A Humorous Guide to Switzerland

At times I write about topics not related specifically to Switzerland. This is one of those times and if you're not interested in learning about one of my challenges in the blogging world in 2019 I suggest you simply click on. You could have a look at some of my current popular posts like ' How to Eat a Gipfeli ' or ' How to Spot a Swiss Person '. For those looking for a way to beat the Facebook algorithm that prevents name changes of Facebook pages, please stay with me! Don't worry, no programming skills needed at all! Why I Wanted to Change my Facebook Page Name I recently renamed my blog about life in Northern Peru from 'Las Cabañitas de Gocta' to ' Destino Amazonas '. The change became necessary when I realized that the original name didn't fit the content and the goal of the blog anymore. You can read about the detailed reasons for the change here ' Cambiamos de Nombre !' (in Spanish only). The name change and following mo...

Rainy Day - magicpen  / pixelio.de Last week, I noticed a sudden increase of traffic on my blog. It wasn't huge but still noticeable. At first, I wondered what could have caused it. I didn't post any new material or was active on social networks so it most likely wasn't anything that I did that caused the increase . After taking a closer look at what posts were particularly popular on the peak days, I came back with a strong suspect: real life rain. The Connection Between Popular Posts and Local Weather Two of the most popular posts on my blog are rainy day posts . The original one is called 10 Fun Things to do on a Rainy Day in Switzerland and its sequel Another 10 Fun Things to do on a Rainy Day in Switzerland . The original has over 35'000 views/visitors and the sequel at least a few thousand. Not outstanding but quite alright as it is. Now, most of my blogs traffic that comes through organic search goes to the Swiss German Dictionary  but there is a...

Radio - Erwin Lorenzen  / pixelio.de  More than 760'000 Swiss citizens live outside of Switzerland. Many of them in different parts of the European Union and very few in exotic locations like Maui. About 3'100 of them are currently living in Peru and just one  is living in the beautiful village of Cocachimba . These Auslandschweizer  ("Swiss Abroad") can be heard on the radio in Switzerland once in a while. There is a weekly show on Swiss radio SRF 1 called " Die 5. Schweiz "  - a name that translates to "The 5th Switzerland" and refers to all Swiss citizens who reside outside of Switzerland. This show introduces Swiss people living in different parts of the world and interviews them about their new life abroad. A few months ago my mother told me about this program and I thought it interesting enough to write them an email and ask for more information. After a few emails and several failed phone calls (thanks to my very remote location and...

A personal blog like mine is probably one of the best ways to express yourself, your opinions and your experiences online. Personally, I've always tried to keep out of controversies but sometimes a little personal comment slipped in anyway. I usually don't like and don't do self-promotion either. Today, I'd like to make an exception and introduce you to " Destino Amazonas "! The blog " Destino Amazonas " (lit. 'Destination Amazonas) was started on a whim when my husband and I moved from Lima (Peru) to Cocachimba (also in Peru) where we're currently trying to manage the construction of our future home. Life in the small village of Cocachimba couldn't be more different from life in Lima. Instead of gray and foggy days we get rainy and sunshine. Instead of traffic noise and loud neighbors we hear birds singing and the majestic waterfall of Gocta is always rumbling somewhere in the background. Life here also has it's hick-...

blogging - S. Hofschaeger  / pixelio.de I imagine that almost every blogger has set up a Google Analytics account in order to track visits to the blog. I'm no exception to this and while I'm probably not using all its features and benefits, it still is a very interesting tool. Other than the total amount of visitors per month I'm mostly interested in how these visitors actually got to my blog. There are referrals, social media referrals, direct hits and - most interesting - search keywords that led people to one of my posts. However, since Google updated it's privacy settings * , most of these keywords appear as "(not provided)" which isn't very helpful. The keywords left in your Google Analytics keyword list are the ones from other search engines. At least, those give you a general idea what your visitors were looking for when they were sent to your blog. My Top 20 Keywords in 2016 For this blog "A Humorous Guide to Switzerland"...

Analytics Overview from the last 5 years I've been blogging over five years now. There have been ups and downs along the way but overall I've managed to maintain and even grow an audience for my blog " A Humorous Guide to Switzerland ". Of course, there are things I now think I should have done differently or better not at all but hindsight is always 10/10 and there's nothing better to do with mistakes than learn from them! Now, my blog is by no means famous or extremely well visited. From my Google Analytics statistics I gather that about 2500-3000 people have a look at one of my posts every month. For me, that's quite an accomplishment, especially since this is a personal undertaking and not a commercial business. However, the success of a blog is a relative thing, depending very much on the time you're investing and the goals you're setting. I also learned that blogging is not an exact science. What works for one blogger might be totally us...

Are you an expat in Switzerland? Or are you planning to move to Switzerland? If so then make sure to check out expat.com , a web portal for expats by expats. What is expat.com? Expat blog was started in 2005 (as expat-blog.com) and aims to help people living abroad and those  planning and wishing to move abroad, wherever they are from or would like to go. Members share their expat experiences, exchange information and everything else related to expatriation. Compared to other expat web portals, Expat blog is very active and currently has over 400'000 members from over 200 countries (including yours truly). How to use expat.com The platform centers around local communities (usually a country or a region) with discussion forums, guides, photo albums, business directories and classifieds. Of course, an extensive directory of expat blogs is available for visitors and members. Recently, two new features have been added to the Switzerland section: Jobs and Housing secti...

Gerd Altmann  / pixelio.de I've been blogging for quite a while now and overall the experience has been great. The writing is fun and I find myself on the watch for more uniquely Swiss things and traditions to write about. I'm sure there are still plenty out there! Also, like most bloggers out there, I've been checking site traffic regularly lately and found interesting keywords that led visitors to this blog. I decided to answer some of the 'questions' asked directly or indirectly through these keywords. Does Migros sell alcohol? - No, Migros itself does not sell alcohol or tobacco products. This has been the policy of Migros founder Duttweiler because he believed that the sale of health damaging products should not be supported by cheap prices. However, some supermarkets owned by Migros do sell alcohol, for example Denner. Where can I order Rivella ? - If you don't live in Switzerland you can order Rivella (only the red version though) at the  ...