Thank You for the New Confidence in My Work

It was quite by chance that I started submitting articles online.  I was doing research for my book, which is to be the beginning of a crime novel series.  I was looking for information on homicide reports, and what they're supposed to look like, when I came across wrytestuff.com.  One of the links I found on Google led me to an article on the site.  I read the article, not paying much attention to the site itself at first.  When I noticed the name of the site I wondered if that meant I could submit work there.  It turned out that's what the site was all about, so I did the online registration and filled out the application.  My application was approved and I've been writing for them ever since.

Shortly after I started submitting articles, I came across another article on there about Google Authorship, so I went through the process of setting up a new Gmail account for my writing, and dealt with all the technical stuff involved with making sure your work is properly showing up in their searches.  All that went fine when I read yet another writer's work, which was a blog on Blogger.  So, I thought, why not?  I should probably start a blog, too.  I have things to say sometimes that don't fit into the parameters of a typical article.  I honestly didn't think a blog of mine would generate any real interest, seeing as I'm just your average person writing about things having mostly to do with myself.  If I don't think of myself as all that interesting, I didn't figure anyone else would either.

I was pleasantly surprised when my work on wrytestuff.com started generating search engine referrals, and I became one of their top 100 writers.  A week or so ago I hit the top 50 for a few brief moments, which was rather nice.  I'm getting a higher number of readers on average with every article I write.  I've also noticed that my blog is starting to generate some traffic from websites having nothing to do with wrytestuff.com, and that it's getting a bit more popular.  I have to say, it feels terrific that people actually want to read the things I write.

Having your 'voice' heard by others is a very gratifying experience, particularly for a writer.  Believe me when I say that I cherish every page view that shows up in my statistics, no matter what site it's on.  I'm nearing 12,000 page views on wrytestuff.com, and there have been hundreds on here.  That's kind of a big "WOW!!" for me.  I appreciate all of you who have taken the time to find out what I have to say.  Thank you all for that.  I 'Tweet' a thank you on Twitter whenever I hit a milestone, but I have almost no following on there, so I thought the least I could do is say thank you where people might actually read it.

Feeling validated as a writer has also been very encouraging.  I travel in new directions that I wouldn't have had the confidence to travel in before.  I've gained enthusiasm for my fiction work, and have been back at that, as well.  I'm writing at least something every day pretty much, and it feels great to be out of the non-productive rut.  So, there's a thank you to all of you here for that, too.  The more people read my work, the more I want to write it for them.

Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.