A few days ago, I began going through some papers and came across an orange folder that was shut tight with a rubber band. The folder was bursting at the seams, and the band broke when I took it off. I’m almost afraid to open it and read some old entries I never posted, while I was going through a tough time in my life.
Back sometime in the late 1990s into the early 2000s, I heard of something called an online diary. It has been and still, is a dream of mine to become a writer, so I thought why not have an online presence to share my writing and get picked up by someone in the publishing world that would offer me a truckload of money to write a book of fiction? When I told my group of friends about it, they were scared that I would reveal some secrets about them and discouraged me from starting one and becoming something that was of value to me. Looking back, it was their own fears of me doing better and succeeding without them that they wanted me to pump the brakes on my dream. Yet, the same people that discouraged me from being a teenage author are now posting all over social media. That’s a discussion for another day.
I began blogging anyway on a number of platforms before I perpetually lost my passwords and had to start all over again. Then, enter two blogging platforms: Blogger and WordPress. Blogger was bought out by Google in 2003, I began writing on there in late 2009-2010 for fun. WordPress I got on that train in 2011 and loved the ease of customization. It was my good fortune that my journalism teacher in college suggested that our class start blogs, post on them through the semester and he’ll respond. The seed was planted for me to have one.
In the late summer of 2013, due to unforeseen circumstances, I became homeless. I started writing articles for a future website and placed them in an orange folder. I thought about what I wanted to see on a site and an idea of how I wanted it to look. In between taking pictures, looking for a job, and apartment, and going to class so I can graduate (which will come to fruition soon), I wrote. I had a few jobs that turned out to be a whole lot of BS until I got something more permanent.
With that new job, I still wrote and decided that I wanted a domain name. Lesson learned: when you see the name you want for your website, grab it right away. I had it for a while but lost the hosting because I didn’t update it. I don’t know why I keep forgetting to update stuff, especially since I want to turn this into a business. My goal is to find a way to earn passive income by utilizing my life experience, and maybe sell a few items that I am currently working on.
Now, as I type, I am working on a digital product that I want to sell. I am learning about SEO and e-commerce. I do not know what it’ll be, but it’s going to be nice. I am still refining what I want to see on a blog and taking notes from other bloggers on what they have on their blogs and what I can incorporate here. I can’t wait to see where my blogging journey takes me.
I hope you have a great day and I’ll see you in the next post!
