I was hoping this was going to be a real breakdown and analysis of why things turned around for this blogger. For example, topics he wrote about then which he doesn't anymore or how his user base has changed compared to then.
Unfortunately, it lacks any real content and depth - it may as well have been written for Reader's Digest.
Fair point - in fact, I suggested on my blog that it may be a bit simplistic (or a confusion of correlation/causation) to simply say "my blog is successful because I stopped trying to make it successful": http://ashotofjd.com/post/168062040/marco-i-now-have-a-decen...
At first I tried hard to make my blog well-integrated and popular. I used all the usual SEO techniques and developed a mass of followers. Once I was there, I stopped caring about these things and voila - I am still popular. My position as lead developer of Tumblr might be related.
I started reading Marco's posts because he wrote Instapaper, released an iPhone application, and generally produced.
My expectation is that the less time he spent on gimmicky SEO crap, the more time he had to actually make things that someone like me pays attention to.
Unfortunately, it lacks any real content and depth - it may as well have been written for Reader's Digest.