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Silicon Florist: One month as the florist

Rick Turoczy on September 12, 2007

Excuse me, if you will, as I step out of character. I wanted to take a second to chat with you.

Don’t look over your shoulder. You. Yes, you. Please, read on.

Right around a month ago, I decided to try a little experiment.

I felt the local coverage of small technology startups was somewhat lacking. I mean, I could thumb through international coverage on sites like TechCrunch and Mashable for once-in-a-blue-moon postings on Portland-area companies. And, I could read about larger startups in The Oregonian.

But none of those was really hitting the mark. So I decided to quit being part of the problem. And I tried to do my little part to help solve it.

That solution, from concept to first post, took an earth-shattering 35 minutes. And the Silicon Florist—a blog covering the small startups in and around Portland, Oregon—was born.

And so here we are, one month hence. And I’ve been pleasantly surprised.

No, that’s not true.

I’ve been shocked. Shocked with the reception. Shocked with the kind notes. Shocked with the participation.

I think I’ve struck a nerve. And I hope that I’m providing a valuable service for you readers out there.

I also thought it might be valuable to provide a little recap of what has happened in the past 30 days or so. I’m not setting any records, but I am seeing some interesting stuff.

Stats

  • 70+ posts
  • Flirting with 100 RSS subscribers at times. The current count is:
  • Nearly 2,000 visitors
  • 37% returning visitors
  • 70% of traffic comes from referring sites (Thank you to all of you who showed Silicon Florist the link love!)

Top cities by visitors

  1. Portland
  2. Seattle
  3. Beaverton
  4. Troutdale
  5. New York
  6. San Francisco
  7. Los Angeles
  8. Washington, DC
  9. Hillsboro (C’mon Hillsboro! Yeesh.)
  10. Atlanta

Top posts

  1. KATU Portland-blogger invites blanket the area
  2. Goboz launches Digg for Portland
  3. Roundup: KATU Portland-blogger meetup
  4. Jive Software secures $15 million… and moves blog to Clearspace
  5. Grabb.it releases incredibly cool interface for iPhone
  6. To-do: Name that stealthy Portland startup
  7. Video: OpenID and Digital Identity
  8. Reminder: Digital Identity and OpenID, tonight
  9. Rumor: Goboz looking to take on CitySearch
  10. Ignite Portland?

Portland-area blogs, groups, and products mentioned

Finally, thank you for reading. Thank you for subscribing to the feed. Thank you for sending your tips. Thank you for your participation.

I’m looking forward to continuing this little experiment as long as it remains interesting to everyone involved.

Published by Rick Turoczy

More than mildly obsessed with the Portland startup community. Founder and editor at Silicon Florist. Cofounder and general manager at PIE. Follow me on Twitter: @turoczy

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    […] Unthirsty, you ask? Well, truth be told, it’s actually one of the cool side projects that motivated me to start writing Silicon Florist. (But don’t tell Glaspey, because he’ll get all big-headed about […]

  2. Raise your glass to more acquisitions! Portland’s Unthirsty gets acquired | Oregon Startup Blog January 23, 2010 at 6:13 am

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  3. Web Things Considered » Weekly round-up September 14, 2007 at 9:23 pm

    […] Silicon Florist marks its first month – The best new blog around, if you live in the Portland area and are interested in web/tech, this is a must read. I left a comment about how reading Silicon Florist reminds me of the early days of TechCrunch, Read/Write Web, and Mashable when I was always anticipating the next post to see what great new stuff was coming. I’ve become a bit jaded following the general web 2.0 blogs lately, with their growing need to be businesses and post constantly, and I rarely get excited about anything that is posted there anymore, nor can I ever hope to keep up. So having a locally focused blog makes me feel so much more connected again. […]

  4. Ryan Williams September 13, 2007 at 11:33 pm

    Great work, I look forward to new posts like in the early days of techcrunch. Just don’t go mashable on us and post 20 times a day :-).

  5. Amy Winkelman September 13, 2007 at 3:08 pm

    As always, great stuff Rick — how you find time to blog so often and so well astounds me with everything else you have going on. Awesome stuff. Hey, where are those posters you owe me? 🙂

  6. User First Web » Congrats to Silicon Florist September 12, 2007 at 8:58 pm

    […] Turoczy marks one month of covering the Portland technology community on his blog Silicon Florist. I’ve come to rely on his blog and tend to look at his posts as soon as he notes them on his […]

  7. Betsy September 12, 2007 at 10:52 am

    Thanks for all that you do – keep up the good work!

  8. Marshall September 12, 2007 at 10:36 am

    Congrats on a great first month, Rick. Keep up the awesome work.

  9. Josh Bancroft September 12, 2007 at 10:12 am

    You’re filling a niche, and you’re doing it extremely well, with style. Keep it up – I’ve been subscribed from the beginning! 🙂

    Oh, and @Jeff, I’m off to check out pdxcompanies.com right now…

  10. Jeff the Great September 12, 2007 at 9:59 am

    Great blog, Rick. I have enjoyed it from day 1. Very rare for a new blog on the scene.

    Keep up the good work and I’ll keep reading.

    Jeff the Great

    P.S. I am one of the 80!

    P.S.S have you read my other blog, pdxcompanies.com lately? Return the favor bro! Just kidding…kinda.

  11. Mike Berkley September 12, 2007 at 9:11 am

    Thanks for filling the PDX tech coverage void, Rick! You’re doing a great job!

    Cheers,
    Mike

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