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It's also nice that the anniversary comes at a time when I have renewed enthusiasm for blogging.
Here are some of the blog's highlights
A Fresh Introduction: This is the first blog post that survived the set up process. In it, I talk about why I started the blog and how my focus has changed from the initial plan.
I also share some strong views about fairytales for modern African children. Most of those views stand, by the way.
Almost 87 000 page views; spread over 1200 posts, resulting in 1900 comments: Clearly, Storypot is not setting the world on fire with hundreds of thousands, or even millions of page views. However, the blog has grown steadily, and the traffic that did make its way here has been meaningful, resulting in:
- freelance writing work and referrals (too many to mention)
- publishing a publishing contract or two, even been interviewed by an Irish production company for a documentary to expand on something I said on Storypot
- some ebook sales
- finding children's books Baby fell in love with and books I thought Baby could learn from (Baby is now 15 years old and still has a love affair with books)
- meeting and working with organisations that support writers. Check out SCWBI Gauteng if you are a children's writer. The people are really helpful and friendly. And if you're not based in Gauteng, find the organisation in your area. It is a global organisation.
- Profiling some interesting development projects on the blog
- sharing some of my adventures travelling the world and some of my life experiences
- plenty of business lessons and sharing of cultural experiences.
- some great friendships (thank you for your friendship and support over the years)
Changing our corner of the world: We've also worked on and/supported /blogged about some very good causes:
- OneLove Regional Campaign and Kwanda, both projects of the Soul City Institute and its partners
- Shukumisa -This national campaign aims to shake up social attitudes towards sexual abuse
- 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence
- Read South Africa - encouraging South Africans to read and be well-read
- Blog Action Day
Some cash and in-kind benefits - Loved them. Want more of them:-)
So. To celebrate Storypot's birthday, I'm giving away copies of my ebook, How to get quoted in the media," which I co-wrote with Christelle Du Toit. All you have to do is leave a comment in this post, maybe share what your blog's birthday means/meant to you, and how you celebrated it/plan to celebrate it.
I know, I know. I'm the one who's supposed to get the birthday gifts, yes? But, I'm generous like that :-)
Acknowledgements
This blog post is part of Week 3 of the VA Blogging Challenge. Here are my previous posts for the challenge:
Week 1:
A is for Assessment
A is for Anthologies and Amazon Widgets
Week 2
B is for Basics
B is for Bookmarks
