Life Before Blogging
When I attended Blog World Expo a few weeks ago (tired of hearing about it yet?), I had big plans to take as much video as possible and interview as many top bloggers as I could. That was a fairly lofty goal only because I had no idea how fast everything would be moving and how many top bloggers would be attending! Between trying to learn as much as I could during panels, networking with other bloggers, and trying to track down top bloggers to interview, I found I just had to do what I could do and hope it was enough.
I had big dreams of cornering those big bloggers and interviewing them until I had drained them of information. In reality, I had short spurts of time where I had to flip on the camera (thanks to PoshMama.com for the Flip camera!) and ask for their best tips for beginning bloggers. That’s all the time we had.
One of the questions I had originally wanted to ask bloggers was, “What did you study in college? Was it in any way related to the internet or what you’re blogging about now?” My thought is that very few of us who are over 30 and blogging didn’t have any training for what we’re doing now: career blogging.
When I graduated from my graduate program, the WWW as we know it (with its fancy user interface) was just becoming mainstream. There had been no classes offered that directly related to online learning or writing.
So how did we get here? That’s what I want to know from you. What was your major(s) in college? How did you end up as a person who considers blogging your career? I explained my path in my video at 5 Minutes for Mom. Tell me about your path.
Written by Melanie Nelson from Blogging Basics 101Posted on October 10th, 2008 and filed under Blogging
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9 Responses to “Life Before Blogging”
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I do have a background in IT but I never considered myself a “geek.” Imagine that at university I had to ask “help” (aka copy!) to complete my coding/programming exercises. My MBA did help to open my mind to other things besides technology but that was not the turning point. I ended up researching the “Make Money Online” niche a couple of years when I got bored in my 9-5 job. That’s how I got into blogging and in general the Internet Marketing universe
This one of the questions that I hate being asked to me but I love to answer.
Well, I am a licensed ECE but Internet has not been that popular here in the Philippines during my college years (don’t you dare ask the year, lol!). I have worked on different local companies that are miles away from blogging. I did some technical works about electronics and has been handling engineers up to the lowest level. Little did I know that I will be going back to my first love during my younger years – writing.
My major in college (as a returning, MATURE student) was Instructional Design/Instructional Media and Curriculum Design as a Masters. There was not much emphasis on technology back in 1989. I had to learn on the job and was the first librarian in our county to have a web page. I came into blogging about two years ago and love it. I am retiring in the spring and my plan is to become a professional travel blogger. We’ll see how that works out.
I’m not quite sure I consider blogging a career, but it sure is making me a nice little side income. I wish I had more of a niche; I think that would make my site more valuable to advertisers. Still, I think I’m doing quite well for the traffic I have.
My major was education. I was a teacher for 2 years and did other administrative jobs before stopping to stay at home. I found myself posting on Babycenter.com and making online friends there. From there I discovered blogging. I have been blogging now for almost 3 years.
I’ve always liked to write, and I’m a grammar snob, but I never honed those skills until I started blogging. Now I wish I’d taken more writing courses in college.
Mommy bloggers are a dime a dozen, so I don’t know how far this blogging thing will take me. But I’m along for the ride!
I found it very interesting that the majority of bloggers are over 30. I’m 24 now and have pretty much grown up with the internet. I only got into blogging recently yet I’ve always had an interest in computers, with my major being in computer networking. I feel that a degree in english may have been better suited.
My BA is in French, with a minor in women’s studies. I’m not sure how applicable that is to my life as a blogger, except that I write from the perspective of being an American woman living in France. I’m currently in school, however, to get my masters in marketing. That’s much more related to my blogging career, although asking which came first, blogging or my interest in marketing, is a bit like talking about the proverbial chicken.
I’m on the other side of the fence (or same side looking in a different direction) from Yiorgos above. My background is in IT as well but I’ve always considered myself a ‘geek’. So it’s a little more difficult to take up blogging since coding seems more natural, what with imposed structure and all.
It looks like a lot of folks come from an education or arts background. Do you think that is helpful to blogging in general or does it just inform the topics you take up?
blog not look background education…. but blog, i think to explore u expression n other. thanks.
That is really true! Blog is to explore everything and to expand your knowledge.