Hi Friends,
3 Million Pageviews
8.5 Years of Blogging
300+ Brands and Companies
770 Posts Self-written content
The Life's Way started on 27-December-2012
1 Million achieved on 21-July-2016
2 Million achieved on 8-August-2018
3 Million achieved on 16-May-2021
2281 Total Blog posts on Lifestyle and Technology
It all started with a dream to take care of my free time and to get involved in some kind of creative pursuit so that I can find my mojo and also get into something which can take me places around the city as well as the world. I have been able to enjoy my life in the truest sense of The Life's Way and also thankful to all the brands, companies, PR agencies, People involved in all these creative industries to give me a chance to perform and be myself and promote their products from time to time. I am sure some of them I have failed, some of them are indifferent and some of them must be happy too. Over the years, I have met some people who were really happy to meet me in person and it used to astonish me as to what special I have done in their lives. I also got the opportunity to eat in certain restaurants where I would not have normally gone and also maybe won't be able to afford a meal or two but because of TheLife'sWay I was invited and enjoyed some vegetarian delicacies. I might have not drunk alcohol but if it was gifted to me some of my friends must be happy for that day when he drank that wine or champagne or whiskey.
The power of social media platform I understood in my first year of participating in the Facebook contests and then migrating to the Twitter contests soon thereafter. With a strong presence in both these platforms, I was set to achieve something big when I started my blog inspired by the journey my friends took in their collaboration with the Indiblogger platform. I wanted to win some Soul by Ludacris headphones and that was the whole purpose of starting in the blogging industry but I could not win them since today. Though I got to win a lot of prizes on the Indbiblogger platform from earphones to headphones to laptops to cash to gift vouchers and build up my creative instincts as well as knowhows of blogging and in the process meet the biggest celebrities and eat at the 5-star restaurants in India.
When I came here just before the first anniversary of TheLife'sWay, I came upon a different kind of struggle. The internet data was too expensive and I had no social media following locally as I created another Twitter handle
@thelifesway to be using especially in South Africa only. I didn't know any PR companies and any brand and even when contacting those brands they were saying you only have 62 followers. Then slowly and steadily I built up my following and after more than 6 months (Nov-2013 to Apr-2014) of struggle, I got my first chance from
Sony South Africa who was instrumental in putting me with Primedia to review each and every movie released in their theatres. Throughout my next many years, I continued to watch each and every movie twice a week non-stop unless it's some kind of load-shedding happening in the area.
The second thing that happened around the same time was the
Mission Samsung's Blogger Challenge Campaign for all the residents of South Africa and it was my dream to be winning one or at least be a part of the challenge. It came in newspapers and on Twitter handles and on their website - I read through the Terms and conditions as I wanted to win the same and put in a lot of effort to get to know about the challenge. It was their collaboration with Webfluential as well as SA Bloggers by Sandy. This contest really gave me a boost as it became my passion because I had missed the opportunity to become Samsung Blogger in India as I started my channel a little late and the contest was over by then where they chose certain bloggers who will get their products and will be getting invited to all their launch events. It was a really big dream for me to get involved with all the technology brands.
I don't remember now when 1 Million and 2 Million pageviews were achieved but I will dig deeper maybe to check on the same. So after a lot of digging, I got the answer to the 2nd Million was done on 8 Aug 2018 after 5.5 years of blogging so it took me around 3 years to reach the 3 million mark. That's a lot of effort guys. The first million I was subscribed to a service where I paid the money annually to do the tweets which used to bring me a lot of traffic on the website and I used the service for 2 years. But I had to disconnect as many of the users blocked me as it was never-ending tweets about the same content again and again. The first million was achieved on 21 July 2016 as I used to tweet the daily progress of my blog those days. Such a time waste if I think about it. I think when I stopped posting that number for many years, people who used to follow me kept asking me how's your blog doing? I never understood the reason for their ask but now I am getting it as to why they used to ask me this question.
So the fastest growth seems to be between the first and the second million pageviews as after the same, I started rejecting many brands who were just making use of my time and efforts and not giving anything in return at all. I have considerably reduced my time to be spent on my blog since the birth of my second child in January 2018 and focussed more on other social media platforms once again. My still belief is that I have got much more goodies from my social media presence on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter as compared to the blog which means that I have won several contests giving me much bigger prizes as compared to the goodies gifted by PR companies and Brands at their launch events. But this post is to celebrate the overall crossing of three million page views on The Life's Way and what it means to me?
3 Million is just a number and I hope to reach 5 Million soon in some next years and I will continue to write the new articles and blog posts. I will also focus on shooting video blogs that will go on my Youtube Channel. If you have not followed me on the channel, kindly do so as I am still far from the first 1000 subscribers and just need around
228 new subscribers to reach that landmark. This can be done in a single day by my readers around the world. Kindly follow the link and subscribe to the
TheLife'sWay Youtube channel, please. Your help will be greatly appreciated in this regard.
