Blogger Stories

Blogger Stories: Beth Kephart

2007-11-20T23:00:00-05:00

Some artists paint with colors, some with movement some with notes. Beth Kephart paints with words. I virtually met Beth through our mutual friend, Nettie Hartsock, and was immediately captivated by how she uses words. Her recent book, Undercover was written for the youth market; however, this story of a young teenage girl is must read for young and old. For Beth blogging is a treasure hunt for the imagination where she combines heart, soul and insights on a quest to write the illusive perfect post.

Blogger Story Teller: Beth Kephart, Beth Kephart Books

Writing indulges the myth of continuity. Photographs suggest the significance of the single instant. Ever since a fourth-grade teacher helped me turn a Quaker Oats container into a pinhole camera, I’ve been chasing photographs, and I fell hard for words (the sound of them, their shape) at about the same time. I’ve been caught in both lures ever since.

Blogging lets me play with the mix. When I sit down to post, I’m thinking about triggers. I’m thinking about something I might have heard on a train or something the wind might have blown my way or something I’ve been battling with. Then I’m thinking about the iconography—the way a photo might be used to create an amplifying metaphor. Between the story that I write and the photo that accompanies it, there’s tension, and often that tension—the story not spoken, the bridge not built—is the place where the next blog begins, the thing I start battling with.

I’m writing, and I’m thinking about who might be listening. I’m writing, and I’m listening back. Blogging isn’t like writing a book, and it isn’t like writing a letter. It’s something new, a backwards cascade, and I love the challenge of it. I haven’t yet blogged a perfect blog, but I’m aching toward it.

One of the things I’m careful of is providing a cohering blog experience, despite the fact that I don’t live anything close to a coherent-seeming life. I split my time between running a communications business (we tell stories at Fusion — work with clients to develop books and brochures and web pages that celebrate, commemorate, explain), writing books, teaching writing workshops, and being a mother and wife. My most recent books have all been exercises in the very new, for me.

FLOW: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE SCHUYLKILL RIVER, tells the story of a river in her own words.

UNDERCOVER, my first novel for young adults, celebrates poetry and explores identity through a female Cyrano character.

ZENOBIA: THE CURIOUS BOOK OF BUSINESS, due out in January and co-authored with the CEO of a $14 billion pharma company, takes an Alice in Wonderlandesque look at the role of the imagination in corporate America.

It’s a fabulous existence that makes sense to me, but on paper, it’s a bit of a mess. A mess, unless you accept, as I long ago accepted, that everything I do comes back to one thing, which is, of course, the imagination. My corporate clients are dreaming out loud, and so I’m dreaming with them. My books are repositories for memories, evocations, sparks. My students require me to be smarter than I actually am, and, for them, I stretch. And my fabulous son expects the sort of wisdom for which I have to hunt, which means, absolutely, that I go hunting.

In my blog world, all of this knits itself into something that I hope feels whole. Not self-promotional, not blaring, but quivering with something as close to the continuous and meaningful as I know how to get.

Blogger Stories: Ruth Daniels

2007-11-20T22:42:00-05:00

Blogs took Ruth Daniels on an interesting adventure. She went from working in the corporate world to writing about her passion of food and family. Now armed with an understanding of how blogs can help organizations talk to their customers Ruth is heading back to share her learnings with the suits. If they're lucky she might bring a chocolate zucchuini cake along with her.

Blogger Story Teller: Ruth Daniels, Once Upon a Feast (general food & travel, fave cookbooks & kitchen toys), Recipes From 4 Every Kitchen (just recipes), AskRuth (answers pesky kitchen questions)

My story: I took a "short" sabbatical from Training & Development Consulting a few years ago to write a family cookbook that grew and grew along the way....and found a new love- food writing!

The blog world is an amazing place. In fact 35 people from around the world volunteered to be recipe testers (from a single post I wrote) for the book, Every Kitchen Tells Its Stories which I finally self-published as an eBook & CD. It's filled with stories, and recipes that are easy to make. I thought I'd just be handing these recipes down to my daughters, but so many friends wanted them that the book idea just grew. I donate $2 for every book sold to Breast Cancer Research.

Now, almost three years and three blogs later, I'm branching out into Corporate Blogging. I think my own experiences can help organizations speak with a human voice that can reach their audiences better. Wish me luck and share any ideas...

