On Starting a Blog

Indulge me, if you will, to a trip back around 2010. The age of the blog had begun. While not at its pinnacle nor the height of its powers, writers everywhere began to harness the power of the blog. Often receiving the butt end of jokes, bloggers were finding their way regardless of perception. Television shows had characters quitting their jobs to “write a blog”. We heard of writers making a living on their blogs. Something was happening in the writing space. Something that those outside of it didn’t fully understand. At least, I didn’t fully understand it.

Here I was, a retail professional with a desire and education for writing, trying to wrap my head around the notion of a blog. Sure, you crank out articles on whatever topic that most interests you or you’re knowledgeable in, but how is anyone making a living doing this? It seemed like fiction. As a result, I never really explored the idea. For many, this may have started as a passion, but I couldn’t dedicate time to a project that wouldn’t produce income.

Did their passion projects grow and become something more? Could I do something similar? At that time, you could start your own website, or find a host for your articles, but it is more of a project than it is today in the early 2020s. Many of the barriers have been removed, and a lot of providers now assist writers in getting their word out. Beyond the easier capabilities of building a blog come numerous people sharing their stories of success.

Never have there been more resources to do this thing called blogging. Now I understand that the blog leads to many other things. The blog is valuable to people. Some of those people will begin a dialogue, and you the blogger are part of a community. You can work to solve the problems of that community, and lo and behold, you have a business.

I came to this blog on a different path. I came to solve a problem first. A problem for which a solution brings great value, at least to me. I must do some teeth-cutting to find out if I’m right. Would people sign up for a prescriptive novel writing course? Would writers share my vision that the act of writing will make you more creative? These are the things I will have to discover.

As it stands now, my mind is a rush with a website, a novel nearing publishing, a Facebook page, a YouTube channel, a blog, future posts for each, maximizing SEO results, and any number of things that fill one’s mind when launching. This blog may end up being something I didn’t expect. Rather than a vehicle to accomplish these goals swirling around me, it may end up being a place of writing calm. Will it need to serve a purpose? Of course. But maybe it will be a place where I can share thoughts with you without all of the mechanisms and tools maelstroming in our digital world.