This isn’t the first time I’ve considered starting something online, whether it be a blog, a YouTube channel, an online business, or anything really. I’ve had the urge many times, and something always seemed to stop me early in the process. I have uploaded a few videos in the past, but never stuck with it long. Built a website, then got busy. Didn’t see rapid results, became disinterested. One could argue that getting started wasn’t the issue here. Maybe my problem was with staying consistent. Maybe the problem was not staying passionate. Whatever the underlying problem was, I tend to think of it like I never actually “got started” because I didn’t “stay started.” Getting started seems to be the hardest part of any journey, doesn’t it?

Well I decided to get started again, because that seems to be the best way to build momentum. Here I am, putting thoughts down on digital paper, setting out to build something I haven’t yet totally conceived. It may seem frivolous given my track record, but I think this time will be different. In fact I don’t just think it. I believe it.

My sister was a writer. A really good writer, too. She isn’t around any longer, but that’s a story for another day. She taught me so much over the years. When I was much younger and just starting to write papers in school, she always helped me when I felt stuck. I think she and both of my parents really bailed me out on school projects more times than I can remember. You see, I was not the best student. I hated reading for years, and suffered in class because of it. Yet my sister helped to teach me the structure behind an essay or a story, and later in life she gave me an opportunity to utilize those skills in a work environment and actually earn some money doing it. I was around 18-19 at the time. That job taught me that about ninety percent of search engine optimization was just creating new written content (the other 10% being tags and meta data). The entire job was basically writing various themed party planning guides for children’s birthday parties. The company sold products for these themed parties, I would write about ways to decorate and games to play that fit the theme, and the natural SEO from the written content boosted the direct sales for the company. A simple, yet effective strategy.

That’s maybe just the tip of the iceberg of my writing journey thus far. I feel like I have much more to tell, but at some point we have to put a button on it, hit “publish,” and pick things up in the next chapter. This is just a blurb, but it is the first blurb of this particular journey, so I can say that I have now officially “gotten started.”

-woodrow