In February 2009, I posted my first blog post on Suneé Sees the World. Back then the blog was still called Wish You Were Here, a name I changed later on when I started learning a bit more about SEO and Google search ranks, and decided to start making things a little more personal. Although I still think the original name is valid (albeit somewhat cliché), the new name says exactly what this blog is all about.
Back then I still wanted to forge a career as a travel writer, and although I’d still like to get published, it’s definitely not as high on my priority list as it used to be. My first few posts were meant to showcase an ability to write feature articles, so if you venture back to Paris for All Seasons and Charismatic Cardiff you’ll notice that my writing style has changed a lot since then. It’s gone from being a more formal presentation to an open discussion of my own experiences while travelling, not quite diary entries, but still an honest account of my travels.
The Fond Memories series is still one of my favourites, although I haven’t done another instalment in quite some time. In these short, descriptive entries I try to evoke a specific memory or a specific point in time in short, concise yet descriptive prose.
If you have a look at the archives you’ll notice that I didn’t take the blogging too seriously up until about August 2010. I then realised that I actually enjoyed blogging immensely, especially when readers started commenting, and knew that if I were to capture and keep people’s attention a once-a-month random entry wasn’t going to cut it. At the time I was employed by a company that really didn’t have any work for me to do, so I started finding ways to keep myself busy during “working” hours. That’s when I realised that others are blogging about travel too and that there is a whole community of people out there sharing the same interest and passion as me. I was hooked.
Since then, and up until quite recently, I concentrated on getting two blog posts out in a week. Now that I’m working for another company, one where I have very tight deadlines to adhere to, I really don’t have as much time to devote to blogging anymore, and you might have noticed that it’s dropped down to usually one post a week, and sometimes I miss a week altogether. I’ve tried making up for that by putting more effort into these posts, so that when I do write something it’s at least something interesting with good quality writing (at least, I hope it is!).
While I watched the Stats page almost obsessively at first, I’m no longer too worried about how many hits a day I get. Readership is important of course, otherwise it’s more monologueing than blogging, and while I love that people from all over the world are reading and commenting, my blogging friend Joel from Freedonia Post helped me to realise that it should first and foremost be something that I do for myself, something that I enjoy doing, rather than letting it become a burden to write about what other people might like to read. It’s also the reason why I won’t take the plunge and move to Wordpress and get my own domain, because I’m no longer interested in making this a source of potential income, and if the blogging elite won’t take me seriously because my URL has the word “blogspot” in it, then so be it.
So today is my 100th post. Since the previous My 7 Links post was a little bit of a review of what I’ve written so far, I thought I’d have a more general look at how the blog has developed and what is in store for it in the near future.
There’s only one more post on our Krugersdorp-Golden Gate holiday left, after which the Spain 2010 series will continue. In August, Gareth and I will be heading out to Botswana and Zimbabwe for a week to visit Chobe National Park and the Victoria Falls, so expect to see lots of posts from that trip as well. After that, who knows? Perhaps I’ll finally get time to revisit our Zanzibar excursion, or the wonderful time we had in Malta before that. Or perhaps I can start planning for next year’s adventures…
As always, thank you for reading. I appreciate each and every comment, they are part of what keeps me motivated. If you have any feedback or suggestions, please feel free to e-mail me or leave a comment below.Labels: misc