Today . . . I am thinking about the one year anniversary of my blog. I can't believe it's already been a year! Why it seems like just yesterday when I was wondering how I would ever have enough to write about for a year, yet alone do it every week, four times a week.
Earlier this month, Kevin Reid, VP of Internet & Social Media at Amplify Public Affairs, posted an interview about my blog and blogging on Amplify's blog Blogger Relations.
Being that this is my one year anniversary, I thought you might life to read about how I got started blogging, and what things I would do differently, if I knew what I know now.
How did you get involved in blogging?
I first became a blogger 18 months ago when I signed-up for Andy
Wibbel's "Write Your Book in 45 Days" teleseminar. It was one of those
marathon writing seminars where a bunch of crazed writers come to the
surface for weekly support and inspiration calls, and then go back
under again to write in isolation. Along with these weekly lifeline
calls, the other opportunity Andy created for our class was our very
own writer’s blog space.
Here, after too many days spent staring glassy-eyed at my computer
screen and from an impoverished place of writer’s isolation, I wrote my
very first post. Driven from the abject need to connect, and with
absolutely no prior instruction and a great amount of timidity, I wrote
"Alkamae" in the name box and in the body of the post, something subtle
like, "Help! Anyone out there?" And with that . . . my blogging career
was born!
It looks like February is the one year anniversary of your blog. Has your blog met your expectations?
Because I had shunned blogging in the past, and never considered how
a blog or blogging could be beneficial to my book, my business, or me;
I don’t think I had any expectations about my blog.
In fact, I probably wouldn’t have set-up a business blog and begun
blogging in earnest if it hadn’t been for Yvonne DiVita at WME Books.
When I signed on with them to publish my book, one of the conditions of
their contract was that I must have a blog, and that they would help me
set one up and train me how to blog, correctly.
Yvonne is a very savvy blogger. Because of her, I got off to a very
strong blogging start. Couple that with some reading I’ve done on my
own and the example of other great bloggers, I now have expectations
for my blog that are being met.
If you had to start your blog over again, what would you do differently?
First off, I’d design another banner. The banner I have now
reflected where I was a year ago. It resonated with me then. If I had
to do it over again, I’d design a banner that reflected my most forward
thinking vision.
Secondly, I’d be more aggressive in how I reached out to others. I
would be more deliberate in finding ways to build community by helping
to promote and support others. I’d do more interviews, host more guest
bloggers, do more promotional give-aways, and be more entertaining and
less serious in my approach (much of which I have already begun doing).
Lastly, I would have spent more time on other people’s sites, seeing what worked and didn’t work, before I started my own blog.
You have just published a book. What role did your blog play in its development? Do the two work together?
Blogging is one of the most strategic things I have done for my book
and ranks up there with one of the most powerfully expressive things
I’ve ever done for myself. As I was writing my book, I’d post excerpts
from my book on my blog to see what kind of response I would get.
Often, reader’s comments were just the thing I needed to clarify,
modify, and in some cases, jettison that part of my book.
I used my blog categories to collect my thoughts about the three
main sections of my book: dealing with change, Accidental Pren-her
journey, and discovering your Inner Samurai. These categories were then
transferred, in whole or in part, to sub-headings in chapters. My blog
posts and my writing muse worked as a team to produce my book.
Currently, the Virtual Book Tour that I am on is a further expansion
of my year of blogging. Because I had been writing about my book in my
blog for nearly a year before it was published, my book and its content
were already "out there" in the blogosphere, being noticed and
commented upon by others and picked up by search engines. Because of my
blogging, my book had begun its own publicity long before it came out
in print.
How do you see blogging evolving? What’s the next big thing?
Midlife entrepreneur blogging. With more than four million men and
women turning 50 each year in the U.S., and nearly half the country's
self-employed workers (7.4 million) 50 years and older, I expect to see
a rise in midlife entrepreneur blogging.
Entrepreneurship among mid-lifers is growing as the Baby Boomer
generation redefines retirement. 
Instead of following the conventional
traditions of retiring at 65, mid-lifers are eschewing those
conventions in favor of either starting up or staying involved with
their business, continuing to contribute to society, and following
their passion. Keep a sharp weather eye out for midlife entrepreneur
bloggers — they will delight and surprise us all.
Thank you, everyone, who has read my blog this year, commented, tracked
back, and furthered it along. We are on this journey together.
In gratitude and appreciation, from my heart to yours,
I am,
What was The New York Times thinking when they reviewed this book! 
Susan L. Reid
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