A year goes quickly. It’s almost a bit scary how fast it disappears. Yesterday it was one year since I published the first post here at Sourdough&Olives. I was completely new to blogging, WordPress, Pinterest. Everything, even Facebook. I wrote about the comeback of the sourdough bread here in Sweden during the recent years. I still remember how it felt to press the publish button. Excitement mixed with some fear.
Since then I have published 47 posts, most of them are recipes. And you know what? I can still feel some excitement when I press that button. It always feels good. Many hours of work has finally come to an end. The result stares back at me from the computer monitor. Just waiting for me to make it available to almost everybody all over the world.
It is amazing how easy it is to make your writing accessible to so many people around the globe. You just sign up for a web host company, choose a WordPress theme, and start writing cool stuff. But that’s when the hard part begins. And that is to reach out to someone who wants to read what you’ve created (besides trying to figure out what the hell SEO, ROI, and a lot of other mysterious abbreviations stand for). And writing cool stuff is not always that easy. Especially when you get the brilliant idea to write in English, and it’s not your native language. Even if it has become easier, it’s still a struggle.
But it’s too late to change that now. And that’s because Sourdough&Olives have followers. Not many. But enough for me to feel a bit like a traitor if I chose to quit. Last month Sourdough&Olives had 2165 sessions and 1589 unique visitors. Almost 33% of them are returning visitors, so apparently, I’m doing something right. But even if there were only 100 visitors each month, I still wouldn’t quit. It’s too much fun.
The figures for the whole year is 13998 sessions and 9852 visitors.
I know. It’s not much. Compared to more famous bloggers, it’s almost nothing. But it doesn’t matter. As long as the number of visitors increases, I’m satisfied.
I have learned so incredibly much during this year, but I have to admit that I still don’t know if a post will be popular or not. Sometimes my guessing is correct. Take the post about sourdough breakfast rolls. I had a feeling that the concept was attractive for many people. And I was right. There were lots of comments to that post. But I was also sure that the post about Levine bread would attract lots of readers and comments. But all I heard was crickets.
I took a short break from writing during the summer weeks, and when I started again in August, I had no idea what to write. I had tried to bake Grissini on sourdough, and It turned out well. So I decided to write about that. However, my expectations were not that high. It became the most popular post for the whole year.
The conclusion I draw from that is that I have to be better at figuring out what you want to read. Perhaps you can give me some help. I would love to hear from you. Tell me what YOU want me to write about.
Shortly, I will also offer you readers to subscribe to my newsletter. In addition, to announce when a new post is published, I will provide subscribers with all sorts of useful information about food that I find in my daily search on the internet. I’m almost ready, so one of these days you will find a sign-up form on Sordough&Olives.
Finally, I would like to say a big thank you to all you readers. It’s thanks to you that Sourdough&Olives exists. Throughout this year I have received so much positive feedback from you. Of course, it has contained some criticism, but it has always been constructive. And that’s great. I have learned something very important from all you wonderful people around the world. The importance of encouraging words can’t be overestimated. Nothing helps better against failing motivation. Believe me, I know. I have got so many from you.
Again, thanks and see you soon.