{"id":21521,"date":"2011-06-08T10:51:26","date_gmt":"2011-06-08T08:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=21521"},"modified":"2011-06-08T13:46:26","modified_gmt":"2011-06-08T11:46:26","slug":"celebration-reaching-the-milestone-of-1000-blogposts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/cape-town\/celebration-reaching-the-milestone-of-1000-blogposts\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebration: Reaching the milestone of 1000 blogposts!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Today we have reached an\u00a0exciting\u00a0milestone on our Whale Cottage Blog, in that this is\u00a0our 1000th blogpost.\u00a0 We thank our readers for their support in reading our blog, and for providing feedback, to help us improve as we developed over the almost three years. In numerology, 1000\u00a0symbolises multitude and perfection, we have learnt from Google, and we dedicate our next 1000 blogposts to be worthy of this definition.<\/p>\n

Highlights have been making the Top 10 on the Most Controversial Blog category of the 2010 SA Blog Awards,\u00a0achieving a cumulative unique readership of just under half a million in the last 16 months (about 30000 per month on average), and setting up the Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club<\/a> last year.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So what have we learnt about blogging and our blog in the close to three years:<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 Restaurant news in general, and reviews and special offers specifically have attracted the greatest interest on this blog.\u00a0\u00a0 Our most widely read restaurant reviews, since we went onto Google Analytics\u00a016 months ago,\u00a0are for\u00a0Tokara DeliCATessen<\/a>, Sotana by Caveau<\/a>, Gaaitjie<\/a>, Pierneef \u00e0 La Motte<\/a>, and Duchess on Wisbeach<\/a>.\u00a0 It\u00a0was the enjoyment of writing the review of Portofino restaurant<\/a>, owned by Cormac Keane, that got us started with reviews,\u00a0and we have written more than 100 reviews\u00a0since then.\u00a0 We have seen negative reaction to some of these, and have been banned from the Caveau group of restaurants (including Sotano), the Caviar group of restaurants (Beluga<\/a> and Sevruga<\/a>), Opal Lounge<\/a>,\u00a0and Caf\u00e9 des Arts<\/a> as a result.\u00a0 Restaurants generally are poor at Social Media, and only a handful blog and\/or are on Twitter.\u00a0 This means that a restaurant’s information most often is provided by a blog rather than by the restaurant’s own website, which can be to its advantage or diadvantage, depending on the reviews that are listed on the first page of Google.\u00a0\u00a0Other highly read blogposts\u00a0are the Winter <\/a>and Summer<\/a> Restaurant Specials lists, the Table Mountain vote for the New7Wonders of the World<\/a>, Prince Albert and Charlene Wittstock’<\/a>s visit to Fresnaye in January 2009, and the Disney service training programme<\/a> instituted\u00a0just days before the World Cup.\u00a0<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 Tourism topics have also attracted attention, probably because there are far fewer writers on this topic.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Word spreads quickly if a blogpost is controversial, and brings in new readers to the blog.\u00a0 Despite all allegations to the contrary, we have never written a blogpost to be controversial.\u00a0 It is the reaction to it by our readers that causes the controversy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 Comments have become harder to manage, and increasingly cowardly commenters write anonymously to slate the writer of the blog or the subject of a blogpost.\u00a0 If one deletes such comments, one is criticised; if one publishes them, one is equally criticised!<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 While blog readers enjoy honesty, and probably read this blog for it,\u00a0those that are on the receiving end of it plus their friends do react with venom, rather than\u00a0using the feedback to improve their service and quality. The nastiness in ‘unSocial Media’, our new name for it, has been shocking, especially in a campaign by David Cope on Twitter, where anything goes!<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 Blogging has become very competitive, as bloggers chase readership, and want to be the first to review a new restaurant.\u00a0 Achieving a first page Google listing for a restaurant, for example, can attract readership over time to the blog by new users when they Google the name of a restaurant.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 Readership is disappointingly low on public holidays and weekends.\u00a0 Saturdays have the lowest blog reading numbers, dropping by up to half of weekday readership.\u00a0Our highest readership of this blog was on 16 June 2010, during last year’s World Cup, when a tag for ‘2010’ was widely linked to this blog, attracting 9000 page views on\u00a0that day alone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 Although most readers are unknown to the writer, one carries a huge responsibility in shaping people’s opinions through what one writes.\u00a0\u00a0 We try our best to remain objective in presenting information at all times.\u00a0 We have been blamed for wishing to destroy restaurants and new initiatives, yet supply news about restaurant openings and specials all the time.\u00a0 Attempts were made last year by Michael Olivier (Editor of Crush!), David Cope (The Foodie Blogger)<\/a>\u00a0and Skye Grove (Cape Town Tourism PR Manager)<\/a>\u00a0to have this blog closed down.\u00a0\u00a0We moved our blog hosting to America, to prevent this.\u00a0<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Information as well as images are most likely to bring traffic via Google to the website, followed by Twitter.\u00a0\u00a0 Facebook is far less likely to draw traffic.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 The weekly Sweet & Sour Service are enjoyed by readers, and many readers\u00a0read the blog on a\u00a0Friday, to check who has received the Sour Award, and then catch up in reading\u00a0the blogposts of the pevious week.\u00a0 The Spar Sweet\/Limelight Sour Service Awards<\/a> attracted an unusually high readership, and still do.<\/p>\n

Looking forward, we plan to\u00a0continue being honest, no matter what the cost.\u00a0\u00a0We will endeavour to remain relevant, and to remain heard in the increasing Social Media ‘noise’, as more and more blogs are started, and existing ones reinvent themselves.\u00a0\u00a0 We will try to write shorter blogposts!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We will\u00a0continue helping others to become better bloggers, and will endeavour to never stop learning from others too.<\/p>\n

Thank you 1000 times for your readership and support!<\/p>\n

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com<\/a>\u00a0 Twitter:@WhaleCottage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today we have reached an\u00a0exciting\u00a0milestone on our Whale Cottage Blog, in that this is\u00a0our 1000th blogpost.\u00a0 We thank our readers for their support in reading our blog, and for providing feedback, to help us improve as we developed over the almost three years. In numerology, 1000\u00a0symbolises multitude and perfection, we have learnt from Google, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[4795,3,124,21],"tags":[4814,465,1508,6580,85,2376,831,32378,6386,11802,2059,6813,11801,2191,4571,834,4930,287,6759,1278,11804,1661,11800,7070,6611,2294,830,32372,4907,4183,7193,1654,8739,8576,657,862,4,8732,3283,5,1587,11803,7066,32373,531],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t