My WordPress Journey

I started blogging way back in 2012 after retiring from the Army. Didn’t have much to do then, so I thought I’d go back to one of my early passions – which was sportswriting. But then, I thought I it was time to broaden my horizons, having acquired a wealth of experience in other fields. With that, my blogging hobby was born. (Please read: Happy First Anniversary, Blogger!!!)

Back in 2013, I had an article that went viral, making close to 2 million hits in a span of 10 days. The article was: A Survivor’s Story. It was a heady time for me, and I got rewarded with more than a thousand dollars for it! Wow! One year into blogging and I was being compensated for something I enjoyed doing! Yep, a little income for some beer and popcorn. It was a great inspiration, as I watched the WordPress map of places my blog had reached slowly fill up with shaded colors. (Please read: My Five years of Blogging)

And so I started tracking the WordPress map, to know which countries my blog had been to, as well as countries it hasn’t been to yet. It was a great learning experience too, as I started to learn about a lot of countries and territories I had no inkling existed. Weird sounding names like Bouvet Island, Comoros, Kiribati, Mayotte, Pitcairn, Tokelau and Tuvalu popped out. It truly is very humbling to know that there is so much I still have to learn about our world.

WordPress lists 251 countries and territories, although the number really varies, as people have different definitions of what really makes a country or a territory or a dependent area. Suffice it to say that I am using the WordPress list for now as reference to my blog’s global journey.

Here’s the list of countries based on the WordPress Country List, with the number of hits garnered.

 

My biggest draws were my disaster blogs, the first person accounts, the sports blogs and a little on my advocacies and travel. I’ve actually been violating one basic rule in blogging, the one about working on a specific niche market. Heck, I have a lot of different interests. And I just want to write about them. So I decided I’d do away with that and just listen to my heart. The rest is history.

What rewards did I get from this undertaking? Well, aside from the remunerations, it has opened up new opportunities for me (including trips to far-away places like Ireland, Australia, etc), it has afforded me new friends, and most important of all, it has gifted with so much learning from the experience as well. Looking at the WordPress map has been a geography lesson in itself. Thank you, WordPress, and thank you, everyone, for joining me in this wonderful journey. Thanks too to my new friend, SindrElf, for the encouragement to do this project. (Please read: 21 Countries that Have Not Showed Up in My WordPress Visitor Stats)

Of the 251 countries listed in the WordPress Country List, 37 (listed below) have not been reached as of the present. Here’s a shout-out to all the bloggers out there: keep writing, folks, the blessings will come soon enough. God bless us all! 

1. Antarctica 

   

2. Bouvet Island                                                                                                                                        
3. Burkina Faso                                                            
4. Central African Republic                                              
5. Chad
6. Christmas Island                                                              
7. Cocos (Keeling) Islands
8. Comoros                                                                             
9. Eritrea
10. Falkland Islands
11. French Guiana
12. French Southern Territories
13. Guinea-Bissau
14. Heard Island and McDonald Islands
15. Kiribati
16. Kosovo
17. Mayotte
18. Montserrat

    

19. Nauru
20. Niger
21. Norfolk Island
22. North Korea
23. Pitcairn
24. São Tome & Príncipe
25. South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
26. St. Barthélemy
27. St. Helena
28. St. Martin
29. St. Pierre & Miquelon
30. Svalbard and Jan Mayen
31. Tajikistan
32. Tokelau
33. Turkmenistan
34. Tuvalu
35. United States Minor Outlying Islands
36. Wallis & Futuna
37. Western Sahara

Here are some of the countries/territories in my list left unhit. Wish my blog gets to visit these places. (For a clearer look, just click on the pics.)