While I am enrolled in the upper level course of Parenting 505, I am barely making it in the beginner’s course of Blogging 101.  If it were not for the friend who originally suggested that I start this blog and the countless helpful blog posts I’ve read from other more savvy bloggers, I would be at a complete loss.  I have been blogging about my family for eight years, but that didn’t require anything more than typing and hitting the ‘Publish’ button.  Now, I’m realizing that blogging for a larger audience is much more complicated.  For instance, I recently found out that the main reason a blogger will truncate (shorten) their posts and require the reader to click a button to read the full post is to avoid Scraper sites from stealing their content.  It’s all so sad, but it’s a reality.  As a result, I will now be truncating my posts so as to protect my content here on First You Must Begin.

While I do not anticipate that I will ever be an expert on the world of blogging, I take comfort in knowing that I have already learned so much from these past few months of writing on this blog.  One of the more refreshing things that I have learned is how there are so many bloggers out there who are willing to share their knowledge.  A simple Google search stating your question and you’ll find several blogs with the answer you’re seeking and then some.  Such searches have also brought to my attention how many bloggers are really out there.  It’s incredible the talent that can be found on these blogs.

I’m not certain if my own experience has left me more appreciative of other’s work or if I’m just diving deeper into the blogging world, but it’s been a fun process.  Everything felt so overwhelming at first.  I didn’t even want to blog because I felt the world was already so inundated with bloggers.  Now, the irony is that there are even more bloggers than I realized and I’m finding joy in the variety versus discouragement in my own abilities in comparison.

In short, thank you for sticking around as I fumble my way through Blogging 101.  I hope the change to truncated posts won’t deter you from following me here on First You Must Begin.