In 2005, I honestly didn’t think this blog would ever have the staying power and reach that it’s shown today. In the past year, we’ve seen a huge leap in both traffic and attention paid to Catavino. What began with only a few hundred visitors a month has now grown to almost 10,000! Along the way, we’ve also created a strong community, found ingenious ways to make a little money, and have started conversations with many people who are also starting to “break out” in the blogosphere.
2007 can also lay claim to start of two new projects: one that needs to grow and develop, and another that is becoming a nice catalog of who we are. Wineblogger.info is dedicated to all of us who are blogging our hearts out about wine, hosting approximately 90 wine blogs to date and still growing! If your not listed, please let us know. We’d love to have 100 wine blogs on there before the New Year. Here’s the list so far:
Catavino – Winecast – LENNDEVOURS – Vinography – DrVino – The Cork Board – Grape Thinking – Wannabe Wino – The Calwineries Blog – Wilf’s Wine Press – Good Wine Under $20 – Tinto y Blanco – Grape Juice – Gollywinedrops – Jamie Goode’s Wine Blog – The Cork Dork – De Long Wine Moment – Fermentation – Professor Bainbridge On Wine – Passionate Foodie – Sokol Blosser – Pinotblogger – Spitton – Twisted Oak Winery – Vivi’s Wine Journal – Domaine 547 – The Cru SA – The Wine Collecter – Gare aux Goûts – Wine Culture – Tales of a Sommelier – West Hills Wine Blog – REthink Wine Blog – Basic Juice – Bubble Brothers – Domaine de la Gramiere Blog – Wine Blog Atlas – Wine Enthusiast’s Unreserved – Wine-Girl – Tinto Records – Steep Creek – Drucket – Celebrate Wine – One Wine Per Week – Israeli Wine Direct – Confessions of a Wino – Vino Pigro – Wine and Stories from the Vineyard – Snooth’s Blog – Winefly Selection – Sobre Vino – Berry Bros. & Rudd – Wine in Sweden – Wine Traveller – Vinilicious – Wine Library TV – Vine Views – Grape Matters – Through The Walla Walla Grape Vine – Winery_Times – Grande Passione – The Wino Club – The Good Grape – Wine Farmer – Notes from the Pond – Winehiker Witiculture – West Hills Wine Blog – Food and Wine Blog – VinoVerve.blogspot.com – Wine-Scamp – Better with Vino – Abadia Retuerta Winery – Wine Canine – Road to Port – Aristide – Roda do Vinho – Wine Without Borders – Bordoverview – Chateau Petrogasm – West Coast Wine Country Adventures – Interwined – The Best of Wines – Irish Wine – UK Wines Online – Juno Maidens – Wine Sediments – Sharon Wine – Wine Rendezvous
The Wine Blog Atlas, on the other hand, is evolving a bit slower. In the New Year, we’ll be launching a new piece of software that we’ve designed to allow bloggers to actually interact with the map. The objective being that it will allow bloggers to promote themselves in new, more interesting ways. (Anyone with design skills and free time, please contact me if you’re interested in helping us out. We need all the support we can get!).
But for now, as the New Year encroaches upon us, I’d like to throw out a few questions:
- How far have we as wine bloggers come over the past year, and what are your predictions for the New Year?
- Also what things do you think that bloggers should be trying harder to do in 2008?</li
- I asked the question about what makes a wine blogger a professional and had some very interesting responses. Do you think we’ll see more “pros” in 2008? Is there anything that we should be working on as a group to further push our influence? I honestly think that Tom Wark’s bloggerviews have really helped to elevate us all, as a group, by putting a face with the blogs we write.
I do have to say that I’m honored to be a part of what I see as the most exciting and soon to be influential sector in the wine world today. Personally, my predictions to the questions above are the following:
- Bloggers, outside of those that are tied to a magazines or newspapers, will see an increase in samples and solicitations from wineries for articles and coverage.
- At least 2 bloggers will be approached or hired by a mainstream wine journal to be contributors or to blog for them directly.
- We’ll see at least one more video wine blog receive attention at a level similar to WineLibraryTv
- At least one winery will jump into the main stream media spotlight because of their blog.
As for what I think needs to happen in 2008! I think a few more bloggers need to take themselves more seriously and try to “go pro”. I would love to see enough support from big name wine accessory companies and lifestyle advertisers so that more bloggers can find a way to make blogging a full time job, working to reach a larger audience. I hope that 2008 sees a shift in advertising from the high priced wine mags to small independent content producers who are putting up high quality stories, daily. (Yes, we are hoping to finally make a buck!)
Please write a post and send us a trackback, or leave us a comment with your thoughts. I want to hear what fellow blogggers think, but more importantly, I want to hear from wine retailers and consumers who are the ones we are hoping to influence most!
Cheers,
Ryan Opaz
