Truth be told, I began blogging in 2006 as an experiment with two goals in mind:
- To learn how to generate revenue from Google's Adsense.
- To provide an outlet for my writing.
I was working as an Internet sales rep at the time which meant I traveled quite a bit. Writing a blog for business travelers fit nicely into the life I was living. Learning the ins and outs of life on the road or in the air, as well as meeting fascinating people along the way, provided excellent material to work with, thus
Table For One was launched.
My friends cheered! My mother was happy to have something she could forward to her friends. Meanwhile, I was writing while learning about pay-per-clicks, content ads, and search marketing, mixing my talent with business. The payoff came in 2008 when due to corporate restructuring, my job as a telecommuting sales professional came to an end along with my focus on business travel.
I continued blogging but shifted toward my other passions: technology and business. I reached out to my local contacts, who read my blog, and knew I was interested in freelance writing. To borrow from
Anne Giles Clelland, one "
Great Forward" later, and my life as a freelancer had begun.
Writing is now my business and, in addition to writing for both traditional print and online publications, I continue to blog. Even my new
eBay store,
QCatsBiz has a blog.
I would not think of starting or having a business without one. In
Handshake 2.0's Vision: Every Regional Business Blogging, Clelland writes about the four components that make for good business:
People. Information. Connection. Search. It's a combination that works in blogs and business. It's worked for me.