Thursday, November 4, 2010

ON BLOGGING ~ Give Your Dreams A Landing Page...

Venn Diagram - Dream Job

Image courtesy jongalloway via Flickr

Every now and then, a fellow blogger will lament their lack of a career in writing, or reviewing or photography. The dream to one day have their wares bought eagerly through online orders. I join them in their desires. But there's one thing you can do to take a baby step towards that dream. And today's blogging platforms make it even easier than before to implement.

What you need to do is have a dedicated page for your dream. A page where you list your ability, your guidelines, your rates and your contact information. In a professional manner. Because few people take you seriously if you don't present yourself that way to them.

If ever you are out and about networking, online or in person, and someone finds it interesting that you would love to write/review/photograph/craft something just to fit their needs, you could give them the link to your dream's page. This shows them you have a presence, a commitment and even possibly, a following - via the rest of your blog. It may even happen that someone you already know through your blogging efforts would happily hire you or connect you to someone that would if only they knew about your talents. Having that dedicated page helps them to discover this side of you.

You already have a fun/personal About Page most likely. Or a page of your blog's guidelines. Create a page like that to highlight that dream of whatever it is you want to do and list the things you have already done that inspired you to believe that is what you want to do for real.

You can also set up a profile on LinkedIn targeting the specific field you hope to enter some day. It is a networking site that I am becoming more and more intrigued by. Networking without all the time suck games and mindless blasts of information to weed through.

Joining networking sites can help target your dreams. Using your already lovingly created home in the blogosphere is an easy way to put your dreams out there too. It doesn't mean people will magically flock to your page. But it is there as a tool for you to use when you need it. And you will need it. Because putting yourself out there like that is the first baby step towards trying to make that dream a reality some day. And you may just find that it inspires you into action.

3 comments:

LJ said...

I have a Linkedin account, but haven't really found a useful reason to have it (I think my husband invited me). So I rarely go there. The chart you posted is a good visual of our lives. However, I don't think I have a 'dream job' or will ever have my dream job. Its not that I don't have goals (because I don't). It's because I don't know how to dream in the real world.

Penny said...

Very rad! Love this post :)

Gwen@ChewDigestBooks.com said...

Great post. If you don't get yourself out there and tell people what you want to do, how in the world are they going to know or find you?

I got both my writing job and my social media director position because I was out there not only practicing my mad skillz, but because I had a portfolio of sorts to show businesses just what I could do.

The social media thing was something that I actually took on for nothing to learn/put it on my resume and it worked well enough that now they pay me! Woot!