The Soapbox began in July of 2007 when I was defending veganism on another website.

I wrote my ideas as reasonably and clearly as I could at the time, trying to remain calm and persuasive. But the anti-vegan sentiment was strong. A loud group of anti-vegans said, “Get off your soapbox!” and they behaved as though my act of defending animals, the planet, and human health was so preachy that it wasn’t worthwhile.

I thought about what they said and how I might be more effective at convincing others to adopt a vegan lifestyle that reflected their own stated values of respect, justice, and peace. I realized that in order to be truly heard and respected, I had to have a safe space from which to write and I needed a platform from which to be heard. So I created that safe platform. And I named it Vegan Soapbox.

The Soapbox grew. It evolved from my personal project to a group vegan blog with various vegan writers like Judith Lautner, Dan Wilson, Alex Melonas, Ed Miller, myself, and others. Everyone contributes from his or her own unique experience and philosophy. Though we overlap in our concern for animals, we disagree in many other areas such as politics and religion. We are a motley crew of animal lovers who live our values by being vegan.

As the Soapbox has grown, I’ve become a better writer and I’ve become a better vegan. I’ve become better educated about specific vegan topics. And I’ve also learned more about effective blogging. From the emails and comments I’ve seen, I have to say the Soapbox serves as an excellent educational tool for other people, too. Regularly people tell me that Vegan Soapbox helped them go vegetarian or vegan. Others tell me the website helped them convince a friend or family member to go vegan.

To date, the Soapbox has…

• over 1500 entries of articles and videos
• almost 4000 comments
• over 200 feed subscribers
• an Alexa US traffic rank of 181,854
• a Technorati authority rank of 133
• current Google search results for some vegan related terms at number one!

2009 marked some phenomenal growth for Vegan Soapbox. I’m proud of this place and I hope to help it grow even more.

Thanks for being a part of Vegan Soapbox as a reader or contributor or both.

PS -
If you’re interested in contributing to Vegan Soapbox, please take a look at the submission guidelines.

Sections: Vegan News
Topics: accomplishments, alexa, blog, google, history, numbers, our story, rank, statistics, stats, technorati, veg, Vegan, vegan soapbox, website, why vegan soapbox