Blogger Stories: Lisa Nichols

2007-11-20T22:40:00-05:00

Can a marketing and PR manager find life and happiness after leaving the corporate world? For Lisa Nichols the answer is YES in capital letters. Lisa wanted to challenge herself as a creative writer so after freelancing for awhile she launched a few blogs. Through her blogs about about living in Kentucky she found fun, creativity and local fame. Can fortune be far behind?

Blogger Story Teller: Lisa Nichols, Northern Kentucky News, Kentucky Vintage, Suite 101 Home Page

A couple of years ago, I was indelibly corporate, working as a Marketing and Public Relations Manager for a large insurance and financial services company. I left the company and two years later, I’m freelance writing full time.

I spend a lot of my time writing optimized copy for websites and ghostwriting blogs for other people through my company, ruby honey marketing. I also write copy for press releases, email campaigns, ads and brochures- anything the client needs.

I always want to challenge myself to be a better writer. Last year I accomplished two goals, writing for a newspaper and getting published in a business magazine. And in addition to ghostwriting content for other people’s blogs, in the summer of 2006 I signed on with Suite 101, an online magazine, to write about insurance- shades of my corporate past! But the experience writing for Suite 101 has been a good one, and it’s helped me craft my organic SEO writing techniques. It’s also a place to send potential new clients to see samples of my work, since so much of what I do is “hush-hush”- it’s all very confidential.

This year, I started authoring my own, personal blogs. It’s addictive- I now have four of them! My blogs include: Northern Kentucky News, ruby honey marketing, Kentucky Vintage and of course, my MySpace blog.

I use MySpace to “try out” new essays on my friends, and to get feedback and input (comments and kudos) before I publish on the Northern Kentucky News blog. Writers might be interested to know that I was published in Cinci Chic, a regional women’s lifestyle magazine, this year after connecting with the magazine’s publisher on MySpace.

Northern Kentucky News is one of the most popular blogs that I write. I created the blog because I saw a dearth of positive online information about this growing Midwestern community. In addition to posting information about our many regional events, I also post restaurant reviews and tidbits about our local government.

And I do something else on the Northern Kentucky News blog. I write about me. A single woman, in her 30’s, who’s juggling work, family and friends and, of course, love interests. I have a lot of heart- and a lot of angst- and I think this is reflected in my writing.

It’s funny; I thought my Northern Kentucky News blog would appeal primarily to women, but most of the comments and emails I receive on my personal struggles- and triumphs- are from men. The fact that this comes as a surprise tells me that I’ve just found a new topic for an upcoming blog- “Why Men Never Stop Surprising Me.” I hope you’ll stop by and take look.

Blogger Story: Peter Kim

2007-08-06T00:34:00-04:00

Peter Kim is the first to see the humor and irony in how he was introduced to blogs .. attempting to put out a blog flame storm for a client. However, it was a snow storm that was the catalyst for Peter launching his own blog, Being Peter Kim, which was to become one of the most highly regarded marketing blogs.

Blog Story Teller: Peter Kim, Being Peter Kim

Call me Dr. Strangeblog or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the blog.

My introduction to blogs was certainly a magical epiphany of marketing communications – akin to an atomic bomb detonation. One Monday morning in 2003, I walked in to work and by the time I walked out, I was the point person assigned to quash a global branding crisis. Somewhere in the world, rogue creatives had released a couple of sexually provocative ads featuring our products and logo – and they were gaining more attention every hour.

As the head of global interactive marketing, I was tasked with “doing something” about it. My advice? Leave it alone and let it die. The corporate response? Send a cease-and-desist to any entity hosting or publishing the images. When I told one blogger that “blogs are not a media outlet,” his ego went into overdrive. Eventually the meme died, but not before sales to our online store had jumped through the roof (!).

A couple years later, different firm. I’m head of interactive again, among other things. President: “We need one of those ‘blog’ things!” So I started one. It sucked. In retrospect, a blog wasn’t going to do much to bring back the 80’s for the core fans of that brand. But I did start a small blog experiment on the side…

I had been working in the space and recently started a job that made blogging a natural extension of my work. I finally joined the conversation in earnest in January 2006. It was the first of a few crazy snow storms that winter and the rest of my family was stuck in Palm Beach. What to do? Start a blog!

