Just as babies born near Christmas forever have their birthdays lumped in to holiday celebrations, my blog’s two year anniversary happens to fall squarely into the annual “best-of blog” posts and year-end reflection round-ups. But such is life! It gives me a great opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. Or should I use a cupcake?

I started this website in March of 2006 as a resource for college grads (and as an excuse to practice my new-at-the-time HTML/CSS skills). After letting it sit painfully unfinished for two years, I added the blog in 2007, revamped the look and feel in January of 2008, stumbled around a bit and now FINALLY feel like I’ve gotten some traction (and beloved readers!) in the last year of blogging in 2009. (Check-out last year’s round-up here).

Personal Milestones:

I’m proud to report that in the last year, I successfully completed the following:

• Transferred into my dream role doing Coaching and Career Development at Google (after 3.5 years on the AdWords Training team)
• Finished a triathlon and half-marathon (full marathon was last year)
• Bought my dream car (the 2010 red Prius affectionately named Red Velvet)
• Wrote the draft of my book and started sending my proposal to agents and publishers (more on this in 2010)
• Led two People-On-the-Go Lunch and Learn webinars with Pierre Khawand, each with ~100 attendees (Gen Y in the Workplace and Twitter 101)
• Co-created and co-emceed the day-long iThrive Weekend Experience workshop with Jenny Ferry; delivered (live and via webinar) the portion on “How to Rock Your Personal Finances“
• Found out this week that I was selected for a three-year term on the International Association of Coaching‘s Board of Governors
• Hosted several extraordinarily fun cupcake tweet-ups with my amazing blogger friends (IRL fo’ Life!) and dressed up as a cupcake for Halloween.
• Had the awesome experience of watching my Bruins play Tennessee from the sidelines at the Rose Bowl for my dad’s 60th birthday (thanks T-Bone for the sideline pass!)

Blog Stats:

• In the last month, I received 7,000+ visits (13,500 page views) from 97 countries – that’s double last year’s visitor stats.
• The top two referring keywords are “life after college” (~600 visits this month, not including the hundreds of variations on that query) and – surprisingly – life checklist template (147 visits).
• My favorite quirky searches that led to my blog are “I don’t date,” “dating sometimes you just have to go through the bad ones” and “are Harvard graduates really the smartest people in the world?” No – UCLA grads are, obviously!

Blog Features and Accolades:

• Featured in Jun Loayza‘s Awesome Blogger Video Interview Series
• Landed on Ryan Stephen‘s Top 10 Gen Y Blogs List: #1 in December (thank you!), #4 in August, #6 in June
• Featured as a Blog Crush in Elisa Doucette‘s Blog Crush Series (almost made me cry!)
• Winner of Grace Boyle‘s Crush It! Contest (with my Skills are Cheap, Passion is Priceless post)
• Featured in Matt Cheuvront‘s Inconvenience of Change series (with my Complexity of Change post); also part of Matt’s 13 Gen Y Rockstars and 10 Blogs to Follow in 2010 lists (YTB Chevy!)
• Participated in Samantha Karol‘s Appreciation Revolution (with my Making the Shift: From Resistance to Gratitude post)
• Featured in the always amazing Jamie Varon‘s Girl Crush post
• Featured in Carol Phillip‘s Millennial Women Disproportionally Influential post
• Nominated for Brazen Careerist’s Best Blog Posts of 2009

My Favorite Life After College Posts of 2009:

• Life: Temperature Check: What’s Your Quality of Life?, Motivated by Achievement: A Blessing and a Curse, On Confidence & Unconditional Love, Stop Auditioning for Other People’s Lives
  
• Money: 3 Little White Lies we Tell Ourselves when Spending Money, Budgets ARE Sexy When Simple, A Day in the Life of My Paycheck, Are you Clogging your Financial Arteries?
• Work: You don’t ALWAYS have to pursue your passion full-time, Create a Professional Development Strategy: Part 1 and Part 2, Learn to Love Feedback: It’s Your Career Currency
• Happiness: Expanding Happiness: On Fear and Bliss (with notes from Dad!)
• Dating: Do you go for Quality or Quantity? (my most commented-on post with 50+!), Dating is a Roller Coaster, A Note of Compassion for those Pesky Things Called FEELINGS
• Organization: On Big Rocks, Frogs and Productivity, How I Stay Organized, Something is Better than Nothing
• Book Notes: Living with Joy, The War of Art, Zen and the Art of Happiness
• Misc: In Defense of Twitter, Video: Happy New Year! No, I’m not crazy*, Lots of good quotes (too hard to choose)
• Templates: All of them!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart. Your energy, enthusiasm, support and presence here on Life After College mean the absolute world to me. This blog has changed my life, and you are an enormous part of that. Hugs, kisses and cupcakes all around!

