Every day you hear about how companies are integrating blogs or how this tech person has started a new blog. But, it’s when you hear the success stores of those that you’d never thoguht about that you really realize, anyone can blog; professionally.
Yesterday at the 2006 Mima Summit, Michelle Collins of VH1 gave the afternoon keynote presentation and it was hilarious. Michelle now works for VH1’s Best Week Ever and blogs for a living. She covers the important stuff like how Full House really screwed up their actors and all the Hollywood hook-up/break-up news. Sounds like a rough job doesn’t it? However, it wasn’t all success for Michelle Collins.
She graduated collage with an Art History degree and moved to New York to do….. well…. anything. She didn’t quite like the professional scene yet her comedy wasn’t getting her very far either. So she started her You Can’t Make It Up blog where she wrote about whatever is on her mind. Turns out, she started getting noticed. Her posting of a cat going to the bathroom on a toilet got mentioned at the Emmys this year and her post about how New York City smelled like maple syrup got her a call from the Daily Show and in NY Newsday! Eventually when VH1 was looking for a new blogger. She fit the bill perfectly and is now blogging professionally.
So how did she do it? Being unique, funny and not worrying about what she wrote helped. She’s real, her posts are not made up and her odd remedy for success has really paid off.
It really goes to show that you don’t need a journalist background to be a successful blogger. Blogging doesn’t need to be corporate either, it can be fun and wild. And, you can make a living doing what you love; like making fun of celebrities! The only thing you really need, is the dedication to keep going and the ability to put your thoughts down on virtual paper.
Congrats Michelle Collins, your success story is perfect for all those collage grads with no clue what to do in life, but they know they don’t feel like going to work. 🙂
