Not Quite a Rock Star
Sat, Sep 17, 2011
In case you missed it, yesterday was kind of a big day for me. One of my posts was featured on The Consumerist, which is one of my FAVE websites. And my traffic exploded - I’m talking over 3000 pageviews in 12 hours. It normally takes almost a week to get that many people interested in what I have to say!
Money for Nothing (and your chicks for free)
I would be embarrassed to tell you how many times I refreshed my stats yesterday. (Hint: A bunch. Difficulty: I did leave the computer a few times to pee and/or get food.) I’ll admit I was totally obsessed with my magic instant popularity - I even called my mom, who doesn’t even know the name of this blog, to fill her in on the progress.
Me: My site was mentioned on The Consumerist and now all these people are looking at it!
Mom: Oh, that online writing thing you do? And it was mentioned where?
Me: OMG Mom, my traffic just jumped by 150 views in the last three minutes!
Mom: I still don’t understand. What’s jumping? Is this that dancing baby video from Ally McBeal?
Me: Why don’t you understand? I’m finally becoming awesome!
Mom: Well, I’m cleaning out closets. I bet it would be pretty AWESOME if you did the same, especially if your closets look like they did when you still lived at home.
Me: *mimes stabbing self in head* I am so done with this conversation.
To make things even more awesome, I got a #FF mention from @GRSblog on Twitter! AND someone submitted one of my posts to Reddit! I’ve never had so many cool things happen at the same time. I’m surprised my site didn’t crash or something.
Every Rose Has Its Thorn
By about 9 last night, I was feeling pretty good about life. I was reaffirmed in my decision to lay out my personal and financial life for the world to see. I didn’t receive any hate mail or “worst blog in the world” comments.
Then I did the dumbest thing EVER.
I was working on a post for tomorrow, something hilarious that came to me while I was eating too much pizza. I had to type out a bunch of senseless drivel before I forgot the point I was trying to make.
I hit the button to save my draft because I was too tired to make any sense. Plus I had to check my stats again do a few more things before bed.
Except I didn’t hit Save Draft. I hit Publish. And didn’t realize it for like five minutes.
So if you’re one of the 136, 179, or 211 people subscribed to my RSS feed (depending on Feedburner’s current mood and whether Jupiter is in the fifth house), you likely saw a crazy ass post in its infant form. I thought I managed to get rid of it, but RSS readers don’t like to give posts back no matter how nicely you ask.
Don’t Bring Me Down
I don’t even know if I can describe how embarrassing it is that people saw my random thoughts before I had a chance to string them together. It’s kind of like when someone walks in on you sitting on the toilet. Part of you wants to be all nonchalant, like “Hey, what’s up?” and another part wants to jump up midstream and cover your nether regions before you die of humiliation.
First, I thought I would finish my partial post, but I don’t know if I can - now that people have seen it in raw form, it seems stupid to post it. So instead I decided to tell you about it (at the risk of drawing MORE attention to it) in an attempt to move on.
I did install a plugin that will prevent me from posting a draft ever again. So there’s that.
But I still feel like a total noob for making such a dumb mistake.
The Heart of Rock n Roll is Still Beatin’
No matter how cool it is that some extra visitors stopped by, those of you who read regularly know that I’m just an average person who is trying to correct some HUGE mistakes in my life.
I’d love to be a blogging rock star. I can just imagine a world where I have 3000+ pageviews EVERY day, not just on what must have been a slow news day at The Consumerist. It would be amazing to have large numbers of people willing to read all the crap I talk about.
But I’m just me. And like my finances, my blog is subject to screwups every now and then. So I’ll sit around feeling like an idiot for awhile, then I’ll think about how awesome this whole blogging thing has been (even before I became super popular for a day). I have some of the greatest blogger friends in the world, who will undoubtedly tell me not to worry about the draft posting thing (after they’ve finished laughing hysterically) and will distract me on Twitter and chat.
I just hope they don’t mind reading posts from a one-hit wonder.
Ha! I'm sure you've gained some new followers, and deservedly so. You're a great writer and you lay it all out transparent-like. Congrats on the hits!
