This blog is now three weeks old. In the beginning, I took some advice from a slick how-to-blog website and just plunged right in, opting for WordPress as the blog host and choosing the 2011 theme used to illustrate the article. Definitely a monkey see, monkey do scenario. As it happened, the advice was pretty sound.
How it feels to be a 62 year-old blogger with three weeks experience under his belt! (Image: WPClipart)
I had been dithering over blog hosts for a couple of weeks and probably would have dithered over a lot more blogging aspects if not for that gentle shove. Instead, I’m now up and running with a real live blog, and while I’m not doing anywhere near as well as some others who got started around the same time (I have been looking over the fence at their greener grass), I am making progress (unlike some quickly abandoned blogs I have come across). I have a few likes, a handful of followers, and even a comment or two. Things are picking up.
In just three weeks, I have learned the blogging basics. Who knew that blogs came with dashboards? Heck, I haven’t felt this much in the driver’s seat since I got my first car. And all those charts and graphs. Why, it’s all positively – well – scientific. Then there’s mighty Google and Bing and Yahoo actually sending folks to view my humble blog. My blog! Lucky thing they don’t know who I am or they’d send them somewhere else.
Anyway, now being a big blogging expert with tons of experience under my belt, I have overhauled the blog completely. I’ve chosen a handsome new theme, rewritten my inept “About Me” spiel, and generally spruced the place up. Sort of like washing and vacuuming the car and hanging a piney deodorizer on the rear-view mirror. Most important, I have renamed the blog. No more boring, “Thomas Cotterill’s Blog” – nope – as you can see, it’s now The Solitary Tree. [No, you’re not going blind – or having a mysterious episode of amnesia – see below]
Postscript: The road to a successful blog can be a winding one. “The Indie Writer’s Companion” soon replaced “The Solitary Tree.” When I remembered that my original intent had been to promote my name prior to publication of some short stories and novels, I went with “Thomas Cotterill: Philosophical Writer.” A bit grandiloquent, perhaps, but very much in keeping with the spirit and content of the blog.
Thomas Cotterill 
Haha, I feel what you’re saying re the dashboard, charts and graphs. It certainly isn’t how I imagined. Am only a day into blogging myself and enjoying it, but lets see how my attitude is in three weeks!
Hi Max. As with so many other things in life, the trick to blogging seems to be patience. I got off to a fairly decent start (my expectations were low), then the views dried up for a week or so. That was pretty discouraging, but I learned to write more popular posts and the search engines began to send a few views my way. I think it takes months for most blogs to really take hold. You just have to keep posting in the hope that sooner or later your target audience will notice you.
Thanks for the advice Thomas. I spent the last year living in Mozambique, where everything takes a long, long time to happen, so patience won’t be a problem for me! The number of views has been decent so far, but the trick will be getting them to keep coming back I guess.