This week, About Basque Country turns six. We want to celebrate this day by discussing the evolution of this blog and give you an idea of some of the projects we have for the future.
But firstly, and most importantly, we have to thank you for your loyalty. To those of you who’ve been here since the beginning, and to those who’ve just joined us: eskerrik asko.
About Basque Country has just turned six.
It’s thanks to you that we’ve managed to make this one of the most influential blogs in the Basque world. And that’s not us talking: we have the numbers to back it up.
That’s why we want to continue asking for your collaboration. Read our articles, comment with your opinions and impressions, and, if you like what we do, share with your friends! For us, your visits to our blog and your work sharing the entries are fundamental. Our growth can’t be explained without your active collaboration. We hope you’ll continue!
We’d be happy if we were only growing among readers in the Basque Country, but we’d love to grow among the diaspora, as well, among the “Basques abroad” and the “friends of the Basques” who are, for us, all those who want to learn about the Basques without any “distorting lenses”
Six years, October 2010-October 2016
Actually, we got started a lot earlier. In 2008, we began writing a primitive blog that was called aboutbc.wordpress.com. They were the first unsteady steps. We consider that our “beta phase,” when we started realizing the potential possibilities and interest a publication like this could cause among readers.
At the beginning of October 2010, we decided to take the steps that seemed necessary to convert that blog project into a reality with a permanent feel. We reserved our first domain name, aboutbc.info; we registered with Google Analytics, to have a clear view of our evolution; we set up our site on social media; and, most importantly, we committed ourselves to maintaining a blog with regular updates on everything Basque.
Six years have gone by, and we’ve seen huge changes: page design, hosting capacity, and, especially, a domain name change (as you know, now were aboutbasquecountry.eus !) This has all been in an effort to provide a better service to our readers.
Among the most important changes, without a doubt, are the versions in Basque and English, which are maintained thanks to volunteers who we’ll never be able to thank enough for their hard work and commitment.
The results of six years of work
The results so far couldn’t be better; that’s what we think and how we feel. We don’t hide who we are and what we feel, but we do try to collect, in an honorable way, all the information we can find from around the world which seem interesting.
The data back up our personal perception. We’re among the 400,000 most read websites around the world (alexa.com), and for a long time now, we’ve been among the top twenty most influential social media sites in the Basque Autonomous Community (alianzo.com).
What’s more, Google’s measuring service, Analytics, tells us we’re maintaining a growth rate that in our eyes is simply spectacular.
Evolution of hits to aboutbasquecountry.eus between January 2011 and September 2016.
This positive data news continues on social media, especially our Facebook page. We’ve got almost 30,000 followers there (28,289 at the moment of writing this entry), which is more than we’d ever dreamed of, especially when you consider that we’re growing at the rate of 600 new “friends” a month.
We’re very aware that the key to this growth is a direct result of the loyalty of our readers, by which we mean you. That means that significant part of the success this blog has is thanks to you, our readers.
More news: Cultural association
We’re working hard not only on maintaining the day-to-day of the blog, which we do in our free time, since those of us who make this site work have other obligations, but we don’t want to stop there. We believe that the interest we have here indicates that there’s a real interest in getting to know who the Basques are and how we’re seen in the world.
We want to help shape this image, and add our two cents to make it so that this view the world has about the Basques is as close to possible to who we Basques really are, both as a people and as a nation.
That’s why we’re announcing that we’re creating an association that will give us greater coverage so that we can act towards that goal. We’ll keep you posted, and we hope that the with these new projects we want to get going, we’ll be able to count on your support.
About Basque Countryfor your advertising
We don’t want to finish this summary of our past six years without a reminder that we’re are a wonderful place to advertise. Advertising on our page meets two goals: you’ll be reaching a wide audience and helping us continue to reach our goal. It’s a win-win situation.
