A letter to our readers – how I turned a small idea into something big

This is a letter to our readers… to you. The person who comes on this blog and reads it, who tweets us, comments on our Facebook pictures and who enters our competitions religiously!

I’ll never forget when the Tech Girl seed was planted. I was sitting round one of those fires at San Bar on the roof of Sandton City. With me were friends and we were chatting about tech and the internet. We’d all had our fingers burnt (funny figure of speech considering what we were sitting round) writing for other publications or trying to make our mark.

Our first Instagram post... how relevant?
Our first Instagram post… how relevant?

Writing is not a job. It’s a way to share a piece of your soul with others. To put down in words what they thought only they had ever thought. It’s about sharing experiences and ideas. I can go on for hours here so I won’t. My biggest gripes with other tech sites were how boring they were. When you buy a phone do you make double sure that it is powered by a 2.7GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor? Or are you more concerned with how quickly it saves pictures to your gallery after you’ve snapped them? I wanted to change the way we speak to readers and I wanted to have some fun while doing it.

First ever tweet!
First ever tweet!

After a few encouraging words from friends and some frantic “are you sure this will work” calls I decided to get Tech Girl going. I threw some of my cash at the idea and 2 weeks later the site was live.

It’s been a roller coaster ever since. To begin with there were the jealous remarks and the hidden nastiness that I’m starting to realize is just a reflection of others and not necessarily what we do here. I’ve had criticisms for the silliness (and criticisms for the not so silliness) and been devastated when a piece I spent hours slaving over received hardly any reads in comparison to a piece about painting charger cords with nail varnish.

There is this amazing group of women (and one divine gentleman) that have my back and contribute to Tech Girl. Our contributor list grows every day and I’m constantly in awe of what people bring to the table. We started as a tiny idea. This madness to combine gadgets, glamour and giggles… 7 months (yup, only 7 months) on, the site is earning its keep. I’ve had the opportunity to meet amazing people and see incredibly rad things courtesy of this little blog that could.

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It hasn’t been easy. I have a day job, run a small business and show jump competitively. I spend a lot of time running the blog off my mobile device. I’ve recently started doing video content and between posting, commenting and tweeting, I’m now also recording!

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But this is a letter to our readers not me rambling on. I wanted to say thank you. Thank you for reading and thank you for interacting. Tech Girl started as a blog but in such a short period of time it has grown in to a community. Tech Girl is a community of women (and men) who share knowledge, help each other and have a good giggle at my ridiculous videos. Tech Girl was my small idea but it was always meant to be a place for you. I can only hope that you don’t stop visiting.

Do you want to turn something small into something big this summer? Let Lumia help you do that – tell them what inspired idea you want to make a reality.

 

I'd love to chat to you some more.

 

I usually send out a weekly mailer with a recap of blog posts but also some personal anecdotes. If you want to know about competitions or just catch up in a more personal setting then you might like to receive the mailer.

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