Big news: today is the 17-year anniversary of the day I created the A Lady in London blog! I can’t believe it’s been so long since I started the blog back in San Francisco before I moved to the UK. It’s come a great distance since then, and I’m excited to celebrate this milestone as much as all the previous ones.
17-Year Blog Anniversary
I’m especially happy the anniversary falls so soon after A Lady in London was once again named one of the top travel blogs in the UK by a trusted industry source. It’s rewarding to see the hard work I’ve put into the blog paying off.
On top of that, I recently reached 400,000 followers on Instagram, 150,000 followers on Facebook, 21,000 subscribers on YouTube, and 45,000 followers on Threads.
It’s been encouraging to see so many people getting excited about the photos and videos I’ve shared, and so many new blog subscribers (if you haven’t subscribed already, you can do so via email here).
More than that, I’m grateful for all the support you’ve shown me over the last 17 years. When I created this blog in 2007 I thought it would always be a hobby. But in 2010 I was able to turn it into a full-time job thanks to loyal readers like you.
It still amazes me that I’ve been blogging full-time for over 14 years now. I couldn’t have done it without you.
I can also hardly believe it’s been 2 years since I launched the California Wayfaring blog. I’d always wanted to share more about my home state, and it’s been an amazing challenge to start something new after all this time.
I’m proud of how much it’s grown in the last 24 months, including reaching 45,000 Instagram followers not long ago. If you haven’t checked it out, feel free to take a look. I’m sure it will help inspire your inner traveler!
This Year
The past year has been as much of an adventure as any since I started the A Lady in London blog. I’ve had the chance to travel to places as far-flung as the Cotswolds, Paris, Bletchley Park, Chicago, St Croix, Sicily, Marrakech, Polesden Lacey, and Colorado.
As if that wasn’t exciting enough, I got engaged in Big Sur, California. It was one of the most memorable trips of my life, and I had so much fun writing about it (you can see my blog post about the trip here).
I have more exciting journeys coming up, too. Stay tuned for my blog posts about Georgia and Armenia in the next several months. If you have recommendations for either country, please send them my way!
As always, you can keep up with where I am by reading my monthly email newsletter. You can subscribe here to get all things lovely London and beautiful travel delivered straight to your inbox.
Blogging Today
With all the excitement, it’s easy to forget that the blogging industry is going through a difficult time right now.
With two major Google algorithm updates causing many blogs to lose all their search traffic in the past year, it’s been a huge challenge to keep running blogs successfully, let alone at all.
I’ve seen many of my friends and peers loose their entire livelihoods in the last 12 months, and others take on part-time work to make ends meet.
I feel lucky that my blogs haven’t been impacted too much, and glad I made the decision to build a strong presence on social media many years ago. That said, it has still affected my business, and the support of readers like you means more to me now than ever.
Add to that the problem of AI bots scraping content from blogs, and it’s been an uphill battle this year. I’m hopeful that legislation will be enacted to protect independent publishers like me, and that people will come to value personal recommendations and trusted sources more and more.
As the world moves towards a way of gathering information that’s artificially generated, real human experience takes on a whole new level of significance.
I have no crystal ball, but I’ve been blogging for long enough to know that things usually work out in the long run. Difficult times serve to help me value what I do and challenge me to keep raising the bar with my own work.
Knowing I bring my readers information they can trust and content that’s from my firsthand experience gives me confidence that my blogs will stay relevant well into the future.
Future of the A Lady in London Blog
I hope you’ve enjoyed coming along for the ride, whether you’ve been reading the blog from the beginning or you just found it today.
The last 17 years have been a great adventure, and I’m looking forward to what the upcoming one brings. I’m sure there will be lots more to celebrate on the next A Lady in London blog anniversary!
I have you to thank for helping me get to where I am today, and I’m grateful. Here’s to another 17 years of adventures in London and abroad!
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