PART 1 of My Blogging Journey

This post circles around this question— ”Why did I even start a blog”? Good question, right?

The truth is, just days after "Blogging with Emilie" went live, I spent a good amount of time reflecting on this. 

But first, to put the readers’ at the center of this blog, as the original post was long, I find it best to break it up into two parts, where the first part would talk about the technical side of my journey into blogging, while the Part 2 would discuss the emotional struggle dealt. This way, I could share the rigors of setting up a blog site at full length, that from my experience.

Google prefers longer articles, so it is not surprising to see online articles in the 4000-word count range. I resolve to not go with what the Google Console/Analytics suggests I should do as far as word count is concerned. I am writing for people who are family and friends, and those I will most likely not meet in this life. 

So here is PART 1:

Blogging has been a “thing” for some time. It’s probably safe to say that it’s been around for over two decades now, and that’s on the conservative side for I do not have the information about when blogging came to be. The bottom line is, it’s not a new concept. Now that I’ve mentioned that, it goes to prove that starting a blog was a far-off idea for me, or I would have tested the waters the soonest chance I got.

Looking back, I didn’t have the slightest interest because I had to have a good reason for it. Things like, what would I even write about? It's integral to the blog structure to have a going theme, or the content will bounce off the wall and land all over the place. This is why bloggers carry a premise and stay on that same premise. 

Some bloggers write about fashion, photography, dieting, or just about anything under the sun. Some bloggers write about a slew of things but are interrelated, so it doesn't hurt the concept for which they created theirs. As for me, I didn’t have a clue at all about what I should be writing about. So, why would I even bother, right?

And then blogging came into the picture when I was in real estate. I recall wishing that I could also dip my toes in. Believe me when I say that it was plain wishful thinking for I knew it was best to put it to rest as the industry was, and still is, saturated with many who blog about real estate. It was to leave it to the professionals who knew every fiber of the business. It would serve my best interest to sit back and learn from them instead.  

Also, with all the demands of blogging, it was not enough that I love to write and decide that blogging is right up my alley, only taking into account that writing is my thing. However, that has changed recently.

On September 10th, this year, the idea sprouted back under the confines of curiosity, so I looked up which web-building sites authors use for their blogs. I was standing when I typed it up on my laptop. I had to mention that I was standing because if I were serious about it, I would be seated in my most comfortable position, ready to dive right in.

So I Googled it. A bunch of sites came up. Pages upon pages of them that I found it a challenge to decide which one I should go with though I was just going for a trial run. 

It was hard to resist the free trial offer. Some were a free trial for 14 days. Others were more generous allowing would-be bloggers to try it free for 30 days. 

I said, “What do I have to lose?” I could cancel and get a full refund if the site builder was not a good match for me. Or, let's say I'd later decide that I don't want to commit to blogging, but that is, of course, as long as I cancel within the free trial period. So there, I took the bait.

For the content, I said I could try to share the stories in my journal. I convinced myself that that is a good place to start. 

So, I tried this one site. To proceed, first, I had to give the site builder a little background on the nature of the blog in mind. It was necessary to provide this information so the site could make relevant suggestions moving forward, with my best interests at the very top.

The next step was the site-building itself. To say it was a tedious process was saying it lightly. I'm speaking for myself here, as it was difficult to follow! I was hoping it would just be switching back and forth from Google docs to the blog site to add text to the pages. 

I thought it was just about the site’s esthetics: fonts to use, font size to consider for the title, heading, and main body where the text goes, deciding on the theme as there are several to choose from, the accent colors, images to use, form/s I wanted to use—the whole nine yards! 

I was wrong.

I tried another site. I thought it was easier to do it there. In fairness, in the beginning, I could follow along until I ran into some difficulty, so I abandoned that one, too. 

I was exhausted. I stayed up till past midnight and ended up with nothing! I told God, “Lord, what a waste of the time You have given me today! I am so sorry. What was I even thinking?” 

I went to bed disappointed, feeling rather inadequate.

Morning came. September 11th. We went to the 8:45 AM Mass. When we got home, I said, “Okay, Lord, I will try it again. If still, I don’t succeed, at least You know that I tried.” 

So there I was in front of my laptop. To my surprise, I found a site builder that I thought was worth trying. Oh my, I loved it! Had there been no lunch prepared beforehand, we would have just ordered Chinese food. I was so engaged. Or maybe it’s best to say, “The site is very engaging!” I finally found one that is user-friendly for someone like myself who isn't tech-savvy. That rhymes! 

What happened next, I was too excited to publish my blog and go live! The blog was up and running on the same day I created it! I did not care if it required further polishing, I was just happy I did something by myself. 

Immediately, I shared it with friends and family back home. The next day, I went back in to admire my hard work. So there, I went over it with another set of eyes. I realized it could use a lot of work. No big deal, so I modified it, tweaked it, moved things around, etc.

The funny thing is, day after day, I find reasons—and notice that it’s in its plural form— to update and improve the overall feel but also to incorporate tips to improve the site's SEO and all the other stuff. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Quite a mouthful, right? It is like learning higher mathematics, and mathematics is not my strongest suit.

There are a ton of things I only understand in part about Google terminology. For someone like myself who relies on my hubby for all things technology, to put up a website by myself and later learn that all I have done was the bare minimum because there was more to it than I realized was like assembling furniture and the instruction manual was written in another language I don't speak. 

And the Internet, although it bridges continents and people from anywhere closer together, is so huge to search through. It is like going through mounds of haystacks to search for a needle because website building covers a lot of territories. My head was fairly bursting. I felt too old for this. I guess so much is true with the saying, "You can't teach old dogs new tricks." It was an information overload for me.

The videos alone on SEO and everything SEO are a lot to digest. It is like navigating through uncharted waters. The Internet has nearly endless videos to watch on YouTube on this topic alone—all of which were to help the site owner have a good grip on what role Google has in the world wide web. 

I can’t watch them all, or much of the time spent was mainly on watching the videos and very little on my blog to build it up. And if I were to listen to what everyone suggests I should do, I would end up more confused. I say this because these experts have varying ideas, sometimes opposing ideas. For now, I am thankful I could employ some of these experts' tips without involving my hubby.

And then there is this Google Console and Google Analytics to consider. When I thought that SEO and everything SEO- related are a lot to digest, understanding Google Analytics and Console, is like an iceberg, and I only touched the tip of it. There is more to explore. 

Google Analytics is not another fancy word. The way I see it, it acts like a website’s dashboard that tells a stack of data about the site. It gives a snapshot of the users and user behavior while on the site, the pages they visited the most, and the top-ranking posts. It also shows how many are returning users and new users. It's so humbling to see other continents and countries I’ve never been to show on the report! These are just a few of what the data gives.!

To me, to go to Google Analytics site to check on the blog’s performance is like going to the doctor’s office and you end up in the laboratory for a blood draw to analyze your overall health.

Where frustration lies is that I do not have the know-how and the means to fix the errors on my own. In the meantime, hard as it is to figure things out on my own, I did not say that I am not going to at least try the things I could do. As someone has said, everything was difficult before it was easy. It is a learning experience. 

See you all in PART 2! 

Many blessings!