Valentine’s Day: Sick, Stuck, and SEOing

We spent this Valentine's Day laid up with COVID. Nothing says "I love you" like keeping each other awake, hacking, coughing, and groaning with discomfort. Today was the first day in a week that it hasn’t rained, but my body aches too much to get out there and enjoy it. The temperature dropped back down to freezing again, so that’s keeping me indoors too. I can’t count how many times I’ve had COVID. It’s never been horrible like some of the horror stories I’ve heard, more of a discomfort and a general pain in the ass than anything else.

I spent a lot of time working on my website, getting it verified so I can set up SEO monitoring. If it sounds like I know what I’m talking about, trust that I don’t! I’ve been engrossed with reading about the process for several hours. I set up Ahrefs to do some crawly thing, so we’ll see what happens. I feel like I spend more time piddling around with tech stuff that’s miles over my head than actually writing, but hopefully that changes as I become more familiar with the process.

I’m using the LinkedIn free trial and won’t be upgrading to premium. I don’t see any benefit to it and it feels like Facebook for nerds. I don’t see anything the premium offers that justifies the $239 price tag. Ahrefs is asking $129 for the year, or they have a starter plan for $30 a month. It doesn’t take a mathematician to figure that one out. I’m going to stick with the free version for as long as I can.

I pitched my vest review to several magazines and haven’t heard anything back. I did find a website that others may find helpful if they’re struggling in the same sea of endless information that I am. This site lists potential pitch targets and tells you what they’re looking for. I went through and pitched to the ones who were looking for reviews: https://healthjournalism.org/freelancers/freelance-market-guide/ Hopefully, that helps someone else, and at least it’s free information.

Blogging is a lot like keeping a diary, except I have to try not to swear as much. Part of me worries that no one will enjoy the content, but then I remember that no one is reading it anyway, so I just keep plugging along. What are you working on that’s hard for you? Are you sure you’re doing the right thing, or are you cautiously moving forward because going back isn’t an option?

I hope there was something helpful in this for someone. I have an idea for a story that I hope to be sharing soon. Until then, be nice to yourself and enjoy every day, even if they sometimes suck.