A Recent E-mail Reminds Me Of The Primary Reason I Love Blogging!

When I first started blogging almost 10 years ago (yes, this September) I didn’t know you could make money from a blog.  Heck, maybe you couldn’t back then.  I decided to start writing because my best friend, David had started one.  I enjoyed writing and it seemed like a good way to write for a small group of folks.

My first posts were just bad.  I mean, the grammar was fine.  But, I was all over the place, between sports, politics, travel, family.  I found my voice and focused mostly on travel.  6 years later I cashed my first check, albeit a very small one.  I’ve never really focused too closely on how to make the most money writing this blog.  I launched a podcast recently to talk more travel and we’re working on figuring out how to get it to pay for itself.  For now, I’m covering the costs and enjoying the heck out of talking about travel every week.

Which Brings Us To Today’s Story

Well, almost to today.  First, we need to rewind about 10 years, when we first took our daughter to Italy.  We ended up in a lovely town on the East coast of Sicily called Taormina.  We took a photo there of my wife and daughter that I still love to this day.

Then, just a few years ago, we went back, bringing along our second child.  We found the same wall and made some more memories.

Now that we’re all caught up, I received this e-mail from a reader, Miki G a few days ago:

I wanted to thank you for your posts last year about Sicily.  We were there for two weeks last month and used information from your posts to help us plan our trip.  Your posts even helped us decide to go there in the first place!  You may appreciate the photo we took in Taormina which I have attached.  We loved Mt Etna, however, the weather did not cooperate with us the day we had our transportation booked.  We were able to hike around one crater before it started pouring, which then turned into hail.  The area flooded so by the time we returned to our bus we were soaked.  The snow/hail covered the beautiful colors, but at least we were able to see a little bit of it before the downpour.  I attached a snow covered photo of one of the craters I took as we were leaving.  Taormina, Ortigia (the island by Siracusa) and Trapani/Erice (on the West coast) were our favorite places on Sicily.  Glad you took the time to share your experiences.  Hope you are able to make it back to visit the West coast.

Wow!

Look, I get that people read my posts.  Many of you comment on them as well.  But, it’s messages like this one that are so special for me.  Miki not only took my advice on where to go in Sicily, but it was part of her decision-making.  That’s pretty darn cool.  I’ve never met Miki but she took my advice, and then took the time to write that wonderful note about her trip.  She also included a couple of pictures, including that wall!

The craters at Mt. Etna are a site to behold.  A pic from our own trip:

The Final Two Pennies

A big thanks to Miki for sending this note along.  The blog continues to evolve, like the new podcast.  I may even dip my toe deeper into the water on ways to make money from the blog other than the advertising you see on a daily basis.  But, I still enjoy writing every day.  That’s why I do it.  And, it’s so awesome to hear from folks that get value from what they find here.

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