I hope Caiti will make me a 200th bloggiversary cake

This is my 200th post. My 100th post appeared in February. That seemed to be quite a landmark, but this one is more so. I’ve come a long way in 100 posts. They’ve covered such things as llama births and deaths, kitten discoveries, Eurovision, book reviews, naked gardening, cycling and geocaching, to give just a few examples. Have a dig around the A-Z index to see what I’ve written about.

The turning point was signing up for WordPress’s post-a-day challenge. That made me sit down and devote time to the blog – possibly too much time for a while. My creative writing suffered temporarily, but I’ve got the balance right now I think. So long as I write at least 1000 words a day for one of my works in progress, then I allow myself to blog too. I like to write about the different things that are part and parcel of our lives here in France.

Back in February I was getting around 50 hits a week. Not terribly impressive. But last week I had 924. My monthly totals are climbing steadily too. I had over 2000 in May, and I’m already up to 719 on the 6th June. The reason is simply getting more content out there. If you write more posts on a variety of subjects and use plenty of tags, then people will pick them up when they’re searching the net and you draw readers in. I know those figures are only small fry compared with most websites, but I’m very proud and I intend to keep up the good work. I might as well be ambitious and aim for 1000 a day! My best daily score so far is 189, so I’ve a way to go yet.

On my 100th anniversary, I awarded two Stylish Blogger awards. I’ll do two more today.

First up, an award for Helen Hanimann’s blog. I love this blog, www.runquiltknitwrite.com named after Helen’s favourite pastimes. It’s always interesting and inspiring, and has lovely photos. Helen knits gorgeous socks and makes the most beautiful quilts. You’ll be inspired by this creative expat.

Caitlin and her foundling kittens

And the second one goes to My Evil French Twin, which is Caitlin’s photography blog. Do check it out – she has some lovely photos up there. She’d love some comments.

When you give these awards you’re meant to reveal 7 things about yourself. I’ll just refer you back to the original 7 – I have to retain some of my mystery after all!

Since my 100th post I’ve launched Books Are Cool, my writing and book-related website. Keep an eye on that too.

So thanks for reading Blog in France, and here’s to the next 100 posts on it!