Blogger Stories

Blogger Stories: Beth Kephart

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.

Blogger Stories: Ruth Daniels

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

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.

Blogger Story: Peter Kim

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!

Blogger Story: Tammy Powley

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.

Blogger Story: Ilise Benun

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.

Blogger Stories: Yang-May Ooi

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.

Blogger Stories: Sunny Cervantes

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.

Blogger Stories: Lewis Green

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.

Blogger Stories: Lynda Lippin

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?

Blogger Stories: Alex Geana

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.

Blogger Stories: BL Ochman

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.

Blogger Stories: Patricia Skinner

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.

Blogger Stories Highlighted In A "Real" Book

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.