About The Kitchen Sink: the blog celebrates a two months anniversary in October. I am getting to know a lot of you, my loyal readers. When I started this blog I was not sure where it will take me and what I was going to write about. So many subjects I wanted to discuss. A lot of questions I wanted to raise and search for answers. So I created The Kitchen Sink and decided it will be about:
– living a life filled with writing and blogging;
– exploring personal finance;
– trying to live a healthy life;
– traveling, researching, learning and reading.
Quite a wide blog niche you probably think. That’s exactly what I like about The Kitchen Sink. It breaks the rules of the blogging world, does not define a niche and does not limit me to one or two topics. It is a lifestyle blog that is scattered and full of unpredictable things. Just like our lives are.
About Aloysa: Aloysa is my blogger’s name. You know a male name Aloysius? Well, Aloysa is the same name; it’s just a female version of it that I came up with. I am an accountant by day and an aspiring writer and a blogger by night. I work in finance industry and deal all day long with numbers, budgets, debits, credits and journal entries. It is fun stuff but sometimes it gets to me. To get away from it all, I created this blog.
Before all of this happened, I was born and raised in the Soviet Republic of Lithuania (call it the Soviet Union) in a family of teachers. My grandmother taught Chemistry and Biology, my mother was a teacher of Russian Literature. My grandfather (a character worth at least a few blog posts) was a teacher of English and German languages. He should have taught me English but he never did. I guess, he never could imagine me moving to the US many years later.
Our life in the Soviet Union was not all that bad. Like in every culture and in every country, there were good things and bad things. In 1990, when I was close to graduating from the high school, the Soviet Union collapsed and The Soviet Republic of Lithuania became The Republic of Lithuania. It happened very fast: one night everyone went to sleep in the Soviet Union and woke up in the different country with a new government.
Everything was turned upside down. Russian language became a language of the enemy. Russian schools and Russian community struggled to survive in the new hostile world. About five years later, in 2000, I moved to the United States.
About the Yakezie: it is a personal finance and lifestyle blog network that was formed awhile ago. Their motto is “Selflessly Helping Others.” Sounds great to me! The group created the Yakezie Challenge (you can see their badge on my blog) for bloggers. The challenge requires the following:
– write quality content;
– post 2-4 times a week;
– selflessly promote others.
All of these are required in order to challenge and hopefully increase bloggers’ Alexa ranking. Before I stumbled onto the Yakezie I never even heard about Alexa. Apparently it is a very important ranking in the blogosphere. The lower your number (closer to #1), the better it is for your blog. I started my blog two months ago and my ranking is a whapping 2,693,805.
I joined the Yakezie Challenge yesterday. Let’s see where it takes me in six months.
Final word for my readers: I hope that my eye-opening and jaw dropping content will make you come back to The Kitchen Sink again and again. It is a potpourri of intellectualism, culture trends and out-of-the-box stories featuring smart and stimulating plots… Are you still with me? Good! I am joking! But I do hope you will come back, read, enjoy and subscribe. Without you, my readers, this blog would not exist.
You will find in The Kitchen Sink:
1. My book reviews;
2. Ramblings on life, writing and inspiration;
3. Interviews with great, empowering and talented people;
4. Personal finance discussions (I am an accountant after all);
5. Articles about health and fitness;
6. Guest posts that bring a new and fresh perspective.
I want to say a special Thank You to my most loyal and committed readers. Through The Kitchen Sink I met a lot of interesting, talented and inspiring people from all around the world. I hope to meet even more now as I joined the Yakezie Challenge.
You gotta love blogging for the opportunities it gives!
Thank you all for your support, encouraging and moving comments and kind feedback.
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Aloysa, that is great introduction of yourself. I enjoyed reading every word of it. And thanks for sharing your story with us. I think that you are very intelligent and special person. And talented also…. And congratulations on joining The Yakezie Challenge. And all my very best to you!!!!!
Thank you so much for your comment! It is very encouraging. I figured that maybe two months into blogging was about time to introduce myself. I am glad you enjoyed reading it.
Aloysa, the female for Aloysius, (I loved this name btw) this was a sweet post. Thanks for the update
I also appreciate your joining the YAKEZIE community you speak of–better check that out.
Russia fascinates me, in a way. I wonder if I can ever be there, in this incarnation. Hmm.
Hearty congratulations on the two-month anniversary!
Oh and come to think of it, I will be completing six months in the blogosphere in two days. Two days! Two days? Oh my. Take-away lesson from your post: I should also dedicate a post to the blog that has survived my whims, somewhat intelligent posts, and overall weird demeanour
-BrownEyed
I liked the name too! Six months already? I really enjoy your blog a lot. Would love to hear your story about your blogging adventures. My best wishes to you, Brown Eyed Mystic!
Good luck in the challenge! You will find a lot of members are open in the Yakezie Forums. A great way is to comment on each of the Member Posts as well, as they will always respond back.
Cheers, Sam
Thank you! It is a great idea and seems to be helping a lot of bloggers.
Great to get to know you. I bet you have a lot of interesting stories about your life – you should share them!
My blog is similar in that no topic goes untouched. I cover just about anything, depending on my mood, but health and personal finance are my top 2 categories.
Welcome to the Yakezie!
I should tell more stories, huh? I checked out your blog and loved it. I also noticed that I tend to write more about health or finance or variation of both. Having no specific niche really suits me.
You’re off to a great start! In my humble opinion.
Thank you! We will see where it takes me…
Welcome to the Yakezie. I joined in March and got my Alexa rating to the 88,000 range (it fluctuates) where it seems to have stabilized the last month.
I’m looking forward to reading your blog and learning more about you.
Wow! 88,000! This is great! If I get one day in six figure rating, I will be happy.
I agree with Connor. Only TWO months! I could have sworn you’ve been doing this for years. Great work!
Well, I’ve been blogging on and off since January. In fact I think I will tell you guys my adventures in the blogosphere in one of my future posts.
Welcome to Yakezie, Aloysa (I love that name). Great to know you. I’m looking forward to reading your blog and learning more about you. I will help in anyway I can to promote your blog Good luck!
Thank you and nice meeting you too!
Welcome to the Yakezie! I joined at well over 1 million Alexa, back in March, now my blog is at 129,000. It’s a great group of bloggers, and you’ll have fun and learn a lot while being involved.
I’m glad I came across your blog, I’ll come back.
I hope you will come back! And thank you for stopping back!
Welcome to the Yakezie group! I joined at the end of July with a ranking of 1,704,000 and now it’s 98k after only 2 months in the group!
I appreciate this introduction and plan to become more familiar with your writing!
A lot of Yakezie member comments go into SPAM. What’s up with that? Thanks for letting me know!
Impressive results you got with your blog! From 1.7 mil to 98K! Really impressive (can’t even find another word! ).
I have a pretty “wide” niche too. I can’t help it…I have lots of interests!
Good! I am not alone then.
BTW, ever consider registering your own domain name? Could be good!
Yes, I thought about it but decided to give myself maybe another couple of months.