Happy Birthday LBOI – One Year Behind The Scenes
February 18, 2010 | Thoughts & Words By Sneh Roy | 39 Comments
My first post on the LBOI blog a year ago, today was about Museo. A year later, my last post on the LBOI Blog was about a tap dancing banana called Coosh. What a year it has been! Exhilarating, busy, inspiring, enlightening and all kinds of whimsy.
For those who have not yet heard the story, this is how it all happened. "I was freelancing. I took a break. 5 years passed. I started a company with Nick. I started thinking, learning, exploring. The blog happened to channel all the creative energy. And here we are …"
Instead of innundating you with screenshots of my blog’s traffic and statistics, I thought why not talk about something more personal and light-hearted. After all the blog is very personal to me and I want to give you a little glimpse of my life and workplace, behind the scenes at LBOI. Stay with me as I ramble on about how happy I am to have stuck it out for a year and what an amazing ride it has been and what awesome people I have met along the way 
.
I am Sneh, as you all know from staring at my mug in the author box after each post I make. For as long as I can remember, people have butchered my name to smithereens, so I decided to stick it everywhere on the blog. Hard to miss it now, isn’t it? So, I am Sneh [pronounced S-nay-h] and not Snake, as I told the coffee girl who happily spelt it that way a few weeks ago. LBOI, short for Little Box Of Ideas came into existence in late 2005. Nick, my best friend of 15 years and husband of 9 came on board the company with me. We have two adorable sons aged 6 and 2.
Since its conception stage in 2005, LBOI and the brand it represents has gone through a number of changes, until 2009 when we finally set our identity and branding in stone. We wanted the LBOI logo to be bold and big, we also wanted it to be fun and meaningful. The typeface of the logo is custom, made up entirely of shapes. The "Owl" represents the fun aspect of our business, an inside joke. The two colors represent our two personalities and our favorite colors. Nick is blue and I am red. He is more rational, I am more passionate. He is cool and I am fiery. Hence the head of the owl is blue and the heart is red. The Little Box is essentially my baby, so the logo had to have a little box in red to seal the deal. We love our strong identity and have been fortunate enough to land some great corporate and small business branding and website projects with some wonderful clients.
I am fiddly about layouts and designs and even the arrangement of furniture in my home. I need to change it constantly, evolve it. 4 designs later, I think LBOI’s design is here to stay for a year at least. The one you are seeing right now is the 4th version and it still needs a few minor tweaks.
Things about LBOI you didn’t know!
1. One of the first business plans when we were about to register the company as LBOI, was custom built pirate-style treasure chests/toy boxes.
2. Every time I see the word "boil", my mind goes "lboi".
3. I almost registered the domain lboi.com for $4000 but didn’t have the money to spare.
4. LBOI has 3 new domains in the works, lboistudio.com; lboinetwork.com and lboi.mobi
5. LBOI’s first payment was on March 21, 2009 for a logo sold on Brandstack.
6. LBOI was accepted into an ad network [Buysellads.com] on August 18, 2009 and the first ad we sold through it was a week later.
7. LBOI is a big wooden table housing a PC and a Mac in the corner of a massive room overlooking a big backyard and the beautiful bush in Sydney, Australia.
8. The LBOI Blog sits on a dedicated server leased via The Planet running 2 processors on 4GB RAM and a 500GB hard drive.
9. The LBOI Blog started out on the WordPress server, but 3 posts later it was self-hosted on the WordPress platform.
10. This post that you are reading is the 240th post.
11. The first person to leave any comment on a blog post was Wilhelm Rahn from Venezuela. There have been over 2100 approved comments to date.
12. Till date I have conducted 22 interviews via LBOI.
13. LBOI has 406 fans on Facebook as I write this. Are you a fan yet?
14. LBOI has gone from 100 page views a month [mostly from me] to approximately 137,000 page views a month in one year. [Yep, I went ahead and logged into Analytics]
15. LBOI finally has 1500 RSS Subscribers. Are you a subscriber?
16. LBOI’s business cards still have the old logo and coloring. How many cards do we hand out in a month? 1 Maybe.
17. LBOI’s font of choice is Georgia.
18. LBOI’s favorite kind of posts are the ones through which I release lots of design freebies.
19. Most of LBOI’s visitors are aged between 18-24, which makes them considerably younger than me.
20. LBOI has done guest posts for My Ink Blog and Spyre Studios.
It is interesting what turns up when you google littleboxofideas.com
1. Google returns 3,840,000 search results.
2. Website Outlook places the worth of LBOI at $43106.5 USD and Price Of Web values it at $56702 USD.
3. 58 Amazing LOST Artwork recently featured on IMDB News.
