Has England’s Puzzle blog come to an end?

In Q3 I was very enthusiastic because of the promising signs and results, but in the last quarter of the year I felt I got stuck. Nothing moved forward, in fact everything slowed down. You could say that is absolutely fine as the nature slows down in autumn/winter as well and we sort of have to follow it. But when you are trying to build something, you are likely to forget about that. I was looking at my statistics and I was frightened.

I thought, it does not make sense to carry on at all.

 

I even questionned myself regarding my product and if I could ever make it work. The good thing is, they say, if you realise what your problem is, it is 50% success already.  I think, I did realise what my problems were.

The best thing to do was to have a rest. Me and the blog. I was close to burnout: my passion has disappeared and I was less enthusiastic whenever I shared an experience, or some information. That is not good, I wanted to get back to where I was and feel the joy of blogging and sharing posts with the audience. This is why I slowed down in December.

In the meantime, I was thinking a lot and realised a few things.

Namely,

• it is important to write about topics that might be common and that readers are interested in!
• my categories have to be re-named in order to be more user friendly!
• I have to slow down, I can’t keep up with the pace, therefore I am going to post in every 2 weeks or whatever it may be!
• For Facebook, I need other content. It seemed to be a good idea to link the Instagram account with FB, but the 2 platforms are different.
• Communication on FB must be changed!
• Find the target audience. I must admit, this is not easy. If I am only blogging, then my posts are meant to be for those who are interested in for example: English culture. As soon as my product is ready, this will change!

 

 

But most importantly, I realized that

I lost my original goal of the blog, which was to just introduce readers to my world living in England, with all that this entailed. However writing about England has triggered a product that I find inspiring.

I realised that it is NOT the blog that will sell my product, it is going to be a great background only, therefore I’d better concentrate on the product itself. As far as the product is concerned, I have to allow myself to TRY and develop it and not taking it deadly seriously and push myself to breaking point. If the product shows signs of success then it will be deadly serious!

During the Christmas holiday, I read posts of several marketing experts. It was funny to see that slowing down and looking into myself led me exactly to the same conclusions for instance 1) write a list about the things you will NOT do next year, 2) do everything at your own pace. However, there were 3 sentences that got to me:

01. Do not want to get there quickly. Enjoy the road and have fun.

02. Start the new year with the most difficult and biggest task. (I never have time for my product because I always concentrate on my blog.)

03. Stop blogging only…

Only after this was I able to get back on track, let the pressure go and make up my mind to start working on my product in January. The blog is going to be secondary for the time being and as soon as the product is ready, the website will be changed.

 

 

It is said to be important to summarize what results we had, so I made a list.

Achievements:

• Translated all posts (54) to English within 1 month
• Installed WPML and launched the blog in 2 languages in March 2018
• Changed laptop
• Learned Photoshop
• Improved photography
• Started to use apps on iPhone
• Started to focus on Social Media and post regurarly
• 1 notebook is full
• Google Search Engine lists my photos: English Baroque and English buttercross photos are listed on the first page when clicking images!

Feedbacks

• One of my readers made an apple pie based on a recipe posted earlier on the blog and posted a photo of it on Facebook tagging England’s Puzzle
• I could provide new information to English audience on Instagram: “I’d never heard of fire alarm telegraph boxes. You are always so knowledgeable.”
• One of the Instagram followers read my post about the Sundaials and promoted it.
• Instagram: “Great Photography, awesome views of London. Through your pics you are a photographer, you don’t need the title.”
• Instagram: “Love your enthusiastic reactions and comments.”
• “Reading your posts and looking at your photos I am admiring you. Interesting topics, brilliant wording and plenty of quality information which I have no idea how you manage to look up. Greatest respect for you, especially for your consciousness that is coming through in your latest blog report. Keep on doing it, you are giving me very pleasant moments with your posts.”

 

 

As far as the posts are concerned, here are the Top 10 in both languages:

Top 10 posts by Hungarian readers:

1. The Butler
2. The impact of the snow on the English
3. English cheesecake
4. English pub names
5. Why are there strawberry leaves on Dave Gahan’s crown?
6. English palladianism and baroque arciteture
7. What is HP sauce?
8. Georgian architecture
9. The Footman
10. Nuffield Place – A humble millionaire’s home

Top 10 posts by English readers

1. Georgian architecture
2. An English funeral
3. Regency and Gothic Revival architecture
4. English peerages
5. Why are there strawberry leaves on Dave Gahan’s crown?
6. The Footman
7. The secret of the Lavenham blue
8. Piccadilly or Piccalilli
9. Shopping failure
10. The oddities of the English

~

 

Getting back to the question whether the blog will come to an end, the answer is deffinitely a NO. However, it is essential that it changes and me too. I have to allow myself to change and to change the blog because this is the only way we can both develop and grow.

 

Wishing you all a Happy New Year.