This month marks my one-year anniversary of serious blogging.
Along the way, I’ve maintained it’s been a huge “career” boost for me. Through that blog, I’ve been able to go from a virtual no-name in my field to at least being on the radars of those at the top of it.
My blog has given me personal “brand” exposure I never would have had. Through it, I’ve been quoted and featured in newspaper stories in our state’s largest newspaper and been asked to teach two seminars (one more on Monday) on the subjects I cover.
But those are just the big highlights. There are numerous other benefits I’ve enjoyed as well because I choose to pour my thoughts, ideas and energy into a blog.
Liz Strauss of Successful-Blog made this quote which I think is especially relevant to what I’m talking about here … actually, she does a better job of giving one of the prime benefits of having a personal blog aimed at your career field or industry niche:
“I have a 1600-page resume on the Internet that says I am a marketing person. So, that’s what my blog does for me.”
So for this post, I went to my blog and checked to see how many posts I had written (give or take some for guest bloggers) and I found that I’ve got well over 600 posts on it.
So my blog is MY 600-page resume.
- It’s also 600-plus reasons why I could be asked to talk about my subject field. (I was asked to teach those seminars based on the two main blog series I’ve done).
- Check out the links I’ve received from other blogs and sites and to me, those count as recommendations of me and my thoughts and ideas. (I can feel the impact of those links when people tell me they’ve seen my site link on other blogs they read.)
- With my list of 900-plus subscribers to my email newsletter, you can see how I’ve got a built-in audience for my field.
- My site stats tell me that between 50-60% of my site guests find me and my topics through Google alone (Would they have found me otherwise? Probably not.)
I’m not telling you all this to toot my own horn … I’m trying to make a case for why … if you’d like to get some more exposure in your career or field … you should start a blog resume today.
See also how Penelope says blogs are the new business cards.
Hi Cory,
I arrived here via good friend, Randa Clay.
That’s a great analogy for your blog content, calling it your resumé. 600 posts in a year is some feat! Good job on the consistency.
I started last October (when I really had no idea what I was doing) and have just over 200 pages now.
May you have every success in the following year!
Thanks, David … I tell those coming out of college that if you want to blog your way to career stardom to start a blog.
For around $50 a year (cost of having your own blog), it’s so much better than some fancy-smanchy resume paper!