***

Want to stay connected? There are lots of great ways to get in touch with me on social networks:
Delicious |  Google Reader | GoodReads | Twitter | 20 Something Bloggers | Brazen Careerist | Facebook | LinkedIn

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The time has come! After over 3.5 years on the Training & Development team for Online Sales & Operations at Google, I’m going to be switching teams in late September. I’ve been really looking forward to the day that I could finally share this news with you (I wanted to wait until everything was finalized and communicated internally first). Watch the one-minute video to find out where I’m headed!

Unrelated Art Plug: The beautiful painting in the background was done by my dad – check out his website to see more of his work. He’s selling baseball card sized paintings for $10 each if you’re looking for something to spruce up your apartment (if you want to buy any, shoot me an email). Click here to see what the cards can look like framed.

Stay tuned for a follow-up story next week about the steps I took to get my new position. It wasn’t easy, but it taught me a lot about myself and the job searching process (even though it’s an internal transfer).

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To those who took the time to take my recent reader survey: let me start by saying you are all so smart and inspiring! I’m sure those of you who haven’t responded are just as brilliant. After reading your feedback and kind words, I am more motivated than ever to take Life After College to the next level.

During the last two years of blogging, I’ve been pretty laid-back and “fly by the seat of my pants” with my blog. Now it’s time for me to look forward and be more proactive about where I want the site to go. In the next few months I am going to set some concrete goals for my blog and my business – which I will share (per your feedback!) as soon as I can.

Below is a summary of your feedback so that you know what to expect in the coming months. Many of your ideas sparked new thoughts of my own (added bonus!), which I also shared below.

Survey Feedback Summary

What you like:

• Practical advice and tips that are easy to incorporate into your daily routine
• Demystifying big issues like finance, career and organization.
• Clear, conversational tone with a sense of humor (blushing over here)

Content and ideas you’d like to see:

• Be open, share my experiences and struggles; make a point to write a couple posts a month that are more self-reflective (to balance out the informative posts)
• Post on a regular schedule to help readers know when to expect a new post
• “Jenny Blake Approved” list of products
• Include more images & video
• Share my vision on where the website (and my life!) is going
• Real life case studies and/or “Ask Jenny” Q&A
• Specific post ideas: more on dating & relationships, overall happiness after college, staying positive, simple living tips, strategies for making friends.

Some ideas that I had as a result of your feedback:

• Create a “templates” page with a link to all the templates I’ve shared
• Restructure my coaching services in a major way – package my coaching around specific topics and offer as one-off sessions (so you don’t have to commit to a 3-6 month engagement). I will still give people the option of ongoing coaching if that’s what works best for them.
• “Ask the Readers” feature – I’ll post a question or predicament from a reader, people can weigh-in in the comments.
• Short, 5-minute video interviews with people living “life after college” – focused on struggles and triumphs in different areas of life
• Weekly Life After College virtual tip collection buckets – with a chance to be featured in my book!
• Site map of best articles by category

I don’t yet know when I will implement all of the ideas above, but it makes me excited to think about all the ways to build out this website even further. If this summary sparks any new ideas or requests (or if you haven’t yet had a chance to participate), I’m leaving the survey open for a while longer.

Thanks again everyone!
Jenny

P.S. Speaking of feedback – check out the video testimonials I did for Rypple, a great Web 2.0 service that provides a clean interface for quickly gathering and reviewing feedback.

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First: Thanks are in Order!

Thank you to everyone who submitted a ballot for Ryan Stephens’ latest list of Top 10 Gen Y Blogs. Life After College moved up a spot this month to #5! You know me – I spent the day sending exclamation marks and emoticons out to the masses on Twitter to say thank you – but I wanted to make sure I also shared the news here on my blog. Thanks for your continued support and vote of confidence. It means the world to me.

I also wanted to point you to Ophelia’s Web, one of my favorite new blogs. This week, Elisa featured me as her #blogcrush (another fantastic series recognizing the great work people are up to), in a post that literally took my breath away. I am honored and humbled by the depth and complimentary review of my blog. Plus, I cracked up at being referred to as a “cupcake-loving brunette Elle Woods.” Thank you Elisa!

Second: A Small Request for 5 Minutes of Your Time

After almost two years of blogging, I’m collecting some long-overdue input from you about what’s working so far at Life After College and what type of content you want to see more of.

The feedback survey (created with Google Docs, what else?!) should take about five minutes to complete.

Please be candid – I am really open to feedback and want to make sure I am serving you as best as I possibly can. I’ve asked for name and email address so that I have the opportunity to follow-up, and for some basic demographic information so I know more about who my readers are.

