One year ago and one week Candy Blog was born. Not exactly an anniversary, as I started the blog in April of ‘05, but that’s when it had its coming out party.

Candy Blog got her present look and software one year ago yesterday. It’s like going from black and white television to color ... or for your younger folks who don’t remember that transition - from broadcast television to cable.

Even in the past year Candy Blog has continued to grow. The original 38 categories that divided up the posts now number 149. (And I’ve logged about 450 posts!) I’ve added plenty of countries, most of the brands and and started my city-specific destination guides. In that time I’ve also switched web hosts and cameras. Traffic has grown from a few hundred a day to the present level of over 5,000 a day. I’ve gone from posting a few times a week to a new review every weekday. I added some advertising to help out with the costs of the webhost, my camera and equipment and the candy. Oh, the candy.

Looking to the future, I took a poll a while back to see how folks want to see things grow here. Some of the selections would take technology and time and probably money to make them happen, and others simply time and effort. But the largest group opted for the thing that I can actually do all on my own: Recipes. Simple candy recipes that anyone can do, with step by step instructions and likely lots of photos. I expect to begin those in January and probably just once a month until I get up to speed in the kitchen.

I’m am deeply thankful for all my readers, not just because you visit and I see a little tick on my counter, but that you come back again, subscribe to the feed, link to me, send me emails and leave comments and share your experiences with candy and sweets. I know it’s a simple subject, but our passions are universal and I like to think that this little obsession unites us.

Here?s a list of what brought folks to Candy Blog through search engines during the month of October:

1. halloween candy
2. jackolanterns
3. butterfinger
4. kissables
5. m&ms
6. razzles
7. max brenner
8. reese?s
9. candy convention (a new one for the list)
10. happy halloween

The big changes this past month were of course brought about by the first holiday of Candy Season but Max Brenner still remains a strong contender on the list as they opened a new cafe in New York City a couple of months ago.

The big surprise for me was the number of search hits for the phrase Candy Convention. If you google that, my site comes up as the first one, with my profile coverage of the All Candy Expo this past summer. The Food Network started airing their special on the convention last weekend, so there’s been a huge spike in traffic regarding that.

The exceptionally fun part was last night watching the search strings as it was quite obvious that folks were searching to find out the number of calories and kosher status of many popular Halloween goodies!

The results are in on the latest poll and I have to say, Candy Blog readers are generous.

Other industry polls have said that kids prefer chocolate candies in their treat bags and most folks who were opening their doors to the munchkins were handing out at least some chocolate.

(I’m guessing the toothbrushes and raisins folks are joking and I’m certainly wondering what “way better stuff” actually is. I saw some forums talking about giving out matchbox cars or pez dispensers.)

I was very happy to see ten folks going green! I would have gone green except I ate all my organic and fair trade samples already ... all the other candy I gave out were also leftover samples and stuff from photography projects. Remember, regifting is green, too.

Some folks were a little surprised that there were so many people not giving out candy this year, but I’ll chalk that up to not being in the right neighborhood, not being home that night or living in a country that does not have Trick-or-Treating.

So, weigh in here if you want to elaborate on any of your votes!

I mentioned in my All Candy Expo coverage that there were a few Food Network video crews working the floor and those shows are finally hitting the air.

George Duran included a snippet of his All Candy Expo experience in a recent episode of Ham on the Street, but he has a full special called Candy Convention that will air on October 28th. It’s 1 hour long - check your listings for an air time.

Jim O’Connor of “The Secret Life Of…” is also doing an episode from the show floor called Sweet and Sour Candy - it starts airing tonight (October 16th). Check the listings for this half hour episode in your area.

So this was the first poll here at Candy Blog, and I wanted to start simple.

The poll question was about what your favorite candy bar is and I used the top ten selling candy bars as the possible choices. The most surprising thing, of course, was that the number two selling candy bar, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, was by far the winner.

Other interesting things were how unpopular the non-nut bars were. The least popular bars on the list were Nestle Crunch and Hershey’s Milk Chocolate.

I hope you enjoyed the poll. Polls are purely for fun and only represent people who agree to answer the question, happen to visit Candy Blog and are in no way scientific.

Flippin’ Fudge was so happy with the review and response here that Candy Blog is going to give away some FUDGE! That’s right, a $50 gift certificate which is more than enough for the deluxe 28 piece box including the shipping.

To enter simply .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) with the subject line “FLIPPIN’ GIVEAWAY” by

. One entry per person. Failure to follow rules will result in disqualification for drawing and general irritation.)

UPDATE: 10/20/2006 - I just got word that Flippin’ Fudge now ships internationally (though the cost may eat into the actual amount of product you can get with $50) ... so enter accordingly! I am going to extend the entry deadline to Monday, October 23rd at noon Pacific.

UPDATED UPDATE: 10/23/2006 - the entry box is closed. I’ve picked a winner and emailed that person! Thanks to everyone who entered, based on the overwhelming response, I plan to run lots more giveaways in the future, so keep reading.

M&Ms has launched another online promotion for their new ‘Dark’ Chocolate M&Ms.

It’s a little game that’s actually pretty fun and very well done. It’s a treasure hunt where you search an original painting for visual puns that are the titles of “Dark Movies”.

The style of the painting reminds me of Hieronymus Bosch

It’s flash based and kind of resource intensive (if you’re on dial-up ... anyone still on dial-up?). You move around the image and click when you think you’ve identified a pun and input the title into the little box. The box glows green when you get it right and the pun fades. You don’t have to complete the game all at once, you can save it for later by inputting an email address.

There are 50 movie titles. Check the comments section here if you want to cheat and see the list of titles (you still have to match them up with the images on your own).

I could never put together such a comprehensive review all in one like I-Mockery does. They’ve got a huge roundup of the 2006 Halloween treats. Many are just different shapes or colors of our favorite candies, but some are truly unique offerings.

(Warning, there are some popup ads on their site.)

What are you looking forward to? What have you seen so far in stores?