No, I don’t mean wishes like health, world peace or the absence of world peace (for the weapons manufacturers among my readers). Nor petit-bourgeois wishes like a rise in salary, a new car or that the children won’t become jihadists.
What I am rather interested in: What do you expect from my blog in 2015?
This blog recently broke the threshold of one million views, but it is far less often that I receive comments or feedback. Therefore I don’t really know if you actually read parts of my blog, what you like, what you don’t like, what disturbs you.
I posted the same question on my Facebook page and have received the following answers thus far:
- More practical advice. Of most interest seems to be the question how I finance my vagabond life, how to organize it, whether it isn’t dangerous or lonely, et cetera. – Except for an article on financing my travels, I haven’t written too much about this, because I didn’t really want to force my ideas about life upon anyone else. But I realize that there are a great many number of people toying with the idea to take a break for a couple of years, to scale down financially and to explore the world. Therefore I will offer more practical tips on travel and on my kind of lifestyle in the future.
- My FAQ on legal issues continue to be the most popular posts. Of course, where else can you find understandable explanations of German law, by a professional, in English, for free? Who wouldn’t jump at that? – I will publish several more of these FAQ over the next couple of months.
- Some people want to see/read more about food or even personal things about myself. That won’t happen of course.
It was rather disappointing for me that no one expressed a desire to read more of the articles of which I am really proud:
- the longer and linguistically more ambitious travel stories (for example: Santa Claus in Bari, Grutas Park Museum, Half Marathon in Montenegro),
- commentary on current affairs (for example: Crimea, gay rights),
- and attempts at creative writing (for example: Christmas, spy thriller, romance).
These are the articles that take me at least half a day to write. These are the articles, due to which I don’t get enough fresh air, the food burns on the stove and neglect my friends. If I don’t receive any feedback after their publication, I sometimes ask myself why I am doing this. Yes, I don’t want to be too critical because I don’t like to read longer articles online either. When I have time to read something longer, I buy National Geographic or of course books. But without your feedback on my articles and without you passing them on, mailing them to your colleagues, sharing them on Facebook and Twitter, neither National Geographic nor publishing houses will ever contact me.
I am curious to learn from you:
- Do you even read the longer articles on my blog?
- Or do you want more photos instead?
- Do you want more on politics and current affairs?
- Why aren’t my daring videos the biggest hit on the internet?
- What annoys you?
- What do you like most?
- What bores you?
- What do you think of the series, like “Easily Confused”?
- Does anyone read book reviews?
- What are you missing?
- Why/to what purpose do you follow my blog?
- Why don’t my posts get shared on Facebook or Twitter too often?
Writing is a lonely job. I’d like to learn a bit about those who are receiving and reading some of my writings. Some feedback would be nice, preferably in the comment section below. Thank you very much!
And don’t worry, I will definitely keep my personal style. I will continue to combine seriousness with humor in a way that it will sometimes take a while to find out which is which. And there will still be silly posts. After all, this is a blog and not a book. The book will be written later, when this blog will have enough readers who convince me to withdraw to a remote cabin in the Carpathian Mountains to find the necessary peace.
I wish you a great 2015!
The Happy Hermit 