One of the biggest challenges – branding. What could I call this thing to signal it as personal and not raise the ire of my corporate employer? How could I signal that I realize, in the grand scheme of DNS, I’m just another navel-gazing marketer? Given that readers will see the world through my filter, I thought the riff on a 1999 movie title fit pretty well. So it stuck – “Being Peter Kim.” And the question I have heard more times than I care to count: “so, how is it, being Peter Kim?” My response? Read the blog!

Now after a year and a half of blogging, I’ve learned so much and love the dialogue. Will I ever stop blogging? Maybe. I put up my first web site in 1993 and that’s not around anymore. Maybe the medium will change to microblogging. Maybe photoblogging. Or maybe I’ll just revert to black ink on paper and fill up a bunch of Moleskines on a shelf as a palpable reminder of where I’ve been and what I’ve thought. But for now, I feel like this story has still just begun.

By the way - I still don’t think blogs are media outlets. Media as historically defined are poorly targeted one-way communication in transport vehicles being replaced by emerging technologies. I see blogs as conversations, two-way dialogue between individuals that were made for technology’s current evolution. Who wants to be a voice that people skip, block, and ignore?

Blogger Story: Tammy Powley

2007-08-06T00:12:00-04:00

Tammy Powley turned her passion into a business. No, it wasn't blogs. It was beads and jewelry. Then Tammy realized that blogs could be a great marketing tool to promote herself and her beads. She launched one blog and which led to another which led to another. Tammy had a new passion and a new business venture .. she was now a pro blogger.

Blogger Story Teller: Tammy Powley, Jewelry & Beading, The Jewelry Weblog, Fat and 40, Blog Class Info

My story starts kind of simply: I began with a bead blog – yes, beads. I originally started blogging because I thought it would be a good way to promote my writing and crafting career. Almost immediately, I was hooked, but I really had no clue where this rabbit hole would lead me.

My introduction to web writing started back in 1998 when I became About.com’s Jewelry Making Guide. While that site does have a blog integrated into its home page, I feel like my first real baby steps into blogging came when I joined About Weblogs in April of 2005 (which eventually merged with b5media.com).

This is where I started writing The Jewelry and Beading Blog. While the topic was similar to my About.com site, it allowed me more freedom to write about my own experiences (me, me, me and my beads), and that was my main purpose at the time when it came to blogging – using it as a medium to promote myself.

Later that same year, I found Creative Weblogging (CW) in need of a writer for The Jewelry Weblog. Again, the topic was similar, but this blog is more geared toward the jewelry consumer rather than people who make jewelry, so it was a chance to work in a related area that didn’t really step on the toes of my other blog or web site.

In fact, one neat thing about it is that I get to help promote jewelry designers, and after spending many years selling my own jewelry through art shows and galleries, I know how tough it is out there. It’s wonderful to be able to help other jewelry designers.

While working with CW, I started another blog with them on wine (though I recently turned that over to another blogger due to lack of time), and I ended up receiving some great opportunities to work on the management side of network weblogging. Though I still write The Jewelry Weblog for CW, additionally I now work as its Recruiter and Executive Editor, helping with QA, training, and other behind the scenes sorts of tasks.

Since I teach college-level writing part-time, for me I see a real connection between helping others to blog and working as a traditional teacher. In fact, I’ve managed to combine the two to a certain extent. I teach blog seminars at my local college’s Lifelong Learning Institute, and it has been a blast turning the uninitiated onto blogging. Plus, it’s great not to have to grade any papers! Along with bringing blogging to the classroom, I’ve also dabbled academically with blogging, including it in a chapter of my dissertation and writing a few journal articles on the topic.

Running seminars, recruiting, training, these are all new experiences I’ve had because of blogging, opportunities I would have never imagined when I started my first little blog about me and my beads.

Blogger Story: Ilise Benun

2007-08-06T00:04:00-04:00

Inspiration to launch a blog is different for each person. For Ilise Benun it was at the encouragement of a client that caused her to step into social media. Now her blog provides a publishing outlet for her small business clients who have yet to find their way into conversational marketing.

Blogger Story Teller: Ilise Benun, The Marketing Mix Blog

It was at the urging of The Communicatrix, a Marketing Mentor client, that, in October 2006, we launched The Marketing Mix, the official blog of Marketing Mentor and the community that's sprung up around it.

