The life of a late-to-the-party blogger

Meliha Avdic
New Writers Welcome
4 min readSep 28, 2021

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Are you new to blogging? Did you spend way too much time in the real world compared to the ‘internet’ world? Are you discovering that the ‘internet’ world is part of the real world and that many people have already combined the two? If you are, giv’ us a hug.

Seriously though, what the heck is this? Calling Alice ‘the Wonderland’ for guidance through this maze of websites and pages and platforms and blogs, tweets and posts, podcasts, videos and images, and… I have no idea what else, this is as far as I got. I dread the idea that there is more, much more.

I fell into the rabbit hole, but I decided to go right back up and remind myself why I approached the internet in the first: I have things I need to say. In fact, I have a list of articles I want to publish — all kinds of topics, though one topic stands out. So, in a way, I do have a niche, but I’m not strict about it.

I don’t like the idea of learning new skills at this time, so I want to write as opposed to making videos or podcasts. This is also an important decision that guided me away from things that I do not want. I was never fond of making decisions through the process of elimination, but it seems that’s the only way, at least for now.

This decision made me feel like I’ve removed a bunch of options like I know what I want, I just need to go and get it. And, like the biggest shmuck in the history of shmucks, I asked Google for advice. Retrospectively, I think even Google was surprised. I swear if they ever make a list of stupid questions people asked Google, mine will be on there for sure.

I asked about making a blog. Google spat out so many options, I felt torpedoed. One sentence caught my attention: Making money with your blog.

“Yes, please!” I said to my computer. I didn’t need to explain; the old machine knows the situation only too well. After all, I’ve delayed its retirement for years.

I spent days researching various websites and platforms, looking into possibilities, watching videos, reading articles, blogs and posts. Now… Get ready for this: I just published a book. I did. Seriously. I don’t know how, but I managed to skip the lesson on marketing and building an author platform. It is shocking, right? So, I have two very good reasons to go out there and get on with blogging.

But where? That was the question I was trying to answer with all that research, yet I managed to answer a question I didn’t even know I had. It just goes to show how complicated the internet can get when you go out there to search for something, but you don’t know what so you just click, click, click.

One-click after another made my head spin. I already have too much going on up there, the last thing I need is more confusion. I had to make an executive decision; step away from the vortex and get on with publishing. So I made a website. That was actually really simple, even for someone like me; I need e-mail notifications for everything or I miss it, in fact, even with e-mail notifications I might miss it.

Obviously, just having a website is not enough. If I wanted to write for myself, I’d leave it all in my notebook. So, how do I get people to visit my website in the ocean of websites? At this point, I should mention that I’m still trying to get my head around having ‘followers’. Other people seem to get on with it just fine, yet every time I think of it I freak out. I feel like some kind of a cult. I’m not a cult. I just have some ideas I’d like to share and (maybe) discuss with others.

One conversation after another, it became obvious that I might be alone in this confused and freaked out state. However, everyone was trying to get their voice heard. Some people had the right reasons and I love them for it, others… Well, to be perfectly honest, other people seem to force themselves to speak. If someone is forcing themselves to speak, i.e. they don’t really have that much to say, why are they obsessed with being heard?

I could have asked Google, but by that stage, I got a little wiser. So I left this question unanswered (so unlike me) and I started making a list of possibilities. How can I get more exposure’?

I have seven websites I should visit daily, and about 16 websites I should visit once a week, or at least once a month. Even though this is the shortest list I could make, it’s not going to work, not in the long run. It’s too much. I don’t have that kind of time. Eventually, I will have to drop some websites and focus on others. But I have no idea how I’m going to make the decisions. I guess time will tell, right? My job is to try my best.

As I take this journey to discover if there’s any more space in the ‘internet world’, the image of Titanic springs to mind; especially the scene where the lifeboats have already left, the ship is sinking, and people are diving into the already crowded ocean. Now I wonder if I’ll end up like Jack or Rose. Or maybe I’m just one of the extras who might survive until the lifeboats return, or they might die. That can’t be right. I can’t be an extra in my own life. Can I? Let’s see…

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Meliha Avdic
New Writers Welcome

Born in Bosnia, grew up in the UK-another war child, yes. Passionate about people and the state of society. A bit of a maverick, apparently. www.meliha.uk