Whew. One full week of being officially a Full Time Blogger!
I took a screenshot of what TentBlogger looked like right after I had published my first post. I particularly liked how bare it was (but don’t worry, it will evolve!) and how I had one twitter follower and/or feedburner subscriber.
Humble beginnings, right? Love how that happens!
But here’s what it looks like a week later:
TentBlogger now has about 206 followers, 7 posts (including this one), and less than 100 comments.
In regards to traffic, it seems that we’ve had just north of 1,000 visits:
The design, as mentioned previously, is still the same and I really haven’t touched anything else.
All I’ve done is blogged, tweeted, and engaged in the conversation via the comments.
But the biggest thing is that I’ve experienced peace. We can oftentimes feel pressure to post, especially when we create a new blog. We want it to grow so badly and want to be so clever, witty, and to present to the world the very best.
And I’ve historically struggled with those things (in very big ways) but this time I’m completely at ease – I’ll post when I can and engage when I’ve got time. I don’t feel the pressure to create content nor do I feel like my audience is anxiously-awaiting the next post.
It’s truly a refreshing place to be.
Don’t buy into the hype or anxiety or pressure to blog. If you don’t then that’s fine (but I’ll always encourage you to try!). It’s your blog, so keep it your blog.
Amen to that! No pressure to produce or perform. And I’d add, no compulsion (for me anyways) to drive up traffic or be clever or get growth or be witty
Just be yourself. That is your story. Blogging is your overflow. My humble opinion.
i’d agree.
it can be difficult to discern at times motivation… and how does that get communicated well online?
I have a harder time getting motivation than discerning it
As for coming across better online, be it for motivation or anything else really, there’s an art and craft to communicating sincerely — what is more obvious is when one is boasting and proud, not so obvious when one is meek and humble. I think those who know you in-person offline can better discern your motivation. And, allowing people close enough who can give you honest feedback that occasionally sting & wound. Don’t only have “yes men” (and women) around.
Yet, then again, we all know examples of people who were “in community” and then some secret moral failure explodes.
yes. i was reading about a well-known pastor who’s in some trouble right now (in atlanta) and it’s just the same sad story. explosion….
Me like. Shows that while a good blog design is nice, content and what’s under the hood (SEO + code) rules. Looking forward to being a part of this community as it evolves.
definitely! gotta start at the basics!
awesome stuff.
of course, you have a well established reputation, following and trust through Human3rror and the 8bit properties, so I am guessing that things will ramp up quickly.
all the best, I am cheering for you.
It was encouraging for me to see that a lot of Tentblogger’s initial traffic came from an already established site and following at human3rror and on twitter. I was getting frustrated at how you could possibly get 600 visits one day on your first week of blogging, when I’m trying to break 50 after two weeks. You didn’t actually start this blog from nothing.
It might be helpful for us SUPER newbies at blogging to know how long it took you to develop your following at Human3rror and through all the 8bit properties.
of course! let me think about this post… but i might have some of those questions answered here:
http://tentblogger.com/never-forget-your-first/
i started nearly 10 years ago!
Really enjoying what I see so far. Pleased things are growing already!
thanks james! so am i.
Where do you get the FeedBurner + Twitter counter? I’m using Standard Theme but can’t find that guy.
widgets! it’s in your widgets area.
I totally know what you mean.
gotta start at zero!
I was forwarded to this post from the ad experiment you posted recently. Wow! Day one was September 20, 2010! It’s amazing how much you have progressed in under a year. I’ve recently done a local install of WordPress on my machine and am experimenting with my design. I’ll be buying your Standard theme. It has everything I could hope for and more at an excellent price point. I’m going to call it a B-day present to myself (July 2nd). LOL. I have goaled myself to launch the self-hosted version of my site on July 15th and say goodbye to WordPress.com. Thanks for all of the help.
P.S. I must point out that your cartoon is wearing Jeans and Tie. Love it! Good Days.
awesome!
thanks so much for being here… i cant’ believe that it’s getting close to a year… wow. time is flying …!
and so much has happened (and so much has stayed the same, right?).
let me know when you launch!