Ive always been curious about creating a blog. Besides dreading the ultimate question of, “What do I write about?” I just couldn’t wrap my head around the process of getting started. How am I supposed to know what people want to read? How do I know if I’m even interesting enough? Should I be funny, should I critique things, is my life even eventful enough to create a blog and be serious about making this my new hobby?
With absolutely no idea where to begin, I resorted to the most relative sources I knew. Blogs about blogs, of course. I researched the most successful blog topics, advice blogs from experienced authors, and even “how-to” blog blogs.
After reading about a hundred different articles, I couldn’t help but laugh at the irony. I decided to give it a stab. I mean, how hard could it be? All of the links I clicked on, no matter how long the article, still made the process seem painless.
And then I realized the crude reality of my new interest. All of these “how-to” articles, all of the headers that suck you in:
“Blogging in 10 Easy Steps” “How to Make 120K as a Blogger” These articles are literally bullshit.
My experience in creating a first real blog and establishing myself as a real blogger was nothing like they said it would be. Here is the truth about blogs that bloggers… fail to blog about.
For starters, what these big named blog authors fail to tell you is that the websites they recommend you to utilize help pay their bills. Not to say that this is the only means of revenue cycling in; but often times there is commission involved when naïve sheep like us use the recommended links.
That being said, I used the recommended links.
The second thing I learned on this journey was that If you are going to follow someone’s instructions… do not skip through said instructions. Extremely obvious, I know. But If you are anything like me, sometimes we have to re-learn obvious lessons to really learn them.
I decided to skip through the article and found myself downloading something called WordPress. This was the recommended website creation tool from my reference blog of choice. Shortly after downloading this, I had my first of many WTF freakout moments.
I couldn’t figure out what it was for or how to even open the thing. It even stumped my tech savvy boyfriend. (This immediately cheered me up for selfish girlfriend reasons). That being said, I gained a new motive for wanting to understand this process.
After about 15 minutes of signing dramatically and cussing under my breath I re-read my instructions and realized I had yet to create a website domain. You need a website to then use WordPress. Thank god for the internet right?
Proceeding on with the task, I soon learned another valuable lesson;
This shit costs money!? The bloggers did not warn me about that.
With that in mind, I went with Blue Host, the second recommended link of the day. Now paying for BlogTyrants lunch tomorrow I presume…
Figuring out what my website url would be was probably the longest lull in the process. It felt like so much pressure was suddenly on my shoulders. “What if it seems like a spam site?” “How do I make sure it’s captivating enough?” So I did what any intellectual would do. I used a name generator from google. Thus confuzedallecat.com was born.
After agreeing to the site’s “set” monthly charges, there were some “extra” fees tacked on to make sure the creepy people of the internet do not have direct access to my cell phone number. How nice of them for making this purchase addition optional. But hey, if you’re already paying to create a website what’s another two dollars a month to ensure you’re safety?
This was it. I was finally ready to write my first blog and post it on Facebook and be famous and interact with fans and post interesting dialogue and short stories that people would love.
Except…
Who knows how to make a website other than digital media students and people who have literally made this a career for themselves? Me? No. Sadly I was just a newbie blogger who works at a bank and can barely navigate through my personal gmail without having a mental breakdown.