Is it really October? New month - New Milestone

Don't get me wrong - I don't mind
change! But counting milestones is
much less depressing at this point!

It is hard to believe it is already October. This year has really just flown by. Honestly, it has been busy, but I am not really sure the reason for that. Yet, as we head into October, I realized I have hit a milestone. I have been working on my blog, Ramblings of an Undiagnosed Mad Woman, for about a month now.

Now, as a writer, I count my milestones because this is really just a hobby. I say hobby because I would really love to count something bigger than pennies. But counting pennies gets depressing so I have decided to count milestones instead. Therefore... here is my first milestone - One Month Into The Blogosphere!

Insert Audience Clapping Here!

So you might be wondering why this is such an important milestone! For me, it is because I have been trying to open this blog for a few years already. I know - it is amazing how long it actually took me. I wrote a few random articles when I first found out writing online was even an option. (And yes - I never even really considered opening a blog at the time!) So I just titled a few of my articles with the Ramblings headline. I figured I wanted to have a good selection of writings I could ramble about before I opened the official blog.

So what happened? My planning happened. I could never brainstorm enough ideas so I just go lost into the digital world of writing whatever I wanted on Xomba and Hubpages. In fact, I completely forgot about the blog. That is until about a month ago. I was feeling the pressure to be evergreen. I was feeling the pressure of being judged on what I was writing and internet bots not thinking they were good enough. So, my creativity took a nosedive and I got struck with a very bad case of Writer's Block.

I don't even know why I did it. Maybe I was just playing around with the idea; maybe it was supposed to be fate. I was doing my research and I accidentally created the blog. You are probably thinking how do you accidentally do something you have been trying to do for years? Don't ask - I haven't figured that out yet!

However, I have learned a few things since I have started...

The learning curve....

I have been writing online for a couple of years, so the writing part isn't new to me. Blogging however is!

1. Blogging is a hard business. I came from writing on a very busy platform to blogging. I am fortunate though because in knowing writers already,  I already had a bit of a support group. I don't know if I would want to keep writing here if I thought I was writing to nobody. Yet, the idea of writing to nobody also has some appeal. I know I have a smaller audience on Blogger so I am not afraid of any topic yet. I guess because I know I have less people to piss off!
2. Labels! I know in the writing world we help people find us by using keywords. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out how I could drive people to my blog unless I spammed both my twitter and facebook accounts. Duh - labels are the same thing! Glad I figured that out relatively quick! Now I just need to get myself to care more about Search Engine Optimization!
3. Pages are your friend. Even though I am about a month into this, I am still learning how to arrange things and get my page exactly how I like it. One day I actually hope to buy my domain name. Until then, I am still learning the road. Today, I figured out, with help from blogger friend Julie DeNeen of Life According to Julie, how to make a separate page for my "About Me" section. Now I have been seeing all these tabs on top of other blogs and for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to do it. I must say, it is definitely nice to have a friend to help you with the beginning ropes. My next step is to use this Pages thing and get my blog organized. Better to do it now than when I have a million things floating around aimlessly!
4. Blogging is a freedom. I was feeling the pressure to write before and since I started blogging, that pressure has completely decreased. I am in love with writing again! I am finding my passion all over again. Why - because I don't have to follow a pattern. This blog is nothing more than what I want. After all, it is my ramblings. Some of it might be on things my kids do and others might just be my deep thoughts. (Those moments when you ask the strange question - like who has the worse fate - Raisins, Grapes or Wine!)

As a writer it is important to be able to have milestones to hit. After all, if we went through life without ever setting goals and hitting them, we would eventually get bored and lose our passion. What would happen then? So keep track of your successes and keep moving forward. So, what kind of milestones have you hit recently?