I started blogging as a joke after watching Julie and Julia, the true story movie about a woman, Julie, who blogs about cooking her way through the Julia Child cookbook. I joked about getting famous, to tease my girls, who never take anything I do seriously.
Well, it’s been 14 months and I have not yet been “discovered.” I have, however, made tremendous progress in learning how to blog, what draws people to a blog, and fortunately for me, most of the time my writing is interesting enough and entertaining enough to keep people coming back. I have written a couple of other blogs, one went and died a slow death, the other is thriving. I love to write, what can I say?
Today the computer repairman came to the house to fix my daughter’s computer. I was going to do it myself or with help from my brother, but chickened out in the end. My gut told me to call the repair guy and it turned out to be the right decision. The cd reader wasn’t working and the pc couldn’t read the files of the operating system. I would never have known that. He had a little flash drive with the operating system on it and had it up and running in an hour. So we had time to kill and I chatted with him about all sorts of things.
He told me what I needed to buy to get my other daughter’s computer working so we could use it for a “backup.” She has an older hard drive and it’s not as easy to get. I’ll try to find it, I think, and see what he can do. Then he asked me if I work. I told him no, I stopped to raise my children. He said maybe you can go back. I replied no, because my husband is taking early retirement next year and if I work it will only go to increase taxes. And I added, “I just stay home and blog.” His eyes opened wide, “You blog?” I said, yes I have a couple of blogs, I love to write. Then he says the unexpected, “I need a blogger. How much do you charge for 300 words?” I laughed. I don’t write for money, I write for fun, so I have no idea what the going rate for bloggers is these days.
He shows me his website for pashminas that he set up for his business with his partner. Then he showed me another website, for sunglasses, where he likes how the blogs are written. He explains that he and his partner are not native speakers and their English is not good enough to make the site sound professional. He asks if I would be interested in working with him. I told him I have to look at his website and the other website to see if I can give him what he is looking for. He wants something convincing and persuasive; something educational; something specific not a generalized blog about pashminas; something passionate. He feels the “sunglass” blog has all those qualities. The bloggers that have written for him have not produced blogs he was happy with, they were too generic. Then he points out that the English on his blog is not “good enough” and he shows me a page that says pashminas make good “toppings.” I told him I knew what he was talking about, and that isn’t the correct use of the word “toppings,” toppings are what we put on pizza or ice cream sundaes. I told him I could definitely help him with that aspect of his blog. As for writing blogs and getting passionate about pashminas is something I would have to get back to him about. I told him the “sunglass” blog was probably being written by someone who owns the business and knows everything about them down to the last detail. He agrees. Yet neither he nor his partner, who have that passion for pashminas, can write well enough to get the job done. I see he is frustrated as the website is his responsibility, while his partner takes care of the importing aspect of the business. Then he tells me if I am interested he will bring me dozens of pashminas. I ask him why. I see him grasping for a word so I volunteer, “for inspiration?” He laughs and says, “yes.”
So the computer is up and running and we have finished our conversation. I promise him that I will look at both websites and do a little research and get back to him after the holidays. He takes ten dollars off his fee and leaves. He is a very nice young man. I wish I loved pashminas which, until five minutes ago, I referred to as “pashmires.” My daughter loves it when she hears me call them that.
Now I have a promise to keep and we will see how it goes. This blogging business never ends. Who knew?
Justin’s Website: fashion anything.com Check it out!
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