One-hundred-thousand hits thanks dear readers

This morning, WordPress announced that, in the last couple of days, my blog had reached one-hundred-thousand hits since it began. No wonder I’m doing a happy dance. This is a cause for celebration!

I had no way of knowing, apart from what would have been a very tedious exercise of counting the hits manually, that How to be eighty would arrive at that milestone.

Maths not being my strong point, I would never have known.

But I am delighted. Thank you to everyone who has hit the button and read a blog.

Read more

How it started

I can’t remember what prompted me to become a blogger. I’d read a few blogs and dismissed them earlier. I simply saw no value in blogs, and had no idea that a person could gain so much pleasure, if not joy, from blogging.

Maybe the idea of something difficult challenged me. That often happens in my life. Perhaps I saw it as a way to communicate when writing longer pieces seemed almost impossible after I married. I found it hard to write properly and consistently.

Yet my need to write and share with an audience burned. And so a blog became my obsession, at least until I’d set up my website, using as a guide the amazing WordPress for Dummies by Lisa Sabin-Wilson. It’s into its ninth edition, and I imagine still as good as the original. My blogging journey began!

My blog had another name, or perhaps no name, until five years ago, when a series of events changed how I work.

Then the title How to be eighty seemed fitting for the blog of an old woman who wanted permission (from herself) to write whatever she chose. Little did I imagine then that my simple offering would reach one-hundred-thousand hits

Workshop boosts count to one-hundred-thousand

So much seems a blur, although my usual memory works quite well. A series of lucky accidents occured. Following my instincts, I found myself in a workshop conducted by the lovely psychologist Glennys Marsdon, now my dear friend. The title of the workshop, ‘How to brand your website’, or perhaps how to brand yourself, intrigued me.

My bland, no-real-name-blog needed a proper focus. Glennys showed me how to achieve that focus

Life-long learning had long been one of my passions. What better than to continue that theme and also to encourage others to learn. People are never to old to pursue new interests nor to learn new skills and hobbies.

Amanda Kendle and Social Media Mastermind workshops

From there, an easy step led me to join one of Amanda Kendle‘s workshops. To join a group and learn as much as possible about many aspects of social media as I could. The fun-filled workshops, and later summer schools, encouraged participants to learn and share with each other.

Amanda and Glennys can be best described as multipotentialites – multitalented people with many diverse interests, willing always to share with others. I wrote a blog on this topic: ‘Multipotentialites seeking friends‘. Some people call multipotentialites Jack-of-all trades, but in fact such people are creative, adaptable and multi-skilled, among other things.

These remarkable women changed my focus and application. My blog began to attract more readers day-by-day and month-by-month. Thank you, Glennys and Amanda!

Ground covered by How to be eighty

My posts range from mundane sharing of domestic issues, through healthy living tips to how to downsize. They cover some of the joys of being a great-grandmother, the triumph of acquiring a hearing aid, how my husband and I moved to an inner city apartment and have not looked back. Some have covered sadness and even tragedy.

Not all blogs appeal to everyone. For example, some of my favourites have been reviews of books I’ve read. My sister, for one, tells me she never reads them – they’re boring.

Some book reviews, however, obviously hit the spot for some readers because they attract the most hits. I guess I’ve been lucky, and occasionally I’ve written about a book on the ATAR list for year twelve students. Those blogs are super popular.

Next steps

The last few months have been quite taxing for a variety of health and welbeing reasons. I considered letting my blog go. Writing up to a thousand words a week can be quite a commitment.

I considered writing more seriously in 2023. But with the news of one-hundred-thousand hits, I feel a surge of new energy.

Thank you, dear readers

Thank you again, to all my dear readers who have made this possible. To those who have clicked and read or commented. I am grateful.

There is nothing to stop me from posting a blog and attempting more serious work.

If you would like to receive email notifications about future posts please type your email address below and hit ‘Subscribe’