The Public Speaking Blog started out with a personal agenda. It was meant to be an archive of speaking tips that I have gathered from books or learnt from experts; purely for my own perusal. Yet today, it has evolved into a public speaking resource site visited by over 1000 visitors monthly, with a record high of 35,486 hits this month. The blog is visited not only by Singaporeans but also by an international crowd. In fact, a good 15% of the readers here - that’s like around 675 people - belong to USA, UK, Malaysia, Vietnam, Spain and Mauritius.

The Public Speaking Blog is currently ranked 3rd on the google blog search under Public Speaking. Articles from this blog has also been featured on various online and offline publications including Straits Time Recruit, EzineArticles, SPIN TrailBlazer and Toastmasters.

Sometimes I wonder how this could have happen… and then I am reminded that it only takes a spark of inspiration. The rest is perspiration. However, what makes this all worthwhile is the continual support and encouragement I have gotten from all of YOU readers (yes… YOU!) out there. Some of you are my close friends who never fail to make me smile from cheek to cheek with your kind words like “Hey Eric, I read your latest post… good stuff!” or “Dude, write something! Your blog is getting too quiet…”. Some became my close friends through this blog as you shared with me both your breakthroughs and breakdowns. You guys have also given me immense courage and motivation to continuously hone my craft so that I have more good stuff to share with you.

Check out how this blog grew in hits and visitors… (Stats for Mar 06 to May 06 are missing as I have not installed a site counter at that time)

I could easily be half a millionaire by now if I have bought a unit of stock, each priced at $1. If all goes well, next year I might experienced a million hits (assuming exponential growth and that I don’t die…) The spike happens in between Aug and Oct when I was featured on my national papers - Straits Time - with my blog published. After that, traffic grew steadily throughout the rest of the months.

So over the one year, what have I learnt?

1. Think big, start small
Frankly I never thought this blog would last so long considering that my personal blog(s) never lasted more than a year, not to say my relationships as well. As you can tell, this blog turning one year is definitely no mean feat. What kept this blog going is the whole idea of thinking big and starting small.

I have big dreams for this blog. I intend for The Public Speaking Blog to be the number one public speaking site with traffic number so high that it is quite unnecessary to share. Obviously, I am no where close both one year earlier or later. However, the whole idea of taking one step at a time helps make this goal much more palatable.

Everyday, I just focus on writing one blogpost that MUST be useful to you. As long as I achieve this objective, I will be happy. Of course, your feedback also helped me make this blog valid. But the bottomline is this: do not get overwhelmed by the big goal. Take the next logical step and everything will fall into place.

Remember the tortoise and hare race? It is almost impossible for Tortoise to win the race. Yet without fail, he placed his leg ahead of the next one and kept running. In the end, he won.

2. The blog grows as you grow
Many of you have asked me how I manage to churn out 180 over posts related to public speaking in a year. “Is there really so much about public speaking to write?”, you asked. Well, I asked the same question everyday too. Interestingly, there is always something meaningful to share with all of you which explains the existence of this blog even after one year.

A plausible reason is because this blog is a reflection of my growth as a speaker. I realize that as long as I am proactively seeking ways to improve my craft, I will always have something new or useful to share with all of you.

Say last week when I compete at the Area Level of the International Speech Contest. Right at the beginning, I was dead nervous. I could feel my heart beating really fast. And for a moment there, I was afraid that my fellow contestants could hear it too. So you may ask “What??!! You are nervous too? How can that be possible? You are an experienced speaker…” My answer to you is this “Even experienced speakers feel nervous. Question is how well does he conceal it?”

And here’s an even deeper realization is this: I am like you. I face the same problems with you. The only difference is I manage to overcome it at the most important moment. This gives me the credibility to share with you what I have done right so that you too can do so. This also means that I will not give you any superfluous tips that work well on paper but fails badly when the acid test begins. Perhaps that’s why I always have something to share with you, be it a mistake I made or a realization I have gained.

If a day comes where I stop growing as a speaker, this blog will stop too. But to make sure this doesn’t happen, I have set a set of goals to continue pushing this blog forward.

Goals for this coming year:

1. To reach average 10,000 monthly visitors, with 30% from international countries.

2. To start a video blog featuring speakers from all over (with reviews of what they did well and badly). So if you just want to be entertained, you can hop over to this blog and watch all the videos you want.

3. To invite more power-packed speakers to share with you about their public speaking experiences and of course to teach you how you too can become a phenomenal speaker. Over the one year, I had conducted two interviews and created one audio post (which is way too little). My plan is to conduct a minimum two interviews a month which will add some variety to the posts.

And of course, to continue writing articles that are of value to you, jam-packed with insightful speaking tips that promises nothing but accelerated growth!

Free Giveaways!
To show my gratitude (and patience for reading such a long post), I have some special offers to give away!!!

I have five public speaking DVDs (worth USD 69.99) to give away. It is a four hour recording of one of my training programs “From Brown Cow to Purple Cow: What It Takes To Be A Remarkable Speaker”. In these four hours, you will learn how to overcome your fear of speaking, incorporate creative ideas and techniques into your speech and most importantly, learn how to leave a memorable and impactful impression with your audience. All you got to do is to share with me how you have benefitted from this blog in less than 100 words. You can do so via email (eric@ericfeng.com). I will pick the BEST FIVE by 4th April (Wed).

To increase your chance of winning, I will like to add another special offer too. This coming May, I will be launching my second ebook (still untitled). This time, I will be focusing on how you can get what you want (be it to close a client or to win an investor over) through developing and delivering impactful sales presentations. It will be a process-based book with a lot of hands-on exercises. This ebook will be coupled with bonuses including a report on speech organization, an ebook that teaches humor and improv, a set of audio recordings featuring several well known speakers both in Singapore and USA and a free evaluation of your speech/presentation by me. I know, this is too good to be true. The entire package is tentatively set at USD 97.00 and I want to give away TWO sets for free! All you got to do is tell me why you deserve the package The more creative you are, the higher the chance of winning it. (grins) Please send me your reasons to eric@ericfeng.com Please surprise me! Similarly, I will pick the BEST TWO by 4th April (Wed).

So that’s it people. A total of over USD 500 worth of gifts that you can win. And all you got to do is just spend some time - few minutes really - writing your personal thoughts. The year will only get better I promise!

Once again, a BIG thank you to you, my Constant Reader. Love you all!!!

P.S: Check out my first article in this blog posted on 28th March at 6.36pm (in Philadelphia) –> 3As To Improving Your Public Speaking Skills It sure bring back fond memories…

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