Happy First Birthday!

This blog is officially one year old today.

Happy First Birthday to my writing blog.

It has been an interesting journey of discovery, frustration, elation and a very steep learning curve. This blog commenced while I was staying with my son and daughter-in-law in Sydney last year. We were having a short holiday there and Simon did all the technical stuff setting up my three blogs. He still does all the maintenance on our blogs.

Thanks Sim’.

What have I learned?

  1. Connecting: The writer’s life can be lonely at times – but on the positive side, I’ve made many contacts with people all over the world through their comments and links to this blog and my other sites. Thanks to all of you.
  2. Selecting: The blogging world is an interesting place to live in; there are many wonderful writers who are forward looking in their thinking and express that in their writing. There’s just not enough time in each day to read it all, so one has to be very selective.
  3. Focussing: The writer’s and blogger’s life needs to be very focussed on the task at hand. The internet can be a huge distraction and hours just fly off into the unknown leaving little time for the real work of actually writing.
  4. Absorbing: There are so many things one needs to learn how to do to make the writer’s life and one’s blogging ventures successful. At times I felt like a giant sponge soaking up all the information about this new venture. Putting it all into practice was a challenge. Sometimes, like the sponge, I felt so bloated; at other times all wrung out and dry.
  5. Rewarding: Being able to write over 900 blog posts for the last year has been very rewarding, giving me a great sense of achievement. Having a readership in the many thousands every month has its own rewards, especially when people connect via comments, some returning frequently. Receiving my first payment from my blogging was another reward and, though modest at this stage, it is a start.

So there you have it.

Happy First Birthday.

Reader’s Questions:

  • How long have you been blogging?
  • What have you learned from writing and blogging?
 

4 Responses to “Happy First Birthday!”

  1. Rick Cockrum says:

    Happy Birthday, Trevor! 900 posts. That’s a lot of work. Congratulations!

    I’m coming up on my first birthday this month, too – the 15th. Like you, I’ve found blogging extremely rewarding – not financially, but in every other way that counts.

  2. Trevor says:

    Thanks for that Rick. My goal for this year is even greater, being a thousand articles for the year. Now that I am starting to get the hang of this blogging business. I am enjoying the discipline of writing almost every day and for extended periods of time each day.

    My son Simon has recently made some first tentative forays into the affiliate programs on our blogs. It will be interesting to see how these go.

  3. Hey, happy birthday – I hope there’s still some cake left!

    Wow, 900 posts; you’re a machine! Keep it up, man, we’ll make a writer of you yet… 😀

    I’ve been blogging since June 22, 2006, so still a few months to go for my 1st.

  4. Trevor says:

    Thanks Robert. My goal for this year is even greater – it’s good to be always stretching oneself to achieve more. One thing I need to be careful about, though, is to take time out regularly – the batteries run down too quickly these days.