In 2012, this writing portal has seen a change of focus and an attempt at rebranding. As for me 2012 was the year of archery, most of the articles highlighted on this blog were archery and sports related. At the same time, I published a steady stream of articles about Thailand. As of today, there are a total of 461 published articles.
Throughout the year, according to Google Analytics, the traffic fluctuated between 300 and 600 unique visitors per day, depending on the season (with less traffic during the holidays) and day of the week (with fewer visits at the weekend). The most unique visitors were registered on May 22: 573!
Almost 170,000 pages were accessed and readers spent an average of 2:33 minutes on the blog. These are good numbers considering that nowadays people tend to focus on micro blogging and picture sharing social media applications, rather spending time reading long(er) articles.
The vast majority of the readers were from the United Stated, followed at some distance by United Kingdom and Thailand. Canada, Australia and India took the next three places.
So, without further ado, here’s a list of the top 5 most read articles:
Archery Articles
1. History of Archery Timeline
2. 2012 Asian Archery Tournaments Calendar
3. Archery in Bangkok
4. Archery from A to Z: B is for ‘Body strength’
5. 3 simple safety rules of archery
Sports in Thailand
1. Aikido in Bangkok: A martial art with no age limit
2. Thailand Kendo Club: The Way of the Sword in Bangkok
3. Staying Fit in Bangkok: Hua Mark and Din Daeng Sport Facilities
4. Fencing in Bangkok: At the tip of a sword
5. Judo in Thailand (Bangkok and Chiang Mai)
Thailand Articles
1. Chao Mae Tuptim: Bangkok’s One and Only Phallic Shrine
2. Sri Maha Mariamman Temple in Bangkok
3. Katherine Jones: A Thai-British artist with a passion for abstract painting
4. Erawan Museum in Samut Prakan: The Three-Headed Elephant Statue
Nepal Articles
1. Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal
2. The People of Nepal – Background and Overview
3. The History of Nepal – Brief Considerations
4. ‘Nepal’ by Jon Burbank, a Benchmark Book in the ‘Cultures of the World’ Series
5. ‘The End of the World’ – Short stories from Nepal
Book Reviews
1. James Fenimore Copper’s ‘The Last of the Mohicans’: book vs. movie
2. ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ and ‘Through the Looking-Glass’ by Lewis Carroll
3. ‘Or Else, the Lightning God & Other Stories’ by Catherine Lim
4. ‘Samurai of Ayutthaya: Yamada Nagamasa, Japanese Warrior and Merchant in Early 17th Century Siam’ by Cesare Polenghi
5. ‘The Beach’ – the ultimate backpacker novel by Alex Garland
Author Interviews
1. “Yamada Nagamasa was a smart and bold emigrant who made it big, but met a tragic fate.” – Interview with Cesare Polenghi
2. “I will be researching the stories of Nepali migrants in Burma and Thailand.” – Interview with Sushma Joshi
3. “In Thailand there are very few English language publishers who will fund the cost of producing and publishing a book.” – Interview with Andrew Hicks
4. “Flying for example, to India and back, at night, can leave you feeling like the living dead” – Interview with Nicholas Johnstone
5. “All the successful ‘farang’ writers with fiction based in Thailand or the region aim for the international market.” – Interview with Trirat Petchsingh
My Short Stories
1. ‘The Rose’
2. ‘River Land’
3. 6-word short story
4. ‘The Light’ (co-author)
5. ‘The Shadow’
I hope you’ll have a chance to “revisit” some of these articles. Have a prosperous New Year!
