In my quest for understanding more about blogging, outside the realm of Technorati updates, I read up on what the experienced have to say about it.
I got an excerpt from The Golden Pencil blog which featured Jen Miller, a New Jersey–based freelancer, who started blogging to promote her new book. Here’s to say how a blog can have so many uses.
“Some writers have a hard time justifying starting a blog—they take time and they often do not involve pay. Do you think all writers should have a blog?
This topic has benefited from a blog. The great thing about the Web is that it crosses all borders. If someone from California has fond memories of the Jersey Shore, they can still find and buy the book by just typing in some key words in a search engine. It’s been a the perfect way to promote the book to a very niche audience.
I only tell people to blog if they have something to say. I could probably have a general interest “Hey, here’s Jen’s blog!” type thing, but I didn’t see anything unique about that. I put some personal stuff into my shore blog, and that’s OK because of the title “Down the Shore with Jen.” But a general interest blog? I’m not sure it would find as big an audience.
How have your blogs benefited your freelance career? Have they led to paying assignments? What about any other opportunities?
The shore blog has helped position me as an expert about the shore. Of course I had the book, but the blog was easier to find through search engines, and I told my editors about it. I’ve already been assigned shore articles for Summer 2009, in part because editors found out about me and my book BECAUSE of my blog.
I’ve already made more money on freelance assignments about the shore than I have so far from the book, writing about the shore for The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, New Jersey Monthly, and USAirways magazine, among others. And that was just last year. Now editors are coming to me. I don’t think I’d have been nearly so successful freelance-wise in writing about the shore without the blog. I’ve been surprised of late by PR people who are pitching me stories for the blog! It’s great that I’m on their radar, and I usually try to turn those into paying magazine or newspaper articles.
The book blog is different. I still feel like I’m doing that for myself, though I don’t think it’s a waste of time. It’s a place where I can almost doodle about how I react to a book, and it produces a lot of ideas. I just finished book 4 of 52 of round two, and I already got two article assignments based on the reading.”
I also found out there are personal blogs and company blogs. Let me cite Seth Godin, a known American author and speaker who popularized permission marketing, in his e-book Incomplete Guide to Blogs and the New Web. He said there are three kinds of blogs: Cat blogs, Boss blogs, and Viral blogs. Cat blogs are by, for and about the blogger himself. A boss blog is one that speaks to a circle of people. This is where company blogs fall. The blogger knows from the onset what he’s going to say and to whom. Third kind is viral blogs. These blogs are the kind we usually imagine like Instapundit, gapingvoid.com., or Boing Boing. Seth Godin said in his e-book: “These are the blogs that are changing the face of marketing, journalism, and the spread of ideas.”
Well, from the start I know why I have to blog. It’s more of how to get myself read. Now there’s the issue: clutter; that’s the reason why we need to be reminded about why we’re blogging in the first place, to bring us back to reason, away from clutter. Get me?
