Oh dear! It seems with all the fuss of the Six Nations rugby, Mother’s Day and a gig I went to last Friday night, I have missed my blogs own birthday! I hope it will forgive me!

On March 10th, this site turned 4 years old. When I first started the site in 2009, it was a much more basic affair. I was using Google’s Blogspot format and whilst it provided me with the basics of what I needed to run my blog, it wasn’t getting the traffic or recognition I would have liked it to have had, due to its ‘immature’ appearance.

So last year I went over to WordPress, put my hand in my tight northern’s pocket and totally transformed the look of the site. I haven’t looked back since. Traffic has walloped up, and I have now been able to accommodate advertising space to help fund future projects both with this site and other things outside it.

During my four years of running DGB, the two most stand out points for this site has been the VEKA buyout of Bowater and Halo and my coverage of the lock snapping problem on the BBC. Both stories got record levels of page views and comments and really became a hub for discussion on both topics which were hugely important at that time.

I would also like to thank those that read this site on a regular basis and leave comments. It is your input that keeps this site going. I could always keep writing but if no one actually read what I wrote then the point of this site would be useless! So I thank you for all your loyal page views! Please keep coming back and tell your friends too!

I would also like to thank all my sponsors. Your input and valuable backing has allowed this site to grown and become one of the main sites of the whole industry, so for that I thank you and look forward to continuing to work with you so that it benefits us both!

Thanks must also go to those who tweet my links, mention me on Twitter and do anything else which drives traffic to the site. Your input is always appreciated and please keep it going!

So, four years down. What should I do to mark my fifth year?