I wanted to let you know that the Weblog Awards made the official announcement yesterday, and the winner in the Best Design category goes to LJC FYI — which stands for “Little Jenny C, For Your Information.” Congratulations, Jenny! (Check out this page — it’s too cute!)

I’ve browsed through her blog a few times, and I’ve definitely become a fan. I hope you’ll go visit too! She’s been blogging since September 2000 — that’s over five years! I didn’t even know what a blog was until sometime last year — so I find Jenny’s site inspiring. She updates daily with fun projects and creative ideas — and she’s very artistic! I can’t wait to read more about her summer garden. (And she has adorable pets too.)

There are over 23 million blogs out there, but I read yesterday that many of them are abandoned; the average length for a blog is six months. Interesting…I’ve been blogging for almost three months now, and I feel like I’m just getting started — but who knows?

So I wanted to say thanks again to those who voted for me — my blog came in 6th out of 15 finalists. It was fun to watch my visitor stats go way up for a few days — though I’m hoping some of my new visitors will stick around and keep reading. One day the top two winners in my category posted their visitor stats — I was in awe! They have over 2500 visitors a day! Well, I’ve passed that mark this month — but it’s only because of the contest.

I’m glad to have a blogging mentor now. If you’re a blogger, do you have one? What’s your purpose for blogging? Does it matter to you how many visitors you have? If so, how can you increase your number of visitors? It’s worth your time to write out some goals for the coming year.

Yesterday, Stacy at Mind & Media posted a nice review of what she’s accomplished with her blog this year. If you’re interested in Christian book publishing, you’ll definitely want to go check out her post.