In early 2006, an important part of the week for our Sunday brunch crew was sifting through the electronics ads in the Sunday paper. John D, Mikey, Otto and I and whoever else was part of the crew at the time would carefully read the Best Buy, Target and Circuit City ads. Now and then I’d find an especially good deal on a laptop or MP3 player or USB drive, and since I was already writing this blog I’d post a “Deal of the Week.”
After I’d been doing it about a month, I got an e-mail from the Commercial Appeal. They were expanding what they were doing with blogging, and wanted to bring “Deal of the Week” to their site. So we struck an agreement. The money I’d be getting ($10 a week) was inconsequential – for me the big thing was that I could tell people I was writing for the CA! The largest print publication in town! I’d hit the big time. After a couple of years of blogging, I thought, I’d gone legit.
So, for most of 2006, I took my laptop to Sleep Out Louie’s every Sunday, sifted through the ads, and posted a deal. Meanwhile, I continued to write my personal blog, the one you’re reading now, as my own project.
As the year went on, the Deals became just another thing I had to get done on Sunday, and the glamour of writing for a big, important media corporation kind of wore off. On the other hand, I was having a lot of fun writing this blog. My readership went from about 100 a day at the beginning of 2006 to 600-700 by the end of the year (and almost none of it was referral traffic from Deal of the Week). I found out that the Flyer was reading my blog for story ideas. I found out that people at the Center City Commission read my blog. When I complained about crime Downtown, people listened and things eventually got done. This blog started showing up very high in Google results for searches on many Downtown businesses. I placed in the Flyer’s Best of Memphis poll for the first time that year, for this blog, not Deal of the Week. I found that I had a voice, and it was my voice, not my identity as a writer for someone else.
In December 2006 I notified the CA that I was quitting. I didn’t need it anymore.
Why am I bringing this up now?
In the past couple of months, I’ve found some very good Twitter accounts to follow. They’ve tweeted stuff going on in Memphis that would have otherwise missed my radar. Through their retweets I found even more good Twitter accounts. I really benefited, both in terms of stuff to do personally and for content on my blog, for having followed them.
Last night I met the owner of one of those accounts, and found out that her tweets had actually been an audition, sort of an online job interview. The CA had told her, and several others, to tweet for a month, and if the CA liked what it saw, they’d be hired.
The person I talked to last night ended up not getting the job. However, it does not change the fact that she was tweeting EXCELLENT stuff. I want to encourage her, and others like her, to keep it going. Build your own brand and don’t worry about the CA. You’re building an identity. You’re building an asset. It’s frustrating sometimes that it’s not an asset convertible to a full-time paycheck, but it’s still an asset that will benefit you in unknown ways down the road.
Besides, there are a lot of advantages to being independent. I don’t have to get my work approved by a copy editor. If a local business screws up, I can rant on them without being worried about offending an advertiser. I can post sidebar links to my Amazon stores, which are starting to make a significant bit of money. I don’t drop the f-bomb much on this blog anymore, but when I feel it’s necessary I can and I will. I can devote an entire month of posts to the subject of tube tops. I can help a local ad agency create a buzz about a fake bath house supposedly to be located Downtown. 
So, in summary, to those Twitterers to whom I’m referring: Keep it up. Don’t give up just because you didn’t get the job you were trying for. You’ve built a valuable asset. Keep going. Keep adding value, and unexpected opportunities will come your way.