Our intention was to create a place online where Marketing Mentor clients could help each other. Our first attempt was a rather feeble one; we tried creating a "forum," but it was too complicated to use -- even we couldn't figure it out -- plus it seemed to open the virtual
door to viruses on our web site, so we quickly trashed that. Soon, the idea of a blog came up and, after some prodding, we were convinced that creating and maintaining a blog would be simple enough to do. So we jumped in.

At the time, I didn't consider myself the "blogging type" and, frankly, I still don't. There are a couple blogs I like but I forget to go to them. I even forget to go to ours more often than not. Where do people find the time to surf the web for reading material? I've got too much to read as it is. But lately, in spite of myself, I've gotten into the groove of creating fresh content and posting it a couple times a week.

The bigger mindshift has been toward listening to clients and prospects differently; my ears are now open and hungry for fresh content for the blog. Whenever someone says something that I know would benefit others,a bell rings in my head, triggering me to ask permission to post whatever the idea is.

Plus our blog has provided a publishing outlet for clients and colleagues who don't have their own blog (yet) to share their ideas. And, to my delight, it has provided a place where clients (and other small business owners, freelancers and independent professionals) can do
anything else that revolves around grow their businesses into thriving enterprises -- and that's our mission, so it works.

Blogger Stories: Yang-May Ooi

2007-06-29T23:57:00-04:00

One day mystery novelist Yang-May Ooi stepped from the characters of her imagination to engaging with real people online through blogs. Soon Yang-May found that she could successful use her blog to promote her books. In a little over a year her blog went from 200 visitors a month to over 8000. Soon people were asking her for advice on social media. Yang-May had expanded her fantasy world of writing fiction to include one of conversations with people from all over the world.

Blogger Story Teller: Yang-May Ooi, Fusion View

I was recently profiled in the journal of the International Association of Business Communicators, Communication World, about how I have evolved from a novelist into a blogger - download “A Novel Approach”. It started me thinking about how my love affair with blogging started and how, at the start of my venture into the online world, I had no idea that it would lead me to develop a valuable expertise that would become the foundation for my social media consultancy here at ZenGuide.

After publishing two novels, I stopped and started a number of third novels only to stumble into the doldrums after the first few chapters. I found that I did not have the inclination any more to sit quietly by myself and my imaginary characters, engaging in an imaginary landscape. The real world and all its real activities and people seemed much more interesting. I was also finding myself intrigued by developments in technology and in particular web-based technologies.

For those who have read my two legal thrillers, they will know that technology and gadgets play a critical role in the stories. In my first novel, The Flame Tree, the hero Luke does something clever with his mobile phone so he can secretly record a dangerous meeting with the bad guy and the heroine Jasmine dials in to listen to the message from her office phone - only to find that it cuts off just at the point that gunshots ring out.

In Mindgame, Sam encrypts secret files into the code of digital photographs before destroying the original CDs and computer hard drive and the whole plot revolves around mind control using drugs and computer-generated imagery (CGI) in real time. So it was only a small step for me to move from being an author to a geek, checking out all the clever Web 2.0 gadgetry that is changing the way that we all communicate and relate to each other.

I started blogging to try and kickstart my enthusiasm for writing. I started out at www.yangmayooi.blogspot.com with Yang-May Ooi’s LitBlog, playing around with the HTML code to semi-personalise the standard template. I wrote a few posts and had a go and connecting with other bloggers and networks. The blog was picked up fairly quickly by Global Voices Online, the site that watches and comments on bridge blogs ie blogs that bridge cultures.

After a month or so, I realised that there was huge potential to use blogging as a marketing tool for my books and to share my experience as a published novelist in an increasingly competitive publishing market. My home-made site looked a bit tacky and lame in my eyes so I commissioned web designers to re-design the site - it was not cheap but, looking back, it was the best investment I have made in my life.

The new site Fusion View has a confident, professional feel to it and many people have commented to me how much they like the look of it. For my books website, the designers retained the same design but tweaked it in different colours, thereby giving me two sites that sat well together within a branded identity. I was also then able to have the same designers create the look for ZenGuide many months later, within the same branded identity.

And as I blogged and explored the online world, concepts like “new media” and “social media” began to emerge. It seemed I was one of the new communicators. When I started blogging in April 2006, I had 200 unique visitors a month. Last month (May 2007), Fusion View clocked just over 8,000 unique visitors.

