Time flies.
It had been four years now. Suanne and I said Hello World on January 5th, 2006. Looking back on all this time, chowtimes.com had changed a lot. So had Suanne and I.
2009 had been a year of tremendous growth for the site. Last year, we had managed to doubled the traffic from the previous 3 years combined. Some of you will remember that chowtimes.com disappeared from the blogosphere in May 2009. That was when we were kicked out (without warning!) by our cheap hosting company for having too much traffic. So we were forced offline for 8 days while we migrated the entire blog (49GB and 39,000 files). And during the 8 days, Google thought that we no longer existed and dropped us entirely from their indexes. Our readership plummeted and we were back to square one. Long story short, it took 6 months for the traffic to recover entirely.
Suanne and I enjoyed blogging a lot. Often it also felt like a real second job with deadlines and projects. What we enjoyed most is the interactions we had with our readers. In the process, we had learned a lot not just about food and in many other ways. If there is just ONE thing that we are thankful for, it is all the great friends we had made along the way.
Suanne and I tell ourselves that we will one day wake up and decide that we will do something else. Nothing in this world is permanent. But that day is still way beyond the horizon.
For this 4th anniversary of chowtimes.com, Suanne and I want to say a big thank you for all the support each of you have given us … fully realizing that without your support, chowtimes.com would not have been where we are today. Please continue to give us your feedback on how we can improve.
Anyway, I thought I pull together some lists (I love lists!) of the happenings on chowtimes.com:
Most Read Posts (Q4 2009)
- Garlicky Spinach Balls
- Chef Hung Taiwanese Beef Noodle in Aberdeen Centre, Richmond
- Bin 941 Tapas Parlour on Davie and Burrard, Vancouver
- How to Cook Basmati Brown Rice
- Steamed Banana Cake
- Whipped Shortbread Cookies
- Toshi Sushi on East 16th Ave and Main, Vancouver
- Les Faux Bourgeois on Fraser and 15th Ave, Vancouver
- Taiwan Beef Noodle King on Oak St., Vancouver
- Steamed Rice Cake
- Chinese Sponge Cake
- Moist Chocolate Cake
Top Commenters (All Time)
- LotusRapper (317)
- Chubbypanda (305)
- Jessica (153)
- RobynT (95)
- Windy (92)
- Jennifer (85)
- Chris (80)
- sally (70)
- Erick (59)
- etranger (56)
- Rosa (52)
- tigerfish (52)
- kevin (51)
- chinchyesek (48)
- fmed (46)
- Jonnek (46)
- Koji (41)
- Gigi (39)
- Kirk (38)
- ET (37)
50 Most Commented Posts (All Time):
- Moist Chocolate Cake – 103 comments
- Steamed Banana Cake – 85 comments
- Steamed Rice Cakes (Pak Thong Koh) – 62 comments
- Sweet Soy Pudding (Tou Foo Fa) – 58 comments
- How Much Do You Tip? – 51 comments
- Chinese Sponge Cake – 48 comments
- Any Tips For Vacation To Seattle? – 45 comments
- Fresh Fruit Cake – 42 comments
- Chef Hung Taiwanese Beef Noodle in Aberdeen Centre, Richmond – 42 comments
- Wilton Cake Decorating Level 1 – 40 comments
- Shawarma from Abdul’s on Kingsway – 37 comments
- Shredded Dried Pork (a.k.a. Meat Floss) – 35 comments
- Steamed Rice Cake – 35 comments
- Singapore-Malaysia Trip: Old Town Kopitiam – 34 comments
- 12B Underground Kitchen – 34 comments
- Kuejadas (Portuguese Tart) – 30 comments
- Bak Kwa – 29 comments
- Steamed Moist Chocolate Cake – 29 comments
- Tenku Bakudanyaki — Richmond’s Answer to Vancouver’s Japadog? – 27 comments
- Farewell Merienda and Balut – 25 comments
- Dulcinea Chocolate Cafe on Denman, Vancouver – 25 comments
- Kah Hee, 1933 – 2006 – 24 comments
- chowtimes.com Turns Two – 24 comments
- Japadog in Downtown Vancouver – 24 comments
- Pineapple Bun (Polo Bun) – 23 comments
- Hawker’s Delight on Main St, Vancouver – 22 comments
- Oyster Motoyaki – 22 comments
