Celebrating 15 Years of the Arkus Blog

It’s hard to believe, but this Summer marks fifteen years since the Arkus blog came into existence. In blog-years, that’s like celebrating a lifetime, one filled with growth spurts, awkward adolescence (including a few cringe-worthy moments), and good memories. What started as a humble side project in 2010 has grown into a major content hub for the Salesforce community and beyond. So grab a cup of coffee and join me on a trip down memory lane as I reflect on our years of Arkus blogging.

Humble Beginnings with Google Wave

Our epic saga origin story begins on July 26, 2010, with a tool many have forgotten. I wrote the very first Arkus blog post on Google Wave. If you don’t even remember what that is, it would not surprise me. It was Google’s short-lived collaboration platform. At the time, Arkus was a brand-new company with three co-founders and one brave intern and we were all the marketing department. This was a time when Blogs were the go-to move for a young tech company looking to get noticed, so we threw our hat into the blogging ring and trusted that our insights on productivity and technology would attract a following.

Blogging on a Shoestring Budget

We had virtually no marketing budget in those early days, so the blog was our marketing plan, along with our similarly new podcast. The purpose of the blog was simple: share useful content and drive some search (SEO) traffic our way. If we couldn’t spend dollars on ads, we could spend time on writing. I personally cranked out a new post almost every other week for quite a while. It was a labor of love (and sometimes caffeine), but it worked. Slowly but surely, people searching for Salesforce tips or productivity hacks began to discover our site. 

As the blog gained traction, we kept going. Arkus began to grow and so did our archive of posts. Blogging regularly helped establish credibility for our growing company and created resources we could share with clients and the community. It was classic content marketing before we even knew to call it that. The voice of Arkus got a little louder with each post.

The Arkus Flare: Everyone’s a Blogger

One quirky aspect of our early blogging culture was something we nicknamed “Arkus Flare.”  We baked blog writing into our company DNA. If you worked at Arkus in the early days, you were expected to contribute a handful of blog posts each year as part of your personal goals. Flare, or Flarkus as it came to be known, was our version of team spirit, and yes, it was a riff on the “flair” from Office Space. But Arkus Flare wasn’t about wearing goofy buttons. It was about sharing knowledge and the unique expertise of our team through writing.

Did this make every employee an author? You bet. The result is a blog filled with diverse voices and topics from our entire team, not just the founders’ thoughts. Of course, as we grew, we eventually eased up on the Flare requirements for our team, but those early years set the tone. Writing became a company-wide habit, and it has built a rich archive of content that we’re still proud of today.

Fifteen Years, 700+ Posts Later

The Arkus blog has covered a wide range of topics over the past fifteen years, all aimed at helping readers do more with technology (and occasionally, with life in general). Some of the areas we’ve written about include:

Salesforce Tips & How-Tos: We love sharing practical advice for Salesforce admins and users. One of our most popular posts is a deep dive demystifying Salesforce record types. Amazingly, this post still gets tons of hits every month.  

Productivity & GTD: Productivity is in our DNA, thanks in part to the Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology that many of us follow. We’ve shared our favorite productivity hacks, app recommendations, and even personal workflows. We’ve reviewed books on productivity and time management. I may or may not have an entire post extolling the virtues of inbox zero. Okay, I definitely do. Find the full archive of GTD posts here. 

Client Success Stories: Some of my favorite blog posts over the years are our success stories where we highlight a project or outcome achieved by one of our clients. Find our success story archive here. One of our latest additions is Erin Ramirez's story about our work with the Kiewit Luminarium. 

Jason’s Yearly Predictions: For about a decade, I’ve made a tradition of posting annual tech predictions each January – peering into my crystal ball about Salesforce, Apple, Google, you name it. Some years I nailed it, and other times… well, let’s just say my prognostication skills were hit-or-miss. Reading back through those prediction posts is equal parts enlightening and amusing. (I’m still waiting for that one prediction about the Salesforce AI butler to come true. Any day now, I’m sure.) See what came true here.

Podcast Crossovers: Our blog has written history and a spoken legacy, too. We also hosted the CloudFocus Weekly podcast for many years, and our podcast episodes would start by asking, “So, what did we blog about this week?” It was a great way to dive even deeper into the topics and give our readers a chance to hear the enthusiasm (or debate) behind the written words. Find the full archive of the CFWP podcast here. 

Fifteen years in, the content well hasn’t run dry. The Arkus blog evolved into a major content hub with topics ranging from the nitty-gritty of Salesforce setup to big-picture productivity philosophy. It’s a resource newbies and veterans alike still turn to for insight, tips, or just a fresh perspective.

Explore the Archive & Stay in Touch

Feeling nostalgic or curious after reading this retrospective? I invite you to explore our blog archive. It’s a treasure trove of Salesforce tips, tech history, and Arkus inside jokes spanning a decade and a half. Whether you want to see how far the Salesforce platform has come or just need a good productivity tip to get you through Monday morning, there’s bound to be an article for that. And while you’re at it, why not join our journey going forward? Sign up for the Arkus newsletter list to get our latest blog posts (and occasional witty insights) delivered straight to your inbox. It’s the easiest way to stay up-to-date with what we’re writing about next.

Thank you for being part of the Arkus blog’s 15-year story, whether you’ve been reading since the Google Wave days or you just found us. Here’s to the next fifteen years of blogging, cloud-ing, and sharing the knowledge! 

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