People were starting to ask me for advice about how to use blogging in a business context. As I approach social media from the point of view of a communicator and writer rather than as a programmer or web developer, I can help my clients focus on developing quality content. Clients have also appreciated my experience in the legal and business worlds so that we can discuss in-depth how social media fits in with their marketing and business strategies. So, it made sense to start up a new blog and website for this specialist consultancy service so that all the technology- and social media- related information could sit in a distinct place from the cross-cultural arts and writing posts that make up Fusion View.

I’m having a fun time with this social media consultancy. It combines online activities like blogging with offline activities like meeting with clients, giving seminars and networking - which for me feels much more rounded than sitting alone in a fantasy world of fiction. I’ve learnt a great deal about social networks and online communications tools and I’m learning more every day in this ever-moving sector. I’ve also met some interesting and dynamic people on this journey so far and I’m looking forward to meeting many more - online and offline.

Blogger Stories: Sunny Cervantes

2007-06-29T23:55:00-04:00

Sunny Cervantes has a passion for marketing. She launched her blog with the intention of helping new marketers in the Philippines avoid some of the stumbles she made early in her career. Almost 2 years later and hundreds of posts, written in Sunny's quirky style, she is making a difference in the lives of novice and experienced marketers. Sometimes dreams do come true!

Blogger Story Teller: Sunny Cervantes, Confessions Of A Marketing Addict

One day, I just got an email from someone in Singapore commenting about some forgettable thing I did at work. OHMYGAWD! People really read the crap I write!

Then, it hit me. I could use my blog to feed my writing frustrations. See, I have this delusion where someday I shall win a Pulitzer. So I started using my blog to hone my writing skills.

And then I got stalked. I locked my personal blog with a password and had the goblins at Gringott’s guard the key.

A few months later, I was researching for some marketing material when it suddenly hit me that there’s a dearth of blogs (and sites) dealing specifically with marketing in the Philippines. Brace yourself. This is where the lofty and noble purpose comes in.

I started my marketing blog thinking I’d provide some insight and information about marketing in the Philippines. In my mind, I had this vision of my marketing blog shedding light on the dark life of a confused and scared marketing newbie. I remember my life as one and my memories were not pretty. I didn’t want some poor soul going through the same agony.

Oh yes, I am also a frustrated marketing professor. My Philip Kotler-of-the-Philippines delusions are right up there with my Pulitzer hang-ups.

Today, I enjoy receiving emails from marketing newbies who tell me my blog has helped them jumpstart their marketing career. It’s such an Oprah moment for me.

My marketing blog contains all my thoughts about the world I move in. These are thoughts that can never reach my clients’ ears or so help me God I will need the services of a hotshot lawyer. Some clients do read my blog. But, since they remain blissfully vague and anonymous, I do not need to fear seeing the inside of a courtroom anytime soon.

Do I earn from my blog? No. But it feeds my supermodel fantasies. What can I say? I am a woman of many frustrations.

While I don’t earn from my blog, it lends credibility to my reputation as a marketing strategist. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, she’s not a moron after all! My marketing blog is a platform for potential clients to see how my marketing brain is wired. Warning, though. Some days, there will be power failure. I’m sorry but I’m only human so, no, I cannot always leap tall buildings with a single bounce.

Yet, at the end of the day, my marketing blog serves another important personal purpose – therapy. It quenches my thirst. It saves me from having a psychotic breakdown. And it’s cheaper than Paxil.

Blogger Stories: Lewis Green

2007-06-22T23:57:00-04:00

Lewis Green describes himself as an accidental writer. From a stringer covering high school sports to a travel writer to an executive editor, owner of a publishing company, author and recipient of the Air Force Commendation Medalare, words have been the foundation of Lewis' successful career. Blogging was a natural extension. However, blogging brought Lewis more than just words. It brought him global friendships.

Blogger Story Teller: Lewis Green - Bizsolutionsplus

The written and spoken word often flow from somewhere deep inside me with little effort. I am truly blessed.

At 16, I got my first writing job as a stringer for the Haverhill (Mass.) Journal covering high school sports. It seemed the most natural thing. Later, while serving an 8-year stint in the military, I found my voice as a leader, without even recognizing it. Promotions came quickly and my work was recognized by the presentation of the Air Force Commendation Medal.

