My Blogging Journey, so far

You know, this is my third attempt at blogging. Clearly the first two didn't go very well. I think I'm finally getting the hang of things...sort of. I made this one an online diary so that I'd have an endless list of topics to write about. It takes the pressure off when it comes to writing daily. Meanwhile, I had to figure out how to make the blog look and work the way it's supposed to. That took a lot of trial and error. Now I'm trying to figure out how to get this thing noticed. Yes, I actually expect people to read and comment. What I didn't expect, the crazy over abundance of information on "getting noticed" and my new love/ hate relationship with Google. (Those guys really ought to include spam and b.s. filters as search options.) There are tons of "experts" telling you where to go. Then you have other folks telling you what your supposed to do when you get there. Let's not forget about the what NOT to do lists. Along the way I came across a lot of other stuff that to me, seems to differentiate the pros from the newbies: Which blog platform is best for your blog? To monetize or not to monetize? How to find your niche market and so on. The water got muddier when people started talking Web 2.0, SEO, CSS, Wordpress themes, etc..
The geek in me is dying to know how to do these things. The analytical side needs the whole picture so I can understand where and how each piece fits in relation to the rest of the puzzle. I want to know how to create a user friendly website from scratch with bells and whistles on it. I want to know how to make it so relevant, so irresistible and so in the right places that people will have to visit. The problem: I'm out of touch with some of my computer geek friends and the others are too busy. There's no one to point me in the right direction, no one to help me sift through all this stuff. I considered going to college but I don't have the attention span for it, really.
So, for now, I'll keep following some of the big names I've come across so far. They're pretty good at breaking things down for us newbies. They even answer questions, too. I'll learn as I go, no big deal. Learning the hard way doesn't just build frustration, it builds character.