Pick of Penang - 2013 and beyond

When this blog was started there was a focus on emigrating to Penang, the MM2H visa and all things associated with it.  As time moved on the blog has started to focus more on life in Penang itself with specific references to the lively entertainment and modelling scenes here, it's inevitable once you live here, have the MM2H visa and begin to settle, you start to focus on what interests you and what you think might be of interest to others.  Insofar as what might be of interest to others, in terms of web-traffic, the blog also feeds through to the Facebook Page for 'Pick of Penang' and while the MM2H / emigration articles attracted, and continue to attract, a lot of 'hits', the overwhelming majority of hits (and we are talking by the thousands here) are in respect of the 'lifestyle' (night life, dining, modelling, events, promotions and travel) articles.  A significant proportion of followers are in Malaysia and the site continues to attract visitors from many overseas countries with Asean countries being the most prominent.

A more in depth review of the web traffic has allowed me to determine what I consider to be the right direction for the blog for the future.  As such, I plan to continue to focus on the key themes which are clearly of interest to the vast majority of readers.  They include (and this list is not exhaustive):

Nightlife in Penang:  I plan to completely re-visit this topic to provide an extensive photo review of the nightlife scene here, updated for 2013 and featuring the bars in Upper Penang Road, Paragon (Gurney Drive), Precinct 10 (Tanjung Bungah), Straits Quay, Batu Ferringhi and a 'Misceallaneous' section with bars outside of those areas.  There will also be a photo review of the top clubs in Penang including Soju Room, the newly opened M2, Slippery Senoritas and Mois.

Restaurants: There will continue to be a focus on dining in Penang with a review schedule covering hawker to 'high-end' fine dining.

Promotions: I often get notified of promotions being run by F&B and other outlets and these will continue to be posted.

Events: Tickets to some of the big party nights and events here are in great demand and the events often extravagant and well attended.  The articles covering these, or even just links to albums of them, get thousands of hits, often within hours.  Their popularity demands continued coverage.

General Interest: Articles covering all manner of other topics will of course continue to be posted from time to time with web traffic showing that the most popular tend to be those articles related to travel, products, day-to-day life in Penang along with the 'How to' style of article. These articles will hopefully be of interest to residents of Penang, expats included, and whether you've been here a long time or are a recent (or even impending) arrival. Some will also appeal to visitors.

Hotels: Folks searching for accommodation frequently visit the site and, while it's a topic I can't get too excited about, some further reviews on hotels here might not go amiss.  They will hopefully start to appear as the year winds on

So, that will be the general direction of the blog for the immediate future, I hope people continue to find it useful and enjoyable and I'd like to say a big THANK YOU to the many regular followers of both the Blog and Facebook Page.