Click here to get started. Thanks!

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Now that's what I call FROSTING! (Photo courtesy of Flickr)

Last week Ryan Stephens published his list of Top 10 Gen Y blogs. You – readers, friends, fellow bloggers – voted me #6. Number Six!!! I was jumping up and down like a school girl when I saw that. I would have been excited about an honorable mention. Heck, I was excited to be on the ballot in the first place. I called my parents and friends as if I had one the lottery.

More than ever and long overdue, I am compelled to express out loud the gratitude I feel every day.

Thank you.

Thank you to those of you who subscribe via email. Every time I see your name on my subscriber list, I smile and send you lots of happy thoughts.

Thank you to those who read in a feed reader - even though I do not know exactly who you are, I know you are out there! I’m honored to be among your (ever-expanding, I’m sure) list of blogs worth reading.

To those reading this blog for the first time – today, right now – welcome, and I look forward to getting to know you better!

Thanks for your insightful comments and your emails. Every one is like a little present in my inbox.

A special note to everyone on Twitter - you make every day exciting. You never cease to fill it with connection, humor, intelligence and resources. I hope I am able to do the same for you. I am always so thankful for all of the @replies, conversations, re-tweets and the #followfridays. Non-Twitter folk, have I lost you yet? If so, read why I think you should join the fun!

Thank you to those who have joined me and Jamie on one of our crazy cupcake tweet-ups, and to those who haven’t – either head out to SF or hopefully we will soon be at a city near you! (Read a great write-up of our most recent cupcake tweet-up by BrokeGradStudent.com)

Even before the Top 10 Gen Y Blogs nod, this post was inspired by a similar one at David Cain’s blog Raptitude. Thanks David, for your compelling writing and for such a sincere note to your readers. After reading it, I really felt I couldn’t have said it better myself.

This blog is my playground. A fun, energizing place that is helping me “live the dream” of creating value, sharing it, and (hopefully) making people’s lives better one little step at a time. Thank you for being great readers and great friends.

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Given that this is a shameless plug for Life After College, I’ll keep it short and sweet: I’m excited to announce that I am on Ryan Stephen’s June ballot for Top 10 Gen Y blogs! For a list of great blogs AND to vote for Life After College if you feel so inclined, click here, where you will find a full set of instructions and judging criteria. In short, you’ll select five blogs and email the list to ryanstephensmarketing(at)gmail.com no later than May 29th, 2009. Thanks in advance to those of you who send a vote my way!

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I’m really excited to share my very FIRST video interview with you, courtesy of Jun Loayza, Co-Founder and CMO of Future Delivery. The interview is part of his Awesome Bloggers video interview series at Viralogy, and I am honored to be one of his featured guests!

In the video I talk about working at the start-up company, running a marathon, my book, some thoughts about life and money, more on my post about achievement (as a blessing and a curse), a free coaching offer, and finally at the very end, a plug for Jamie Varon’s and my plans for World Cupcake Tweetup Domination. The video is about 15 minutes long. Enjoy!

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I’ve been having lots of fun lately with an online tool called Wordle. You provide a link or a chunk of text and it spits out a fun, interesting and customizable image, or word cloud. Words are displayed by size based on their frequency. Anything you create on Wordle goes into a gallery that you can then print or share with friends. The best part about Wordle is that after it spits out an image you can cycle through various formatting options, from colors to fonts to vertical or horizontal orientation, all with unique visual appeal. Check out the Wordle I created from the Life After College homepage:

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This one goes out to all my peeps on Google Reader (and those who subscribe via email). It’s time to jump out of the feed-i-verse and come visit my blog in a REAL web browser! I am excited to announce that I gave it an extreme makeover (everything but the tummy tuck).

Funny story about the history of the site and why this redesign is a big deal:

When I first conceived of the idea for this website almost four years ago, I had never heard of blogging. I just wanted something creative on which to practice the new CSS and HTML skills that I taught myself at the startup as our default webmaster. As an avid reader and information gopher, I had accumulated tons of resources about life after college and wanted to share them with others forging out on their own into the real world. So I built the framework for the site in HTML – about 50 pages – and then got tired. Designing and coding the site (the exciting part) was over. My next step was to write and fill-in the content, and I got writer’s block. FOR TWO YEARS.

That’s right, my beautiful website sat vacant on the Internet for two years with all the links in place, but placeholder text everywhere that said “insert description here.” Then a little over a year ago, someone emailed me. She was a fellow UCLA graduate and sent me the following email:

From one Bruin to another, great job on the website. I’m personally looking for answers re: life right now on the internet and all I found is this cute website. I wish you tons of success and the fact that you started this website inspires me that I can do a lot. Thanks for your 2 cents and initiative to start such a website!

