On February 1, 2010, we launched our site with a post, Life As A Human Has Begun in which we said:

“That idea was to build a place, this website, which would present excellent writing across a wide range of topics. A place that would not feature sensationalism, but that would always strive to be sensational.”

Today, two years later, we celebrate our second birthday. It’s been an amazing journey so far and I just wanted to take a few minutes to describe where we are at and to express my thanks to many.

Where We Are

Our site has enjoyed constant positive feedback from it’s readership and to us, that is single most important metric. Here are a few other metrics of what we have achieved.

• As of this moment, Life As A Human has published 1,866 articles written by over 100 authors, from around the world.
• We are ranked as #45,932 of the top million sites in the USA and #3,330 of the top million sites in Canada. It’s important to note that there are hundreds of millions of websites in North America.
• We have been host to over 958 thousand visitors who have read close to 2 million pages.
• We have transferred over 2.7 terabytes of data and for those of you who still think about hits, we have had 122 million hits.

While numbers don’t tell the the whole story, they are useful to us as they spell out our growth in measurable terms. And while there have been ups and downs, we have grown steadily since the days of our first articles.

As you can see in this chart, things are really picking up … we’re just getting warmed up!

Thank You …

To our authors, for everything you have brought to the table. Your words, your pictures, your ideas and your willingness to be a part of our online magazine as we have gone through our growing pains. It has been particularly rewarding to develop friendships with so many of you.

To our readers, for your continued support of our website through your readership, your comments, the encouraging emails that many of you have sent in to us and for telling your friends about Life As A Human.

To our fans in Twitter, Facebook and Stumbleupon, for sharing our site, individual articles and photos with all of your friends.

To the many site enablers we have worked with on everything from the style-sheets for the site to featured widgets, to SEO and so much more. Many of you have provided a great deal of help and encouragement to us.

To all of the photographers and artists out there who generously share their work through creative commons. Our pages would be pretty bare without you.

And last but not least, to the Life As A Human Team and their families, for all of the time you have invested in bringing this site to where it is today. Many of our readers are not aware that we all do this from our homes in the evenings, early mornings and weekends, after our day jobs and family commitments are looked after. Our journey has not always been an easy one, but I can’t think of a better team to navigate rough waters with. You have all done such an excellent job.

All of you have played a part in our success and we are very grateful!

And so, we enter into our third year. In 2011, we launched the Photo Site and the Art Gallery. Between the 3 sites, we look forward to bringing you more and more great content and engaging in more and more conversations with you. As always, we invite your feedback and encourage you to leave comments for our authors as they post new articles and images.

2 years old … we’ve come a long way, but we’re just a toddler really. This year, we learn to run

Photo Credit

Birthday Cake – Microsoft Office Clip Art Collection

Life As A Human Is Two Years Old! is a post from: LIFE AS A HUMAN

On February 1st of last year, we crawled out onto the internet with a post that read: Life As A Human Has Begun!

It seems like only yesterday that we said:

‘To our readers, today we have launched the site with seven articles. In the days, weeks and months to come, you will be introduced to a group of excellent authors from around the world. We will also present you with talented photographers, movie-makers, artists and musicians. Through their articles, posts and comments, you will get to know them, and they will get to know you.’

So how did we do in our first year?

Check it out! Using round numbers, we have:

- Posted 1225 articles through the contributions of 71 regular authors and about 30 guest authors.

- Received 4513 comments from our readers.

- Gone from obscurity to being in the top 7.8% of the top million sites in the USA and .4% of the top million Canadian sites.

- We’ve had 650,000 page views and close to 30 million hits!

- Received tremendous feedback from our readers and were selected by the Canadian Weblog Awards as first place winners in the Group Weblog category and third place winners for Best New weblog.

It’s been a great year and it has been a privilege for us to work with such great contributors every day. We are no longer crawling, we have learned to walk!

To celebrate, we have launched another site!

Life As A Human Photography officially went live today. Our very own Christopher Holt is the Photo Editor and I know he would love to hear from you so please be sure to surf by and check it out. We are looking for guest contributors so if you are a shutter bug, we know you’ll be interested in that too.

What’s Our Birthday Wish?

We have one wish on our birthday wish list. Please share us! Most of our growth has been organic fueled by our readers sharing our site with their friends and families. At the bottom of every article, there is a share bar that makes it easy to share our articles. There are further sharing options at the bottom of your browser on every page.

If you use any of these social media mechanisms, please share us! If you don’t use social media, then please e-mail your friends about us.

We thank you in advance

Thank You!

To achieve all of this has been a tremendous amount of work. But, without the ongoing contributions of our authors and the support of our readers, none of it would have been possible. The Life As A Human team thanks you all for your support, your readership and your engagement through comments.

We know you will enjoy the upcoming articles at Life As A Human and the photography at Life As A Human Photography. Please never hesitate to let us know if there are ways we can better serve you.

Our Very Best Wishes To You!

Your Life As A Human Team

Life As A Human Is One Year Old! is a post from: LIFE AS A HUMAN

On July 19th of last year at about 11:30PM, an idea was born. That idea was to build a place, this website, which would present excellent writing across a wide range of topics. A place that would not feature sensationalism, but that would always strive to be sensational. A place that would endeavor to provide help to people who need it through a practical philanthropic effort.

