The recent post at Essential Keystrokes about the evolution of Char’s blog got me thinking about the last 6 months and how easy it is to become immersed in a whole new community I had no idea existed. Blogging is addictive. This is not news to most of you.
At the beginning of this year, I had no idea. I was just looking for a way to make a little income online, and stumbled onto the MomGadget forum, where I found lots of inspiration from people making money through niche blogs. I started two niche blogs in January, and then had an epiphany! I realized I should turn this domain, which has been around since about 2002, into a blog. I knew the site would benefit in the search engines from the inherent advantage blogs have because they are frequently updated, and I needed an outlet for things that didn’t really fit on my personal blog. I really wasn’t all that concerned if I ended up with a lot of readers. But, as I began to participate more in the blogging community, I found that I DID care about what kind of traffic I was getting and whether I got any response to posts by commenters. I was addicted. Every new inbound link and trackback was a big boost, and once the I Follow thing hit, I was a goner.
As I mentioned, I was inspired by those I met through the forum, and there are others who have inspired me and helped shape the way I navigate through this virtual world. To name a few:
Char – the importance of networking, sharing ideas, and collaboration. Her helpful hits and suggestions to a newbie blogger, as well as clients she has referred to me have been extremely helpful.
David – the importance of participating in other site through comments. It seems that every site I land on, David is listed as a “top commentator”. Besides the great content, I’m sure the success of David’s site is due in some part to his frequent participation in the conversations on other blogs.
Brian and Cory – inspired me to develop themes for WordPress. There’s a great satisfaction there is in providing something free for others to use and seeing it implemented on their sites, not to mention what a great impact that can have on your rankings with Google and Technorati.
Alister – to keep an eye out for link-bait, to jump on an idea quickly and promote it heavily to get the word out.
What about you? Who has inspired you?
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I’ve been inspired by your success at WordPress themes, now if only I could find the time for my own! I keep preaching on about how I’m going to get one launched, so no doubt sound like a broken record.
Thanks very much for the mention, Randa. It’s kind of strange that a lot of the blogs I visit belong to people who started around the same time as me. Is that just coincidence? Probably.
If you need some motivation David, Google’s next page rank update is coming in the next month so I hear- if you got one out in the next week or so it could make a difference, though most sites who implement a new theme don’t have much page rank themselves, but a lot of links from little sites are worth something anyway. Little sites become big sites. Only problem can be getting it uploaded to the theme viewer. They’re not adding new users right now, and I haven’t gotten a response from the moderator, so I’ve had to rely on Cory Miller’s kindness to upload them for me.
I had wondered when Google were going to update the public PR values. You’re the first person to mention a timeframe to me.
Do you have any idea how long WordPress aren’t accepting new themes for?
Just visited Cory’s site and left a comment. There was an interesting post about how his site is his 600 page resumé.
They’re accepting new themes, it’s just that you have to ask via the contact form for the moderator to give you permission. I didn’t get any response from my e-mail I sent her, so I just sent a request via the contact form, so we’ll see.
Nice wordpress themes! Also, i like the layout and colours of your blog!
Randa – I feel honored to be at the top of that list! I am so grateful to the blogging community for giving me the opportunity to step outside my little box and get to know that whole new world, too. I can not wait to see your one year evaluation of it all!
I already knew two bloggers on that list, but thanks for pointing out the others to me and what they did for you! I also agree that blogging is superaddictive, but you know: it’s a good alternative to other time-wasting one could be doing online – at least it’s a way to communicate with others, develop networks and learn new things
I only wish I had the webskillz to actually make a Wordpress theme of my own 
Hi Randa. I’m not sure why, but this post really struck a chord with me. I totally agree about blogging being addictive, and how nice it is to begin establishing some friendships… but do you ever find that you get into a funk and don’t feel like writing?
I’m not sure how old your site is, but I’ve only been consistently blogging for about 4months. Prior to that I had another blog for about a year which I never put the time or effort into that I could have, and ended up turning it into a personal blog, which I rarely write on. For that reason, I still consider myself a newbie.
I have a ton of drafts at any given moment, but there are times when I feel like none of them are really worthy of publishing, and I find myself straying from the topic of design (though I never intended to write solely on that anyway). There are so many things I want to write about and do (theming is a big one for me as well, and I have several in progress), but I get caught up in time constraints and distractions. Reading this was inspirational to me because it’s obvious you’ve met some like-minded people and formed some solid relationships via blogging. I hope to do the same.
Thanks for your comments Charity. I can identify with the situation you find yourself in. This blog was born in January, and there have been times that I felt I had nothing to say that hadn’t been said a million times over somewhere else and couldn’t seem to come up with anything I felt was worth publishing. One thing that really has made a difference for me was reading somewhere that at any given time there are always people just behind you on the learning curve, and sharing what I’m learning through this site, might be helpful to someone else.
Definitely forming some relationships with others through blogging has played a big role in shaping this site. I hope you find the same. I grabbed your feed – looks like we have lots of the same interests.
Thanks Randa, and I think so too! It’s always nice to meet designer-types to convene with, bounce ideas off, or learn from!
What a good thought to keep in mind – that on the grand scale there’s always someone tracing our footsteps, so to speak.
I guess the best thing to do is just keep pluggin’ away. Sure there will be those who pass by, maybe roll their eyes and think “I already knew that”, but my guess is just as many will think “this is just what I needed!”
Randa,
Thanks for the mention
It’s great reflecting with others on what they have been learning.
Like you have done, I am soon to bring out a theme of my own… it’s a challenge I want to “rise” to…
Cheers,
-Alister
Alister! Great to hear from you. I have missed seeing you pop up in my reader. Hope you are well. I can’t wait to see the theme you’re working on!
I so agree with you about the addictiveness of blogging. I have been surprised at how you feel you get to know people, I never thought that would happen. I am constantly amazed how helpful fellow blogger are. Like you I have started to get a buzz out of increasing numbers of visitors or links. I think it is a great idea that your blog is part of your design website, I have decided that my next website will be wordpress based it is just so user friendly.
When I first started blogging I was worried I would run out of ideas, I still worry, but then you read someone elses blog, hit the stumble button or google something and you have inspiration for something new to write about.
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