Hello and welcome to Thoughtful Thursday; the day of the week where I talk about the fact that this blog has just hit over 1000 pageviews, and what kind of person it takes to get to that.
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| The delightfully minimalist Blogger stats dashboard. Probably their property... just so you know. |
Today I hit 1000 all time Page-views in one and a half months. (45 straight days of blogging to be precise) So today, I'm going to thank you, the readers, for getting me to this point, and talk about what it took to get here. ONWARD!
45 days ago, I decided to do something. I decided that plain Photoshop was boring, and that writing fun articles about life, the universe and everything would be far more interesting than posting my occasionally interesting Photoshop creations. 45 days ago I didn't have 1000 pageviews for this blog. (Truth be told, this came at a great time too. I had no idea what I was going to write about today. So thanks.)
First and foremost, I would like to thank you guys, each and every one of you, who have read one of the many articles I have posted on this blog in all this time. I could never have reached this point without you. Some of you, my friends, come each day to read what I have to say, either in support of me, or because of genuine interest in what I have to say. Then there are others, such as those from across the world, in countries from India to America and countless in between; who, while I may never have the pleasure of knowing you, have my immense gratitude as well for helping me get to this point.
So, as part of a special celebration for today's achievement, I decided to share the story of what precisely, it took, to get to this point so far. In the past, on my 30 day special, I did mention how blogging has affected me in my day to day life, but did not mention precisely how it was that I came to be writing this blog. So that is what I'm going to talk about today.
To start with. I obviously never envisioned myself as a blogger from the start. Can you imagine a pre-school teacher's face as a 5 year old says they want to be a blogger? (I can, the look is incredulous at best.) At various points in my life, I've wanted to be things ranging from a Game Designer, to a Writer, a Graphic Designer and an Actor. (Still do on all of those to varying degrees.)
So how did I get to blogging? Well, at various points in my life, I figured that blogging sounded like fun and gave it whirl doing anything from doing philosophical discussions to game reviews. (Sound familiar?) Ironically none of these past blogs ever held my attention for any degree of time, and quickly fell to the wayside as I continued with other tasks in my life. Why? Perhaps I was bored; or maybe just not ready to take on the personal obligation. Who can say?
In any case, as time progressed, I began my middling Photoshop career playing various online games. You would be surprised at the way people enjoy graphic design as simply an addition to what they do in games. Perhaps I will speak on that subject sometime.
And then it happened. I finished High School. Egads. Now what was I to do with all this free time? That was a difficult question to answer. High School is short on ceremony when it dumps you into the real world. You simply wake up one day and realize that your life just started, and you have absolutely no idea what you're going to do with. Some are (un)lucky that this delayed until after University, but the problem usually remains. What do you do?
For me, the answer was slow to come. Having come from a successful acting career at school, I was hopeful to start acting in the real world. Were that it were so simple. Following various jobs of sales work and what not, I eventually stumbled upon some somewhat inspirational things on the internet which are partially responsible for the creation of this blog. Of course, I had initially started this blog simply as a place to show off my photoshop artworks, I had yet to realize what I could actually do until my perusal of a YouTube rankings website by the name of Social Blade brought me to the YouTube channel of Caspar Lee. (The highest ranked South African YouTuber so far.)
My discovery of Caspar Lee however, was not so much interesting, as his video's with a very lively and friendly British blogger and vlogger (Vlogger = Video Blogger) by the name of Zoe Sugg, whom he met while living in the UK with her brother Joe Sugg.
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| A lovely, hideously cropped screenshot of her blog http://www.zoella.co.uk/ |
Now, I can't precisely remember what it was that interested me in Zoe Sugg. Perhaps her friendliness or genuine attitude while on camera for her video's, and perhaps her amassed stardom in the UK despite doing little other than cosmetic product reviews. (Not counting the fun things she does with other YouTubers) This somehow led me to her blog, and her "Draw My Life" video. (Draw My Life was/is a fad on YouTube where people would illustrate their lifestories on a whiteboard at the request of their fans.)
In hers, Zoe describes, among other things, the start and growth of her Blog and viewership. While definitely a lovely video to watch, it was this, as well as some of her more personal posts on her blog, which largely inspired me to begin this blog in earnest as she described how she grew from a simple online diary she used to talk about the things she liked, to the huge blog where thousands of people went constantly to read her reviews.
As always, spontaneous decision, which is a common factor in about 50% of my choices, led to me immediately designing the graphics of the blog you see before you, while my brain worked to think about what precisely I would talk about. While I eventually decided upon an amalgamation of all previous blog ideas as well as many new ones, it still took sometime before various faucets were fully imagined, such as the alliterating names which decide the type of topic I discuss each day.
45 days later, and here we are, with 1000 all time pageviews, and prospects good for the future if I may be optimistic. I look forward to continuing to write and produce content for what has largely become a big part of my every day life, and furthermore look forward to entertaining and telling you guys and girls about the awesome things I see, hear and do. Which draws today's 1000 pageview celebration and thanks to a close. If you would like me to mention anything else, or perhaps simply want to suggest something that you would like me talk about, please make sure to do so in the comments below. Also, don't forget to share this post with any friends you have who are thinking of starting blogs but are not sure about their odds, perhaps it will give them the inspiration they need. Of course, if you would like to see what more I have to talk about from here on, don't forget to like my Facebook page and/or follow me on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the right so that you can read my latest posts as I make them. And lastly, but not least, I thank you for taking the time to read this somewhat lengthier article, hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again tomorrow.
Bye for now my friends.