4. Bloggers mention LBOI once every 32 hours … Really??
LBOI has been my salvation this past year. It has been liberating to write, create and design for LBOI. It is my stage for all things creative that had no outlet before LBOI was born. I have learnt so much and grown as a designer. That in retrospect has helped me become a better person. The 3 most important things I have learnt through blogging are being responsible for your words, the amazing power of networking and self-discipline. In the past year, I have made acquaintances with great people through my blog and through Twitter which has been very vital in my blog’s development.
To all those I chat with on Twitter, who vote for my posts, who leave comments, who put up with my wacky Project 365, who have something nice to say through email, who just read what I have to share, who watch my work, follow my design journey, my friends, my family and above all Nick, … my life is more enriched by your interactions and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Some of my amazing design/blogging friends have offered to write short tutorials and articles, some are kindly donating some freebies for LBOI’s birthday month. I am working on lots of fun freebies and resources too, to be given away this month. If you are interested in chipping in, please email me at sneh[dot]roy[at]littleboxofideas[dot]com. I’ll be most obliged. Thanks!
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/singing/ Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear LBOI, happy birthday to you!
Keep grooving! More inspiration, more drive and more great readers and friends. Stay cool!
lol!! I’ve never even noticed the owl in your logo!! very cool!
.-= Bonita´s last blog ..Whiskey Evening Comments and Photos =-.
Thanks you guys!
.-= Sneh Roy´s last blog ..Happy Birthday LBOI – One Year Behind The Scenes =-.
Good luck for the endeavors ahead. Glad to have known this blog..
.-= Tejas´s last blog ..Christopher-scott.com =-.
nice update – as you say more personal that a list of analytics . I just noticed your owl too thats funny – lying on its side . Well done, I hope I can be this successful in a year ,]
thanks Ben
.-= Benjamin Rama´s last blog ..7 Proven Ways to Boost Your Creativity =-.
Congrats and Happy B’day!!
wow… that was so awesome. It felt like I went on a journey. Happy birthday to your blog, Sneh.
The evolution was beautiful. You’ve worked so hard to bring LBOI up to what it is today and I congratulate you for that. And you’ve got a splendid office, so neat!!! :O
Well, You have perfectly started the 2nd year by writing an awesome post. Good Luck for the future. (^_^)
Wow, it’s a year, really? Congratulation to LBOI and you Sneh. Wish you success in new age with your LBOI. Keep growing and we always beside you!
.-= Lam Nguyen – AEXT.NET Mag´s last blog ..How to Pull Your Google Buzz with jQuery =-.
Happy Birthday! Congratulation to you, congratulation to LBOI as a whole! I wish constant inspiration for you!
And in Ukrainian: Vitayu z Dnem Narodzhennya, bazhayu postiynogo natchnennya!
Congratulation to Sneh and LBOI! The journey to reach the first birthday is definitely not easy and there’re bound to be lot of hard work and effort spend. All the best for the bright future!
.-= Aidan´s last blog ..Anatomy of Colors in Web Design: Yellow and the Sunshine Feel =-.
Hey Sneh!
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed your post. Loved your SOHO [small portion in your beautiful house] and good wishes for your blogs 1st birthday. I find your posts amazing and enjoy reading them as well.
Keep up the great work!
.-= Sandy´s last blog ..2010 Winter Olympic Games Logo Designs – Amusing Vancouver =-.
Hey Sneh! Congratz on one full year of blogging here at LBOI! This was a really interesting post – loved learning a bit more of what’s going on behind the scenes.
I hope that year 2 is even better for you!
.-= Matt Ward´s last blog ..6 Things that Designers Can Learn from the Olympics =-.
Congrats, keeping a blog up and running for a year is a ton of work.
Congratulations on making LBOI a success in less than 12 months,
SnakeSneh!Congratulations!! LBOI inspires me a lot.
.-= Arjun Phlox´s last blog ..» Teach Every Child About Food =-.
Congrats on 1 year. I can tell how much of yourself you put into each post. Keep up the great work and I look forward to another year of posts on LBOI.
.-= Lucas Cobb´s last blog ..CSS3 Is All It’s Cracked Up To Be =-.
Congratulations on your blog. Your work environment makes a lot of sense now. Your posts always seem to have ‘sunlight shining through’. Keep up the good work!
.-= Semblance´s last blog ..Use Print Finishes for a Finishing Touch. =-.
congrats sneh.. its a huge success in a year, go work sneh and your blog is a inspirational to all new bloggers like us
its good to hear new things about you and LBOI. i never know you have free wordpress site. its a really achievement !!
All the wishes for your blog and your family – Long Live !!
.-= sriganesh´s last blog ..Comic illustration by Brad Colbow =-.
This is one of my top favorite places on the net.
Congratulations Sneh!
.-= Nikola Lazarevic´s last blog ..21 Inspirational and Free Fonts for Beautiful Typedesign =-.
