Blogger Stories: Donna Lyons-Miller

Donna Lynes-Miller's entree into the blogosphere was met with flames when she took a leap of faith and launched a controversial character blog to support her online business. However, she stayed the course and lived happily ever after in the blogopshere. Along the way Donna met a few kindred souls from around the world including a Tuscan inn keeper and a British butler who now are guest bloggers.  

Blogger Story Teller: Donna Lynes-Miller, GourmetStation's Delicious Destinations

Our relationship with Toby predates blogs to marketing consulting for our online prepared foods company, GourmetStation. If anyone except for Toby had invited me down the blogging path, I would have declined. But I trusted the Diva and as usual, she was right.

Using our web site concierge mascot, T. Alexander, as the blog author seemed a natural thing to do - right? Before blogs were thought of GourmetStation had a pending strategy to allow T. Alexander to discuss food, culture, & entertaining on our web site. So why not let T. use blogging as a communication platform? It made perfect sense to us but the blogging purists literally tore us to pieces. Using a mascot as an author was not authentic, so they said.

After the dust settled others began to take notice and come to our defense. GourmetStation's Delicious Destinations blog and Toby's Diva Marketing received a 3 page write up in the November 2005 issue of Inc. Magazine. Additionally we received mention in USA Today and many credible bloggers gave us positive scores.

GourmetStation's patrons are reading and enjoying the blog. They don't seem to mind T. Alexander a bit. And the blog is now becoming a revenue generator for the company.

But most importantly are the people and new friends we have met on this blogging journey. We were seeking guest authors to bring dimension and international perspective to the blog, and in the meantime we made many new friends.

 

Simonetta Demarchi runs a Tuscan bed & breakfast, Casa Bellavista,  and sends us monthly recipes. We're planning a trip to visit Simoneteta and her family and take a few cooking classes ourselves. Dave & Edie Galusha are patrons and Casa Bellavistea and send us delightful stories from their Tuscan excursions along with stunning photography.
And our latest guest author is Robert Jackson, a butlering consultant from the UK with a wonderful website on entertaining tips.

So the lesson in the story is this - trust your consultants, trust your own instincts & don't be afraid to take a risk every now and then. Blogging has been an excellent marketing strategy for GourmetStation and a great way to meet kindrid souls from around the world. Thank you Toby!

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