AustralianBlogs.com.au is launched on Monday, March 20th 2006 with an email from Yaro Starak (our patron) informing me that he has posted this entry on his blog.
It’s white-knuckled stuff as the Refresh button gets more attention than an aussie travel ad in the mother country. With 30 or so blogs listed in the testing before launch, Michael Kordahi comes to the rescue with the first real Live (autonomous) blog listing.
I perk up in my chair. Heave a sigh of relief before heading back to the comfort of the Refresh button.
This scene is repeated over the course of the next six days. Addicted to the web stats and scouring the web for signs of how disastrously we have done. What do people think of it? Will they submit their blogs? Will they come back and browse?
Dare I even hope that they might even mention it in passing to a friend?
But somehow, the blog submissions stagger in. I am in no doubt, it is because of Yaro’s pulling power.
He emails me to tell me it is on ProBlogger.
ProBlogger!?!?! Are you serious?!?!?!? Darren Rowse?
Six days on, the count is at 208. I have lost countless hours reading blogs submitted during the week.
I write back to Yaro.
Mate.
The itch has been scratched. I can die a happy man.