When I embarked on this writing journey seven years ago, with visions in my head and ideas exploding in my heart, I had no idea what lay ahead. No clue that one day my vocabulary would include terms like writer’s platform, technorati, blogging, stat counting, and web presence. What was I thinking?
Playing with words, studying craft books, attending writers’ conferences, and keeping my eye on the goal—now those things I envisioned. But certainly not the techie things that would tax my very untechnological brain. In today’s publishing world, though, every writer must become savvy in all these things. And more. Like marketing, finding my brand, and networking. Heaven help us all.
Thank goodness, there are some ginormously wonderful, helpful, caring people out there to help writers navigate these strange waters. I’ve mentioned Mary DeMuth before and her “So You Want To Be Published” blog for writers. It’s an oasis of great ideas that I visit often.
Randy Ingermanson also has the Advanced Fiction Writers Blog that addresses all sorts of writing and techie subjects. He’s talking about building websites this week. Today’s post has a comprehensive list of ideas and questions for anyone wanting to set up a website or revamp an existing one. He also talked about web (blog) presence which is based on “hits” to your site and part of building a platform.
I’ve been tracking my stats for a while. While the majority of my readers come from the good old USA, I’ve also had visits from Canada, Australia, Africa, India, China, England, and other distant lands. Bless you all for stopping by.
The one thing I hadn’t done was check my Technorati rating. I found out that my “authority” (number of people who link to my blog) is 27 and my “rank” is 305,717. Not sure that it’s means anything, but the way I understand it, out of the sixty million or so blogs out there, with # 1 being the most popular, that’s my rank. It’s not something that keeps me awake at night, but it is definitely not something I would’ve thought I’d be checking on.
What does it all mean? Is this the meaning of life? If I don’t do all this technological stuff, am I doomed as a writer? Who knows? Certainly not me.
The bottom line, God planted the desire to write in my heart. He equipped me with enough gray cells to figure out what needs to be done. He guides my steps and holds my hand.
I’m holding up my end. Writing on my novels during the day. Slogging through the tech stuff in the evenings. And you’ll be the first to know when I sign a book contract. Thankfully, there are people out there to help me sort that out, too.
Tell me, do you struggle with any of this, or is it just me???
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5 comments:
Wow, for somebody who was reluctant to even start a blog, yours has sure come a long way! I won't even tell you what my Technorati stats are. Didn't even understand what that was (and still don't, really) until recently.
Truly, there are more and more days I just want to forget all this techy stuff and just WRITE.
Ah yes, the ups and downs of blogging... just when I think I have it figured out, Blogger goes and changes something and I have to redo things. :) You're ahead of me, so keep going! I don't even know what my technorati rating is... Blogger took off my stat counter with the last changes they made, and I haven't put it back on yet. I'm trying to decide if I care or not...
I agree. The technical side of writing is more daunting than writing novels. I don't know what my technorati rating is. Guess I'll have to find out.
Thanks, ladies, for the comments. Why can't we all just write?
I thought I had a counter on my blog site, but all I see there is an X. I know a few people have subscribed because I received the emails saying. Now I'm totally confused.
Carla, I think your blog is great! I've learned a lot from you and hope to learn a lot more.
In the meantime, write, write, write! Hopefully the technie stuff with come and there will be those around to help sort through it when the time is right!
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