I would also like to mention what I have received in terms of goodies or media gift pack during all these years from all the brands I have supported on my blog posts -
1. Samsung South Africa - 139 Posts - Samsung Galaxy Note 20 (Won), Samsung Galaxy Buds Live (Gift), Samsung Powerbank 8700mAh (Gift), Samsung Launch Event trip to Cape Town for Note4, Samsung Launch Goodies - Snacks Packs (Gift), Samsung NX300 (Community Challenge Winner) Won, Samsung 65'' Curved UHD TV (Mission Samsung Grand Finale Winner) Won, Cape Town Trip for Grand Finale Mission Samsung
2. Huawei South Africa - 136 Posts - Huawei FreeBuds3 (Gift), Huawei Watch GT2e (Gift), Huawei FreeLace (Gift), Huawei Watch GT (Sponsored), Huawei Bands (Gift), Huawei Wifi Dongle (Gift), Huawei Gift pack and accessories, Huawei Tshirt and Shorts (Gift), Huawei Hoodie (Gift)
3. Montecasino, Johannesburg, South Africa - 85 Posts - I have shared so many posts for
Montecasino and most of them are for the
event tickets and never got any stay at any of their hotels or properties. I was recently again invited for their movie launch event where I won
Tomato Watches and also some
Coca-Cola goodies which I have made YouTube videos about.
4. Indiblogger - 83 Posts - I have participated in a lot of their contest where sometimes I won Flipkart vouchers, sometimes goodies were sent to us, some of the posts were for cash also and overall it was a joyous collaboration with this blogger network in India. I have bought a lot of stuff using those Flipkart vouchers for sure.
5. Disney South Africa - 68 Posts - Other than their annual showcase goodies along with movie tickets from time to time the gift packs includes generally some books, notepads, Mickey Mouse Volkano Bluetooth speaker and recently in 2021 time
National Geographic Astrum Bluetooth Speakers which you can watch on Youtube channel.
6. Acer South Africa - 67 Posts - R500 gift voucher to buy stuff from Shop.acer.com (used thrice),
Acer Launch goodies like Pen drive 8GB, Paper stand, Typo calculator, pens and diaries.
I have stopped sharing for Acer South Africa as I didn't get anything worthwhile sharing all their press releases and doing product reviews though I used to get invited to their local launch events and also some products to review.
7. Sony South Africa - 53 Posts -
Sony MDR-XP450AP Extra-Bass Wired Earphones (Gift), Diary, Pen, Sony Xperia XA Ultra, Sony Xperia XZ Premium
My love for Sony products is such that I bought so many products in London along with my earlier collection of products that when I came back to India, the Indian Country Manager of the Sony Headphones division wanted to visit my home and gift me with a new product but that couldn't happen as I travelled to South Africa before he could plan a visit. Anyhow, it remains my favourite company as I have kept hold of my old portable e-Reader, old noise cancellation headphones along with various other Sony products from Cassette player to MP3 Players to Portable CD player. I will start showcasing them on my Youtube channel soon.
8. Silverstar Casino, Johannesburg, South Africa - 48 Posts -
Silverstar Casino Marketing team provided me with a lot of staycations which I won during their several events and got to stay in their Presidential Suite also twice or thrice. I have got pen drives, Champagnes, Pens, Diaries, Casino vouchers, hotel stays, free movie tickets, Picnic sets, beach mats, Cheese cutter, Coffee maker and so many fun activities to be part of in terms of their event tickets. I am not getting invited anymore to their launch events but I have had a great run with the brand and I am so grateful to them.
9. SterKinekor South Africa - 39 Posts - Movie tickets mainly and some launch events.
Sterkinekor was the first company if I remember correctly to invite me to a movie night and gave my first goodies bag in South Africa which was a Diary and a Pen. I still have not used any of the items and kept them safe.
10. rAge Expo South Africa - 36 Posts -
rAge Expo Tickets, rAge Expo media goodies like Lego blocks or some kind of other goodies like caps, t-shirts, carry bags from their sponsor like MSI Gaming etc.
It's always a pleasure to receive an invite to their expo which is a mad mad time to enjoy the best of the best games, memorabilia, gadgets and other technology-related products and goodies. I have been part of most of them since I came to South Africa and over the years the thing that remains with me is
MSI Lucky Dragon Bag which is a perfect fit to carry all the groceries and vegetables from the car to the home. All my 3 bags collected over the years are now at the end of the road and I need some new ones to carry on showcasing them in my shopping trolley.
11. ZEE South Africa - 28 Posts - No benefits at all other than 1 invite to go to
Zee launch event in a Chauffer driven limousine which was an experience in itself. That's my only experience in life to sit inside a limousine.
12. LG South Africa - 25 Posts - Macaroons, Mobile Stand, Pendrive,
LG X Screen, Mobile Photography Class at Vega
13. Lenovo South Africa - 24 Posts -
Lenovo Pen drives, Diary, Pen, Customised Laptop Sleeve, Yoga mats, Tshirts full sleeves, Lenovo Wireless Mouse
14. Microsoft South Africa - 23 Posts - Pen drives, Poncho, Scarf, Brainstorm magazine, Pens, Invite to their CIO-CTO Event, Cap
15. Uber South Africa - 21 Posts -
Tshirt, Discount voucher (never used), Mobile Stand
So these are the top 15 brands in terms of the number of posts done and some of them I have also marked as brands that just wanted free promotion and vanished once I asked for something in return so there are around 60+ posts belonging to those brands. So this is the current number of posts for all these brands and maybe or not there will be more for them or not depends on the respect I get in return for my time and efforts. Here I have not talked about the thousands of tweets, Facebook posts and Instagram posts for all these brands which come along with attending the event, or sharing blog posts or receiving the goodies. Overall, it's has been a great journey so far and I generally do publish the yearly posts too which you can read and enjoy too. Thanks to each and every pageviews reader to make it happen! Thank You!
.jpg "Nibble Africa team. Left to right seated Ruth Bleeker, Aidan Kruger, Dharshan Moonasar, Lukhanyo Gqokoma. Standing Glenn Marc (CEOFounder)")
