RennyBA’s Terella one year Anniversary

November 12, 2006
| 48 Comments

It all started one year ago today, after giving a lecture at the Norwegian School of Management for masters grad students in marketing. The subject was ‘Technology, Business and the Society’ and I lectured about blogging – mostly corporate blogging. Nothing is as practical as a good theory, so after studying the subject for the benefit of my students, I wanted to experiment with it myself. It has been a fantastic and interesting experience, now more like a habit – yes, you might even say I’m addicted. But how can you talk sufficiently about a subject without taking your own medicine? It’s a givers gain and never have I learned so much about people’s daily life, their culture and habits since I’ve started to share my own. I call myself a networking evangelist and really believe in sharing knowledge. Through blogging I’ve proven again that the more you give, the more you get.

Blogging connecting people:
Through blogging I’ve met a lot of wonderful people from all five continents around the world. It started slowly with just a few visitors and commenter’s whose blogs I visited in return and made new friends. From there my blog network has expanded like ripples in water. I am pleased that so many people have shown an interest in Norway and the Nordic countries but best of all I have had the honour of so many interesting and relevant comments on my posts. A lot of you have also told me about relatives you have in Scandinavia or that your own experiences living or visiting here. I’m glad I can share in your adventures and take you down memory lane from time to time.

I’ve even had the pleasure of meeting a couple of my blog friends in person – that has been really exciting. The first was Charles and after that Mark and I do hope there will be a lot more in the years to come. Next month I’ve already scheduled a meeting with TorAa and his wife. Please let me know the next time YOU are coming over!

Make blogs not war:
I believe that the most effective way to reduce conflicts in the world is to get to know and understand each other. Friends normally don’t make wars and understanding others bridges cultural and religious gaps. It’s what you don’t know or don’t understand that is frightening and blogging is an eye opener to others daily life, believes and thoughts. For me blogging is a powerful diplomatic tool – let’s tell all the world politicians!

Facts and figures:
I use different tracking tools like Google Analytics, ClustrMaps and of course Technorati. They tell me I’ve had around 12,000 unique visitors and 24,500 pages viewed this first year. The peak day was the 27th of July with 219 visitors voting for me as a candidate to Blogs of Summer – Thanks! Today my blog is registered to have 237 links from 105 blogs – and I am flattered. The most viewed posts have been Russ revelling Norwegian high school, Carnival in Mariostad, Hardangervidda Northern Europe’s largest high mountain plateau, From frozen ice to hot bikinis and Wild mountains of Norway. As a curiosity I’ll tell you an example of a Google search which leads to my blog: “building homes inside mountains norway”.

RennyBA’s Terella template:
There is one person I want to give special thanks to on my first year anniversary. As a newbie in blogging I soon met a very good blogger friend, Charles, otherwise known as ‘The Queer Chef’. I won a competition on his blog and the prize was a blog make over! I leave it up to you to judge, but I feel honoured to have this unique and special template. I have plans for improvements to make the stories and stuff I’ve posted more easily available for my readers. After all it is a special collection of stories about Norway, the Nordic countries, our culture, traditions and habits. So what I miss the most is categorising and searching tools so you can easily find information on my main subjects. I have thought about migrating to WordPress, but I might end up trying Blogger Beta instead. What do you think? Whatever I decide, I will have to lean on Charles. To me he is an artist in blog designing. Please visit his blog and tell him RennyBA sent you!

Wondering about Norway?
Some weeks ago, I asked what more you wanted to know about Norway and I’m overwhelmed by the response. Some of your questions have already been answered and in the coming weeks I will answer the rest to my best ability. It’s a challenge, but also a great opportunity to meet my regular and new readers and satisfy their curiosity about Norway. So stay tuned!

The four seasons in Norway:
I do hope I’ve haven’t lost you as this is a rather long post. Now for the frosting on the anniversary cake, I’ll give you something I’ve been working on for a whole year. One theme throughout my blog is Norway and the four seasons. I’ve given you insight in how the weather and nature significantly change through out the year. I love all the seasons as they each have their own special charm and the most important thing is to experience the nature itself. From a warm sunny summer day at the beach to the colourful beauty of fall, the crisp fresh snowy winter time and of course the anticipated mystery of spring. So from our living room window, I’ve taken a picture a few times each month. I do hope this gives you an idea of the significant four seasons in Norway. Please turn up the sound to hear Edvard Grieg, our famous composer’s Wedding March accompanying the movee:



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