everything I didn’t learn in a year of blogging

One year ago today, I officially started my blog. On most blogs, this would call for a post about all the things you’ve learned over the year. I decided to take an alternate route.

Here’s a list of everything I didn’t learn in my first year of blogging.

• How to get pictures of stuff

I am 100% unsure of how people get pictures of things for their blogs. I’m talking about screenshots from movies or tv shows, mostly. Like, is that covered under public domain? Is there some website that they’re getting all these pics from that someone’s neglected to tell me about? Are all other bloggers just using pictures incorrectly/ILLEGALLY??

Via GIPHY

I’m kinda-pretty-sure it’s the last one, and part of me’s like, “hey, I should just do that too.” But even though everyone else has been fine doing it, the second I do it, I’ll get arrested.

• How to blog without kiLLING MY ELBOWS

Do I demand to sit folded up on the floor with my elbows being the load-bearing beams to my person? Yes. Do I still have the right to complain about this? Freedom of speech. Boom.

(I really do need to get an Elbow Pillow or something.)

• How to make money

Was I expecting to make hundreds of dollars when I started this blog? No. Was I expecting to make a few bucks? Maybe??

The fact of the matter is, to get money for ads on your website, you either have to have a lot of visitors, or have a lot of people click on an ad. Lots of ad companies won’t even accept you until you have a certain amount of monthly visitors. So that’s a big no.

And then for programs like Amazon Associates, you have to be comfortable with asking people to buy stuff. Sure, they’re not buying things straight from you, but they’re still buying something because YOU asked them to.

Via GIPHY

…….which makes me uncomfortable.

I don’t know why.

• How to consistently interact with other bloggers

This is really tough for me. Commenting on other blogs and building relationships with other bloggers is undoubtedly a great way to get more readers. And for a few posts, I’ll be faithful to comment. And then…..I’ll forget, or I’ll get busy, or I’ll wait until it’d be weird to post a comment that late. It’s a struggle I have not yet learned how to master.

Via GIPHY

• How to type correctly

I actually learned this as a class in school on an online program. (It’s from BBC and it’s awesome and I’m pretty sure I hated it.) I’ve thought about re-learning how to type on multiple occasions. But apparently, I enjoy  t y p i n g  t h i s  s l o w.

• How to stick to a schedule

You probably foresaw this being on my list.

Have I been epic about posting every week from August 2, 2017, to today? Ha. Ahahahha. No.

But as you can see on my About Page, I post on Thursdays:

And I’ve stuck to that like a sticker on literally anything that you don’t want it to be on.

As for all the Thursdays I’ve missed, obviously there’s been some pretty close calls with the apocalypse.

I am doing my best to work on this, though. I have a handful of rough drafts of posts that I’m trying to keep on hand at all times because if I have something to go off of, I’m much more likely to get’erdone.

So…. Any more thoughts for me? Critiques? Inspiring quotes? I’m all ears.

Also, this is the most accurate depiction of me trying to figure out how to blog:

Via GIPHY