Happy One Month Anniversary To Me!!

Mel Gibson and Lindsey Lohan discussions need to be put on hold today. It is a huge day for Naked Girl in a Dress and press coverage needs to shift to ME for the next 24 hours. One month ago today I went public with this site. In honor of this momentous occasion everyone should be tweeting about me, posting on Facebook, and leaving lots of love in the comment section. Interview inquiries from the press will be handled by my rep Alex. She will then either issue a “no comment” statement or will be shopping my story to the highest bidder.

To make this day even more memorable, I am presenting myself with an award. Today I graciously accept the award for Best Blog Celebrating One Month on July 19, 2010. And, in accepting this award, there are numerous people to thank for my rise to fame.

Dawn and Schmutzie from Sweet Blog Design are brilliant in masthead and blog design. These ladies were wonderful to work with too. The idea in my head was captured and executed in the design. Go visit these ladies’ blogs or head over to Sweet Blog if you need design help for your blog or if you need a Twitter background. I promise you will be happy. If not, you can come back here and write me a nasty comment.

Thank you to T from The Quest for T. T listed me in her sidebar blogroll within the first couple of weeks of having this site up. I am so grateful to her for having faith in my site after following me for a few weeks.

The ladies who run SITS listed one of my posts for Potluck Friday. I was one of three bloggers featured that day. I am Ready to Swim was the highlighted post. Certainly I am thankful the ladies chose me, but I am also appreciative of the overwhelming amount of comments coming from SITS readers.

A special thank you to a reader who commented on the post Free to Be You and Me. I mention in this post the influence Marlo Thomas had on me as a young girl. The reader let me know her aunt was the editor of the album and book and is also friends with Marlo Thomas. She sent the post link to her aunt, who responded with a kind note about my blog. WOW! I appreciate a stranger taking the time to make that connection for me.

Darren Rowse the ROCK STAR

Thank you Darren Rowse of ProBlogger for all you do for people feeling inspired to start a blog and bloggers who want to succeed. The first step I made towards blogging was buying Darren’s book. The second step was subscribing to his RSS Feed, following him on Facebook, creating a shrine in my home for the man, and, well, that’s all I will say. I know I would not realize most of the success I have achieved in this first month if I had not been studying everything this man has written for the last year (yes, I have been researching all aspects of blogging for that long).

I have to thank Darren Rowse again because this ROCK STAR is following me on Twitter. You read that correctly. He has 100,929 followers and he has reached out to me to be one of the chosen few he follows (to date he only follows 47,829 people). This is his first step towards contacting me. I know he wants me to write a guest post soon. It’s coming people. We all just have to be patient.

I was slow to join Twitter for fear I would be addicted (which of course I AM). @ngreenberg was probably my first follower and he helped me gain followers in the beginning (a whopping 4 weeks ago). He retweeted posts and begged his followers to follow me.. Thank you Neil for pimping me on Twitter. You are the best pimp a girl could ask for!

Thank you to every person who has visited my site (this is where the orchestra starts to cue a wrap-up for commercial break, but I am going to ignore and speak louder now). I feel excited and also like vomitng each time I hit the “Publish” button for a new post. Will it be well-received? Is what I feel compelled to write in synch with what people want to read? Am I proud of the writing? Ugh. It is torture at times. What always snaps me out of self-doubt are the readers. I LOVE to see the traffic reports, see where you are coming from, and LOVE to see comments are waiting for approval. The compliments to my writing, the supportive words regarding my divorce, and the stories you all share are wonderful. With 24 posts published (I was posting privately to build content before going public), I have received 234 comments in the first month. That is amazing feedback. THANK YOU!

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”

~William Arthur Ward

Thank you everyone. Each one of you has given me a gift. I would be remiss in not acknowledging all you have done to support me this first month.

And, if you have enjoyed this first month, I can promise more great posts in the coming months. I have a few surprises to introduce soon too. So that you don’t miss anything, sign up for the RSS Feed today (the subscribe button in top right corner).