Happy Blog Birthday! I love your site, its been a great source of inspiration over the past year. I look forward to seeing where it goes from here. Keep up the good work, Sneh!
.-= JT Knight´s last blog ..Stonehill Cross =-.
Happy Birthday and congratulations!!
Your son took a great photo of the two of you. I imagine you’re both parents that will nurture any creative abilities your kids display…
.-= Manz´s last blog ..Electric Light Orchestra – Eldorado, A Symphony (1974) =-.
Happy Birthday LBOI! Keep up the great work Sneh. What you have achieved in such a shot period of time is astounding. You definitely deserve all the success that will no doubt come your way. Go the Aussies! (*cringe*):)
Hi Sneh, Congrats! I’m catching up to all the neat stuff that you do on your site. Sorry to miss out the past year. Thank you for sharing your history, it gives me hope to do as good of a job on inspiration that you have accomplished this past year.
You inspire me!
Best to you and LBOI!
A very refreshing read. I’ve seen a fair share of statistics and thank yous from from similar anniversary posts on other blogs but your spin on this post was awesome. It’s great to see personality behind a design blog and your site is quickly becoming one of my favorites. Here’s to many more years of success for you, Nick and the blog. Congrats!
.-= Chris Thurman´s last blog ..How to Build Web Cred as a Designer =-.
Happy Birthday, Sneh! Kudos to you, your husband and family. Thanks again for allowing my tutorial rambling to grace your blog. Perhaps we should do it again?
.-= Erik Ford´s last blog ..3 Simple Image Enhancements in Photoshop =-.
Happy B’day LBOI
Congratulations..!!! Keep up the good work Sneh!
-Deepu
.-= Deepu Balan´s last blog ..CSS Heart – A web designer way of wishing Valentine’s Day… =-.
A big congratulations to LBOI. You are really doing an excellent job. Oh, and that’s pretty cool that IMDB mentioned your post.
Keep up the great work.
.-= Design Informer´s last blog ..You Can Use CSS3 Right Now =-.
Thanks everybody for your kind words and wishes. I truly appreciate them
You guys keep me going!
Congrats and good luck. Really nice see how the blog has changed. Keep up the good work.
Happy Birthday Little Box Of Ideas Blog
Congratulations, Sneh! Truly an accomplishment for sure.
You wouldn’t know it from the beautiful workstation (a little too clean), but you have got to be the hardest working design blogger I know.
Thanks for letting me be a part of it
.-= Leighton Hubbell´s last blog ..I’ll say it again. It would have been cheaper to use a designer. =-.
A big congrats!! Your room looks so peaceful with all those windows and view.
Congratulations!
This is a very good blog. im a graphic designer so it’s so helpful
you are in my favorites bar!
xxx
@Luke thanks for the fun birthday song
@Ben thanks for your kind words
@Richie ah you are right, starting the new year off with a long post feels good
@Lam yep .. one year flew by so quick!
@Ostrov @Aidan @Bonita thanks very much my friends
@Sandy I am glad you enjoyed the little peek into my little world
@Matt @Brad thanks very much guys!
@Mathew you jokester!
@Arjun glad it helps in some way
@Lucas I try to, thanks for your kind words
@Semblance he he you noticed .. I do like bright and siry, surprisingly though my most productive times of the year are when it is cold, dreary and raining
@Sri Thanks for your well wishes
@Nikola ahh Nikola, that is a sweet thing to say
@JT thanks so much
@Manz Amanda, thanks for your kind words, we are very proud of him
@Duane Thanks mate! Go the Aussies indeed! *no cringing*
@Branwen thanks for your encouraging words. I am glad LBOI reaches out and helps designers and whoever is looking for a burst of inspiration
@Erik Thank you! Your tutorial was so awesome, thanks for writing for LBOI and yes, it would be an honor to have you on board for another article soon
@Deepu Thanks!
@Designinformer Thanks Jad! yeah was so cool .. imdb.com is like my most fav site and to see LBOI’s name in their news section was so cool
@Kawsar @Gary Thanks you guys!
@Leighton Thanks so very much! you are too kind
@Jay Thanks! That room looked like that because I picked up the mess my little boys make for that photo .. it usually looks like a toy museum/race track lol
We have to thank U a lot!! LBOI inspired me for my design journey since I met it. It was november 2009. Happy birthday LBOI and God bless you and your family, Sneh, for being such a lovely and creative person
My best wishes! (From Brazil) (:
your blog is a Aquarius
. Happy birthday! (with delay)and off course, keep the inspiration coming!
PS: You are H O T!
There is lot to learn from blogs like yours. Keep Up the great work
.-= Nikunj Tamboli´s last blog ..Fantastic Wallpapers Collection For Your Desktop =-.
Felicidades!!
muy bonito blog,
lo sigo desde hace poco
Saludos