Over three weeks ago, I quit the day job. I wanted to give you a quick update on what I’m doing. During the first two weeks of self-employment, I had to prepare for two speaking engagements. One was for monetary compensation, but both paid in Christian fellowship, personal and professional contacts, and confirmation that risk-taking and adventure-seeking are worth the effort. Blogging has become a big part of my professional and personal life, and it’s a blessing to be paid to talk about something I enjoy.
Two days after returning from BlogNashville, I began clocking blog consulting hours. I consult for someone who helps business owners build better web sites and improve marketing strategies. One of the ways to do this is through the implementation of blogs. Business blogging is all the rage now.
I’m also doing some editing work at home, and believe it or not, I’m still not finished with the business web site. The blog consulting gig was an unexpected venture that’s turning out to be a very smart move, and I anticipate it will eventfully take up most of my time when I’m not blogging.
By now I’m sure some of you have noticed that MSNBC’s Connected Coast to Coast has changed its blog round-up format. It seems the “blogger reporter” experiment is over. A producer usually does the segment, but sometimes a blogger will do it. My guess is that rounding up bloggers from across the country to whisk to local studios turned out to be too taxing and not worth the effort. Most bloggers are regular people with day jobs, and the nature of the cable news business is last minute appearances. It was probably too much of a hassle for most bloggers to get time off from work to prepare for a 90-second segment.
Preparing for a segment typically takes up a whole day: finding topics, selecting blogs, discussing the selections with producers, getting ready for the segment, traveling to the studio, going to make-up and…waiting…finally appearing before the camera for 90-seconds to zip through three topics and six blogs. Then you go home. It was…an interesting experience, and I’m glad I did it.
I’ve notice under the new format that bloggers appear as guests to talk about one topic. I think that’s a much better idea. I was asked to appear last week to talk about the John Bolton nomination, but I declined because I wasn’t following the story and have little interest in it.
Sometimes it’s hard to believe I was once so excited about appearing on MSNBC, yet treat it so casually now. But I do hope they call again because I prefer the interview format to the blog round-up, and I’d like to go on occasionally to talk about a really controversial topic.
That’s what’s going on with me. Now I have to “go to work.” Thanks for listening.
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Unrelated Addendum: Although I’m not fond of the Washington Post, I always get a kick out of seeing my name in its pages, on- and off-line.
