Friday, December 7, 2007

Someone's Blogging Lord, Kumbaya


Just a few of the ways my life has changed since I started blogging…

Bye Bye Bathroom Scales. Hello Statcounter. No longer concerned with pounds, now it’s all about unique visitors and subscribers. These are the numbers that determine my mood for the day.

A new career with the United Nations. My first international blog visitor was someone in Canada. Little Chick and I were over the moon. It was so exotic and exciting! I still love to see the maple leaf pop up, but now I can spot flags from Malaysia, South Africa, New Zealand and the Philippines, such a thriller to have visitors from Manila. I’m having a ball seeing flags from around the world and I think Latvia is my favorite. I also love learning the names of US cities and towns I’ve never heard of like Deer, Arkansas.

Self Help is a daily ritual. The good news about blogging is that for the most part, the tools are either free or terribly affordable. The flipside? There is rarely an 800 number with a 24-hour help desk waiting to walk me through my latest blogging glitch. You simply have to help yourself. I scour help forums and search grassroots blogs that have sprung up to help bloggers with similar frustrations. Imagine my shock the first time I realized they expected me to jimmy with the html code myself. Somehow I’ve figured out each technical challenge, one by one. But I must give credit to my blogging buddy Peter Chen who’s had an answer for everything I’ve thrown at him so far.

Accidental Spammer. I took a little stumble when I first signed up with Stumble. When searching for contacts Stumble sent an email to every address in my Yahoo contact folder asking them to sign up and visit my profile. I was mortified to realize the rector of my new church was going to see the only two websites I had as ‘favorites’ were a diagram of Dante’s Inferno and a website about serial killers. (This second one was an accident I swear.) So I madly started giving the ‘thumbs-up’ to some lighter sites about cooking and chocolate. I turned to my pals at BlogCatalog for a laugh and moral support. Turns out Teeg who lovingly talked me off the ledge, is a Stumble expert. If Teeg says Stumble is a powerful tool for bloggers then I believe it.

More friends in the sandbox. It’s been so fun to connect with old friends in new ways. Kelly from MidlifeGals and I have started blogging lunches where we drink wine and share blogging tips. And I love chatting with friends and family all over the country. Your comments let me know someone is paying attention and urge me to keep it going.

Plus I have wonderful new friends in the blogosphere itself. TCWriter from Trout Underground has been incredibly supportive and has taken to chiding me like a brother about how I need to bail on Blogger and switch to Wordpress when I launch my next blog. I love it. And it turns out WokeupToday and I are kindred spirits when it comes to dive burger joints and honkytonk bars. PlainJaneMom was among the very first to link to CFT, and her viewers leave such thoughtful comments.

I truly enjoy this new community and think we need a Blogger Kumbaya widget. Translated Kumbaya means “Come By Here,” so it’s the perfect mantra. We all love visitors and we all love subscribers. I’m terribly grateful for each of you so from the bottom of my heart, thank you for visiting CFT. Feel free to browse, comment, subscribe. And don’t forget to Kumbaya often.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

you manage to write in a style that is both pithy and substantial. i am very impressed. i can only imagine that you lend inspiration (and a chuckle) to women going through some of the same trials as you. you are a living reminder that "attitude is everything". keep up the good work.

Graham Ettridge said...

I am so glad that you are enjoying your time in the blogging world. Ironically, I started my blog earlier this year as I was struggling with severe bouts of procrastination following a near fatal accident at the end of last year. My confidence took a real hammering. I had no concept of how much inspiration and encouragement that writing a blog would provide. I also never remotely expected to be able to reach out to so many people.

Your blog is great, I think you are a truly interesting lady and I look forward to reading many more of your posts.

I wish you a great weekend!

Kindest regards ~ Graham

Anonymous said...

They still call'em honkytonks? I thought that un-PC, anyway have a nice weekend, I'll be at work.

ps- anything fried is good, hell, I'd eat chickenfried paper. matt

Matt Calonico said...

and your pithy, too

valmg said...

I really enjoyed your "Someone's blogging Lord" post. And, your picture of chicken fried steak makes me sooooooo hungry!

mikster said...

The blogosphere is sure growing and like you I enjoy seeing comments. If I can put a smile on someone's face with the drivel I write I feel pretty good about it.

Audrey said...

Hey, looks like your readers are growing. Congrats! I know what you mean about the stats. You feel great when the numbers actually go up, err, I mean your number of visitors, not your weight! ;)

Anonymous said...

There is nothing as cool as seeing a steady increase in readers!

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Anonymous said...

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josey said...

hi there!! so glad you found me amongst the crowd at blogcatalog. i am thoroughly enjoying my visit here at CFT!

this is a classic blog post!! i laughed all the way thru. i think i laughed the hardest about your "stumble." LOL! you're too hilarious! (i'm failing to mention my similar oopsies. hehe.)

btw, gus IS handsome!! hehe :)

Marty, a.k.a. canape said...

I don't have a Kumbaya widget for you (thanks for getting that stuck in my head tonight), but I do have A MAJOR AWARD for you.

You can pick it up if you stop on by :)

piper said...

Hey girl!

I'm giving you some link love on Bliss in Bloom now! Love your blog, and love you!! ~xo

Anonymous said...

Way to dilute your Stumble picks! I could feel your anxiety on that one! And yeah, I check stats like a lab rat on a lever! Very true, vert entertaining post!

Amie Adams said...

Here via Canape. She was my roomie at BlogHer. Anyone she thinks is "rocking" the blogosphere must be incredible.

I've had many fo the same thoughts you've had about blogging. I love what you said about the scale. It's a toss up between which takes more sweat though.

Isabel said...

Oh, the blogging world is so much fun. I had no idea what was going to happen when I started mine so many years ago. It's been a blast!

Editor said...

glad the blogging is going great. It takes a whaile but I think you are doing great, come visit me when you have time

suchsimplepleasures said...

that's so funny, that you say that! early on, like 2 months ago, i wrote a post about the blogging diet...that since i started blogging, i don't eat...same thing! i check the sitemeter, somewhat obsessively and have no clue how much i weigh, anymore! well...i kind of know how much i weigh but, i know...to the number...how many people visited my site, on any given day!

Joeprah said...

Hey! You got the blogging bug too eh? I think we should exchange links, you are my type of blogging chick. I am constantly checking my visitors and how they got to my site. I will never understand why I get a lot of Sweedish visitors, apparently I am huge there by way of google image search.

Rachel said...

Love it!! So true, so true.
you're a hoot woman!