Aloha, Pnina, Ruth, and Michael. So good to meet you all.
I’m very excited to share this blogging adventure with you. I’m ecstatic about participating in such an in-depth course on business blogging.
Knowing Henneke (mostly from stalking her guest blog postings over the past year and a half or so and then Tweetchatting her latest book and Twitterviewing her), the course should be both valuable and fun.
My first successful blog was for my community radio show, Whirled Peas Cafe Radio. My tagline was “Musical Comfort Food with a World of Spice.” I believe I am still the most read author on that page although it has been about three years since I left the station to return to Hawaii.
I dabbled with some others. Mostly helping other people set up free WordPress sites, etc. Then two years ago (April 6th, 2012), I suffered a concussion due to construction at work. I had to stay up all night so I decided to start a blog and found a community of writers online that were involved in an author platform challenge. The head injury was more serious than I thought. I lost my job and spent most of the next year in bed, but blogging nonetheless on Writing Space. I was just recovering enough to take what I had learned over that year (as well as about 10 years of following the likes of Brian Clark & Chris Garrett) and start an LLC, Hawaii Content Marketing. I was in the middle of beta testing a 5 day training seminar when I was hit by a car while I was in a pedestrian crosswalk. I took down everything. I went internet dark for over 6 months.
For the last 6 months, I’ve been rebuilding my world starting with Twitterviews/Tweetchats, Google Plus, courses, trainings, etc. I’ve been ordered back to bed. So I write to you propped up on pillows.
I don’t recommend this kind of career change, but I try to find the silver-lining in things even if I have to whip out a can of spray chrome to DIY one. I literally can’t do anything else, so I must write. And writing has been my secret lifelong dream. So there I am.
I have a deep interest in fiction writing, but also love and adore nonfiction. Someone mentioned Myers-Briggs. I’m an INTJ. So I love to analyze and fix things. I get too much pleasure from helping folks out in the Authority forum over on Copyblogger. What I would really love to do is be a content marketing strategist who does audits on a monthly or quarterly basis for a variety of companies and also offer freelance copywriting services. I would love to learn more about affiliate marketing. Not as a be all end all, but as a base for my own MVP sales. And of course, I want to be an author of both fiction and nonfiction books.
I’m on a steep learning curve with technology. I’m in the process of moving larabritt.com from that old WordPress.com to self-hosted on Synthesis with Genesis a child-theme (I’m using Lifestyle until I get the content in. Then I want to have a designer customize a theme for me.) I have AWeber and Google app for mail service. I don’t know how to use either really. More learning.
Speaking of learning…I also run a writer’s community over on Google Plus. I’m teaching them as I’m learning to do Google Hangouts On Air (HOA). Come circle me over on Google Plus, and let me know if you would like to join the M2the5th community. We are blessed to have UK author, Roz Morris helping us “Nail Your Novel” for the month of April. Please join in.
“To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.” ~Emily Dickinson Lori Sailiata