Has It Been One Year Already?

About a year ago, we started posting on a regular basis on this blog. With this anniversary we want to thank all of you for supporting us and we hope that you have enjoyed reading this blog as much as we enjoy writing for it.

Writing this blog has been an amazing learning experience. Here is what I learnt in the past year:

• Everyone can do it. Before starting I would always find excuses to not do it. I need someone to edit it, my writing is not that good, I haven’t found an interesting topic and any other excuse. But then one day, I turned to Helen and told her “You know what, we are starting the blog next Monday”.
• You need a schedule. And you need to keep it. Having a schedule helps you get into “writing mode” on a daily basis. It also helps you brainstorm ideas for posts and come up with more ideas without even knowing it. Have a look at our schedule here.
• To improve your writing, you need to write. Before we started this blog, I had problems writing. Not that I couldn’t write well, but whenever I sat down to write something I would literally feel pain from trying to focus and get my "writing brain" to work. The best way to improve is by writing on a daily basis, and a blog is one of the best ways to do this.
• It’s the best way to show what you stand for. For people to understand what your beliefs are, you need to share them. Having a blog not only helps you do that, it also lets you add a certain voice to it from your writing style.
• You need to use your own voice. I hate it when I visit a company blog and all I see is corporate speak. If you are going to do it, do it right. People are looking for a way to connect with you, so use your own voice. If you have been reading this blog and have also met me in person, you will know what I’m talking about.

Enough with lessons learnt and on to what rewards you should expect from having a blog. For me it has been the following (this time I will keep it short):

• Ideas start flowing. Because you are producing on a daily basis, your brain becomes more active and ideas start flowing.
• You feel better. Every time you write something inspiring, you also inspire yourself. You finish it and when you read through it you can say “Wow! I just wrote that!”.
• You build a reputation. When I started this blog, I wanted to place minimoko at the junction of branding and simplicity. One year later, I believe the blog has strengthened our place in this junction.
• It’s the best SEO. Forget about backlinks, meta and all the other c**p. If you want good quality traffic and good positions for the search terms you want, then start writing good content.

I’ve blabbered enough for today and as you know by now this is not my style. This past year has been an amazing journey and we’re really looking forward for this new year. Stay tuned and we will always do our best to bring you the best content.