In Which I Became a Professional Blogger for CNET – “Tech of All Trades”
After more than a decade of managing the IT Operations for several small businesses in Southern California, I felt the urge to write about my experiences. I started a blog I called, Adventures of an IT Manager, a sometimes whimsical look at IT Management. After a few months, I was contacted by the editors of Tech Republic, a part of CNET Networks and asked to write a regular column entitled, “Tech of All Trades.”
Writing About my Work
For six months I managed the growing IT operations of a large private air carrier at the Hollywood Burbank airport by day and wrote about my work experiences at night and on the weekends. Because we ran a lean staff and outsourced much of the heavy lifting, I wrote about a variety of subjects that reflected best practices of implementing IT. Thus, I was a “Tech of All Trades,” wearing multiple hats of help desk, network admin, security.
The focus was small business environment tech security, Active Directory, Exchange, Internet access and more. Feedback for my peers consumed so much of my time, I had to curtail my writing activities to twice a week, then withdrew from the open-ended deal when things became too hectic with new work projects. It was a sweet gig while it lasted.
My Introduction to WordPress
2008 was my introduction to WordPress and my experience as a paid blogger. I could hardly believe CNET was willing to pay me to write about my daily work activities, which I was already doing on my own blog. This was my first introduction to a huge readership and the resultant feedback of dozens of comments on each post, which took time to monitor.
I had to develop a thick skin about my writing. Well, not so much my style, but my content. The IT world is full of Prima Donnas who want to prove they can do things better than you or anybody else. If you don’t care for criticism, don’t be a blogger, or at least don’t open your blog up for comments. But then, that’s the fun of blogging – the people interaction.
