Is That Light At The End Of The Tunnel A Train?

Written by Susan on December 24th, 2008

It just turned Christmas Eve. I’ve reached a point on my blog-creating-slog where I can sit back for a moment – not all the content is up, just discovered a possible problem with people unable to comment, etc., but generally feeling pretty good about the strides I’ve made in the last few days. I have figured out how and where to add code, starting to understand Aweber a tiny little bit, and the lump in my throat is shrinking, temporarily.

I wanted to address the issue of isolation today.

I can best be described as someone who has to be both drugged and dragged to most social events, and once there, will most likely be found sipping the non-alcoholic drink behind the potted palm. I’m not shy, just don’t like small talk and the effort to look interested when I’m not. So the notion that success on the Internet will come only by mastering the plethora of social networking techniques that have sprung up in the last couple of years is a tough one for me to contemplate. I’ve nearly made it, panting and wheezing, to the top of the technological heap of problems that WordPress presented, when I looked over and saw the Mount Everest of Twitter that remains to be scaled.

Well, I can learn. I signed up for an account today and hours later already had 11 followers. I don’t know if that’s good or not, and I have no idea what the etiquette is for responding, who I should be paying attention to, what on earth the features are that will help me generate traffic to my site…in short, I Know Nothing About It. Or about any of the other sites that I hear bandied about in other’s blogs and twits.

But I DO know that I must use it as a resource to find people who know much more than I do, who have killer content on their sites that will inspire me to put equally good stuff up on mine, and that I must not let the fact that so many of them seem to know more than I ever will discourage me and convince me that no one will ever want to visit my blog, when there are others out there that would be so much more useful to them. I’ll keep improving; I’ll find my niche.

Meanwhile, friendships are forming, and people are learning where to find the resources they need to make this dream of Internet independence come true for them. So tomorrow, I tackle Twitter, add a few more student blogs to my Favorites, comment on a few more sites, and hand out my virtual business card to anyone who will take it.

Merry Christmas, everyone! Just before publishing this post I took one last quick look at my Twitter page, and I’m up to 12 followers! At what point do I qualify for Pied Piper status?