I’m a writer who loves to write so blogging just comes naturally to me. To me, a blog is something like a journal of your personal thoughts. As a journalist, I have LOTS of thoughts so it’s nice to have an “uncensored” forum to express them all.
But never in my wildest dreams did I ever think my blogging would get me noticed enough to receive an all-expenses paid trip to a Bloggers Conference. Last week, Hallmark Cards put its famous slogan “When you Care Enough to Send the Very Best” into action when executives invited seven (7) bloggers from around the country to attend their first-ever Bloggers Conference. “I” was one of the Super Seven chosen for this trailblazing event. We were invited to the one-day conference to give some feedback on their new line of Journeys cards. We were selected for two reasons:
1) We have a visible online presence.
2) We’re writing about subject they’re interested in and we’re doing it in a non-offensive way.
Following this wonderful and highly educational experience, have drawn a few conclusions about blogging:
1) If you like to write and have something relevant to say, then say it. Just because you don’t get any responses to your post doesn’t mean no one is reading them.
2) Share your blog with others. Let your friends, family members and email contact list know what you’re writing about and where they can find what you’ve written. I’ve discovered that my email friends will pass on my blog link to “their” friends if it’s a subject matter they think they’d be interested in.
3) Maintain a blog on your website. Make your website a one-stop-shopping kind of site where the readers can see everything you have to offer in a non-cluttered way.
4) Maintain separate blogs for separate trains of thought (optional). If you’re an author, devote one blog to your work and use other blogs to express different subject matters. You may want to use one blog to give your reaction to the news of the day and another to share something feelings, etc.
5) Visit other blogs and comment on them. Find other blogs that interest you and offer a comment from time to time. Also, invite the blogger to visit your site sometime.
Out of the thousands of bloggers who write about baby boomers, I was honored to have been chosen and now I’m even more committed to sharing my thoughts about Whatever! A Baby Boomer’s Journey Into Middle Age.
