While hitting that space for the millionth time, a year of blogging also came to an end. In this article, I will tell you what happened in the past year in the form of a newsletter. I am planning on creating one very soon so stay tuned.
Blogging – General Overview
First of all, until today, without counting this article, I have written 56 articles in my three main categories – Health and Living, Travel, and Motivation & Success. Most of my articles (more than 30) fall into the travel category which is no surprise for anyone.
Travel articles require fewer efforts in terms of research and do not need tonnes of links to verify the information mentioned as they are mainly based on personal experience. I tend to write personal stories, such as “Beijing – the Flabbergasting Chinese Capital”, “Guangzhou – the Chinese City of Flowers” (which was the first article on the blog), “Tenerife – the Island of Eternal Spring”, etc.
Besides, I don’t write articles about places I have never visited, and I am not a big fan of writing lists, but I have written one on travelling to China which most of my followers said was quite fun. From the Travel section, my most read (and most commented from all three categories) article is about Miami – check it out if you haven’t, some jaw-dropping images can be seen there.
Interesting Facts
However, my most read article, in general, is on Love from the Motivation & Success category. It has been visited almost 5,000 times (probably those who read the whole article are a bit less since my bounce rate, in general, is bit high – owing to traffic from websites like Stumble Upon). Another one of my most read articles is about the gorgeous Bulgarian adornment – martenitsa. What is most interesting is that this article has not received any comments yet, so please go ahead, read it, and put your awesome comment under it. Thaaanks!
From my Health & Living category, my most read article is the describing the succulent guava fruit. In this category, you will also find articles about Aronia Berry (known also as chokeberry) and panaceas, such as Aloe Vera, garlic, turmeric, and ginger. In addition to those, I have also described the health benefits of hemp seeds, why Bulgarian fruits and vegetables are one of the best in the world, and how we, Bulgarians, celebrate Easter. Obviously, food is very important for me. I have also devoted an article to explaining its power and the power of the mind.
In regards to guest blogging, I have two articles – I wrote one for the Valise Mag (link) and Jim Horner wrote one on my blog. His article is quite interesting so feel free to check it out.
Social Media
At the outset, I only started with a Facebook Page, Twitter account, LinkedIn, and Google+. Later on, I created a YouTube channel and a Stumble Upon page. Nevertheless, the last two channels I added are also the most exciting for me – Instagram and Pinterest. They seem to have started generating some traffic which, hopefully, will become sweeping and I will need to change my hosting plan again.
Google Analytics
From an SEO perspective, I am proud to say two of my articles from the Health & Living category appear on the first page of Google. I did not mention them above because they deserve a place here. The first one is about the magical Bulgarian relish – lyutenitsa – while the second one is about yoghurt whose home is Bulgaria.
In this regard, looking through the analytics of Google, my first two landing pages are exactly about these two articles – lyutenitsa and yoghurt.
Interestingly enough, the third one is about Shaolin Monks, another one from my Motivation & Success category.
Again, according to GA, the majority of people who have been reading my blogging creations come from 1) the United States of America (30.10%), 2) Bulgaria (10.27%), 3) the Philippines (6.51%), 4) the United Kingdom (5.89%), 5) China (3.37%), 6) Germany, 7) (not set), 8) India, 9) France, and 10) Macedonia (FYROM) – all around 2%. These are my top ten countries.
Speaking about queries, the phrase that helped most people click on my website is “lyutenitsa recipe”. In regards to impressions, the top searches are “svet”, “lyutenitsa”, “zlatnite mostove”, and “Bulgarian yogurt” (notice the difference in Am. English and still they came to my blog).
*Funny fact – two people came to my blog by searching “Are Bulgarians white?” – yes, we are, dear Sirs.
Blogging Projects
Halfway through my blogging career (read “the first half of the first year”), I was approached by the awesome blogger Hung Thai from Up, Up, and a Bear. I was super happy as I had just read an article from his blog and I was super fascinated with his style of writing.
It turned out that it was mutual so after a couple of superlatives, he told me about Project Alpha. In a few words, as you may have already read about it, it is a project, uniting travel writers around the world with the aim of composing a story of around 1,000 words. Then, all stories were put into a book the revenue of which will be used to help two charity organisations – Save the Children and Unbound. We established an Indiegogo campaign which was super successful and we are now expecting the books.
If you would like to take part in Project Beta, contact me or Hung via one of our blogs and we will tell you more about it.
Another interesting project which is my own idea is a postcard exchange. It was not super successful, but I am happy to share with you that I have already received postcards from Europe (Latvia and France) and Asia (China). If you like this idea, feel free to send me your postal address and I will make sure to send you a gorgeous postcard with an awesome message inside.
Quizzes
I will end this blogging summary with quizzing. Probably, some of you still have not checked out my quiz section. I have created it quite a while ago and so far there are four categories. I need to upgrade it, add some stats and eye-catching photos, but so far so good. Here are the four geographical regions – Africa, Asia, Europe, and General. They contain quizzes with various levels of difficulty so there is something for everybody’s knowledge. Now, go and do them!
Oh, I almost forgot – I have finally created my “About” Page – feel free to check it out.
To conclude, dear readers, may I sincerely express my gratitude to you for the attention and for all your comments and likes so far. I would like to ask you for one more thing. Either in the comments below or via my About Page, tell me what you liked and what you’d like to see in the future.