Well folks, today marks the official 6m anniversary of my blogging journey from noob to newbie+ It hardly seems like half a year ago that I was buying my first domain, investigating this WordPress thingy – and planning on writing some stuff about Windows Phone.  Amidst the turmoil of the NoDo deployment I commenced my reporting of Windows Phone in Australia – and it’s strangely fitting, that 6 months later I write this during the tranquil and beautiful Mango coloured dawn rising over Windows Phone customers around the world.  It’s been a thoroughly satisfying time for me – and hope that I have been able to add some value, contribute to and support the Australian Windows Phone community here – and abroad.  Excuse me a few moments of reflection please

When I first started blogging, I aimed to “give it a crack”, with some fuzzy and semi-formed ideas of building from the small yet tight-knit community of WP7 enthusiasts and developers at the Whirlpool Forums here in Australia.  Featuring, promoting and helping local Dev’s get some WP7 coverage, engaging Microsoft, OEM’s and Carrier’s on constructive criticism, positive feedback and questions were just some of the things I set out to do.

Redmond US WP7 team break out the bubbly for WPDownUnder

Through this time there have been a number of fellow bloggers and WP7 Dev’s that have helped me considerably.  Also – the Redmond Windows Phone team have been incredible, being prepared to engage and feedback to a newb Aussie Blogger from a never heard-off site.  On that note, I would like to send a huge shout out to these folks (sorry if I missed anyone – kick me up the a$$ in the comments section please!), both local and overseas, whom have helped me enormously in my endeavours:

• Brandon Watson, Ben Lower, Matt Akers, Brian Seitz, Michael Stroh and Dave Glover from Microsoft.
• Peter Murphy, Travis Pope, Andrew Birch, Matt Marlor and more recently Saijo George and Jubbin Grewal – fellow tech Bloggers.
• Niall Ginsbourg and David Gordon – Long Zheng (Geez I love Metrotwit!) and Chris Walsh (Chevron fame).
• Daniel Rubino and Danny Allen of WPCentral and GIZ_AU (and teams).
• Dave McLauchlan (ex MS, now Buddy.com), Ryan & Travis Lowdermilk of the amazing WPDEVPODCAST show/site,
• Glen Roberts and barrymoves – vocal supporters from Day 1.

In addition to these, I want to thank all the assistance from Australian carriers, Microsoft support, all the local Developers and course all the readers – new or old, casual or regular.

So with that all out-of-the-way, rather than re-hash old articles or news, I thought I’d just share some feedback on some of WPDownUnder’s blog stats and demographics of all you readers out there

Page-Views JUN-OCT 2011. 3 days alone in OCT total more than all of my first 2 months!

Spread of Visitor's locations over the past 30 days.

and some Metrics:

So here’s to the next 6 months.  I hope you have got something out of your time spent on my Windows Phone Blog, and look forward to your continued support post Mango on the eve of an exciting time for the platform.  Generation two handsets, Nokia and Windows 8 / WP Apollo+Tango into 2012 will certainly be great to cover.

In the meantime, I encourage you to share your feedback – positive or negative (anyone can comment), join the forums, fill out the contact forms and get your App added to my DevHub if you are a local Developer and subscribe to my RSS on the front page – or follow me on Twitter @WP_DownUnder.

Thanks all

Sheeds.