Last updated: October 17, 2026
Disclosure: some links in this post are affiliate links, marked as sponsored. If you buy through them I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend services I have used myself.
The original post
Here it is, exactly as I wrote it on Christmas Eve 2005:
This is the first post on Josiah Cole.com.
That’s it. One sentence. The URL still carries the original title, “these things are sprouting like weeds”, which is how blogs felt in 2005. Most of the blogs from that year are gone. This one is still here.
Twenty years of posts
If you just landed here, this is a quick tour of the archive, one or two posts per era. Each one has been updated for 2026.
- 2007: A Webmaster’s 19 Commandments: My 2007 Rant, Revisited for 2026
- 2010: 19 Ways Business Owners Torpedo Their Own Website Project (2026 Update)
- 2010: I’m Stuck: A Random Design Idea Generator (and What I’d Build Today)
- 2012: WordPress Security Best Practices: My 2012 List, Updated for 2026
- 2014: Should You Use a Google Analytics Plugin for WordPress? (Updated for GA4)
- 2017: How to Choose a WordPress Plugin: My 15-Point Checklist (2026 Update)
- 2018: How to Clear the WP Engine Cache (User Portal, WP Admin, and API)
- 2019: Grill Brush Danger: Why Wire Bristles Belong Nowhere Near Your Food
- 2020: This Post Was Composed with LocalWP (Local by WP Engine)
- 2021: Keep Your Bar High: What a Stressful Client Meeting Taught Me
- 2021: Google Stadia Review: Looking Back at Google’s Cloud Gaming Experiment
- 2023: The Almost Perfect .htaccess File for WordPress (2026 Update)
- 2024: Lenovo Legion Go Review After 6 Months (and Where It Fits Next to the Legion Go 2)
- 2024: Pressable vs WP Engine: Which Managed WordPress Host Is Right for You?
- 2025: AI Image Generators in 2026: Which Service to Use for What
- 2025: How to Automatically Delete Old Gmail Messages with Google Apps Script
- 2026: Best Roku Alternatives in 2026, Now That Fox Is Buying Roku
I also post link dumps of bookmarks I want to share instead of hoard.
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FAQ
When did JosiahCole.com start?
The first post went up on December 24, 2005. The blog has been running, on and off, ever since.
What does this blog cover?
Mostly WordPress, web hosting and running a web business, plus gadgets, games, AI tools and whatever else I can’t stop thinking about.
Where should a new reader start?
The posts listed under “Twenty years of posts” above are a good tour. They have all been updated for 2026.