Somewhat panicked, I checked my Analytics and lo-and-behold, I had gotten a steady trickle of 5-10 visitors a day searching for “life after college.” I knew it was time to fish or cut bait. I had to either take the whole thing down, or finish building out my content and actually take it seriously. Her email, seeing that I could inspire someone with even a half-baked site, gave me the push I needed to finish and launch Life After College.

So I worked like a mad-woman for two days adding links, books, and accompanying text to get the site up to snuff. I sent the launch announcement email to about 50 friends and family around 10 p.m. one night, and as I lay in bed something hit me. I was missing a major feature. So I jumped out of bed, figured out how to install a blog into my existing site, and stayed up almost all night making sure it came together before people checked their email in the morning.

The blog brought my website to life. It gave me a voice, and it helped me generate new, fresh content on a regular basis. It didn’t take long before I started ignoring the rest of the HTML pages, and about six months ago I realized that at some point I needed to take them down and switch everything completely to the blog. It just makes life easier, and HTML-based blogs are SO last year. So, friends – here we are! Starting today, Life After College has a new look. I’m breathing a sigh of relief, and enjoying the blog’s transformation as much as my own since this crazy journey began.

***

As a side note, I moved all of my book recommendations to a new location: check-out my very own mini Amazon!

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Today is the one-year anniversary of the Life After College Blog - wuhooo!!! It’s been a huge year. I spent some time reflecting on major milestones for me and the blog, my favorite posts, why I started this website in the first place and how it relates to my larger life purpose (as I currently see it).

A Few Milestones and Favorite Posts

On a personal level – I launched this website, bought a house, broke up with my boyfriend, completed training to be a life coach, became a manager at Google, held a personal 90-day No Car Challenge, ran a marathon, turned 25, bought myself a diamond ring, and signed on to lead and develop a workshop for women with five other amazing coaches in 2009. Those of you who I’ve corresponded with over email know that my personal mantra is “live big!”…I’m pretty sure this is it!

It’s been a big year for my blog too. It’s the first site that comes up if you Google “life after college” – and I get 500 hits from that exact search every month (not to mention the 500+ variations on that query). In the last month 2,800 people visited the site from over 81 countries, from Canada to India to Malaysia and Japan. In the last year I’ve gotten over 14,000 visits from 108 countries. I’ve written 80 posts and have 37 subscribers that I’m aware of (23 via email and 14 through feed readers – now go tell your friends so we can double those numbers!) While these traffic statistics may not be a lot compared to the big boys – I am proud and humbled that people are actually interested in what I have to say.

Check-out a few of my favorite posts if you just started reading (or want a refresher):

• Goals: Big Hairy Scary Goals, Sticky Goals, How to Create a Peer Support Network
• Happiness: Own the Day, Balance Within the Day, Enough, Uncover Your Passions
• Money: Money is a Means, Not an End, Craigslist as an Extra Income Dartboard
• Career/Work: The Power of Informal Interviews, If You’re Not Learning You’re Obsolete, Stress Happens: Whaddaya Gonna Do About it?
• Personal: Ten Books that Changed My Life, Q&A with Life After College (aka Me!), Lessons from a Day of Bugs
• Other: Workout Battles We Fight, Going Beyond the To-Do List, Web 2.0 Services I Love

Why I Started Life After College

I started this website because when I dropped out of school to help start a company with my mentor and five other college professors, I was clueless. I was smart and resourceful – but clueless, lonely and lost. While I was struggling to understand health insurance, my 401(k) and how to be a good employee, my friends were still partying and taking finals.

So I read and I researched and I set goals for myself. I became a student of personal finance, time management, organization, productivity, website development, career success, leadership, personal growth, goal-setting, vision, entrepreneurship, diet & exercise, learning & development, mindfulness and the art of happiness. I read books and took courses in all of the above. This year, as I went through 116 hours of coaches training, the connection between all of it became clear to me – I am fascinated by human potential. Personal growth isn’t a hobby – it’s a passion.

My Purpose on this Planet (as I Currently See It)

I believe my purpose, and by extension the purpose of this website, is to help others (young professionals and beyond) become their own best selves – to wake up and be fully present and alive in their lives through simple and practical exercises, structures and tips.

My purpose is to help others expand beyond limiting ideas of what’s possible and live big! To share my passion for personal growth with the world so that I can help people lead rich, balanced, happy and fulfilling lives. Per the motto of this website, no one ever said life is supposed to be easy – but then again, neither is anything worthwhile.

With that, Happy Birthday to Life After College, and thank you to all of my precious readers – new and old – for being with me on this journey!

All the best,

Jenny

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