Talk about feeling gun shy, y’all — but persistence has paid off.

First, I was going to write an amusing story about my dad. And I did write about him, it just wasn’t amusing and it certainly wasn’t what I was expecting to write. EVER.

Then I was going to write about my new tech guy, but I kept waiting for him to fix Wayward Sparkles so I could write an awesome review. And I kind of did. On his company’s website. I gave a testimonial about how great it was working with him, yada, yada. Yeah, if you come across my name and what I wrote on his site, just dismiss it. It was too early in our relationship when “that guy” asked me to write a testimonial. Since I didn’t have any reason not to say nice things, though, and I thought he was going to actually fix Wayward Sparkles so she was her loveable self, again…well…my mistake.

I won’t be writing testimonials at the beginning of a work relationship again.

Also, it’s made me completely re-think testimonials.

And don’t get me wrong. “That guy” was/is a nice guy. Well, at least for the very short time I knew him and we had our discussions about my blog, he seemed to be. And who knows, he may be very good at other kinds of website developments. Of course, I can’t really speak to that because that’s not what I needed him for.

Sometimes, though, people think they know more than they actually do. I fall squarely into that category as I write my book.

Also, I want to believe “that guy” meant well. Still, Wayward Sparkles ended up in worse shape than when I first hired him. Ugh. So there’s that.

Some of the challenges I faced soon after were — Mailchimp no longer worked. Wayward Sparkles was invisible to the internet. Some of y’all couldn’t leave comments, again! (That was my complaint when I initially sought out “that guy’s” help!) Wayward Sparkles stopped getting any traffic! My dashboard was a mess! I mean I was ready to say screw it and shut her down for good!

WHICH I CAN’T REALLY DO IF I’M GOING TO EVER GET A TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING COMPANY INTERESTED IN PUBLISHING MY BOOK NOW CAN I?!

Most importantly, though, if I’d shut down Wayward Sparkles, I would have missed y’all!

Things got so bad with my site that I called Tony, my original tech guy, even though he’s been out of the business for years now. The last time I worked with or even talked with Tony was at least 2019. So Wayward Sparkles hasn’t been maintained by anyone other than me since. (Now that is scary!) Even then, I just hit buttons on my dashboard that said “something” needed updating (never knowing what that something actually meant or did for my site.) Then several “somethings” couldn’t be updated because…well, I’m not exactly sure why. So I did what anyone in my shoes would have done — I ignored them.

And then, of course, the one thing I couldn’t stay in denial about was — y’all couldn’t comment. That had to be fixed. And that’s when I turned to Google to look for someone who could help. And that’s how I found “that guy.” Obviously, things didn’t turn out the way I’d hoped.

What was true then and continues to be true today is that I need a knowledgeable tech well-versed in blogging, specifically, WordPress blogging, who knows the intricacies of how to keep my blogsite healthy and updated. And, apparently, a blogsite needs constant updating because…it just does.

And you can quote me on that.

That’s also why I had to let “that guy” know that Wayward Sparkles and I were going in a different direction from him, effective immediately. Not awkward at all.😬

Thank God I still had a phone number that worked for Tony! Tony’s doing great as it turns out. He’s focused more on health and wellness now. He may actually do a little digital work here and there, but he’s out of the WP blogging site business.

Also, I should have contacted Tony at the beginning of summer instead of just looking up someone on the internet who had a shiny, cool website with great testimonials and then taking a chance on him. In fairness, “that guy” did tell me he usually works on developing websites. Since a blogsite is a website, though, he didn’t think there would be a problem.

Well, it’s been a learning experience for both of us, I guess.

In hindsight, I now know that it’s best to get a tech through references, which is what I got from Tony. I trust Tony. Just hearing the sound of his kind voice over the phone made me feel much better. I almost wept. Tony’s really a great guy, y’all!

Also, thankfully, Tony was able to give me Eric’s phone number, who he thought might be able to help me out.

Eric had his work cut out for him. Yikes.

I’ve had a much better experience with Eric. MUCH, MUCH BETTER! And, btw, he also has a really awesome website, too, which I didn’t find out about until I was writing this post and thought I should look it up! But I learned about Eric through Tony, who simply gave me his phone number.

Hopefully, I won’t ever have to get a new tech again unless Eric decides to retire or some such silliness. Fingers crossed!

And, thankfully, everything on Wayward Sparkles is up and running again! Yay!

So, thank you, again, Eric!

What that means is that y’all shouldn’t have to go to any extraordinary efforts to pull up Wayward Sparkles on your computer or phone or I-pad or whatever people use these days. You should be able to leave comments and/or likes (always appreciated.) There shouldn’t be any problem when you hit the Face Book, Twitter, or Pinterest buttons to share my post with others (also, always a kind and welcomed gesture.) If you’re signed up with me on Mailchimp, you should also start getting notifications again when I put a new post out (including this one.)

So, if you ever need to find a really good Word Press blogging site tech, you can reach Eric at:

Eric Leuthardt

7th Circle Designs.com

972/957-7932

Eric also heads up the DFW Word Press Group Meetups, so you can always find him through that site as well. The really cool thing is that you don’t even have to be local to use him. He can work with people not just across the United States but across the world. He gets most of his business by word of mouth, and he’s never even asked me to give him a recommendation or write up of any kind. But, y’all, I’ve just gotta! I’m more than happy to shout it from the rooftops that —

ERIC LEUTHARDT IS AN AWESOME WORD PRESS BLOGGING TECH, A PROFESSIONAL GEEK WHO KNOWS THE INS AND OUTS OF WORDPRESS AND IS ALSO EASY TO WORK WITH! ALSO, AS HE TOLD ME, IF THERE’S SOMETHING HE DOESN’T KNOW, HE HAS A LOT OF PEOPLE HE KNOWS WHO ARE IN THE FIELD THAT HE CAN RESOURCE!

So cool beans, y’all! I finally get to say really nice things about someone! I guess it’s a “third time’s a charm” kind of thing!

Quick questions if you’re willing to share:

1. Do you do all the maintenance on your own blogsite or do you have someone else do that for you?
2. Do you have any tips for those who may be thinking of starting a blog site?
3. What blogging platform do you use? Why that one over a different one?
4. What has been the most frustrating issues you’ve had in blogging?
5. What have been the best things about blogging for you?

Of course, I always look forward to anything else you have to share as well! Speak freely! If you feel like commenting on someone else’s comment here, please do that, too, if you’d like! It’s been a long time since that’s happened and I love it when we can all interact with one another! One of my favorite comment sections of all times on Wayward Sparkles is from “Couper Ici: Another Irreverant and Morbid-ish Post”, which you can find here. That was fun to write and the comments were amazing! If you haven’t had a chance to read that, I hope you do. Also, you can still comment there if you wanna! I don’t have any closed comments on any of my posts.

And if you like this post, I’d so appreciate it if you’d consider clicking one of the buttons below and share this on Face Book, Twitter, Pinterest. Muchos gracias, y’all!

And music —

and

and

Sparkle on, y’all! Til next time,

Mona