Wow what a year it has been. My blog has just turned one, I have won a DANI accolade (highly commended Lifestyle blog) and I’m currently sitting in the sunshine of Lanzarote drafting this post (although I’m sure it will not be posted till after I return as my internet connection is shocking).

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The Blog Life

As my blog turns one this month, I thought I would give you all a little background. I didn’t start blogging because I wanted to write, I wanted freebies or as an escape. I started blogging because I was working in the entertainment field and a friend asked my to help out on his blog. He was being inundated with invites and needed a hand to cover everything he wanted to. After a few cocktails and with a degree in Drama and English with Film (modules) I thought this was a great idea. And so my weekly guest blogs on the popular NIGossipguy website had been launched.

Two years later I had made friends with a bunch of fabulous NI bloggers and I gotten used to the extra workload. Yes, I said WORKLOAD being able to attend events, write reviews/blogs and all the admin actually takes a lot of time but in my eyes it is worth it.

Anyway after an amazing trip to LA and Coachella I decided I had outgrown my NIgossipguy home and I wanted to start my own blog (blogging is addictive) so emerdblog.com was born as they say the rest is history. This blog has enabled me to be more creative, meet some fantastic people and more importantly it has helped me fine tune my digital marketing skills.

How blogging has helped my career..

If you have read my other blog posts in this series you will know that this is the year I was made redundant but this is also the year that I have started to stretch my legs in my freelance life. I have worked the past three years part-time in PR/marketing and social media management but now I’ve gone full-time!!

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I have had some fantastic opportunities over the last couple of months. Working with my favourite theatre companies, working on an Arts council conference and even working with the Belfast Fashion Week team (which was an eye-opener! I didn’t realise there was so much work putting on a seasonal fashion show my hat goes off to boss Cathy Martin.)

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I have been approached by various PR agencies/Event management teams to work freelance on lots of different projects. Everything is going in a positive direction. I’m making my own hours and working on interesting diverse subjects. But yet I still have that doubt of where does my next pay check come from, is that the self-employed life and will  I be come comfortable with this?  At the moment these are  still questions I have in the ether but I’m hoping I will be able to answer them in the near future? Watch this space.

I would love to hear from you if you have been through the same experiences as me in this series been made redundant? Took the leap and went self-employed? Let me know.

Emer D xx