Why Blog?

I'm not going to let this article shatter my "write about nothing and eventually it will magically result in some kind of money-making windfall" theory.

Minutes after I read that article, this showed up in my inbox (I subscribe to David Meerman Scott's blog, Webinknow).

Just as I wrote about Mimi Smartypants in my personal blog, here is yet another example of someone who started out blogging just to blog and--bam--wrote a book (The Fortune Cookie Chronicles) and became so well-known that random people now approach her in public to tell her their book groups are reading her books. Hell, you can look her up on Wikipedia because she's famous enough to warrant an entry.

If nothing else, blogging, in my opinion, is the equivalent of physically training for a race. It gets you used to sticking with something, especially if you try to force yourself to write every day. It polishes your writing skills and actually provides you with writing samples, should a future job require them. Even if nobody's reading it, your blog is still, in essence, a publication and at the very least can serve as a showcase for your talent (or lack thereof).

Blogging encourages you to learn new things; after all you have something to write about every day and my personal life is just not that interesting. While my personal blog, Motherwhatnowredux, started as a stream-of-conscious dump of whatever particular feelings or experiences I had on any given day, it has actually become sort of a sounding board for issues I find interesting from a professional standpoint. Blogging allows me to learn and grow professionally outside the confines of my real job.

Even though I average about 10 hits a day (if that), I write as if I actually have an audience. It's like singing into your hairbrush--you're less inhibited when you know nobody's watching. If I were getting paid to blog about a particular subject I'd have to worry staying on topic and always sounding professional and intellectual. The beauty of blogging to basically nobody but my mother, sister and a few random readers is that one day I can write about something at least remotely intellectual, then the next day post the latest and greatest from Engrish.com or some stupid video from YouTube. Not to mention let the f word fly if I'm so inclined.

At any rate, who knows--maybe a year from now you'll be reading my Wikipedia entry and buying my book.

New Direction

I'm often been told by friends and co-workers that I can find anything. It started when I was a kid and could find anything as in literally find things--e.g. misplaced objects. There have only been a handful of times in my entire life when I've not been able to find something I or someone else has misplaced, and it kills me when it happens.

Since the advent of the internet--or my use of it--I have parlayed my instincts for finding things into the ability to research a myriad of topics and come up with information that others apparently don't know how to--or don't want to take the time to--find. I hardly think of it as a unique talent--anyone can presumably Google just as well as I can--but for whatever reason when I research things I am often met with "you should write a book" or at least "you should have a website." I have to say that my head is a repository of such a vast amount of random knowledge that it's sort of a shame to have it go, for the most part, unused.

At any rate, this new blog is my attempt to see if I can turn that random jumble of knowledge into some freelance commercial writing opportunities. Commercial writing, by the way, as defined by Peter Bowman, author of "The Well-Fed Writer: Financial Self-Sufficiency as a Freelance Writer in Six Months or Less," is writing for corporations or other business entities, as opposed to writing for magazines or other publications.

On Motherwhatnowredux, my personal blog, I frequently write about my belief that it's to become rich and successful as a writer through as little effort as possible. Miss Information is my first step towards making it happen. It occurred to me that if I'm going to spend a decent amount of time writing on almost a daily basis, whether it be on Motherwhatnowredux or guest blogs for OnBalance--both purely for pleasure rather than profit--I may as well try to put all the random information in my head to some use.

I anticipate writing about a variety of topics, both business and personal. One subject I do a significant amount of research on is web development, marketing and usability, so I figure I'll be writing about that a fair amount. I haven't thought much beyond that at this point so I guess I'll be starting with that. Topics I plan to cover, given that I already have the information readily available, include nonprofit-related web issues such as online fundraising, search engine optimization (SEO), social media trends, and many other topics I explore for my real job as web communications coordinator for a non-profit.

So stay tuned--or don't. I'm sure if and when any actual business opportunities arise as a result of stuff I write here I'll be writing about it on Motherwhatnowredux.