Birthday reflections
Birthdays are good for you – the more you have, the longer you live.
Happy birthday to me.
No – it’s not one of the BIG ONES (that comes next year).
Birthdays are a good time to reflect on the year just completed. What kind of a year did I have? When I look back over the last year it has been one of some big highs and deep lows.
Highlights:
- My first trip overseas last December and January (see my travel blog).
- Trekking in the Himalayas
- Seeing Mt Everest up close (20km is close when you walk in those mountains).
- Getting some fabulous photos on my new digital camera (see my photo gallery)
- Getting my three blogs up and running and getting steadily increasing traffic (hi everyone)
- Getting some of my short stories published
- Accomplishing more writing this year than ever before.
- The depth of the relationships developed in the Bible study group I lead.
Lowlights:
- Being diagnosed as diabetic earlier this year
- Struggling for months to adjust to this diabetic life (a work in progress)
- My wife having two serious operations this year
I won’t dwell too much on the lowlights. I struggle with the wise advice to accept such things and confidently say, “This too shall pass.”
There is so much to look forward to, including the exciting potential of my blogs, some writing projects with great promise and the freedom to explore other possibilities, including the prospect of further travel next year.
Poem #13 Time
Time
Time is like
An everlasting tide,
Washing away
The sands of our memory.
All rights reserved.
Copyright 2006 Trevor W. Hampel.
It’s Nice to be Recognised
It is always nice to be recognised, especially by one’s peers.
Liz Strauss over at Successful Blog has said some flattering things about my three blogs.
To read the article click on the link below.
Link:
Welcome:
A special welcome to any readers who come to this blog from the link on Liz’s blog. I invite you to browse through some of the articles via the categories or the archives. I also invite you to comment or ask questions.
Writing Project for my readers:
Links:
- Trevor’s Birding – my blog about Australian birds, including photos.
- My photo gallery – photos of birds, flowers, animals, places and much more.
- Successful Blog – thinking, writing and business strategies with Liz Strauss.
Poem #12 Rain on Rose Petals
Rose in our garden
Rain on Rose Petals
I stand
In the soft
Morning light
With raindrops
Softly trickling
Down my face
Cool and sweet
(Lip-lick delight).
I stoop
In the soft
Morning light
To watch
Gentle droplets
Caressing rose petals
Lingeringly
(Love-stroke delight).
I bend
In the soft
Morning light
To catch
The sun’s
Early rays
In pink petal dazzle
(Diamond delight).
I drink deeply from its fine perfume.
All rights reserved.
Copyright 2006 Trevor W. Hampel.
How to generate content on your blog
Since starting this blog earlier this year I have tried hard to maintain a minimum of one post per day. In that I have usually succeeded, with only a few missed days. Then there have been a few days where I have posted several articles on the one day. Overall, my aim is to post at least once a day with an article of useful content. Only my readers can judge if I have succeeded.
Darren Rowse on ProBlogger has recently posted an article listing a series of articles from his extensive archives. In this series he argues that quality articles, while very important, are generally not enough for the site to be successful (translate: generate income). Bloggers must be concentrating on quantity as well. I guess this is one argument that could go on forever.
In my limited experience, getting out one article a day is stretching me because I am trying to do this for three blogs simultaneously. (Check out my Birding blog here and my Travel Blog here.) On top of that, I am trying to work on several novels and picture books for children, write short stories and poetry for a range of magazines, do a writing course AND have a life. Demanding and challenging.
It all takes discipline, perseverance and commitment. I think I have a good mix of these qualities.
To read Darren’s articles click on the link below:
- How to generate high quantities of content for your blogs – links to 7 articles on this topic.