Note from Glen: This is not a typical PluginID post so if you have no interest in how I managed to grow this blog or how you could start one of your own, feel free to skip this entry. To everyone else, I have a nice treat in store for you today.

For the last few weeks I have been working hard on a blogging eBook which, I’m very happy to announce, is now available to download. This isn’t your typical blogging guide, it includes solid advice but also has quite a few personal stories amidst its 69 pages of free content.

To top it all off, I don’t even want your email in order to send you a copy. In fact, for those of you who can’t wait to give it a look, you can click here to get your free copy right now (opens as a PDF).

My aim for this blog has never been to simply write some articles and hope that the right people find them. Instead, I like to think of this site as a great way to connect with new people and help those people transform their lives while I work on transforming my own.

The last ‘ask the readers’ question which was “Why Are We Here?” turned out to be popular with over 50 comments, so this time I want to get to know you all a bit better. What areas of your life are you working on and what are you trying to improve?

“Glen, take a seat” was the message that I received over Instant Messenger, “I want you to come and work for us in Cape Town. Flights + Accommodation paid for, we want you to head our Social Media department”. It certainly wasn’t a message I had expected, but one I had to turn down, “Sorry Daniel, but if the offer is still open in a year or two then I might take it”.

I mean, who could really move from Newcastle, England to Cape Town, South Africa at the age of 18. On top of that, I still had a job here and only 1 year left of a three year college course. Yet within four weeks, there I was, being introduced to my new colleagues.

I’ve realised more and more since starting PluginID that our world is filled with an abundance of talented, intelligent and creative people. Most of all, I’ve found that the readers of this site, due to efforts in personal growth, are the type of people who are perfect for discussions on various topics.

Today I would like to introduce ‘Ask the Readers‘, where I would love some input from you all on certain subjects that we can all have our say on. The chosen question is this: “Why Are We Here?”

Checking my blog stats, I see that PluginID has now reached over 1,000 subscribers (this fluctuates so you may not see it). If you are reading this via feed reader or in your inbox, thank you! I can’t tell you how much it means to me to reach such a milestone, especially in a community I’m so passionate about and one that allows me to write about what I love.

Many of you may not know, but the message of being who you want to be and living the life you want to live is also my journey. I’m not a guru, I never will be, in fact…I don’t even want to be. But what I do want to be is honest, authentic and committed to fulfilling my own potential while helping others realise their own.

2008 has been by far the best year of my life. I have hundreds of stories to tell, tons of new friends and I’m rounding up the experience of a life-time over here in South Africa. I started PluginID around 6 months into 2008 and it’s amazing how quickly time goes by when you work hard and enjoy the journey. It honestly feels like yesterday when I registered the domain.

Since being heavily doused in the ‘Personal Development‘ niche, I’ve came across some amazing people, blogs and content. To end of the year with PluginID readers, I wanted to share some of the best content I’ve read in the last 12 months based on a number of different topics.

If you’ve looked at the logo for this site you’ll see that ‘Plug into Your Identity’ is actually the slogan used to describe the aim of what we want all readers to do. Seeing as my aim is to help a large audience with PluginID, I guess I should explain exactly what that means and hopefully with my unique view on this you’ll find it fascinating and hopefully have some personal breakthroughs and realisations.

Over the last year I’ve spent a lot of time trying to connect to my identity, my core self and now I’m experiencing all the benefits that doing this has to offer. Hopefully this post ties up some loose ends and answers any questions you might have had about my vision and focus for PluginID.

It’s true, PluginID wasn’t mine. The project I started around 3 months ago was in the hands of a new owner, somebody ready to start pumping out blog posts and excited for the road ahead. It’s not that I wanted to sell the site, it’s just that I was in a little bit of a financial crisis and didn’t know where else to turn.

Thankfully, that’s all sorted now.

The site is now 2 months and 9 days old, it’s quite amazing how quickly time has gone past. I know most people come here for the interesting content and not to see how much traffic is received but this business is both my journey and yours so I like to keep updating this. However, on that note I want to make it clear that this will be the last traffic stats update for quite a while.

I’m very happy with the growth of the site overall as you will see below and thank all of our wonderful readers for stopping by!

It has been one month and 9 days since I started this website, they say that time goes quickly when you are having fun, and this month has definitely gone quickly. When I posted my first update I said I would do a couple then space them out a little more so this might be my last for a few months.

I always find it interesting seeing the traffic stats and motivations of other bloggers so I’m sharing everything here in the hope that you find it interesting as well, if not, feel free to skip this post.