blogging

It’s my second blog birthday! I can hardly believe I have made it this long. When I first started blogging, I didn’t tell a soul, outside of my husband and my mother, mostly because I wasn’t sure how long I could keep it up. Sure, I read blogs almost everyday, but could I come up with enough to say to write something of my own? I guess I did!

In my first year of blogging, I made some pretty big changes to the blogs that I read as well as to the content of my posts as I learned who I wanted to be as a blogger and developed that voice. If you are new to blogging or feeling like you are in a blogging slump, I would definitely recommend reading my first blog birthday post. And if you feel like it, leave a comment on blog trends you love/hate. It made for some fun reading last year!

I won’t bore you with a recap of my entire year since that’s what the blog is for, but I am pretty amazed and grateful for a few things:

• All of the people I have met and the friends I have made. Food and wine bloggers, and especially Boston and Sonoma bloggers in particular, are awesome, fun, real people. I never would have imagined meeting and becoming friends with so many people in two years, but through blogging and events, I have, and my life is so much richer as a result!

• I never intended blogging to become my job, and it hasn’t. BUT, I did hope that it would lead to new work and get me out of a job I was incredibly unhappy in. And it did! Looking back, even at a year ago, to think that I would be in the process of starting my own business and even have clients (and am still taking more!) that would pay me to do Marketing, PR, and Social Media work. . . well I just never imagined!

• All of the amazing food and wine I have consumed over the past two years. From samples to events, I have been SO lucky to get to taste new things to grow my appreciation for all things delicious.

• All of the skills I have learned from the blogging community and have taught myself. My Marketing career has benefitted immensely from blogging, which, while a hobby, has enhanced my Social Media understanding and has given me lots of writing practice.

• All of you! Thanks for coming back once a day, once a week, once a month, whenever! I am beyond excited each and every time I get a comment, a trackback, or a visit. I definitely am not taking any of you or the time you spend here for granted, thank you!

If you are a blogger, what benefits has blogging brought you? If you are a reader, what are your favorite things about reading blogs?

Technorati Tags: blogging

I’ve had a lot of interesting conversations and thoughts lately on the use of social media/emails/blogs and when boundaries are crossed in certain areas. With the internet making connections between people and businesses seemingly boundary-less,  I started to think about where I like my boundaries to be.

Let’s discuss, shall we?

1) Blogger TMI – There are bloggers who write about topics from hygiene habits (and sometimes lack thereof) to birth control to personal relationships and everything – everything – in between. There have definitely been blogs I have stopped reading, not because I find them offensive, but because I’m not super interested in the minute details of people’s days. I often wonder what it is like to be the other people in those bloggers’ lives; is there some sort of pressure to be a certain way, cook a certain way, look a certain way because your life is out there for the world to see?

But I do love a personal touch, that is why, after all I keep going back to the same blogs over and over and not simply looking at sites like Epicurious to get my food, wine, and travel fill.

In your opinion, how much is too much when it comes to blogging and sharing your life? Where do you draw the line?

2) Over-emailed – At the start of the New Year and when I really started to buckle down to find freelance jobs/started consulting/continue job hunting, I spent a good amount of time unsubscribing. I think I took myself off of somewhere between 25 and 40 mailing lists. Some I joined on purpose to get information or certain deals. Others, I have no idea how I got on the lists. A thread in common? They sent daily or twice daily emails, and I couldn’t keep up.

If/when I have my own business, I will definitely send one, maximum two, emails a week, and I would advise anyone I was working for to think about keeping things fresh and interesting by doing the same.

How do you feel about emails? Have you recently done a big email list purge like I have?

3) Over-sold/pitched – As a blogger I get quite a few emails a day from various businesses and PR agencies. I like to be informed, and of course I am grateful for the opportunity to attend fun events, many times for free. But there is definitely a fine line. Again, daily emails from the same agency are overwhelming to me, and intense follow up after an event (someone called me on a SUNDAY!), is just bad business. It also helps for PR people to get my name right (I’ve been called Emily, Amy, and Kate) and to know a little bit about my blog before pitching. I’ve been contacted about all sorts of diet things and had people follow up with me repeatedly, despite the fact my blog posts say I am on vacation. Research and subtlety go a long way!

I also REALLY dislike requests for link exchanges, and I have been getting them every day recently.

Have you had an experience of being over-sold or over-pitched?

4) Self-promotion – I, like many bloggers, struggle with this. As someone who has been job hunting on and off since I started blogging in June 2009, I can’t help but wonder, if I tweet my post just one more time, will someone “discover” me and lead me to an awesome job? If I get more traffic, will that somehow help grow my network as well?

While the original purpose of my blog was a creative outlet from a job I didn’t like, I won’t lie; it certainly has led me to build a much larger network of friends and professional contacts than I ever had before blogging. Still, even though I am currently still looking for work, I have tried to tone down tweeting and Facebooking links to my posts to once or twice a day. All of that self-promoting got a little exhausting, and I think I started to annoy even myself .

How much self-promotion is too much for you?

Speaking of self-promoting, I’ll be back later with a recap of dinner at Tico!

Technorati Tags: blogging