It is not so easy to start a blog and actually focus on one single topic. Especially when feeling that your head spins with all of those so important topics that you could (but never will have the time to) cover. So, I have been meditating on opening a personal, yet interesting (for some) blog for some time. Until now, only my dog Pacco has been really serious about blogging. And this is more a matter of posting photos once a week with some cute comments. I know that lots of people read the blog, if you define lots of people as the extended part of my family, some friends and some colleagues, but I rarely do any research for the posts, nor are there any thoughtful opinions recorded. Though the photos are cute 😉

So then I bumped into Penelope Trumps blog and, most importantly, into her quick guide on how to start a blog. And perhaps most importantly, on how to keep on blogging, instead of trailing off after the first three posts. For Penelope there are several tricks how you can help yourself committing to regular and high-quality blogging, the most important once doing it under your real name and choosing a topic that really interests you (and which can develop or change anyway. Nothing is static in life. Not even a blog, I guess).

So these will be my personal tricks:

1. I am using my real-life name for this blog. Yes, my name is really Valentina. And yes, this might make it possible in the future to find my blog when googling my name. As I am working in online marketing this might be an interesting feature. After all, I will be blogging about myself and my work, so potential recruiters or partners might want to read some relevant stuff about me, apart from my little essay about living in Ecuador as an YFU-exchange student in 1998/1999 or my appearance on a Brazilian Conference on Gender.
2. I love the field I am working in, combining online with analyzing stats and optimizing inventory. I love how quickly things evolve at my current employer Aedgency. But I also know that some day I will move on. So this blog is also a good medium to stay in touch with what is happening online and to be taken serious in the business (as opposed to Rebecca Lieb’s Online Marketing Carpetbaggers).

As for the frequency, of course I would love to blog daily. But I know myself. I would also like to go to the gym daily. But it is more realistic to aim at going three times a week, because otherwise I would abandon the endeavor on the second day of not going. So stay tuned for a three times a week update, whoever ends up seeing this blog.

• motivation