My Experiences with Blogging to Date by da-AL

Posted on by da-AL

While I decided whether to blog, I asked friends if they could direct me to bloggers they knew. Nada.

As I gathered courage anyway, I perused existing blogs, deciding what tickled me about them and what didn’t. I asked myself was whether I could develop ongoing interesting content for a blog.

Image courtesy of Just2shutter at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Image courtesy of Just2shutter at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Publicizing my novel, “Flamenco & the Sitting Cat,” will also require me to speak publicly about it. Hence, a few months ago I joined Toastmasters, an international organization that inexpensively teaches public speaking and leadership skills. TMlogobigColorAs I learn to write and perform speeches, their subject matter appears on this blog.

Once I decided to blog, I needed to learn how. I signed onto my favorite public library site, which you’ll read more about in a future blog. CoLAPublLib

In addition to books, they offer free on-line courses. I took a teacher-hosted Gale 6-week course called, “Blogging and Podcasting for Beginners.”

Image courtesy of ddpavumba at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Image courtesy of ddpavumba at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

It covered Blogger, WordPress, podcasting (audio version of blogging), and vlogging (video version of blogging). Too much at one time for me.

Thanks are in order for my dear husband. His encouragement helped me immensely. Decisions threatened to overwhelm me — platform, name, subject, style, dedicated blogging email, blogger identity/avatar — any one of them could easily take the course’s whole six weeks to choose.

I have bumbled and re-bumbled through. For instance, WordPress offers an endless selection of free themes/templates. This blog began using ‘Splendio,’ switched to ‘Writr,’ then to ‘Yoko,’ and now uses ‘Big Brother.’ This explains why, while I am not at all messy, my blog has been beyond messy.

More experimenting has centered on how long posts should be. Some people said my first post, “Happiness Teachers Can be Furry,” was too long. Others said it wasn’t descriptive enough. As I post this, its serialized into three entries.

Image courtesy of photouten at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Image courtesy of photouten at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Pictures: people complained that the original ones were ugly and/or confusing. Hopefully what’s online now are cuter.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I was working my way through an excellent video on how to become a blogger but then I found that my library offers a 6-week course solely on WordPress. I’m taking on my second week of it.

For now, I’m dribbling out invites, so that I can get fresh feedback as the site hopefully improves. Once this blog feels more ‘formed,’ I’ll tell everyone about it.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

My sincere thanks to all who have offered their insights, all of it useful.

Followers, too, are much appreciated. Someday I might (not ‘may’) learn enough about blogging to figure out how to thank followers individually.

The club where I volunteer as VP of Marketing.
County of Los Angeles County Library
A very good instructional video on blogging
Grammar Girl explains ‘may’ vs. ‘might.’

Published by da-AL

Happiness Between Tails blog/podcast speaks to and from the heart. It connects lovers — of pets, authors, reading — and of my still-unreleased novels. “Flamenco + the Sitting Cat” and “Tango + the Sitting Cat,” are my love letters to all who fear they're too odd, too damaged, too old, too whatever to find love and happiness with or without a partner. HappinessBetweenTails.com • ContactdaAL@gmail.com • BuyMeACoffee.com/SupportHBT

21 thoughts on “My Experiences with Blogging to Date by da-AL”

  1. Enjoyed your blog posts. While I have been blogging for some time now, I do need to schedule time to take some classes on Word Press so that I might spruce up my site to make it more appealing and inviting. I am sure such a class would also assist me in adding more things to my site as well.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Thanks for the this and some idea of what you went through. I have been on here a year, and I still really don’t know how everything works. I would like to take that library course. I don’t live in a large area, so I am not sure where I would be able to take this.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Michigan must have some great public libraries, no? Have you checked with them about whether they have free online courses? Los Angeles has a selection of companies they work thru – the one I like at the moment is Gale Courses – you can google them too, but then you’d have to pay to take their classes. If need be, however, their courses are excellent.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I live in a pretty rural area and have limited funds, and a not so reliable vehicle. The bigger cities have them. I will try googling it. Maybe there is a meetup group.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. does your library have online access? perhaps your library system, like mine, will even mail books out to people who can’t physically get to a library?

          in the case of the online course I’m talking about, one only needs a computer & a library that offers…

          Liked by 1 person

          1. Yes our library has computers, not many I think there are four. You get an hour, and that’s it, even if the place is empty it locks you out. Is this course online without a library as long as you have the internet?

            Liked by 1 person

  3. I’m so pleased you found the Ranch, Daal. I realised later that I hadn’t had a flash fiction piece and link in that particular post you commented on, but hadn’t had time to relocate this one to tell you so. Do you think you might join in?

    Liked by 1 person

  4. Blogging certainly is a tough gig, as is self-publishing and self-promotion I believe. Thank you for finding and reading my blog. The post that you commented on had a piece of flash fiction in response to a challenge set by Charli Mills at the Carrot Ranch. I recommend that, if you haven’t yet, you pop over to the the Carrot Ranch and visit Charli. Charli has gathered a wonderful community of supportive writers who gathered each week to share flash fiction stories and support each other. Charli is a wealth of information about writing and marketing. I think you would fit in well and would be very welcome. She actually lives in your time zone!

    Liked by 1 person

  8. WordPress is real-estate on the internet for promotional use. It’s a limitless tool that allows you to expand your message freely. Ladies Prism is coming soon to romance the world. Scotian Breeze is the movement. Treasure Words, Collect Figures is the company. History in the making; stay tuned.

    Like

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