Things I Have Learned In My First  Year Of Blogging

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” Lao Tzu

You must promote your blog shamelessly . I thought that would be a problem for me but it turns out that I can be pushy.

The internet is all about social media and less about content.

Hits and followers are different.

Views and visitors are different.

Widgets are  important.

Plug-ins are important. I don’t know how to use them yet.

Search engines are your friend.  Like real friends, you have to take the time to get to know them and sometimes they are hard to figure out.  Google Plus and Stumble Upon are also friends.  They are more like the kind of the friends that do for you what you do for them.  It turns out that Lonely Planet  is a good friend.  Who knew? I didn’t think I was that kind of traveler. Reddit is my best friend.

The Internet loves food.

The Internet likes lists.

There are all kinds of tools for social media. There are many online self-help tutorials. You probably have to know social media or have that kind of brain to get through the tutorials.  For me, it is math all over again.

On the internet, as in life, you can always pay people to help you. The only ones I have found are very expensive and deal with corporations.  I need one of these people.

You can also pay for hits to your blog. This sounds stupid because you are not building readers but apparently is a good thing because the more hits, the easier you are to find on google.  I havent done it. It reminds me of being friends with  kids whose parents gave me candy (I wasn’t allowed to have  sugar as a kid)

As the birds in my neighborhood say, It’s always better if you tweet. I don’t.

The people closest to you will probably not read your blogs every week. Do not take this personally. Your friends probably don’t read them  so much either.  When you talk about a blog, they stand there with a glazed expression and hope you don’t question them.  My neighbor reads my blog every week.  Guys who  like you  sometimes read your blog. Guys who like you a lot read enough of it to ask a question every week.

The people who do read them are people who are interested in what you write about. I have travel writers, photographers, bloggers , tour guides and tour companies,  travel agents, travelers and people who want to travel more, who do read it.

You know your blog is getting out there when people start writing mean things.  Some internet people are not so nice.  Also, if you are going to write something mean, spell it correctly.

People from 102 countries read my blog. The top countries are US, Turkey, UK, Japan and Canada.

In the past year one person from each of these countries has read my blog –Bahamas, Latvia, Uruguay, Kenya, Costa Rica., Aruba, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Guernsey (where is this?), Kuwait , Uzbekistan, Togo, Ethiopia, Yemen, Iceland, Nepal, Cambodia, Macedonia, Malta, Lithuania, Georgia, Guatemala,  and Palau. It is like the opening ceremonies of the Olympics.  Who are these people?

I spend more time trying to learn social media than actually writing. It is not as much fun.

I need all the help I can get.  Anyone who knows about this stuff, ( im supposed to say tweet me, facebook me, email me )but  at least comment on my blog and hook me up.

Thanks For Reading and Fly Safe

JAZ