“Welcome to yet another corporate blog…“

That’s how it all began, a year ago today. Indeed. Today marks one year to the day that this blog has been up and running. I had debated writing a standalone post regarding the milestone. It is, after all, rather self serving and I’ve been pretty busy this week at the Web 2.0 Expo but I figure I’d take a few minutes to reflect.

Yesterday, eBay’s CTO and SVP of Global Platform, Mark Carges, closed out the first day of Web 2.0 Expo’s keynotes with “Five things that matter to developers today.” I was lucky enough to have a front row seat and at its conclusion I started to wonder what the 5 things are that have mattered most to this blog over the first year… I’m not saying I’ve been able to follow these 5 keys to success every day, but when I have come close, the blog has been better off for it:

1. Consistency
I’ve been doing this for 365 days. There have been stronger weeks than others and I can see when those peaks and valleys occurred quite quickly when I look at the blog stats. I will say that in the first year, eBay Ink has had over 136,000 unique visitors that have made 201,735 visits with 432,000 pageviews. The average time on the site has been over 3 minutes. You have contributed over 5,000 approved comments in the first year (this doesn’t include the over 7,000 invitations to meet someone in a chat room or to boost my “manhood” that were deleted) to the 212 posts (213 with this one) I’ve made. If my math is correct, that makes about 4 posts a week, every week, since launch. Pretty consistent. NOTE: 730+ of those comments were made to the “Feedback on Feedback to Feedback” post.

2. Knowledge
If I don’t know a subject inside and out – and this is pretty frequent I admit – then I better find someone who does because the readers will pounce pretty quickly and tell me where I’m falling down on the job. To say I came into this job “green” with regard to eBay background experience is an understatement but I still feel that hiring a devoted blogger with no prior bias or agenda was essential to keeping the credibility at a decent level. I still approach each interview or story as an outsider and if I don’t have the right questions set up, your participation makes it so I can definitely ask the correct follow-ups.

3. Self Discipline
Blogging is a lonely business. Sure I have a great team behind me and the support of the organization but there are many times when it’s just me and the blog at 3am and I need to publish a story – regardless of how tired or preoccupied I may be. Perfect example was October 6, 2008 when we had significant news coming out of the organization. My wife had gone into labor early and we welcomed our second daughter, Quincy, into the world 2 weeks earlier than expected on Sunday, October 5. Thankfully the hospital room had wireless so I was able to make the three blog posts at 5am the following day. I remember that long night of mixed emotions more than any moment since we launched the blog.

4. Selflessness
Just because this blog is “my baby” and it’s my name and face on the front page, I have to remember EVERY DAY, that this blog is not about me. It’s about you. It’s about every individual that is involved with eBay Inc. and, when one really analyzes it all, the ultimate measure of success of what we’re trying to accomplish with eBay Ink is that I’ll be out of a job. Seriously. Eventually, in an ideal world, the conversation will be happening between multiple members of the company and all of its constituents. The novelty of a “corporate blogger” will go away pretty quickly when that happens. Until then, you’re stuck with me, baby.

5. Twitter
The personal and professional relationships I’ve been able to establish with people that have been following our company a lot longer than I have is all down to Twitter. I still find myself in conversations each day with friends and family answering the question, “so what’s with this Twitter? Why should I care what you’re having for lunch?” Quite honestly, unless you’re Shaq or Stephen Fry (gratuitous Twitter inside joke) you really shouldn’t. However, Twitter is great as a business communications tool. You either use it to receive information or distribute (and redistribute for that matter). I’ve used it equally for both since June of last year. We’ve made some pretty significant strides as a company in the financial and IR world using Twitter. I’m really looking forward to what we can do with it over the next 12 months.

That’s it really. A busy 12 months to say the least. I like to think that the last year was simply building a foundation for eBay Ink and connecting previously disparate groups that should be otherwise intertwined. We still don’t have any marketing or promotion of the blog on any of our online properties. Something else that will change in the coming months.

For now, I’ll continue to be thankful that I am employed full-time doing something that I love. Giving an opinion and communicating with as many people as possible. On those days when I’m less than 100% I find myself repeating the same three words in my head – and I try to apply them to all aspects of my life for that matter: Make It Count.

Thanks to all of you for your support over the year. It has been overwhelming to receive such positive feedback from people, most of whom I’ve never met and I hope I can continue to strive to bigger and better things over the next 12 months.

Cheers!
RBH