.

Don’t get me wrong – I have enjoyed this past year greatly and appreciate all the knowledge and skills I’ve picked up about website design, usability, programming, stylesheets, PHP databases, control panels, and so much more. I’m also really fond of the connections I’ve made with readers, professionals that I’ve networked with, and others on discussion boards that I visited for content research. I can also confidently say that my CAD skills have improved directly because of developing content and answering questions on Indydrafter.com.

So where does that put us now? Indydrafter.com recently underwent a complete redesign. Posts are coming out at a more consistent pace. The quality of content is always improving. More features and resources are continually being offered. Indydrafter.com is gaining a presence on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin. The readership levels have increased gradually with a marked improvement within the past month.

All of these changes have been to the betterment of Indydrafter.com, myself, and the surrounding community. These improvements and changes will keep coming. My involvement and time commitment will continue to grow. I will reach out to the community for more involvement and my participation in local user groups will expand.

I truly appreciate your time spent on Indydrafter.com and look forward to your future visits and participation. I hope that you’ve gained value from this site, refer it to your friends and coworkers, as well as return often. Here’s to this past year and many more to come!