TWIST's first birthday! :)

It's a special day today in my blogging life. That's because it was exactly one year ago today that I published the very first entry in this blog.

That's right! TWIST turns one today! Yey! :)

I have nothing but gratitude to everyone who had supported this blog for the past year. All the retweets, likes, comments and suggestions do not go unnoticed by yours truly.

Over the past 12 months, TWIST had received more than 72,000 hits from around the world. On that same time frame, I managed to post 192 entries.

In the beginning, I knew I said I'll try to update the blog everyday. But with the work that I do as a writer for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, along with another job that I have yet to publicly disclose, it has proven to be very difficult.

When I put up this blog, I didn't want it to feel like a chore. And it never really has. I enjoyed posting every single entry since then.

I remember back then that I had hoped this blog would generate advertising money which I can then use for more travelling and shopping. Ha! Obviously, I have not yet reached that level (more retweets please! lol). But with the fun I'm having with blogging, who's in a hurry?

A friend of mine once asked me what TWIST's personality is. Is it a travel blog? Is it an events directory? Does it contain arts and culture articles? Would we find gadget and IT stories there?

Whatever I think of to bring TWIST to the next level, or however TWIST is defined by each viewer, I'll stay true to the tagline that I created for the blog: "Everything. Anything. And those in between."

I never claimed that this is the best blog ever. I'm a realistic person. I know there are a million things I can do  to further improve it. But rest assured this year would be more exciting. I've got a couple of tricks up my sleeve. :)

What's the best compliment I've got for this blog, you ask? A friend from Italy was on vacation here in the Philippines last week. We met to catch up on things.

During the conversation, she mentioned how, back in Italy, she had a Filipino friend who was looking for a resort to visit in Cebu. Having remembered that I wrote about several beach resorts in that province, she showed it to that friend.

The blog entry I made apparently convinced this friend of hers to visit that beach resort. The best thing about it is that the friend liked the time they had in that beach resort in Cebu.

It's when I hear stories about this that gives me the energy to continue TWIST-ing. Till next year! Thanks y'all! :D