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Thursday, January 12, 2012

The Wind is Knocked Out of my Sails

This could really be titled things I never thought I'd hear myself say because, "The wind is knocked out of my sails?" I'm not even sure where I pulled that one out of except that it seems to fit. I love blogging. I didn't realize how much I'd enjoy it until I jumped in with both feet. It's almost been a year since I started and it has been quite the journey. It's a dream of mine to make money writing and I was on my way until Google shut me down. I've been told to try again but haven't had the nerve to yet. When I tried to reach more readers by posting on a long time message board that I belonged to for years, someone reported me and I got my hand slapped for doing so. The irony was that I wasn't just promoting my blog. I was posting about the infertility and thought my experience could help someone else. When I wrote about Rocco, I posted it on a different board on the same site (the same day) and no one reported me there. The whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth: knowing someone on the board had taken the time to report me. I go on other blogs and see that they have hundreds of followers and 20 some comments on every post and I wonder, how do I get my blog more out there? Some of the problem is that we are all talking about the same things so maybe I'm too late. The market is already saturated with "mommy bloggers" so maybe it's a case of a day late and a dollar short.

I am on Twitter which is huge for me and it is a little overwhelming. All the information coming to me so quickly makes me excited and overwhelmed at the same time. The bloggers on there seem to really know what they are doing and I feel a little out of my league. With 130 followers and me not really tweeting anything other than my blog, does that mean that the followers took a look at my blog and liked it? I have no idea. It is all so new and confusing to me, to be honest.

I haven't heard back from Facebook about being blocked to post on my own page but what kills me is that the person that reported me could have just hidden me or unfriended me if they were tired of seeing the blog. Why report me? I've been having trust issues lately and this just adds to it. How many of the friends we have on Facebook are actually our friends? One friend told me she has reported all the articles that she sees her friends reading as spam and yet they keep coming. How is that fair? Someone can add me to a group without my permission (not that I care about the ones that I have been added to...just trying to make a point) but I can't post my blog on my own wall? How is that any different than posting my pictures on my wall? Sorry, I don't get it.

 I want to give my blog an overhaul. I have been reading a lot of other blogs and they all look so professional that it has me wanting to make some changes on mine. I've tried and haven't been successful. I tried to add things and instead of adding what I wanted, it took something I wanted to keep away. It made me nervous to do much else. Maybe it's time to switch from Google. I talked about it before and it didn't seem worth the hassle. The whole thing has me bummed out. You don't realize how non-tech savvy you are until you start digging around. B.B., I might need your help on this. It doesn't help that this computer that I am typing on is a dinosaur and every five minutes, I get a warning of some kind.

I'm going to keep writing the blog because I do it to have some sort of record of this fleeting time. I just recently finished a journal from a loved one and to be able to go back in time and see what was going on and the feelings and experiences that were being had...it's just priceless. In the end, I would love to have thousands of people reading and more importantly relating but ultimately, it is something that I will treasure as a little piece of the history of our family.

3 Comments:

At January 12, 2012 at 6:30 AM , Blogger Jerry said...

I think you may be taking the spam thing a bit too personally. Most likely it got reported out of ignorance (like the friend you mentioned) or accident. I can see someone that has no clue what they are doing subscribing, then wanting to see these posts and selecting the option to report as spam instead of hiding or un-liking. It is a pain, but not likely to impact your real audience.

As for twitter, you may want to post brief "thoughts" there, before organizing them into a full blog post. Otherwise, one may see following you as just redundant to what they see here or via FB

JM

 
At January 12, 2012 at 6:31 AM , Blogger Jerry said...

oops.. meant to say "NOT wanting to see these posts.."

 
At January 12, 2012 at 7:17 AM , Blogger AnnMarie said...

You are probably right but since another person I went to high school with got blocked as well, it doesn't feel like an accident. How about if the person that did it, posts that they did it on accident? It's not so much the blocking as much as it is that I want to be doing more and am just ill-equipped to do it. When I sit down to do research, I am instantly overwhelmed.

 

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