Happy Birthday to Engaged Marriage!
I almost had a heart attack last week.
On Friday morning, a reader emailed me to say Engaged Marriage “looked funny” and no posts were showing up. When I clicked over, it was clear the site had been hacked or the host server had been corrupted in some way. Literally, almost one year to the day since I launched this site, I had a moment of trepidation thinking that all of the content shared between us could be gone forever.
Thank God for back-ups! Within a few hours, I was able to restore everything back to normal with only minor interruptions (sorry to those that received duplicate blog posts in their email inbox on Friday…this was the culprit). However, seeing the life of this site flash before my eyes made me realize just how much it has become a valued part of my life, and it reminded me that we just passed the one-year mark!
Looking Back to the Start
It’s crazy to think that just over a year ago, I had literally never even read a blog in my entire life. While on vacation last August, I felt a call to share our pro-marriage message to an audience larger than the participants at the marriage preparation courses we present at a few times each year. I figured I should look online and see how I could get started.
Well, I can tell you I had no idea what was in store for me! Within a few weeks, I immersed myself in learning the ins and outs of blogging and WordPress site creation and launched this site with my first post on August 21, 2009. I’m pretty proud to look back at that first post and see that the mission and message of Engaged Marriage has remained pretty consistent from the very start…and our sense of humor was apparent as well.
Thank You for This Community!
This site is successful because of you. It’s really that simple.
I am absolutely blown away by the progress that we’ve made together in just a year. Here are some numbers to give you an idea of the growth and impact of Engaged Marriage:
- Over 130,000 pageviews from more than 66,000 visitors
- Visitors from 169 different countries
- 162 posts published
- 3,182 comments (this is just amazing)
- 539 Facebook fans
- Over 4,700 Twitter followers
- Over 650 newsletter subscribers & Marriage Mojo graduates
- Over 1,550 blog subscribers
Looking Forward
Again, I am so grateful for your support and the incredible sense of community that we’ve built here over the past year. The plan is to keep on keepin’ on with the consistent and valuable content here at Engaged Marriage.
As you may know, I’m working on my first premium product, which will be a 28-day course for busy couples who want to improve the sex, romance, communication and finances in their marriage in about 15 minutes per day. I had hoped to have it ready for this one-year anniversary, but I’ve been a bit a busy with our new baby and the impending launch of an exciting new project called Fit Marriage.
I promise that 28 Days to an Engaged Marriage is coming (pretty) soon! If you’d like to be the first to know when it’s ready and receive a nice discount as well, please take a moment to go sign up for the Early Bird Notification List.
I’d really love to hear from you and let you shape our future together at Engaged Marriage! In the comments below, please share the following:
- Your favorite aspect of Engaged Marriage
- One thing you’d like to see more of (or less of) at Engaged Marriage going forward
Thanks again and God bless each of you and your families!
(photo source)
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17 Responses to “Happy Birthday to Engaged Marriage!”
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Congratulations and happy birthday and all that good stuff, Dustin! What a great year and we are looking forward to what is next. The fit marriage sounds great. My darling Sailor just left for a year long deployment to the Gulf, but we are both committed to staying fit while we’re apart. In fact I signed my twins and myself up for karate that we all take together 3 nights a week, and they’ve already won some trophies. It helps that we train with a bunch of national champions!
Looking forward to the months ahead!
Gina
Thanks SO much, Gina! God bless your “Sailor” and what he is doing in service to our country. I think it’s fantastic that you’ve put such an emphasis on fitness and wellness in your marriage…and it shows in the overall health of your family!
Dustin, sorry to hear you got hacked; but thank goodness you had backups! Congratulations on one year. You’ve done a great job!
Thanks so much, Bucksome. I really appreciate your support!
Congratulations Dustin! Your blog is awesome! I would have FREAKED OUT if my blog was gone.. how scary! I’m glad yours came back okay.
Happy year #1!
Thanks, Samantha. It was surreal to see all of the posts just…gone. I knew I had a back-up, but I’d never had to use it so I was bit petrified that it wouldn’t work. I love your blog too.
Way to go Dustin. It really takes a lot of effort to keep up with a blog for an entire year. Would you say that your marriage has improved in the past year because of the blog?
My favorite aspect of the blog is your down-to-earth approach to marriage. Since your approach is from a “regular dude’s” perspective, and you seem to be around my age, I feel like you are authentic.
I’d like to see more posts about how your new baby is affecting your marriage and how it has changed your family for the better. I have a 2.5 year old son and a 5 month old daughter. Kids are amazing, but they make staying engaged in marriage much harder.
I also like the picture you used. I live in St. Louis.
Keep up the posts!
Thanks for the great feedback, Phil! I would say that despite the time it takes, our marriage has definitely been strengthened through my writings and interactions here with this great community.
I’m really happy to hear you like my down-to-earth approach…it’s all I have to offer.
You are SO right about the impact of kids in your marriage. I’ll definitely write more on the topic.
And I’m in St. Louis, too…in Glen Carbon, IL actually. Small world!
I am so proud of what you have built here. The website is great, the links are awesome, and the community is impressive. Your desire to help people stay engaged in marriage is inspiring in our own marriage…that doesn’t mean we are perfect, but we sure know how to work to make our marriage the best it can be! Love you!
Best. Comment. Ever.
Thank you so much! This means the world to me. Really.
Happy Birthday, Engaged Marriage!
Thanks, Mary!
Happy Birthday to Engaged Marriage!
Thanks for introducing me to the likes of YNAB. Love it! I finally feel like we’re working TOGETHER on our finances, and that is great!
Yay Bethany! Doing the Law of respect, recognition and honor to your spouse…IT’S A BEAUTIFUL THING! God is glorified.
Yes, Angie, my wife rules.
One year is quite a milestone. Impressive site, impressive message, impressive stamina. I look forward to seeing how well you do in the future… not to mention the addition of one more child this past year.
Sincerely yours,
Sarah Baron
Anonymous8
Thanks, Sarah. You’re doing awesome work on Anonymous8, and I’m happy we’ve become “cyber-friends” as a result of our blogs!