by Gina Knuppenburg

In the Beginning

The first sentence of any written document is difficult to write no matter if it’s the first line of a book, an article for a magazine or newspaper, or the first sentence of one’s very first blog post. I remember, clearly, sitting at my computer ten years ago to do just that.

My blog, Desperately Seeking Gina, turns ten years old this week. I joke that my blog is my baby, but actually, it was reborn after having been created and named Desperately Seeking Thom. You can read how the blog evolved right here on Arkansas Women Bloggers.

In the beginning, I blogged about a trip to Europe, my niece and nephew, my amazement that people who wrote blogs would take pictures of their food, and little snippets of thoughts that popped into my head during the day. In those days, I didn’t worry about page views, followers, sponsored posts, or likes and comments. Sometimes, the first sentence of every post just flowed from my thoughts to my fingertips without reason or rhyme.

 

I continued documenting my life on the blog as I found myself moving to Arkansas. I joined the Arkansas Women bloggers and attended the first meet up in 2010.

The Middle

I purchased my first camera at this point and practiced taking pictures of everything in sight. I may have stalked our cats. That kitty-cat birthday hat? It was the first blog prop I ever made.

{Insert Photo: Desperately Seeking Gina_Collage 1}

With the new photography habit under development, I ventured into food photography. The blog turned into a place to share those food pics and recipes that I found online. I wondered: was this my niche? It was during this point where I learned about “finding your niche,” writing with purpose, and the importance of the behind-the-scenes fundamentals of blogging.

The Current

They say blogging is dead. I’m not sure who “they” are, but I keep hearing about “them” from other bloggers; professional bloggers who make a living from teaching the business of blogging to those of us who are eager to give up our day jobs and live a work-at-home, get-rich-from-blogging life. Not that I want to do that. Well, partly, I do.

My adventure in blogging has led me to writing with purpose and to being paid for stringing words together on my blog and others. I never did find just one niche. In fact, I’m learning about new ones every day; I started a YouTube channel, I’m playing with craft blogging and I even became a contributing designer for a scrap booking company and an influencer for a wood working company. I’ve worked on campaigns for one of my favorite chocolate companies and was able to work part time from home last month with the dream of leaving my day job almost in sight. If I squint real, real hard, this adventure-dream is becoming clearer and closer.

Adventures in blogging are not nearing an end for me. My blog is not dead, although in blogging-drama-fashion it’s currently down at the moment and I can’t figure out why. I have grand plans of growing Desperately Seeking Gina into an adult this Spring and migrating to a self-hosted site.

Thanks to all of you reading this and to Arkansas Women Bloggers for cheering me on during this adventure and I hope to see more of you in blog land.

How is your adventure in blogging shaping up? Let me know in the comments below.