I saw the "How It Started vs. How It's Going" thing going around Twitter a couple of days ago, and thought it would be fun to jump in, but couldn't figure out exactly what I wanted to compare. Then today, between the update post from the team (@howo & @fredrikaa) behind the WordPress plugin called @steempress and the challenge post from @theycallmedan, an idea popped into my head...
via GIPHY
How about a comparison between when I first started blogging to how it's going now?
How It Started
It's kind of brain hurty to think I've been at this for 15 years now. Actually a little bit longer, if you count my RoosterTeeth Journal, or my LiveJournal Meanderings...lol!
I know I've told this story many times here, as well as on my other social media profiles, so I'll keep this brief (well, brief for me). My "professional" blogging career started after I applied to a local newspaper for a spot on their newly formed "Seacoast Connects" blogging platform, aimed at showcasing the writings of local residents.
Since I was in the process of going through a criminal trial at the time (don't panic! It was NOT as a defendant, I was a witness for the prosecution) and actually had recently discovered the defense team hired a private investigator to check into me (I hope he got well reimbursed for the boredom he must've suffered), I decided to blog from a semi-fictitious prospective.
The editor I spoke to liked my idea of a blog called, Confessions of an Internet G33k, written as a recently single woman in her mid-thirties who owned an Xbox, multiple Gmail accounts, and her own domain name, who was also known to her friends and family as “The Google Queen.” In reality, I had been married at that time for about sixteen years, had three little ones running around, but did own an Xbox, had many geeky interests, and was a Girl Scout leader in a troop that referred to me as "Your Majesty" and my co-leader as "Your Highness" (I swear it was my co-leaders idea, not mine!).
The plan was to eventually pay the bloggers, possibly even giving us a cut of the ad revenue generated by our columns. By the time I bowed out about a year later, all I'd gotten was some Seacoast Online swag (I think a bumper sticker, some pens, and maybe a tee shirt), and a $25 gift certificate redeemable at certain local restaurants (and if memory serves, that probably would've covered an appetizer, so I never ended up using it).
How It's Going
Again, I've talked about my adventures in cyber blogging many times, so I'll make this short and sweet. Back in 2017, thanks to a friend on the Ello platform, I joined the Hive Blockchain (formerly known by a different name), and started sharing my WordPress blogs there, as well as doing some general posts, usually involving contests or initiatives created by other blockchain bloggers.
As you can see from the screenshot above, I'm not earning a ton on each post at the moment, but it's definitely a steady stream. I was doing better earlier this year, but since I've been spending more time spreading the word about blockchain blogging on Twitter and less time engaging on other people's blogs (both WordPress and Hive), I've noticed a decline in post payouts. I've also been very lazy about connecting with Hive communities and figuring out where to post and crosspost in order to get more eyes on my content. I'm in the process of rethinking how I approach it all, but in the meantime - getting $2 or $3 per post is exactly $2 or $3 dollars more than I get for the same thing on WordPress.
And if my dashboard is accurate, in the just over three years I've been crypto blogging, I've earned a total so far of...
I'm not exactly sure how that number was calculated, but other than the $70 I pulled out in the early days (to make sure I could actually turn this cyber money into cash), I've reinvested every penny back into my account, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
Blog Logo Update
I figure this is also a good place to mention that for the first time since all those many years ago, I've redone the blog logo I created. When I was looking for something that best represented my content, I came up with a free clipart image of a witch stirring a cauldron, added in a DRD from Farscape icon created by my dear friend thinkum, then decorated it with the logo from my (at the time) favorite local spots team, The Boston Celtics before adding in the colorized shadowing from some free graphic service. This was the result -
A few days ago, I thought that since I really haven't been following the team in recent years, I really should update the graphic, and at the same time clean up the image a bit. Today I got it done -
Now I've updated most of my social media profiles and blogs accordingly. Here's an example of how it looks added on to the banner for my Facebook Fan Page -
Own Your Social Media
I'll end this by mentioning that in these days of people being locked out of their Twitter accounts for sharing a link to an article on a major newspaper site, I highly recommend checking out a place where not only can you post what you want, no one can censor you and you control who you see in your newsfeed (not some algorithm).
Once the newly renamed and revamped WordPress plugin is officially released (which mostly likely will be some time in the next week or so), I plan to start inviting some of my favorite WordPress bloggers to join, but given that it doesn't cost a thing to sign up, and in return you gain a place on the interwebz that you truly own, I hope that anyone who is reading this might take a peek and give it a go. The easiest way to do so is to go through my referral link - I don't earn anything for people who join, but I'll be able to see when someone signs up, and I can offer assistance and a small delegation of Hive Power (essentially the gas that fuels your account) to get you started.
https://hiveonboard.com?ref=traciyork
Also, I just noticed as I was about to post this, that the plugin is currently not connecting to the blockchain (most likely a combination of the aforementioned revamp as well as the recent Hard Fork), so for the first time in a very long time, I'll be posting this separately on WordPress (so my WP friends won't see the usual two way comment thing from my Hive friends) while using Peakd to post on Hive, which is another awesome frontend to use to share your content on the best decentralized community on the world wide web!
Thanks for stopping by!
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My photographs are taken with my trusty Nikon,
sometimes utilizing my handy dandy tripod.
Blog graphics created on Canva
All words and images are mine (unless otherwise indicated),
and can also be found on my various social media sites.
Speaking of witch which...
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