Celebrating My First 50 Blog Posts

The last blog post I wrote about Father’s Day was my 50th post!  This is quite a celebration for me.  Why?  I was dragged into blogging kicking and screaming. “No way!” I’d holler when people told me how much I’d enjoy it.

The only thing I knew about the word blog was that it rhymed with fog.  And I was OK with that.  I loved to write but techie stuff bamboozled my brain.  I wrote blogs for two months before I knew how to attach a picture.  I couldn’t figure out how to edit, tag, or link.  I just wrote.  When people talked about SEO I thought they were talking about the president of a corporation.  I just wrote.  When they talked about engaging, I thought they were talking about getting married.  Where was the diamond?  I wanted to know.

What Blogging Has Taught Me So Far

• Blogging is like any other adventure or challenge.  Starting is the hardest part.  Once you have started you can figure out the rest of the stuff as you go.  Just write.  I used to blog about the things I didn’t know how to do.  “Help!” I’d say. I don’t know how to attach a picture.  Someone would email me and tell me how.  Some of my greatest encouragers even came to my house to show me how to do things.
• The more I write, the more ideas I have for writing.  The longer I go without writing, the harder it is for me to come up with ideas.  Anytime an idea pops into my head now, I just capture it on a new post.  I may only have a title but I’ll save a draft until I’m ready to go on.
• I discovered I’m better at writing humor than I ever knew.  A blog is a perfect place to write humor.
• Brief writing is often better writing.
• If you read blogs featured on Freshly Pressed, you’ll get better at blogging.  When I started I honestly had no idea what blogging was.  I faithfully looked over the blogs featured on Freshly Pressed.  It showed me how to improve.  One of my dreams is to be featured on that site.  A gal can dream.

• People from all over the world read my blog.  Isn’t that a riot?  I don’t even really understand how they know I’m writing.  Like I say, some of the bigger mysteries of blogging elude me.  But I did discover when I post in the middle of the night, people from Scotland and the Netherlands are in the middle of the day.  One guy from the Netherlands commented on my blog.  I said, “I see you are up in the middle of the night like me.”  He said, “I’m in the Netherlands and it is the middle of the day.  Your post popped up on a readomatic.  I still don’t know what a readomatic is.  I just keep writing.
• Ironically while writing this blog, bragging about my new skills, I’ve encountered many challenges.  For instance, it somehow automatically ‘published’ before I finished it.  ??  I don’t know why.  Perhaps I’ll figure out that mystery before I write my 75th blog.
• I’ve learned that people who knew me well already knew I would enjoy blogging.  They kept suggesting it to me.  They were right.  I was wrong.  Bless the naggers in my life.  You know who you are.
• Blogging is fun.  Take it from the Queen of Reluctance.  Don’t fight it.  Just write.