Blogger Stories

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: Mark Goren

Mark Goren learned about blogs while commuting to work by train. He created his own course on social media marketing from reading some of the best in the biz. Not only did Mark develop a passion for this new media but he found something that he had lost during his time working in the ad business .. his voice and then he began helping companies find their authentic voices too. 

Blogger Story Teller: Mark Goren, Transmission Content + Creative

I’ve probably been on a collision course with blogging for ten years, eight without even knowing it.  Let’s rewind.

I started out as a copywriter in Toronto, moved to Ottawa and then back to my hometown of Montreal. That was about five years ago. As an English copywriter working in a mostly Francophone-lead industry, my frustration slowly mounted once I returned home. For two key reasons:

1. French and English culture is very different, particularly when it comes to humour and other areas where our not-so-subtle nuances are magnified. So having to explain, defend and fight for my lines all day long for over five years can wear a guy down. The result? I started to lose my voice.

2. Coming to writing from a business background, I also thrived on the strategic side of projects, understanding where the client was coming from and pitching in to develop strategies, with a creative mindset. The more I became involved dealing with all facets of the agency’s operations, I slowly but surely stopped believing in mass advertising as a way to truly engage consumers. (Saw just how much wasted dollars are being thrown around.)

Blogger Stories: Lois Kelly

What does a marketer who is disillusioned about the profession of marketing do? For Lois Kelly it was to begin a blog focused on her frustrations. Along the way something very interesting happened. She discovered the new people talking-to-people side of marketing that awakened her enthusiasm about business communications. Then she went one step further and wrote a book, Beyond Buzz, to share her passion with her fellow marketers

Blogger Story Teller: Lois Kelly, The Foghound Bloghound

“But I have nothing to talk about,” I told my friend and mentor Kevin Clancy a few years ago when he invited me to be a keynote speaker at the American Marketing Association’s annual strategic marketing shindig. 

“You have nothing to talk about? Why not?”

“I’m so tired of the marketing hype and hoopla. If people would just listen more, get a point of view and talk like they mean it, a lot of marketing problems would go away. No big magic here,” I said.

Not willing to be turned down, Kevin convinced me to speak. Around the same time I started blogging about my frustrations in marketing and applied to graduate school at Brown University to be a teacher. A much worthier profession, I thought, than all this marketing nonsense.

But then with my blogging something kind of magical happened. Every time I blogged, I got more re-interested in marketing – particularly around communications.  In turn, with the blog posts and comments I started to meet interesting new people via the Blogosphere. People who were really smart, generous and had fresh ideas about marketing. Not the usual “hypesters.“

Blogger Stories: Sherry Heyl

Blogging came along for Sherry Heyl at a low point in her life. However, the woman who holds the title of CEO and Idealist realized blogs could offer a way to express her own creativity. She quickly realized that blogs could also translate into the business world to be used to bring back the humanity that many organizations seemed to have lost along their way.

Blogger Story Teller: Sherry Heyl, What a Concept!

I started blogging during a period of my life that can be described as the "melt down." Perhaps some people would not admit to that, but I have come to realize, no sense hiding it - everyone knows anyway. I have always felt that I was constantly being hushed, pushed aside, and never given a chance to express myself.

This finally led to what felt like was a period of time when I wanted to get in everyone's face and say LOOK AT ME, which led to the meltdown which led to the need to just surrender....and at that time I was introduced to the concept of blogging. I immediately saw blogging as a way for businesses to rediscover that it is the people that they serve and their ideas that creates our economy and innovation.

I was inspired to learn all that I can and add my experiences as a recruiter, career counselor and sales person to the mix of social media consultation. I have been inspired by how my clients have awakened to the idea of what it means to connect on a personal level as opposed to sterilized conversations and approved procedures. I am now writing a book of my observations of how social media has the potential to bring the humanity back to the corporate world.

Blogger Stories: Valeria Maltoni

Valeria Maltoni's belief that talk can change our lives led her to begin Conversation Agent as a way to share ideas and build community online. Perhaps it's because being Made In Italy adds a touch of spicy, soulfulness to her writing. Or perhaps it's because Valeria's passion, focused on the human side of business, comes through in her writing, is the reason her blog resonates with so many people.

