First Post
There is some unwritten rule about Blogs that your inaugural post must be titled ‘First Post.’ I don’t know if that’s true; actually pretty sure it’s not, but I didn’t want to take any chances getting on the wrong side of blog ‘karma’… so, ‘First Post’ it is!
The story behind davidgraymedia.com
Why I created this website
Why create a website and blog? A couple reasons. First, I am all about seeking knowledge. I’ve always wanted to learn how to create a website and get a site of my own going. Second, I read a book titled ‘How to Make Money on YouTube’ (or something like that). The book wasn’t all that memorable but there was one concept that resonated with me.
It presented the idea of creating a website to serve as the ‘hub’ of an online presence ‘wheel’ of sorts. The wheel’s rim is your various social media outlets – YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Podcasts, etc. Everything being interconnected with the website as the central hub. The authors pointed out that a website with a blog was crucial to draw traffic to all your other online endeavors. That made perfect sense to me, and I began planning to create a website for myself.
Early frustrations – stuck in the mud
So a couple of years back, I started creating a website, but it proved a little overwhelming. Not because there was too little help and information available – far from it. The resources available today to the newbie website developer seem infinite. And that was my problem. There are thousands, or seemingly millions, of professional pre-packaged website ‘themes,’ plugins, widgets, tutorials, tools, etc., that you can download and use immediately. Some are free, and some cost various amounts of money. Sometimes, too much ‘help’ is worse than nothing at all.
I would find a website theme I liked and try it out for a while. A different theme would be found that seemed better, and the previous theme was abandoned. Repeat that cycle about 30 times or so, and you’ll get the idea of what I went through. Davidgraymedia.com was stuck in the mud. It was demoralizing and no progress was being made on the website. At some point, I realized I was making it too complicated.
Elegant Themes ‘Extra’ theme to the rescue
Finally, I decided to simplify things with a straightforward blog format. And adding a menu with direct links to my other social media outlets. Once I committed to that transition, I quickly started gaining traction. The simple website ‘look’ I was after was provided thanks to Elegant Themes’ ‘Extra’ theme!). ‘Extra’ provided a format that focused on the content rather than any ‘bells and whistles.’ My efforts could shift to writing blog posts. Hallelujah, I was finally creating new content! It felt like I could start breathing again after holding my breath forever.
“Blogging is to writing what extreme sports are to athletics: more free-form, more accident-prone, less formal, more alive. It is, in many ways, writing out loud.” – Andrew Sullivan
My background – photography & videography
If you already know me, it’s most likely through my YouTube channel. YouTube is really where all this online presence stuff started for me. My channel began in the early days of YouTube as simply a video-sharing site for my family. But somehow, it grew to something much bigger. But videography, for me, came about relatively recently.
Photography has been a passion all my life, or at least since high school in the 1970s. During my college years, I made a decent living through photography. I always wanted to be a full-time professional photographer, but I couldn’t see a path to enough income. I learned engineering jobs paid much better! But even beyond my love for photography, writing has been the thing I’m most passionate about. I love writing! YouTube gave me an outlet for my videos, and I’ve had many outlets for my photography – most recently, Smugmug and Instagram. Still, I’ve never had a good outlet or forum for my writing… until this website/blog!
My plan for davidgraymedia.com
I plan to write blog posts to this website… and then write some more! My goal is to write at least one new blog post each week, hopefully more some weeks. I’ll use the website as a pointer to my YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Smugmug, and Podcast pages, and perhaps eventually even do some ‘merch’ selling, but the main focus of davidgraymedia.com will be the original content blog posts. Backpacking will undoubtedly be the focus of posts initially, but I won’t limit myself to that. I will eventually write about everything and anything.
My early plan is to write ‘trip reports’ of many of my backpacking trips. I plan for them to be, in written form, the same immersive experience you get when watching my YouTube backpacking trip videos. They will be long and detailed, with many images accompanying the narrative. Hopefully, they’ll be a perfect ‘roadmap’ for anyone who wants to follow in our footsteps on the same trips. In fact, after now writing three of these trip reports, I’ve also realized they are the perfect ‘script’ for podcasts of the journeys, giving me another outlet for reaching out. The podcasts will be an excellent way for people to ‘listen along’ on the trips that we’ve taken.
Get the ‘party’ started!
So let’s get this ‘party’ started! I have no idea where davidgraymedia.com will go, if anywhere at all. But it’s something I feel compelled to do – a life ‘bucket list’ thing of sorts. At a minimum, I’m hoping to gain a little ‘traction’ with it after launch. Enough to give me something to build upon. Worst case… the whole project is met with the sound of silence (crickets chirping sound effect!). In that case, I’ll have the satisfaction of at least giving it a go. Best case… it becomes a real ‘business.’ Something I can put my heart and soul into and perhaps even get the family engaged in. That would be truly awesome.
I’ll never know until I try. And I guess that is the ‘lesson’ for everyone else in this. Pursue your dreams. Pursue your passions. It may work out, or it may not, but at least you can say you went after it. I’m (finally!) going after it. Wish me luck, and I hope you enjoy the content I’ll provide.
I am a ‘content creator’ with a passion for backpacking, creating videos, photography, and writing – with a healthy dose of all things outdoors on the side!