To this day, I'm not sure why General Rouse chose to pin that medal on me. It must have had to do more with what I said and how I said it because I was surrounded by smarter and harder-working people than I. In college, again I seemed to get noticed and found myself in Who's Who Among America's Junior Colleges, and then at the University of Florida I was hired by The Gainesville Sun as a sports writer, despite competing against more talented and published writers.

Throughout my business career, I have found being an accidental writer rewarding, from working as a book editor with a large Midwest publisher, to being a travel writer with frequent assignments, to owning my own small publishing house, to becoming an Executive Editor overseeing several magazines, to finding my niche within business as a communications manager and executive speechwriter, and now working as a marketing/communications consulting and awaiting the publishing of my 5th book. Who would have thought that this little kid from a small New Hampshire town would grow up to have so much fun?

With my background, it was natural for me as an entrepreneur and marketing consultant to move from newsletters, to white papers, to loads of web site content, to blogging as ways to reach my audience and build my business. Bizsolutionsplus has been good to me. Steady growth in readership, good friendships, two writing gigs (MarketingProfs Daily Fix and BrandingWire), travel to far-flung places as a guest speaker, and recently two consulting gigs came from my blogging.

I get great joy from sharing my thoughts and even greater joy from my reader's comments and my friend's blogs who have taught me so much. And, it would be silly of me not to mention that my blogging led to my friendship with Toby and as a result I get to share my blogging story with you.

Blogger Stories: Lynda Lippin

2007-06-22T23:47:00-04:00

After Lynda Lippin traded in her life in academia in the States for what many would call a dream world on the little island of Providenciales in Turks & Caicos, she launched a little blog. Lyndia soon discovered her little blog could provide more than a virtual Treasure of the Caribbean. It could provide a real source of income that would allow her to enjoy her new lifestyle.

Blogger Story Teller: Lynda Lippin - Pilates & Reiki In Paradise Blog Pilates & Reiki In Paradise Website Lynda's Pilates Product downloads at Lulu.com

I have always enjoyed writing, and spent most of my first 30 years in academia as a Philosophy and Women's Studies graduate student and then professor with Pilates and Fitness as my secondary part time job. With my university connections I was surfing the web early on and contributing to academic email lists, etc. I would see blogs and thought that the concept was interesting (spoken like a true philosopher) but figured it was too technical and too popular to be taken seriously.

Fast forward 10 years. I met my husband and married, decided to leave the staidness of academia and move into fitness full time, opened my own Pilates & Reiki In Paradise Website and writing for popular magazines. And suddenly I was reading lots of blogs. In fact, blogs became my primary source of information for website design, SEO, reviews, and just fun reading. But still I kept thinking that I couldn't possibly do the blog thing--too much work, too technical, and who would want to read it?

In 2005, after a battle with my teenage stepson, personal bankruptcy, and a civil lawsuit, we received job offers in the Caribbean! In an uncharacteristic move we sold everything and moved to the little island of Providenciales in Turks & Caicos where suddenly I could breathe again and realized that I did have some interesting tales to tell and information to give. So I went to Blogger and started my Pilates & Reiki In Paradise Blog. At first it was just sporadic and small, but then I really got into interacting with the world this way. I can post on anything I want whenever and wherever I want, and now my blog makes me money all at the same time.

Blogging for me is still fun and still therapeutic, and now I probably earn about $300-$1000 per month between product & affiliate sales, sponsored posts, and advertising. I will be starting some new blogs this month under private domain names, since I figure that if I can have 3 or 4 blogs offering quality interesting content that each earn me close to $1000 per month I won't have to worry about busting my buns for other income and can enjoy my Caribbean life a bit more, and the money I earn from my clients will be essentially gravy. One blog will be for Mike Wright's Golf Pilates, where I am the VP of Marketing & Educational Director, and I see the blog as being central to our marketing plan.

I can remember when I received my first $5 paypal payment for a blog post. Yesterday I wrote a $700 blog post (yay!). As my dear mentor Pat O'Bryan says, the web gives us the opportunity to build our own Portable Empires where we can earn income 24/7/365 and give people great information and products at the same time! And working with him has helped double my web-based income in just 3 months. What more could I want?

Blogger Stories: Alex Geana

2007-06-22T23:45:00-04:00

A few years ago, Alex Geana was just an emerging, but talented, writer looking for a home for his work. With traditional media doors closed Alex turned to blogs as a publishing vehicle. Before long 750+ visitors a day were knocking on his virtual door, he wrote a play, is a feature blogger at Huffington Post.

