Savor the Success - Business Network for women entrepreneurs

Way back in August, when I first started blogging, a friend told me about Penelope Trunk. "She mostly blogs about career stuff, but she also writes about her personal life. She's my favorite blogger. You should check her out."


I did. At first, I wasn't impressed, but that was mostly because the initial blogs I read were 100 percent Penelope's bread and butter: career advice. I feel like I should make one of those top 10 lists that says, "You know you've made it when..." Because one of my answers would be, "You no longer give a hoot about career advice."


Yet, I trusted my friend so I kept reading. I even subscribed by email. Soon, Penelope started writing about her life. Yes, career advice was sort of woven through it all. She would start talking about this farmer she was dating-or no longer dating depending on the blog-and she would finish by saying how she pulled herself together to attend a networking function, but she really just wanted to sit in her hotel room and cry.


Been there, not necessarily for the same reasons, but so been there.


So now I'm hooked. I not only read her stuff, I study her. She probably has this creepy sensation on the back of her neck whenever she reads one of my comments on her blog because, truth be told, I want to be her. I am so totally trying to emulate this woman--and I'm not trying to hide it.


She has 26,000 subscribers? I want 26,000 subscribers. She syndicates her blog content? I want to do that! She somehow writes about sex in the same sentence she writes about a board meeting? Love it! I can do that! She has brown hair? So do I! She's a mom? Yes, me, too.


You see?


Years ago, when I was immersed in yoga culture, my yoga friends used to talk about their gurus. I once asked one such yoga friend, "How did you know that she was your guru?" My friend said, "I just knew. When you find your guru, you will know."


I think Penelope Trunk is my guru. As my guru, she's already taught me:


1)    Stop worrying so much about marketing. If I consistently put out good content, the traffic will come.


2)    Link to other people's blogs in my blog. It builds good blog karma and makes people like me. More important, it creates a conversation, and conversation is good.


3)     It's okay to go off topic every once in a while.

This is all on her website, by the way, under the heading: Penelope's Guide to Starting a Blog.


In addition to Penelope, I'm also following these bloggers. Here's why:


Suzanne Franco's Money Making Ideas: She's a mom and a business owner, and she tells me everything about marketing that Penelope tells me I don't need to worry about.


Daily Blog Tips: It still amazes me that there's a market for blogs about blogging. It just does. This one is done by Daniel Scocco and it's one of the best I've found. Not a day goes by that I don't learn something from this blog. I highly recommend it for ALL bloggers. Scocco is one of the few male old school bloggers who don't come off as incredibly sexist. (Believe me, if you've been reading tech blogs for a while, then you know ALL ABOUT what I'm talking about. There are many male bloggers who are incredibly threatened by the influx of women bloggers to the ‘net. Just saying.) He's also currently running a blogging idol competition that is really cool.


Blogging Tips: This is another good blog about blogging.


TwiTip: This is Darren Rose's blog about how to use Twitter. I honestly didn't think there was enough material for someone to blog about Twitter, but Darren has so proven me wrong. Darren also runs ProBlogger , which is a pretty good blog about blogging.


Yoast wordpress: This is pretty much over my head. He lists all of the new cool Wordpress plug ins. So I skim through and if I think I want one, I talk to a tech guy about it.

Who are you reading on the Internet and why?

Alisa Bowman

www.projecthappilyeverafter.com