Bonjour, Blogger! : Mel

Name: Mel Kirk
Location: Surrey/London/Bristol
Blog: randommel.com

What is your blog about? My blog is the home of my weekly videos, which are observations on daily life. Up until now, it’s contained a lot of my dating disasters. Then I got a boyfriend and well quite frankly continuing dates as inspiration for my blog didn’t wash. Not it’s about my general geekery.

Is this your first blog? Yes. Because the blog is about me, my thoughts, daily life etc it’s evolved with age. Therefore it looks nothing like it did when I began but looking back, I think that’s a good thing. I cringe when I go back through the archives.

When did you start your current blog? I started my current blog in 2006. I think I still had dial-up at the time. I miss that funny bleeping.

What made you do it? I lied at an interview when they asked whether I could blog. I then went home, Googled blogging and started it then to teach myself.

What was your first post about? Car bopping…. Don’t even ask. I really should delete it!

What do you think is the most useful tool to you as a blogger? Definitely iMovie. I’m pretty geeky and can find my way around most publishing platforms, but without iMovie, I’d be stuck with making my videos. It’s just so easy to record and edit and provides pretty good quality without the expense of a camera. Plus you can see how awful you look doing it at the time, which is always a bonus.

Do people in your real life know about your blog? Yes. Too many. Friends tend to spread the word which is always great for the embarrassment factor when you meet people for the first time. Also not great when I was dating and they’ve googled you and found out how many awful dates you’ve written about in the past shuffles feet.

If yes, has your blog helped you career wise? I wouldn’t be where I was today if it wasn’t for my blog. In the last 5 years, it’s got me every job that I’ve ever had including a job in a large London agency working with bloggers for brands. I now run my own company called Tribal Media which helps brands to understand the value of bloggers and conceptualise and execute blogger campaigns.

Being a blogger definitely gives me more gravitas both when talking to clients and bloggers as they know that I live and breath it and understand what is actually valuable to bloggers (btw this definitely isn’t providing them with exposure!).

Has there been one thing that you’ve been proud of? Bloggers and brands getting in touch with me wanting to work with me. Don’t get me wrong as a business, it’s always great when a brand has been given your name as a referral but there’s something even more special when it’s a blogger as it shows you’re really doing a good job.

Where do you see your blog in a year? Hopefully in better form than it currently is. Having set up Tribal, I’ve been a bit slack on the consistency of the blog as I’ve been super busy and I’d like to put that right.

What do you wish you knew when you started your blog? The commitment that I was making – posting on the same day of every week takes a whole lot of discipline and you can’t just decide that you look tired and so won’t shoot this week. I get emails whenever I miss a week, so it does feel like quite a big responsibility.

What do you wish you know about now? How to be funnier. Trying to be funny week on week is exhausting for someone boring like me ;)

How do you keep motivated to post? The thought of no longer being a blogger really scares me and keeps me going. Being a blogger is a massive part of my identity and I think I’d feel less fulfilled if I was no longer doing it.

Anything else that you’d like to add? My advice to bloggers starting out is to think about the content that you’re putting up – it will live online forever. One of my first posts was about fishy armpits… not as bad as it sounds, I’d been stood in a marina and was tying my hair up and a fisherman planted his hook in my arm when he cast his rod. To this day it’s one of the first search results that comes up when you search for me and it’s amazing how many people find me using the related search terms every day. People are weird.