I am currently on the lookout for a new host for Bloggst, as Site5 doesn’t cut it - I need something more stable, and faster. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to share it with me. Obviously I am not taking this lightly, seeing how a host is to a website what breathing is to a person.

I need something that is as good as downtime free, can withstand a huge spike in traffic (like for instance a Digg, as I want to be prepared should that ever happen), and of course it can’t be too expensive. $20 - $40 per month is where I’m looking at. Share your suggestions people

Let me start by first apologizing for the long absence. I got sick this week, and I’ve used the weekend to make a full recover, which I’m happy to say that I more or less have. Next, I’ve decided that a development blog for Bloggst can probably wait a little until the site gets a little more exposure, and that essentially means that I will still be posting about it here on my personal blog for a while longer. Sorry to all of you who were hoping to avoid those

Now I know the site hasn’t been open for two full weeks yet, only 11 days, but I thought I’d do a little status report of how things have been going, and what my projections are. Since the launch, we’ve had a steady number of around +- 150 unique visitors per day, and 1000 pageviews, according to Google Analytics. This is decent, but I hope to up it a bit in the coming week.

At the time of writing, we also have 78 registered members. This equals out to about 7 new members per day since the launch, which I’m quite happy with.  The number of posts however, is a little more disappointing. At the time of writing we only have 252 posts, which is around 23 per day, or only 3 posts per member on average.

The problem isn’t really the members who are posting, because those who have taken the time to post, have mostly contributed quite steadily since they joined. But the number of members that don’t post however is a bit frustrating, and it seems the contest was a failure to put it nicely. From what I can tell, those members that have participated don’t seem to interested in it, and are posting rather for the sake of conversation (which in itself is good). I guess I went a bit low on the prizes (a 2 Year Flickr Pro account and two 1 Year MyBlogLog Pro accounts), but I don’t care, because I’d rather spend the bulk of money on new features and alternative promotion. In the future however, I will definitely take this experience into consideration though when doing a new contest.

All in all however, I am moderately satisified with how things have been going since the launch. The visitor numbers are acceptable, as are the subscriber numbers (already twice as many subscribers to the Bloggst feed as my blog feed has), but I will have to take some measures to lure members into being active! I have some new things planned for next week, so be sure to stay tuned to find out how they are going. Alternatively you can just go check out Bloggst yourself

Bloggst is now open for business! I am too tired and too busy to write a lengthy post right now, but I’ll get back tomorrow with a detailed report. Get over there!

If you’ve been reading my blog you will know that I’ve been working hard lately in order to prepare everything for the release of my newest project, Bloggst. You’ll also know that the release date for the project is March 1st, and if you’re one of those who throws a look at the calendar every now and then you’ll know what day today is too!

It is indeed release date, and so far everything looks to be on track for that I can open it up within a few more hours. Unfortunately vBulletin decided to throw an upgrade at me the second I was done and ready, and upgrading can be a hassle when you’ve heavily customized the software. Should be alright however, and hopefully it will go without a hitch, which means OPEN DOORS within the next couple of hours

I’m excited, so please excuse the low quality of this post. The next one will probably be even worse!

We’re closing in on the March 1st release date of Bloggst, and I thought I’d give those who are interested a heads up on how it’s coming along just that. The short version is that it’s going great, and that I’m optimistic in terms of how it will go at the release! Of course, this wouldn’t be much of a post if I didn’t include the long version as well.

Since the last update on the project I’ve actually spent most of work time on the project adding features, and I still haven’t gotten as far along in the content creation process as I had hoped for. That’s not overly important however, because the nature of the site requires that it has a bit of “features”, in order to make the participants happy. I’m really happy with how the features have been implemented, both when it comes to functionality as well as look and feel. Right now I am almost done with the features, I only have two more things to finish, and hopefully I’ll have those finished by at least Monday. This will leave me with a bit of extra time to focus on the content, as well doing some “polishing” around the site.

Right here and now I’m going to reveal something new about the site, one feature that I hope will give us some decent exposure, as well being a source of inspiration for aspiring bloggers everywhere. We will be featuring interviews with “prominent” bloggers, who have been able to make an impression on the blogging scene with their blogs. I won’t announce any names or something like that, but I can tell you that I’ve already been able to get in touch with a few bloggers who’ve agreed to participate, and I can promise that every bloggers out there will be interested in hearing what these guys have to say, and see if they’re willing to share any of their secrets!

That’s about all I’m going to reveal for now. Infact, I’m not sure there’s all that much left unrevealed, but hopefully this has gotten those who follow the project a little more hyped up about it. We’re going to need all the active members we can get once we launch, because as I’ve pointed out before, active members will be the bread and butter of this site, and it relies solely on those people to ever get anywhere.