Blogger Story Teller: Valeria Maltoni, Conversation Agent

Connecting ideas and people – how talk can change our lives

Do you know when you do something and then look back and think: “my whole life prepared me for this moment”? That’s what blogging was for me. In early 2000 I got involved with Fast Company magazine at the readers’ network level – I had been a long-term customer of the publication and was ready to make some of the things they talked about happen.

Sure, I had been successful at creating opportunities to do that at work in corporate America, yet it still felt that designing a lab for the exchange of ideas to then take the best to market might be a good use of my time. Fast-forward 7 years and you have at least 4 solid businesses that exist today on the strength of the thinking and doing from that group. Our online community and the face-to-face forums acted as a catalyst for talent and skill to meet resources.

Last summer I was working on the recalibration of the group’s brand to incorporate the latest thinking and learning with many of the future trends of business I always brought to the fore. Still working in corporate America and looking at expanding once again my horizons, I decided that online was the way to go. It was the next way to help more people connect with ideas and other people

I was Made in Italy and I speak the language and culture of 2 continents, as well as those of 5 industries operating in more than 16 countries – it was time to take the conversation to the flat world of geographically different neighborhoods. Conversation Agent was born to extend the reach and hone the skills of an expansive mind. Learning, listening, and loving apply to the context of my daily life.

Blogger Stories: Kristen Havens

Kristen Havens began her journey into social media in 2000. As a shy but raging egomaniac writer she found blogging to be the perfect medium to express her views and opinions. Kristen found even more .. she discover that the internet is an amazing, efficient, and often quite meaningful place to find like, literate minds hanging out together and exchanging ideas and experiences. 

Blogger Story Teller: Kristen Havens, My Back Pages

When I first started blogging, around September 2000 (on a hand-coded site FTP'd to Tripod), I was an aspiring screenwriter in a new city. I had a lot of energy and hope, but not a lot of outlets -- so I did what any self-respecting social isolate would do.  I started a website to talk about it.

In those early days, blogging for me was a way of taking something long-running and private -- my self-deprecating chronicle of day-to-day aspirations and humiliations -- and turning it public. I didn't enter into the endeavor with hopes of building an online community or making friends. But as a writer and therefore a shy but raging egomaniac, I felt a burning need to express my wit to a public audience, even if it was an audience of two or three.   

Over the years, that audience of two or three grew to an audience of ten or twelve, then twenty or thirty. They followed me from the hand-coded site to Blogger, and then to Typepad. Now I have 45 Feedburner subscribers and get a modest but consistent amount of daily hits to my site.

My readership has never been large, but what it has been is loyal and life-saving, both in its offers of material and emotional support.  One reader secured me a part-time job when I was anxious for work to supplement my freelance writing.  Another -- a journalist for the L.A. Times -- sent me an email telling me one of my poems was "exhilarating".   A third referred me to his literary agent friend, who needed someone to set up and consult on a blog for one of her authors.

This third opportunity was the one that changed everything for me.  Suddenly my hobby had given me something tangible and enjoyable:  well-paid work that utilized my full suite of writing, editing and web geek skills.  As an added bonus, I was working for the publishing industry inside my apartment, in Los Angeles.  Those are two atypical statements I'm able to make within a single sentence.  I'm very lucky.

As it turned out, that initial pro blogging job lead to other jobs working with authors on social media campaigns, and it's all snowballed from there.  With the proliferation of social media sites and the rise of giants like MySpace and YouTube, suddenly everyone's aware of what I've seen first-hand since the late 90s: that the internet is an amazing, efficient, and often quite meaningful place to find like, literate minds hanging out together and exchanging ideas and experiences.

Blogger Stories: Geoff Livingston

Starting a new business is always a challenge. When Geoff Livingston launched his new marketing company the information he found on blogs not only guided him on his new path but inspired him to start his own blog. He began his blog as a way to chronicle the challenges of a small business owner. Soon he found his posts were helping people make their dreams come true too!

Blogger Story Teller: Geoff Livingston, Diary of an Ad Man

Live Blogging a Start-Up

Before starting my own company, blogging was not part of my daily life.  However, writing was a daily activity as I aspired to be a novelist.  I had gone so far as to have written two full manuscripts, as well as several other incomplete concepts.

The decision to go out on my own last spring was made quickly, and as a result, I found myself scrambling to learn everything I could about starting a company.  Most of the published material was chest-beating, “97 principles of success” in business, which I found less than interesting. One thing I came across that was absolutely useful was Pam Slim’s “Escape from Cubicle Nation,” a blog dedicated to starting your own company!

