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.

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.

Comments

[Chris Papandropoulos]

Hi Lisa. It sure needs to be very confident in order to decide to quit your job for writing. But probably you had this "skill" for a long time.

I wish you all the best.

[Moses Clark]

Very compelling story Lisa...I will throw up a prayer to the screenplay God for your success. Screenwriting will be a great challenge for you, and after reading your blog, I know you have the diligence. Diligence will bring success! Keep writing!

[Lisa]

Toby, I'm still getting so, so many positive responses from my blogger story. I can't thank you enough for including me!