Do It Myself Blog – Glenda Watson Hyatt

In creating a buzz about SOBCon2010 – Business School for Bloggers, conference founders Liz Strauss and Terry Starbucker are holding the “Blog It, Earn It!” Discount. Essentially, “write a blog post about a person (or people) online who has (or have) made a difference in your life” and earn a 25% discount off of the registration fee, plus a chance to win a free ticket and airfare and hotel (up to $1105). Given how outrageously priced the hotel is, writing one blog post could be like winning the lottery!

My challenge is narrowing the list to one person or even a few people online who have made a difference in my life. Most people may not appreciate how much blogging has changed my life; how when I hit “publish” for the first time on June 1, 2005 my life changed forever. Blogging has given me a voice and a way to connect with people from around the world.

In those early days, Andy Wibbels’ “just start and then learn as you go” attitude got me blogging. I learned much from him. Watching and learning from my virtual sister Pam Slim also kept me going as a newbie blogger.

Since then, countless others online have kindly helped me in my blogging career; some teaching me valuable life lessons, like Liz teaching me how to graciously accept the words “You’re such an inspiration.” There’s also Becky McCray and her no-bs approach to business (she is definitely a rising star to watch!); social media chaplain Jon Swanson who gets me thinking deeper; Ricky Buchanan who has made me see accessibility from another position; Law of Attraction coach Suzie Cheel and her encouragement to think BIG; and many, many other. (Man, this feels like the Oscars and I’m forgetting important names! Please don’t feel slighted!)

However, when I sat down to write this post, two names clearly rose to the forefront: Chris Garrett and Darren Rowse, authors of ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income. After having an employment counsellor tell me blogging was a passing fad, not an income source, I had goose bumps while reading Darren’s and Chris’s stories. They were proof that living off of blogging could be done. They are what I want to be when I become a grown up blogger! Finally here was something I could do to earn an income!

I shared in an earlier post:

With blogging as an income source, it erases all of the barriers I, a person with a physical disability, faced when searching for a job. With blogging, my typing speed and inability to answer phones – requirements for many jobs I applied for – don’t matter. With blogging, I don’t need to deal will transportation or the accessibility (lack thereof) of the workplace. I can work from the comforts of home, on my own schedule, doing what I love to do: writing and connecting with people from around the world. With blogging, technology has finally caught up to me and given me something else I can do, and with stories like Darren’s and Chris’s, I now have a goal to strive for.

Chris and Darren gave me a career goal that employment programs and counsellors could not. For that, I am appreciative and grateful.

What happens online and virtually definitely impact, change and improve the concrete, real-life world.