I just passed my one year anniversary with WordPress.  Granted, I think all I did in March was turn on the computer and look at the Dashboard, and try to figure out the vocabulary, symbols, and mechanics of having a blog.  At that time I had no idea that I would ever have enough to write to keep a blog going, but it was an experiment.

Blogging Tools before I retired.

When I started, I didn’t know how to use Photoshop, insert a watermark using any program, add tags.  I didn’t even know what a tag was.  The first night, I experimented with templates, and names.  One of our tech guys suggested that I make my header fit the name of my blog.  That’s still a nice idea, but I’ve long messed that up because now I know how to use a tablet, and combine more than one picture into a collage, and I’ve learned how to draw on a tablet.  I have experimented many times since then with headers.

How did I learn to do these things?  My WordPress friends mostly.  Oh sure, I read what the WordPress people had to say about things, but when I couldn’t do something, someone like TOM – the other Marcia, Ralph, Dianne Gray, Leanne Cole, Carol, Russel Ray, Eunice, Ute, Amy, Paula, Naomi, Darla, Rommel, Jim,Cotton, JG,  and MANY others would comment me through something.  I’ve made great friends who email me on a regular basis, and even call me sister.  The list of what I’ve learned this year about blogging, photography, writing, editing, spam, and life is HUGE!

I remember when I didn’t have a single comment on my posts.  Then Lesley and Cristain started visiting me, but not leaving comments.  Soon, I got so wrapped up in blogging that my husband thought I had fallen into a pit, and would never come back out.  I couldn’t wait for comments to roll in, so I put a WordPress ap on my iPhone.  I quit my job and retired so I could stay up all night and blog.  – Oh there were other reasons to retire, too, but I was getting pretty tired blogging AND working full time.  Oh – you do that???  Just be careful – is my only advice.  You know your limitations.

Eunice got me started in Fine Art America trying to sell some of my photography.  Vince and I spent one evening trying to pick out what we thought were the best five pictures of thousands of pictures we had taken.  Laura and Paula at work helped me with photography, learning Adobe Illustrator so I could create brochures, and Marcia got me started with the tablet, and showed me her amazing pictures.  Marcia got me seriously started writing my first novel, and dusting off two previously started stories.  Those are on a private WordPress site so a few people can give me feedback on my writing.

See Piggles nestled in the Cosmos? This is my other WordPress site.

I could meander through the last year of bubbling memories, falling over boulders with Autty Jade and her dad, Sir, or finding an ap to find my way home with ShareChair. I love you all.  On the day of my anniversary I started a Blogger site to see how the two programs compare.  Let me tell you, I can’t compare them fairly because I have learned too much.  Blogger seems SO easy, but it is similar to WordPress, and I know how to blog now.  When I learn it a little better I will do a more accurate comparison of the two programs.

The theme of my Blogspot blog.  Do you recognize this shady lady from the Sacramento costume shop.  I Photoshopped out all her unlady-like joints so she looked sexier.

I am going to use my Blogger site to write very short articles that will point people to my Fine Art America site to sell photographs.  This site will remain my main site until I use up all my space, which will happen within the next few months.  Then I’ll have to pay up.  Frankly, if I do, it will be worth it because this site is a record of my year of learning.  This is where I do all my experiments and have you help me. It is my random, rambling site.  Any more sites will be more specialized, and I plan to try other platforms as well.  You know me, I love to experiment.

Because I know you, and trust that you are going to be forgiving of my rambling I’m going to press publish on my Anniversary Publication.  I am starting to fall asleep as I write, so I had better quit while you are still with me.

How far along are you in your blogging journey?