Confessions of Blog-o-phobic

OK, I'll admit it: I'm a coward. Scared senseless. Of what, spiders, you ask? How dare you.  I'm the queen of spiders in my household. "Kids, stand back. Mom is here!" Well, then, perhaps fear of heights? I mean, a lotta people are afraid of that. Well, while I didn't exactly walk to the edge of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park when reaching the top twelve years ago (more like crawled), even that experience didn't cause too much damage to my psyche.

No, my friends. I'm afraid my phobia is far greater than spiders or heights. I'm a blog-o-phobic.  There, I said it.  Blogging is about writing, correct? You know, just sit at a computer and write about stuff. I'll write about real estate.  I know real estate. I like real estate. All I have to do is write about it. Riiiight...

Ah, how foolish I was. Yes, blogging is writing, of course, but is that all there is to it?  Like many, I began my journey here on Active Rain thinking I could blog my life away. In the beginning, I did. Sort of. My posts weren't great, but at least I felt like I was gaining some new rhythm and a bit of traction in my skills. Overwhelmed as I was, now in the kingdom of Active Rain, I would put forth new efforts to learn all that my brain could handle.

Just then, blog-o-phobia grabbed hold of me unexpectedly. There before me, try as I might, I could no longer escape this fact: blogging means never having to use text alone. It was time to face reality--strange little icons; insert/edit image;  Active Rain video. How does one use these tools? Surely, I had the capability of inserting a simple photograph, which I did. More than once even. But the frustration! Photos too big, too small, not in the right place, uploading, downloading. It only got worse from there. New words to dissect:  facebook, (I did get that memo)...but, flickr? picnik? tagging? twitter? google juice?...make it stoooop!

Thus, not is all lost.  I have found a savior.  (Truth be told, I've discovered many saviors in this kingdom, all truly amazing human beings, many of which I'll write about for months, I'm sure). I've been listening and reading to Jeff Turner's tutorials the last few days and am ready to challenge my fear, purge myself of self-doubt, and, perhaps, write a word or two in between. =)

The photo above and this one of Steve on the left were inserted with the help of Jeff's tutorial, "Flowing Text Around Images".  Let's see if I can insert his tutorial from the title right now. Okay, everyone, deep breath. Nothing exploded or crashed now, did it? Hmm... I wonder if it's best to ADD ALL images BEFORE writing text?

Though fairly uncomfortable in these uncharted territories of blog-o-sphere, and yet to have gained business from any of this, I sincerely love blogging. My goal here is to become a better writer first, followed by the mechanics of blog format. Before anyone finds out who I am, I must first be willing to take more risks. Will google juice find its way to moi?  I'm pretty sure most I work with think not. Many I speak to, in fact, think not. Then why do I continue such a quest? I'm hopeful, but honestly can't say at this point, and that's okay. I'm loving my business--all of it. Real Estate isn't for cowards either. Some of us just conquer fear at our own pace. 

Special thanks to you, Jeff Turner, and your calming force. Unbeknownst to you, I'm grateful. =)