First of all, this made me realize the importance of having something with me at all times to record my ideas so that I don’t forget about them later. As I get older (and I’m still young!) I learn more and more that I should rely on just my memory less and less!

Secondly, I wasted an unbelievable amount of time just sitting here trying to come up with something that, again, could be meaningful and beneficial to my blog and to future bloggers who might happen upon my site. Finally, I made a decision. I decided not to blog.

I know that sounds odd now because I’m writing a blog post, but hear me out.

So I decided not to blog anything. I decided that I was going to close my laptop for now and just stop thinking about it for a bit. If something came to mind, then maybe I’d open up my laptop and start writing, but for now, I needed not to force something that wasn’t coming. I needed to avoid trying to make something from nothing.

That’s when it hit me. In making that decision, I realized my decision could once again be useful advice to other newbies getting started. Trying to force creativity can be just as frustrating as forcing yourself to do some work when you really just need a break. Not only that, but if you’re just manufacturing something for the sake of having something to post, it could very well turn out being content that works against you instead of for you. The key here is to post useful and meaningful content, right?

Before I close, I will pose a question to the more experienced bloggers and Internet Marketers that are reading my blog. Is my following conclusion worthwhile or is it something that could prove to be counter-productive to other newbies? Be brutally honest! It’s part of the learning experience.

Having asked that, I guess that makes two pieces of advice that I would say are coming out of today’s post. First, make sure to record your ideas in SOME way when you have them. Write them down, type them up, use a voice recorder, heck, call yourself and leave yourself a voicemail, but keep track of your ideas! Secondly, don’t force content and end up with something substandard that could result in disappointment not only for your readers, but more importantly for yourself. What’s the use in posting if it’s not going to be fruitful?

It’s truly amazing when something really does come from nothing…but in my newbie and humble opinion, it should not be forced!

This intrigued me. Why? Well, for one thing, I am essentially new to Internet Marketing. I am pretty new to blogging as well (having only started in February of this year), but I am ’sorta’ getting the hang of it. That’s actually a little “difficult” for me to admit because I am an IT Manager for the company I work for. I am SUPPOSED to know all this technical garbage, right? I’m not new to the concept of internet marketing, but new to the practice. So new, in fact, that when I hear the term “IM” I still think “instant message” not “internet marketing”. How’s that for green?

Anyway, I thought I’d meet Anna’s request and post the complications I am coming across as a budding Internet Marketer and blogger. The plan is to record my progress and troubles as an internet marketer who is just beginning. That way people can go back and, who knows, maybe even learn from my fumblings!

One thing that I just learned from Anna right before I started this blog is that Wordpress.org is “the” way to blog. I asked her about this. I had heard this from other people. Heck, I had even heard my wife mention that she wishes she’d stated with Wordpress. My personal blog is on blogger, and it seems pretty straightforward. So – for those who want a seedling’s understanding of the “why” on this…

If you can afford to purchase a domain name and internet hosting, then Wordpress.org is the way to go because it’s rich in features that Blogger doesn’t have, it’s highly customizable, and has options and features you can use to get more traffic. If you can’t afford it, that’s ok, but you need to know that you can’t just move a blog later on. All the backlinks, all the work you’ve done to build search engine ranking, everything will essentially be lost if you try to move your blog over from Blogger to Wordpress. So – I think I understand that now. Thanks, Anna!

So if you happen to find yourself interested in my pursuit of online success or just have some thoughts you’d like to share, let me know! I officially declare this the beginning of my Internet Marketing Journey. I don’t know where I’m headed with it yet, but hopefully we’ll soon find out!

Stay tuned for more thoughts!