You're going to so owe me $1.
You're going to feel really dumb when you're clicking that Paypal button. Actually I may drive up there and collect it myself just for the heck of it.
Congrats! Thats awesome! Haha, I wouldn't be so worried about publishing a draft. $hit happens. & I would so be checking my stats every 5 seconds if that happened to me!
Congratulations! Mistakes are part of doing anything and you learned from it. No big deal.
Hehe, I got the post in my reader, and I just couln't figure it out. Something was missing - Didn't realize it was the post itself.
But I don't mind the sneakpeak / teaser. Bring the real post on !
LOL I feel like such a dumbass. I'm going to leave the post alone for awhile, but I'm sure it'll make a reappearance.
Oh, Andrea! I have done exactly the same thing before! I've published posts that were meant to be edited about a million times more and had to tweet, "Uh, ignore that random post in your Reader." Not only that, but I was once trying to create a personal blog with my personal Google account and published a post with my FULL REAL NAME attached on GRB! (I still have no idea how I managed that, but I did.) And this was before I thought it was okay to post photos of my face online, so I freaked out. I was able to change it on the site, but everyone who was subscribed to GRB via Reader saw my real name attached to my anonymous blog.
We all still think you're awesome! And yesterday's excitement was definitely well-deserved. You are a very talented writer/blogger, and I think you're going to go places you can't even imagine yet. (Seriously never read a post on your blog that I didn't LOVE, and I'm a harsh critic!)
I forgot to mention the first nightmare from yesterday - I published my (intended) post in the morning, then posted it to my blog's FB page. Two hours later, I'm checking FB and notice the link posted under my ex-husband's account - he had used my computer the day before and I had no idea he was logged in. So I'm sure people were like, "Why is he posting about Victoria's Secret?" and clicked through. My cover may be blown!
I'm also bad about sending emails to friends/family from my blog account. So far I don't think they've noticed, but it's SO scary to send an email and realize your other identity is out there for the world to see.
Someday I'm going to have to give up this semi-anonymous thing, but hopefully not yet. I'd like to hold onto it a little longer!
Congratulations!!!!!
Congrats on your post on Consumerist
And don't worry, your honesty portrayed in your post is extremely humble. A great quality of any great writer 
I'm sure your readers will stick around. Things like that happen to all of us 
Congratulations on the major traffic jump and your 15 minutes of fame. I am sure that you will get many more minutes in the future.
Congrats on all good internet luck!! Love those days!! And I scare myself so often with the publish button being so close to the save button. When I'm feeling really sloppy sometimes I will schedule a post way in the future so that the "publish" button turns into an "update" button. Then when I'm ready to publish it I just change the date.
Well, I'm impressed by your being featurd on The Consumerist. And your temporary mess-up is totally understandable. I've hit publish before I was ready. Fortunately I realized it soon enough. So far anyway. Life is funny. Ya gotta laugh sometimes!
I'm super stoked for you, and your post landing on the Consumerist site! To me you will always be a blogging rock star.
As for the accidentally published post, I didn't see it, and it isnt' in my RSS reader so no worries there. Your image in my mind is still intact Besides, I wouldn't worry too much about it, if people are loyal fans they will get over your random scribbled down ideas.
Carrie, if his star keeps rising those random scribbles will become very valuable!
Congratulations on the traffic spike!
That publish button is so easy to hit on accident. It should be shrouded in spikes and barbed wire and alarms.
PS: You're a rockstar in my book
I have similar discussions with my mother regarding blogging. When I mentioned I was having technical issues, she said "oh, xyz's husband does blogging." I am sure xyz does, but I doubt if he has my identical wp host and template…too hard to explain.
I think our moms should be friends. They can be clueless together! Either that or you're actually my sister, blogging anonymously.
I'm actually sorry I missed the unintended post. As a writer, I definitely understand the desire not to have something out there until it is exactly what I am looking for. But as a reader (and a member of a long standing critique group) I've realized that I often learn more from the unpolished version.
I'm glad you did miss it! What you missed was two paragraphs followed by a bunch of headings with "blah blah" typed out beside them. Embarrassing!