My website and with it my attempt to market myself online is now over 50 days old. I have to say that my mind has traveled far, but somehow I feel like I haven’t even started. Let’s see what I have done until now:

My 20 first steps:

1. account/domain – at fatcow.com for hosting my website

2. wordpress – install (get it installed)

3. disquis – for comments on my posts

4. twitter – get an account & start tweeting

5. FTP – download FileZilla & learn how to use it

6. theme – choose a free one, upload with FTP and modify it for own use

7. post – my first post, tweet about it

8. plugins

      a. feedburner

      b. Google analystics

      c. SEO

9. blogs – read, read and read to further knowledge

10. Google Reader – install and add blogs to organize information & share via twitter

11. resume – add to website & link it

12. wordpress 2.8.1

13. twitterlater – automation tool, e.g. send “Thanks for follow” messages

14. motivation statement – write a first edition and add to website

15. email – for www.christinarogge.com

16. linkedIn – connect with new twitter friends

17. input – attend presentations, networking events, read books, listen to people

18. networking – events, websites, social media – connect it all to my website

19. target group – who do I want to reach?

20. job opportunities – find jobs online via new social media tools

You can see that it looks pretty chaotic and not very strategic, but I mentioned in my post “Just do it! the nice-approach” already, that to get things done you just have to do them! That obviously also raised a lot of issues along the way:

My 10 first problems:

1. how can my posts be of use to others?

2. how can I be innovative?

3. picture build in post screws up layout

4. when pasting text from word to wordpress editing problems occur

5. feeling of information overload

6. twitter account suspended

7. following people on twitter I never followed

8. google reader won’t open in Windows explorer

9. Is my English writing good enough?

10. wordpress telling me things I don’t understand, e.g. “All in One SEO Pack must be configured. Go to the admin page to enable and configure the plugin.”

Some of the problems are not solvable, but manageable, like the information overload. The twitter account suspension was apparently their fault. They wrote on their status site, that it was an accident. All the other difficulties I expect to overcome within time and by gathering more experience.

My 5 steps for the future:

1. Tag cloud – install when there are enough posts

2. twitter tools – research and install useful ones (tweetdeck)

3. new theme – get a more professional theme with more features and less bugs

4. motivation statement – re-editing

5. posts – increase value for readers

And of course: Continue regularly tasks & identify more future steps!