A blog at the crossroads

Dear readers, I feel that this blog is at an impasse. As I have probably already mentioned, I started this blog without putting much thought into it. After a few months, I made the (I now feel) mistaken decision to start another blog dedicated solely to Malta. The problem is that I now do not have the time to update both. Ironically, while I make most effort on this blog, Snapshots of an Island (my other blog), which I haven't updated since June, gets much more traffic (300 - 400 hits a day compared to around 50 hits on this blog). The reason for this is because there is more factual information on my other blog as opposed to my day-dreaming and musing on this blog. So what is the solution?

I have been doing some research on how to make my blog more interesting (read that as 'more interesting to Google search engines'). There is a lot of advice out there, some of which I am not tech-savvy enough to understand. But there was one piece of advice (apart from hundreds of articles about SEO (search engine optimisation) and algorithms) that was repeated ad nauseum: Google loves it if we talk about current events. Ah, and there's the rub, as the most famous English bard put it. I am not quite ready to do that. It's not that I completely ignore all that going on around me. It's that here, on this blog, I want to get away from the corruption and the sleaze; from the whole ugly mess out there. Most days, when I watch the news, both local and international, I get so emotionally distraught that all I want to do is dig a deep hole and lie in it until it's all over - if it ever will be.

So it seems that I will ignore the advice and do what feels right for me. My blog isn't about a business or about putting myself out there to make a living off of it. It's just a place where I make my own rules and where I can stick my tongue out at Google and write about what I want. I was toying with the idea of starting a new blog but that seemed  too drastic and it felt like a  pity to abandon all that I had  built up (albeit, it's not much). However, some changes are necessary. I will definitely be going for a different look: a new font, new background, simpler layout. I will definitely be sharing more about Malta on this blog (including some factual posts that I promise won't be too heavy on the history) and also write more articles about the places we have visited on our travels. I feel that I have not done most them justice as there is still so much more I can dig up from my travel journals that is bound to be of interest to those that take the time to stop and read. Another plan is to interview readers of this blog and also authors (if they accept) of blogs that I read and find very interesting or informative. We will see how it goes. Please bear with me if you land on my page and it's in shambles. I will try to keep the changes in the background but I am sure I am bound to make a few errors in the process.

None of these proposed changes will happen overnight but I hope that, by the end of this year, I will have a more defined style and a much more clear indication of the direction that I want this blog to go on. I know that a lot of my readers have been asking themselves whether what they have to say is relevant. I want to reassure them that, yes, it is relevant. As long as people stop by to read, it is relevant. As long as what you have to say,  or the photos that you share, brightens someone's day, then it is relevant. It is, perhaps, just a  matter of making some changes because if there is one thing that I have learned in  life, it is that change is constant and we just need to adapt while remaining true to ourselves. And although I know that I've talked about making changes a number of times but never got round to it, this time I am determined to see them through. All I ask is that you stay with me on what  may be a bumpy ride -at least for a little while. And I hope you won't mind me mixing things up a little bit.