The WordPress team let me know over the weekend that I’ve been blogging with them for 12 years. It seems like yesterday that I began making an art website and blog at WordPress in January 2011 and published my ABOUT page on the 17th. I called my blog “Creating New Worlds” and made my first post a month later.
I had a lot of fun posting my artwork and sharing blog awards with other bloggers. In less than two years, I gained 500 followers.
In January 2013, I published my first ebooks at Amazon for the Kindle. So, I began a writing blog at WordPress and blogged about my books. I even posted old stories there. I displayed my old website banner/header from the 1990s there for the first year. I gained 200+ followers that year and sold more than 700 copies of my books. 2013 was certainly a golden age of blogging and self-publishing.
A year later, I moved my writing blog to my art blog and changed its title. Combining my two interests into one blog cut down on time spent maintaining two sites. I created a new banner/header that displayed my publishing name.
Not long after, I bought my domain from WordPress and changed my banner/header to show my blog’s web address. It also showed the fantasy from my stories but didn’t show my artwork.
So, I changed my banner/header again. This time, I called my site “Art ~ Writing ~ Life” and included blogs about events in my life beyond making art and writing books. I subtitled it “From Handprints To Footprints” in honor of my mom who said to me once that we begin life as babies, learning to get around by crawling, and leaving handprints wherever we go, and end life leaving our footprints behind.
By then, I had 700+ followers.
I’d reached 997 followers when I pulled the plug on StevenLeoCampbell.com last year and started this one: SteveCampbellCreations.com—the one I refer to as my retirement blog and website. So far, I have 44 followers. Some followers are from that golden age and have become what I call my Internet families. I don’t miss a chance to read their blogs when I’m online.
Thanks for joining me today for a quick look at 12 years of my blogging life.
Peace and love to all my readers.
Steve, 2/20/2023
This post “Twelve Years at WordPress” copyright © 2023 Steven Leo Campbell at stevecampbellcreations.com – All rights reserved.
Steve Campbell Creations 
Congrats Steve!
I started in 2017 and I’ve read some other bloggers say it was different back then. I wish I would have started earlier.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Max!
I started blogging at Geocities, then moved to MySpace, and then moved again to WordPress. The first thing I noticed was how friendly the WP community was. I don’t remember a more fun time to meet and greet fellow bloggers. It wasn’t uncommon to get 50+ likes in a day, and just as many comments. These memories are what prompted me to write my “10 Likes” post. The blogging world has gone very quiet over the years.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That is what other people have told me. It was many more bloggers on back then. I’ve seen so many people come and go now…especially around Covid…many people started up and then vanished…. It’s not easy for sure.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Congrats Steve , great journey thanks for sharing and I wonder how you remember you long journey year by year 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you. I keep an electronic journal of my blog posts so I can look back at topics I’ve posted and see if there’s anything new I want to add.
LikeLiked by 1 person