A Seasonal Shout Out!

.....or a personal reflection after 6 months

At this time of year, when many of us have seasonal holidays / celebrations approaching I wanted to send my best wishes to anyone I know here, especially those who have contributed in some way with comments, suggestions, and support through 2010.

I started this blog as personal exercise back in May. To be honest I had no idea how I would find the experience, given that I have never considered words to be my strongest suit. I also had no idea if anyone would read it and/or find any aspect interesting.

To my surprise both aspects have exceeded expectations.

In terms of writing, I have found that my mind has generated plenty I wanted to write about and, although probably stylistically bereft, I have not found it hard to write. More than that, at least a few of the postings have clearly been delivered in a way to generate some strong resonances.

I am not sure it is becoming easier, but then maybe I am more demanding of myself. One thing I have learnt is not to force matters, but rather let them flow. I have also tried to be true to my own "voice", but I guess only readers will know that for sure.

One tool that has helped is a piece of software called Whitesmoke, that does more than simple spell checking, highlighting things like the repetitive use of a word, the complexity of sentence structure (not always advocating a simpler approach!) and other useful measure that have given me some personal benchmarks.

Similarly the Blogpress app on my trusty iPad makes my blog readily accessible for contributions wherever I am.

In terms of readership that has amazed me on two counts. The first is the number of page hits I have had; now a shade under 1,000 or an average of around 160 per month - and no before you ask they are not all me - I turned of the tracking of my own visits some time back.

More astounding has been the reported home countries of these visits. The statistics supplied here show that by far the largest populations of readers are, not surprisingly, in the US and the UK, but I have had a significant proportion come from much further afield:-

• South Korea
• Singapore
• India
• Denmark
• Switzerland
• Holland
• Belgium
• Brazil
• UAE; and
• A satellite phone connection!

The level of repeat visits is rising too.

Overall I plan to continue with this blog as long as the ideas for posts keep flowing and someone/anyone finds them interesting enough to read.



I have little idea who specifically reads the blog, but if anyone who reads this post fancies participating in an experiment we can give it a go. Please

a) comment with your own seasonal greeting to other readers and we will see how many we get; and
b) if you find any post, past or present, interesting please pass on the link to one other person.

Now we sit and watch with baited breath.