Blogger Story Teller: Alex Geana, One Gay Date at a Time, Alex Geana, Three Tables

I started blogging a few years ago (I think 2004 or 05) because there wasn't a place for me in the small rags I wanted to publish and work in.

At the time, Sex in the City was ending and the hottest thing on the planet. I always thought it was from a gay perspective, so I wanted to write a unique column spinning off the end of show. I approached 60 or 70 gay rags, the small press kind that people send to bars with lots of local listening, I did it the old fashion way and sent a pitch letter. Across the board, the reply was the same (from the few that responded) "we like it, but we can't fit it in our pages, because we need the room for ads".

I gave it a bit of time, wallowed in my own disappointment and isolation as a budding writer, then turned to the web. That's when I discovered blogging and One Gay Date at a Time was born. I did research, liked Typepad, because all the free stuff was riddled with bugs or needed lots of tech knowledge to take off the ground. It was a good fit, like most new bloggers, I tinkered endlessly and commented mercilessly, that's how I found Toby and her sage blog.

Being forced to write daily, did wonders for my work, it forced me to focus; really, it was part of my MFA program. I'm self taught, with blogging, I could test voice and ideas and see if they instantly work. To find out if my wacky voice and syntax was relating, people commented and I developed a loyal following which I was quite proud off. I was averaging 750 readers a day and people were emailing me, asking when my next post would be up. It was wonderful. Then I needed to get a day job and couldn't update frequently. So I moved on to other projects.

I had a chance to finish and produce the play Three Tables, even though I didn't have a chance to update daily, I impulsively put up a post about my play reading, three people showed up, stating they found me through the blog. It was great, they didn't like the concept, but that didn't matter, I realized how import it was to find a core group that could relate to theme. My themes even though congruent (to me) don't always overlap.

I also used my blog to drive ticket sales and put up a page for my play and took pretty pictures which gave people a feel for the performance; we sold out, opening night sold out a month in advance, the entire shows run of four performances sold out a week before. We had people at the door waiting for cancellations and the small show space was packed, this was due to cross marketing (as you marketers might say). We spent a lot of time driving people to the website, the online marketing sealed the interest we were creating in the 'real world' and vice versa.

A few years ago, when I came up with the insane idea of writing other people's blogs, I got cocked heads and strange looks, now people get it and I'm starting a new push to drive clients. I've also gathered and found the confidence to blog under my own name, this step is important, because in the current art market (I mean book, art, culture etc.) consumers identify with people as brands, so to share with readers, what goes into the making of my work, the things that interest me, that's what's important. To introduce people to my writer voice. The blog allows me to do just that.

Readers can also sign up for my email update list, which I use very infrequently, only when new projects come online. Blogging is all about finding creative ways to build and create relationships and keep people updated. I've realized it has a lot to do with choice, reaching a niche audience and getting past the clutter of the mainstream media.

Viewers, readers and everyone in general are looking for something different. Learning how to blog and doing it on a regular basis has helped solidify my statues as an emerging writer, my clips at Huffington Post are now helping me pitch real articles to real magazines and newspapers. It's all about crossing over form one media to another.

As the online world becomes prevalent and we as a society learn to, in tandem, take our real world relationships online (email and evite for instance) we also learn, to take our online relationships into the real and business worlds, so blogging will be more and more important.

That's my very brief blogger story and I'm sticking to it!

Blogger Stories: BL Ochman

2007-06-12T13:36:00-04:00

One of the pioneers of internet marketing, in 1999, BL Ochman saw the business potential of blogs. However, it would take the technology a few years to catch up with her vision. BL's patience and persistence paid off. She must know what she's doing .. What's Next Blog is one of the top 20 marketing blogs in the world.

Blogger Story Teller: BL Ochman, What’s Next Blog and Ethics Crisis

I’ve published newsletters about marketing and PR since 1985, first in print and then online through my website whatsnextonline.com where I had about 4,500 subscribers to a bi-weekly newsletter.

I first saw blogs in 1999 and thought the software would be much too techie for me. I totally lack the technical gene. I also wanted my blog to share a graphic identity with my website, but I couldn’t find a designer who knew how to design a professional looking blog for my business. And guess what? That’s still hard to find.

