The truth is I have no fucking idea what I’m doing. Not a clue.
I’ve had this blog for about 6 weeks now and I still don’t know a damn thing about blogging. I don’t even have the basic computer skills common to most bloggers. It took me 15 damn minutes on Google just to figure out how to take that screenshot!
I don’t know HTML or CSS (I didn’t even know what the hell they were until just recently). I don’t have Photoshop skills (or Photoshop). I don’t have a digital camera, except for my cell phone. I don’t even have up to date word processing software (still using Microsoft Word 2003).
I live in a red barn in rural Vermont, and went months without internet service before I decided to start this blog. I don’t even have a TV.
And it’s fucking GREAT!
I’m loving every minute of it! I’m so far in over my head I should have suffocated long ago.
But I haven’t.
I’m thriving. I’m learning.
I didn’t know jack shit about bread before I jumped in, and still I became a skilled professional baker. I was weak and out of shape before I started lifting, but I managed to gain a load of muscle and drop a ton of fat nonetheless. I don’t know shit about computers, yet I manage to hold my own in a company that specializes in them.
I have no fucking clue what I’m doing . . . but that’s only driving me forward.
So this will be the first in an ongoing series of posts chronicling my blog/career/life/etc. They will be a snapshot of where I’m at in whatever area seems prominent at the time. A status update of sorts. Mostly for me, but made public for any who might care.
Since my blog currently holds rein as the top dog in my life, that’s what I’m starting with.
But I don’t have anything to brag about.
I have next to no traffic. Since I published my first post on Nov. 1st I’ve had a whopping 260 unique visitors and 691 visits. After exactly 4 3 weeks I had only attracted 50 visitors to my sight site. The other 110 210 visitors have arrived over the last couple three weeks. At least it’s improving. (Update: yeah, I got my numbers all screwed up.)
I’m maybe averaging 10 or so unique visitors per day. I’m pretty happy with that number considering that for the first month I was getting 2-3 per day, sometimes none at all. My best day ever saw 34 28 unique visitors, courtesy of a facebook shout out from my friend Craig.
I use no SEO. I wouldn’t even know where to begin. As a result, I’m nowhere to be found on Google. Try it. Google “A Call To Action” and see if you can find me. Good luck. I’ve checked the results through to page 50 . . . nothing. Just a bunch of shit on politics, website calls to action, and Greg Plitt. Fucking Greg Plitt!
It’s all good though. In fact, it’s better than good. It’s fucking awesome-O! I love the challenge. If I had people swarming to my blog right out of the gate, I would have no appreciation for the effort that goes into building an audience. Since I rely entirely on content and meager social media to build my traffic, I expect this to take a good long while.
That’s just how I like things. There is so much more satisfaction in consistently busting ass and seeing your efforts slowly pay off over time. It’s just like weight lifting. If you got the body of your dreams after just one workout, you would have no appreciation for it. You would have missed out on the value found in the journey.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. I do have a potential guest post in the works with a prominent blogger/entrepreneur (keeping my fingers crossed that it goes through). He contacted me out of the blue the other day, said he liked my writing and that he wanted to profile me for his newsletter, and maybe have me write a guest post for his site.
I sent him my article just this evening. We’ll see what comes of it.
So that’s where things stand at the moment. I don’t know how often I’ll post in this series. I’m sure as hell not going to do weekly/monthly/whatever updates just for the sake of it. I’ll post shit when there’s shit to post. But don’t worry, this blog ain’t gonna become some sort of personal diary.
Fuck that shit.
Cheers!
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