Or, instead, I made it only a week.
This might be a new record for me.
I’m sure there’s that rare person out there that, when it comes to blogging, exactly knows what their focus is from the get-go, but for the rest, it’s a tough thing to figure out. Guess which camp I’m in.
I’ve thrown around the idea of blogging for many years, and I even started a handful of them, publishing on some freebie sites. But I never genuinely committed because I could never settle on what I wanted to blog about. I have a few passions that I can speak about intimately—again, they are only passions. Honestly, I’m not an expert, so the best I could do is opine on the subjects. And isn’t that a disservice to readers? I mean, it’s insensitive to waste readers’ time with opinion when the opinion is not by an industry expert, no?
Marketing.
Marketing is a subject I could speak on in-depth. It was once a passion. It’s still my job, and I must say, I am a funnel of marketing wisdom (trying to make a pun) – with considerable experience. I’ve worked in nonprofit, for-profit, agency, direct-response, and, currently, global mass media. My career began in traditional print marketing – think newspaper, TV, radio, billboards, direct mail, yellow pages. Over time, I transitioned into media planning and buying. This era of marketing was, for sure, my favorite. I negotiated ad space on TV and radio for more than 300 markets across the country. Best job ever. From media, I made my way into digital, outbound, inbound, SEM, web, email, paid, social, and I dabbled in guerilla marketing, too.
Reading books, watching brands – big and small, local and national – I connected with influencers in the industry. I was bent on learning as many disciplines as possible. And as you can see, I did. Today, I work in the branded content studio for USA Today. I consider this position, and this team, the pinnacle of my career.
Fitness.
Fitness is another favorite subject. My obsession with fitness started with horses. My family moved from a tiny city in New England to a large town in the desert in Arizona. Naturally, we bought horses. I mean, our neighbors had them, so why not. When in Rome. We didn’t know what we were doing, and the minute people met us, they knew it. If they didn’t, they figured it out as soon as they saw us pull up with a bail of hay in the trunk of our Montero Sport. But, anyway, it wasn’t all bust. I learned to rope and barrel race. I wasn’t good at either, but it turned me on to the rush of adrenaline.
From horses, I moved indoors and got my black belt in karate. After that, I went back outside and started running. I ran three ‘half-marathons,’ a handful of mud runs, and a sprint tri. I learned to rock climb, rappel and even tried bouldering once. Next up was boxing. Boxing has stuck. I try things – and I mean, I go all out – but eventually, I move on. Boxing’s been a keeper, though. And weight training. Weight training has been another form of exercise that I’ve never been able to give up. At one point, I was training for the stage. Training for competition body is next level. Had it not been for my anxiety over the rhinestone bikini, I might have taken the stage.
Back to the blog.
This takes me back to my original dilemma: what do I write about? If I narrow in on a niche, like marketing, I’ll be writing articles like:
- Branding your business on a budget
- The keys to effective off-site search engine optimization
- If you read one article on brand equity, read this one
- Why creativity rules in a data-driven marketing era
If I write about fitness, you can expect:
- Large-loop resistance bands are the new black
- Why muscle hypertrophy is more tempting than a Cinnabon
- A sneak peek into my supplement stack
- Light your core on fire with unilateral movements
No one comes to me for advice on these topics. Building an audience will be tough.
What body of work do I want to have in five years? What type of posts do I want to be known for? Maybe I should practice a few examples of posts before I commit to the future of A Similar Story.
Spoiler alert: My next post just might be, “6 Ways blog purposes are completely overrated.”