In 2001 I was asked to edit I-PR, a discussion group that had about 15,000 subscribers. We soon switched to Moveable Type software and I was instantly a daily blogger. It took me another two years to find a designer who could do what I wanted done. Once I did, What’s Next Blog was born and I finally had my interactive online platform.

The beauty of blogging is that it offers instant publishing, and allows me to write at 3 a.m. if I choose, without an IT person to post for me. What freedom! What joy. I blog sheerly out of the love of writing, sharing information and listening to my readers, so for me, blogging is big fun.

I’ve have done several blog-based experiential marketing campaigns, including the first Up Your Budget, which was an online treasure hunt that generated a million uniques and 10 million page views in four weeks. I also did an online contest called Wife in the Fast Lane for author Karen Quinn and Simon & Schuster that generated remarkably well-written essays, one-liners and videos.

I’ve also learned to generate clickthru rates as high as 5.7% with blog advertising – still the most under-rated and misunderstood advertising medium.

I will admit that I am completely addicted to blogging, but, hey, I could be doing a lot worse things! I’ve built my blog into one of the top 20 marketing blogs in the world, and it is a sheer delight that people want to read what I say.

The blogs also are my storefront and they attract not only clients, but also some of the most interesting people in the world, whom I really never could have met any other way.

Those are some of the many reasons I love blogging!

Blogger Stories: Patricia Skinner

2007-06-12T13:32:00-04:00

You are a professional writer. Why would you want to launch a blog where you write even more? Patricia Skinner, who writes for a living, found that blogging is a form of self-expression .. with the extra benefit of no client censorship. Patricia also believes that blogs are a superb resource for historians. Blogs provide a glimpse into our culture, our hopes and our dreams.

Blogger Story Teller: Patricia Skinner, Marketmou—the Blog!

How did I get into blogging? Hmm, interesting question. Like most bloggers nowadays, for some time before I actually started blogging I had been thinking about how it might be a good way of spreading the word about my business. Then I was offered a job blogging for someone else.

My journey into blogging wasn’t the catalytic event that it seems to have been for so many others. I’m a writer, and all my life I’ve been an avid communicator. I tend to talk a lot (if I have something to talk about), so when I discovered blogging it was a wonderful outlet for all these words that were in me anyway.

I blogged commercially for a while even though I knew they were ripping me off, mainly because I wanted to learn everything they had to teach me. It wasn’t much, in hindsight, but it was crucial stuff, like how important images are in your blog posts (I don’t always use this, but there’s a tip for readers), and how blogging regularly is essential to your overall blog rank with Technorati.

My knowledge of the blogging world together with my knowledge of SEO, enabled me to get Google pageranks of 4 for all my blogs--out-of-the-gate, even though I’m somewhat sporadic in my blogging due to time constraints (when I have ten projects going all at once, like I do right now, it’s difficult to fit in the time to blog). I still have a lot to learn, but it’s one of those things I enjoy. I spend so much of my life writing words for someone else that it’s refreshing to be able to say what I feel, whatever comes into my head, with no censorship.

Readers might be interested to know how useful my blog has been to my business, since that was the reason for blogging in the first place. I can’t say (to my knowledge) that I’ve got any projects as a direct result of my blog, but if someone has found their way on to one of my business websites (Freelance Writers Manifesto, Well Written Word) and they’re looking around to see what I’ve been doing, they often tell me later that reading my blog was the turning point in deciding to hire me.

I can’t say that I provide any riveting personal insights to my readers, by I do try to keep up a stream of business trivia that, when taken all together, could help build a powerful business.

Blogging is such a wonderful way of getting the truth out, I sometimes think about how blogging will be a superb resource for historians who will be able to learn things about us hundreds of years from now, and I wonder how long the blogging trend will last. Will it go on indefinitely, or will it fade like so many other trends do?

Blogger Stories Highlighted In A "Real" Book

2007-06-12T13:23:00-04:00

Never know were a blogger story will land. Bob Walsh highlights Blogger Stories,in his book Clear Blogging - Chapter 1 Why Blog.

One fascinating viewpoint into how blogging has changed people is the site Blogger Stories.

Blogger Story Tellers included: Pamela Slim, David Armano, Nedra Klein Weinreich, Holly Buchanan, Yvonne DiVita, Nick Jacobs and Ed Garsten. Read Bob Walsh's Blogger Story.