- Taiwanese Cuisine on Sexsmith Road, Richmond – 22 comments
- Chocolate Yogurt Cake – 21 comments
- Singapore-Malaysia Trip: Wing Heong Dried Meat – 21 comments
- Ziploc Omelette – 21 comments
- Tim Tam – 20 comments
- Seville: Bullfighting – 20 comments
- Man Ri Sung Korean Restaurant on Clarke Road, Coquitlam – 19 comments
- Chowtimes Readers Dinner: Anyone Interested? – 19 comments
- Garlicky Spinach Balls – 19 comments
- Lam Hoa Quan on Victoria Drive at East 34th Ave, Vancouver – 19 comments
- Egg Custard Tarts – 18 comments
- Mango Pudding – 18 comments
- Pho 99 Restaurant in Richmond – 18 comments
- Frappe Bliss in Aberdeen Center (And What Happened To Chowtimes) – 18 comments
- Bool Chul Pan Korean Hot Grill on North Road, Coquitlam – 18 comments
- Cassava Cake (Kuih Ubi Kayu) – 17 comments
- Seattle: Popeyes Chicken and Biscuits in Burlington – 17 comments
- Steamed Pandan Cake – 17 comments
- Splitz Grill on Main St in Vancouver – 17 comments
- Cho Sun Korean BBQ on Kingsway, Vancouver – 17 comments
- Jumbo Sushi on No 3 Road, Richmond – 17 comments
- Meok Ja Gol (MJG) Korean Barbeque Restaurant on Kingsway and Nelson, Burnaby – 17 comments
- Teahouse in Stanley Park – 17 comments
Congratulations on your 4th year anniversary.
Hey, I noticed I tied fmed with 46 comments. I would have beaten him if my previous comments using my old handle were added. 🙂
Congratulations Ben & Suanne. 🙂 From such a humble start…look at where you are now.
My 1st year ann is coming up sometime in Feb. 😐
Keep up the great work! I have followed the blog for awhile and found the reviews to be invaluable whenever I’m in town.
Happy 4th, Chowtimes !!! It seems just like yesterday that you were a newb blogger [wink]
OMG … I’m the most frequent commenter ?!? [blush] GO, Chubbypanda …. GO !!!
At least on here I’m not like I am on a different website where I have close to 20,000 posts ……….
Keep up the good work, your site is a great read
Congratulations! Just reading your most read posts makes me hungry.
Congratulations and happy birthday, Chow Times! Keep the posts coming!!
Congrats! Wow, 4 years is very, very long in internet years! =)
You and Suanne are true pioneers in the food blogging scene (…and not just here in Vancouver). Congratulations on a very inspirational four years!
Ben & Suanne, visiting your site is often the highlight of my day! Please continue to share your food experiences and treasured recipes with us!
As for suggestions for improvement, I refer you to the idea I sent a few months back: indexing just the titles (hyperlinked) of each post for quicker browsing. 🙂
Hi Marike: I still remember that suggestion. As a matter of fact, I was working on it on Sunday. It will be along the lines of what you see when you click on “Site” at the top of chowtimes.com. I need programming help for sure. This is actually on my top three site improvement because I know there are so many posts on the site now that I must find a way for the new reader to keep track of what is read and what is not. Stay tuned.
Ben
Happy Birthday Chowtimes! Thanks to a friend I discovered CT in early summer this year and I visit almost everyday. It’s fun to both read (and often drool at) the reviews/recipes and actually trying them out.
Hope to see 4 more years and more!
Happy anniversary Chowtimes! I enjoy reading your blog tremendously and have got a few others addicted as well hehe. Keep up the great work 🙂
Happy Anniversary! It’s always great to visit your site as I get a glimpse of Canada, and your photos are always inspiring :). Haven’t been to Canada before and I want to go!
I hope that my blog will also be 4+ years old later on. Just reached one :). Quite shocked at the amount of spam you had; I guess I’ll be getting more as time goes on?
Happy Blogga-versary Ben! Four years is enternity in the Blog world.