and the winner is…..

well, I think the 50 readers who took the time to fill out the questionnaire (on my January 30 post) are the winners. Thank you. I encourage you to click the link here and take a look at the spreadsheet, but I thought I would write about a few of the most interesting bits.

Comments – a lot of people said that they very rarely or never comment. I knew there were people out there reading, and I am so glad you finally chimed in. It seems people felt they would be jumped on or are shy or feel like they need to have something major to contribute in order to comment. Really, you don’t. Sometimes it’s just nice to hear someone say that they liked a post, or they thought it was funny or something. Theresa wrote that sometimes she gets inspired to blog on a topic that started out as a comment. On this blog you can comment without putting any information about yourself, and if you check the box at the end you will automatically receive an email when additional comments on that post are posted. (for that option you have to enter your email address, of course) I hope some of you who haven’t commented before will in the future, sometimes the comments are more interesting than the post!

Newbies – One man said he’d never been on a blog. But he has, because he was here! So that’s a big step. The next thing I’d recommend is clicking on some of the links in my blogroll. There are a lot of interesting blogs out there!

Couples – There were a number of comments where one person of a couple is interested in moving to Mexico, and one isn’t. One man uses my blog as part of his “persuasion effort aimed at getting his significant other to consider moving to Mazatlan with him.”  That’s a nice thing to say!

Construction/House Stuff – The posts about our remodeling efforts, the mural, and other house projects were popular. I can understand, as I absolutely love it when other blogs are documenting their projects. (Thanks, Jonna)

Specific comments to this blog – One person would like it if I posted more, that it should be like his morning paper! One would like more specific information about the best places for shopping, etc. in Mazatlan. Some want more dog & bird stories, some want less personal information. Jackie likes that I keep posts short and don’t ramble (I guess not this post…) New Mazatlan blogger Dianne says “it rocks.” Jennifer says it is like visiting Nancyland. One man asked “what does husband think?” Paul doesn’t participate much in the blog but he is always represented here. Bliss would like to know more about people we’re meeting, especially Mexicans.

A few things struck me as interesting…someone from Washington State who has been reading since we sold our “Pierce County digs..” and a woman who is not planning on moving to Mexico but is bilingual and has visited San Miguel and Mazatlan. I just get curious and would love to get a real conversation going with them.

The blogs people liked the best were mostly blogs I read regularly myself. Billie in San Miguel, John in San Miguel, Mexico Bob, Jonna & Mimi, Dropped In, Babs in San Miguel, Wayne in Isla Mujeres, Bliss in San Carlos, Steve moving to Melaque, Paul in Merida, The Gangs of San Miguel, Mexico Cooks, Heather in Paradise, Theresa in Merida, Viva Veracruz, Moving Kids to Mexico, MexScape, On Mexican Time, Elliot in Ajijic, Midwesterner in Mexico, Joy in D.F., Cancun Canuck, David Lida, and New Beginnings in Manzanillo. Ones not on my blog roll but excellent blogs (or blogs I need to investigate myself) are Tales of Zapata Street, Tinta de mi Voz, Falling in love with San Miguel, Zocalo de Mexico Folk Art, Noticias de Cholula, Jennifer Rose, and the Rosas-Standring Family. All you bloggers should read the spreadsheet just to read for yourself the nice comments about your blogs! A list does not do you all justice! (I hope I got everyone mentioned, above.  My eyes are about to bug out!)

Finally, statistics.

Country
Mexico – 15
US – 31
Canada – 4

Spanish proficiency
Beginner – 21
Intermediate – 12
Advanced – 5
High Advanced – 2
Fluent/Bilingual – 3

Thanks to everyone for participating, I got some excellent feedback and heard from some people who hadn’t chimed in before. And I should thank Google documents, too, as it was a pretty slick tool that worked just as it said it would.