If you’ve been reading this blog for long, you’ll know I’ve only been blogging since July 2006.

It’s been such an absolutely wild ride and I have enjoyed (almost) every minute of it.

As far as “success” goes … my headline should say it all. There are times of drought, when you blog like a wild, crazy person who doesn’t need sleep or food but could simply live off coffee and your feedreader … and nothing happens.

In fact, the crickets chirp so loud that sometimes that you wonder whether you should be committed because, admit it or not … we all want people to read our stuff!

And because you simply love doing it … you continue blogging like a lunatic. You invest tons of time into it. You obsess over it. You review your stats every 5 minutes to see if anybody found you. Or discovered you … or accidently typed in a wrong word or clicked on the wrong link.

Then …

Then … just when you least expect it … something happens.

A tidal wave… a downpour … a flash flood … a [insert your awesome watery word here] happens.

One HUGE blog links to you and sends a ton of traffic your way … some of them actually become feedreaders, or make a comment.

Switching metaphors like none other … I think … blogging MUST be like farming.

You work and work and work that old brown soil … then months later stuff starts popping up.

Today … well, I had a watershed moment.

Yeah, Lorelle of Lorelle of WordPress fame, who writes for the renown Blog Herald linked to Church Communications Pro. (In fact, she even commented on one of my posts to “correct” me in such a polite, awesome way.)

I have no idea who might actually want to click on a “church” blog like mine from her post. But all I know is … a bunch of those nights where I had “idea insomnia” paid off in part today.

To be linked from someone like Lorelle, who is a WordPress guru, is like being validated in some way … it’s like being told, “You actually exist on the blogosphere … and you have interesting, useful content.”

These downpours after the drought are confirmations that somehow, in some way, you’re doing something worthy of being read.

It’s a nice feeling … especially when you’ve had those lonely nights of seeing nobody visit your site and those annoying crickets chirping.

My good friend and WordPress mentor Brian Gardner gave me a good word today about blogging: Persistence.

When people ask me advice about blogging or I do consulting … I always tell them … dig in and put up good content.

I think good writing, especially blog writing, should be practical. It should give value to your readers (if, that is, you actually want to be read).

And yes … you gotta be persistent.

Because you never know when the flash flood is coming!