As a PR professional I needed to be aware of blogs, but this was the first time I became personally engaged.  Escape from Cubicle Nation enthralled me, and it also inspired me to start my own blog, a chronicle of the daily trials of starting a company. Thus “Diary of an Ad Man” was born.

Blogger Stories: Kristie T

Bling for websites. That's what Kristie T first thought of when she decided to launch her blog. As an at-home entrepreneur, who sometimes works in her bathrobe, Kristie found that blogging led her to a community of people who offered support, encouraged creativity and brought friendships. So much more than just a little bling!

Blogger Story Teller: Kristie T, Kristie T's Home Business Blog

In December of 2005, from the depths of a home office decorated with colorful drawings by my kids, the Kristie T Home Business blog was born.  I remember seeing that some of mom marketing friends were setting up blogs and couldn't help but thinking, "that is cool, I want one too!" It kind of felt like getting new "bling" for my website.

Blogging has opened up a whole new world to me.  Suddenly instead of feeling isolated as a lone entrepreneur I felt a real connection to my audience.  Now I could actually "touch" and communicate with the mom entrepreneurs.  I would share a story about a cool business strategy or a mommy moment and my audience was connecting back to me.  It's an amazing experience.

The high of that is like the ultimate sugar rush.  I felt like someone had uncorked my heart and information was spilling out all over into posts on my blog.  And I never feel at a loss of words.  Between what I see and experience in my daily life, what happens in the news and on other blogs, and my "blog idea basket" there's always something cool to write about.

You'd be amazed who you connect with in the blogosphere.  I blogged about my mom being presented an award in Texas for a mural she painted for the local school.  And within a few hours, a member of the Texas media contacted me asking for contact information for my mom so they could cover the event.

Blogger Stories: Ted Demopoulos

Although Ted Demopoulos didn't really like to write, he thought blogging might be a way to help his one-guy consulting shop. That was an understatment. Within weeks of launching his blog he secured a keynote speaking engagement. Why? Because the client got to know him and liked him through his posts. Oh and the guy who didn't like to write? He's written two books on social media!

Blogger Story Teller: Ted Demopoulos, Blogging For Business

Although I've been using email and the Internet forever –my freshman math professor was sending me homework assignments via email in '79, I missed all the big Internet moves. In the very early 1990s, most of my consulting and speaking gigs were booked online, but I never imagined the world as a whole using the Internet. I missed the commercialization of the Internet – until after it was already happening.

I didn't even get my first lame Web site for my business up until 2004. I feel like I just didn't get anything until after it was already happening, and since I'd been involved forever I should have!

Blogging was different. Although I'd been reading blogs since 1999, I didn't try blogging until late 2004. I thought blogging might be something that would help my one-person business. Even though I didn't particularly enjoy writing or write well, I've found I love blogging. I've always had lots of opinions, and now I have somehow to express them.

Blogger Stories: Connie Reece

The first thing you must know about Connie Reece is that her blogging story is a tribute to her dad who never blogged. However, his legacy to his daughter was to embrace the new and take a chance on innovation. Writing blogs that range from business topics to southern humor, Connie went from content to connections, then conversations as she explored the possibilites of social media. Bet her pop is smiling as he dances with the Little People .

Blogger Story Teller: Connie Reece, Blog@bilities, CONnieVERSATIONS, Blogabillies

Seems I must have inherited the early-adopter gene from my dad. He always loved being the first to own some new gadget or appliance. Long before microwaves were available for home use, we had a huge restaurant-model "electronic oven" installed in our kitchen. That was in 1964. A few years later Dad shelled out $99 when Texas Instruments debuted their first pocket calculator.

Like father, like daughter. When I became a freelance writer, in the early 1980s, personal computers had just hit the market, and I could hardly wait to ditch my IBM Selectric. I saved for a year to be able to buy a computer, and quickly fell in love with my shiny blue-and-silver Kaypro II, a boxy aluminum suitcase-style computer with a detachable keyboard and a whopping 9-inch monitor. I lugged that 30-pounder around to clients' offices, and made quite the impression. Or at least I thought so.

Before long I had added a Hayes Smartmodem and was dialing up the early BBS providers and doing research online. With the advent of the Internet, my trips to the library dwindled to nothing; content was available at my fingertips.