One of the astonishing things about blogging is the
transformation that can occur as the result of hitting a sweet spot in our
culture. There are great examples of
people who set out to blog about life and end up with a major web presence and
a booming business on their hands – and truly fabulous examples of getting paid
for doing what you love!
One of my favorite examples is Ree Drummond and her blog,
The Pioneer Woman. I love this example because it allows me to channel my inner
cowgirl. Ree probably started out pretty basic, blogging about her life on the
range, homeschooling her kids, photographing her beautiful surroundings,
cooking her favorite dishes. Somewhere between there and her gold mine of a
business, run out of her state-of-the-art kitchen, she acquired over 380,000
Facebook fans. She now oversees a multimillion-dollar cookbook, talk-show
circuit, Food Network show, home décor, endorsement business - all doing what
she loves. I don’t think she has to hitch up the team to ride in to town with
Pa any more.
Another great example is Blogpire. To summarize the journey:
A coffee drinker thinks the little single serve coffee cups made by Keurig are an
interesting development and guesses that others find them interesting too. So
he blogs about them – their usefulness; their flavors; the machines that brew
then; how they impact life; how they need to be more environmentally friendly. Quickly,
he strikes a chord in the coffee-drinking world and thousands find his blog and
comment about this new caffeinated phenomenon. Next thing he knows, Green
Mountain Coffee Roasters wants to advertise on his blog and pay him a small handful of coins every
time a visitor to his blog clicks the Green Mountain ad. Other advertisers come
knocking and he finds himself earning five figures from his blog traffic! He
has the genius to repeat the process in other consumer goods and creates
Blogpire Productions, a directory of blogs that grow into a robust business.
People are finding their voice through blogging. Lisa Stone
of Blogher will attest to the fact that women, in particular, are a big part of
this blogging population. In our
inherent need to share, we provide and derive benefit from explaining our life,
our talents or our solutions to problems. And blogging is the perfect tool for
finding the audience that cares.
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