Within a week of that idea, our team was built, and we have been working hard ever since to turn that idea into something real. It has been an honor and a privilege to work with this vibrant and dedicated team. Six months later, this is the fruit of their labor. It’s February 1, 2010 and our doors are finally open.

Life As A Human has begun!

To say that the writing community has expressed a great deal of interest in Life As A Human would be an understatement. Right from day one we have had tremendous feedback, all of which has been positive and encouraging.

We want to thank all of the contributors who have embraced our vision. Their support and the trust they have placed in Life As A Human has been extraordinary. Without them, these pages would be, well, pretty empty.

A huge thank you also goes out to all of our social media friends. Thank you so much for your tweets, stumbles and Facebook posts. Please don’t stop.

To our readers, today we have launched the site with seven articles. In the days, weeks and months to come, you will be introduced to a group of excellent authors from around the world. We will also present you with talented photographers, movie-makers, artists and musicians. Through their articles, posts and comments, you will get to know them, and they will get to know you.

Every day, new articles will appear in our Recent Articles section. As they do, the contributors’ names in the Authors link in the navigation bar will become click-able and you will be able to see their profiles and submissions. As well, you will see the Categories section grow very quickly over the next few weeks.

And so, with that said, welcome to Life As A Human! We hope you visit often and provide us with feedback and new ideas born of that wonderful quality called human creativity.

Cheers,

The Life As A Human Team

Photo Credits

Public Domain Photo – courtesy of  PDPhoto

Life As A Human Has Begun! is a post from: LIFE AS A HUMAN

We are very excited about that!

Behind the scenes, your Life As A Human team have been busy little bees signing up authors that we know you will love. There has been a tremendous amount of interest about our little project and many of you have shown your support for which we are very grateful!

It won’t be long now before we open the doors to the collective efforts of some wonderful writers, each with a focused perspective, contributing their unique insights on all varieties of the human experience.

We are also looking forward to embarking on our philanthropic mission, getting to know and providing help to those who need it most.

So stay tuned … Life As A Human will launch on Feb 1, 2010.

Until then, be safe and laugh lots!

The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.- Mark Twain

See you soon!

Life As A Human Will Begin On Feb 1, 2010 is a post from: LIFE AS A HUMAN

This promotion ended on February 28th.

Thanks to all of your who participated and promoted it!

Look for more promotions from Life As A Human in the coming months.

Thanks and cheers,

Your Life As A Human Team

Register for a free subscription and a chance to win $500.00!

Each month from November 2009 to January 2010, we drew for a $250.00 prize which was awarded to someone who signed on board as a Life As A Human reader. Until midnight tonight (Jan 31) you can still enter for the January draw. From February 1 to 28, all new and previous registrations with Life As A Human qualify for our $500.00 grand prize to be issued at the end of February. All you need to do is click here to register for a free subscription with Life As A Human and a chance to win!

If you have been referred by a friend, please use this link instead of the one above – http://lifeasahuman.com/signup/signup.php

If you have questions, please read our FAQ below for more information.

Life As A Human – Contest FAQ

1 – What is Life As A Human?

Life As A Human is a web publication that comments on, critiques & celebrates the experience of being human. Think of us as a social hub for all aspects of the human experience. We will cultivate good writing that illustrates our humanity in unique ways through compelling stories that defy categorization. It’s about all of us!

You can read more here: About Life As A Human

2 – Will you be spamming me with e-mails?

No, we believe spamming and selling lists is – well – inhuman!

3 – When you launch on February 1, how often will you be e-mailing me?

Starting February 1, we will send out a weekly digest. Eventually you will be able to specify if you want daily, weekly, bi-weekly or monthly digests sent to you.

4 – Will there be a subscription fee and, if so, how much?

No! There will not be a subscription fee. Life As A Human is free to all of our readers!

5 – Can I unsubscribe?

Yes! We know you’ll enjoy Life As A Human in your in-box, but in case you don’t, as of February 1, you will be able to come to the site anytime and unsubscribe.

6 – Will my e-mail address be shared with others?

Heavens no! Your e-mail address will remain confidential and not be shared with any other subscribers or third parties.

7 – Will you publish the contest winners’ names?

If you are a winner, we will send you a private e-mail to let you know. We will not publish the winner’s names unless they give their permission. Of course, we hope you’ll let the world know with a Tweet or a post at your favorite social media site!

8 – What’s with the friend referral thing?

If a friend who is already signed up referred you, please let us know by placing a check-mark in the “A Friend” box and providing their e-mail address. By doing so, you increase your friend’s chances of winning because we’ll add his or her name to the draw again.

If you refer friends, make sure you let them know to do the same for you so your chances of winning increase as well!

If you have been referred, please use this link instead of the one above – http://lifeasahuman.com/signup/signup.php

Good luck with the draw!

Register for a free subscription with Life As A Human and a chance to win $250.00!

Click here to register!

Register for a free subscription with Life As A Human is a post from: LIFE AS A HUMAN