For the first time in several months, we got some rain in La Herradura yesterday and I was freezing. It was only 14ºC outside. But when I discovered that I have already written 99 articles in this blog, I felt warm in my heart. I felt immense gratitude and decided that my post 100 should be about the people who have helped me to be a blogger, and about what the future holds.
I have created numerous blogs on free websites in the past. I wrote the text first on paper and then encoded it on a PC when I get the chance to go to an internet cafe. I finally got a laptop, started to pay for domains and hosting, but my blogs did not work as I hoped. I did not know what I was doing. I was just writing something without direction. I gave up, but I learned the basics regarding the technical side.
When I discovered WordPress, it soon became my favorite blogging platform. With my long-time friend Carlos Velasco’s tutorials, I learned fast. Likewise, thanks to my Indian web developer friend, Kapil Tare, for answering my technical questions. I was mostly focused on the technical side and got an online SEO internship under a great SEO guru. I learned a lot from him, and I felt very privileged. But he died unexpectedly just before we could start to work together, and since the method was based on his deep knowledge, I felt lost and did not know what to do.
This was almost two years ago and I had at that time just started Mindanao Advice together with my husband Eldar as a training tool for my writing. With him as my editor, I got a better understanding of writing and we have been a team since the start of the blog. I write the stories I find interesting and he is my developmental editor. With his knowledge, I grow as a writer. I must admit, I am a bit extreme in writing. I want to do it fast. I’m using too many unnecessary words, too many clichés and my focus on grammar sometimes makes me blind. It’s easy to write fast and long for me, but with my husband’s advice, it always becomes shorter and more precise. He shows me ways to concentrate more on being understood using a simple language as possible.
I’m not using intensive SEO on my blog because I want it to be a completely white hat project. A blog is still a training tool for me in writing and my direction is not set yet, but expect more of the same mix.
La Vida en España or the Life in Spain category on my blog is a favorite of mine that I love to share with the world.
It’s hard for me to get used to the colder weather that slowly embraces us here so my husband and I will stay in the Canary Islands for some months in early 2017. I will of course write about my “footprints” there.
I don’t know if you have checked out my Facebook page, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram. Just like and follow to get updates on my every post. As for my Youtube channel, honestly, that is what I need to work on the most LOL, but videos take time.
Vale, I wish all of you the best and thank you for reading my blog. Thanks to all of you—my readers, sharers, and commenters. Dios te bendiga! And happy 100th blog post to Mindanao Advice!