It’s hard for be to believe it has been two years already. It seems like yesterday that I emailed Kevin Tofel at HD Beat to see if he wanted to co-host my podcast (This Week In HD) with me. Kevin declined, but invited me to join the HD Beat team and co-host a podcast with him. After he explained what a blog was — and WIN took months to process the paperwork — we were off. Although Kevin only ended up recording 10 podcasts with me, he did teach me a lot, and to this day we remain friends.
I had to go back and find my first post, it was a boring piece about DirecTV raising their rates. I’ll never forget my first feature though, it was about how to setup an OTA HD antenna, which even after two years is a top 10 article every week for EHD — thanks to being the number one result on Google when you search for “OTA HD.” But the most popular post I’ve ever written was a week later, it was about how to connect your computer to your HDTV — it’s kinda depressing that I peaked so early. Over the past two years I’ve written 286,319 words spread over 934 posts (including x-posts to classic) but I still enjoy recording the Podcast and writing features the most.
The biggest challenge was being assimilated by Engadget eight months later, but now I wouldn’t have it any other way and CES with the entire Engadget crew is my absolute favorite week of the year.
Sometimes I wonder how long I will continue to blog, as much as I love it, it takes up so much of my time that I can’t explorer any of my other passions — always wanted to learn to program.
Either way, at this point in my life I don’t see an end in sight to blogging and I’d like to thank everyone that I’ve ever worked with at Engadget and every commenter — except the nasty ones — for making Engadget such a rewarding experience. But most of all I’d like to thank Kevin Tofel for telling me what a blog was, and Ryan Block for keeping me on even though my writing skills were are sub-par — at best.
Congrats on the two-year anniversary. It’s been a treat to watch you develop your writing, style and overall presentation. Keep on keepin’ on! 🙂
Congrats on two years! And don’t stop writing – you’re one of my favorite bloggers out there Ben!
Brent
It’s amazing how much can happen in 2 years… and also how little changes. Most people still don’t know how to set up an OTA HDTV antenna or connect their TV to their PC. It’s awesome that you were able to write two articles so early on that are still relevant today. Maybe two years from now people will be reading a post you write tomorrow the same way. Or more likely, they’ll still be reading your 4-year old posts. 🙂
Congrats and keep up the great work!
‘Grats Ben!
Don’t ever stop man, CES is just too fun!
Thanks everyone for the kind words. I never said I was quiting. 😉
Honestly, I just surprised anyone reads the dribble I write on this site.
Ben,
I honestly thought you had been doing this for a long time. I must have picked up on your original podcast with your original partner, whose name escapes me. I had just gotten into HD stuff and loved every week’s show. I haven’t been following the new technology as closely lately but recently got the fever back and started hitting the EngadgetHD site again. Anyway, congrats on the anniversary and keep up the great writing.
Two years of blogging, but how long of podcasting? That is the true milestone in my mind. How many co-hosts have you outlived? Four? Maybe it’s because you’re so damn opinionated! Talk about a guy that sticks to his guns – and I have an XBOX 360 HD DVD drive because of it. But then again, it is an HD DVD drive…
Anyways, congrats!
Yeah four co-hosts, maybe I am too opinionated, or maybe everyone else is just a bunch of quitters. So far you and I recorded the most together, but Steve is about to pass you.