Blogging has brought me a great number of benefits, I’ve met great people, travelled across the globe, got onto the radio and in the newspapers and has generally been a good thing.
But I want more…
Below is a wish list of things I have been thinking about recently, if you want to help out with any of it, I’m very easy to contact. Some of this is going to happen, some is ego-stroking, and some is completely out of the question.
But if you don’t ask…you don’t get…
- Start Podcasting – Actually this is an easy one and will start soon, I have the infrastructure in place, I just need to create the actual podcast. Why do I want to do this? Well, this blog started just because I want to play with the technology – so this is a natural progression.
- Get paid – You know what would be nice? If the LAS paid me to blog, £1, or even a penny, a year. Then I could put “professional blogger” on my business card.
- Start a Web-comic – I have no artistic skills at all, so while I think I could write a web-comic, I sure as hell know that I couldn’t draw one. Any artists out there able to draw to a script? The format is negotiable but I’m thinking something like Megatokyo or Questionable Content. (an ongoing story split into stand alone strips).
- Use my powers for good – Could I leverage the people who read this blog into donating for charity? More likely, could I persuade you to sponsor me to do something daft or potentially life-threatening for charity? Imagine if everyone of my 7,000+ readers donated £1 ($2) – think what that could get a deserving charity. It’d make an interesting post…
- Write the Book of the Website – I’ve been thinking about this for ages, but I haven’t had the motivation to strip the text from the site and turn it into something book-like. Am I able to write to such a different format? How would I transform the text here into something new and interesting? Even if no publisher wants to look at it, self publishing isn’t that high risk an option these days.
- Get more employees blogging online– I’d like my “How to blog without losing your job” out to more people – then we could get more employee orientated blogs. I don’t know about you, but I love reading about other peoples jobs.
- Expand The Brand – I’ve been thinking about starting another blog for material that doesn’t really fit the ambulance theme of this site. I’ve got a couple of ideas, but need the motivation to do this. Well…motivation and time.
- Find a way to make money from this blog – GoogleAds? Paypal Donation? Merchandise? Why do I want to make money? Because I’m greedy and money is good. But don’t worry, nothing will change the content of this blog. (And I don’t think I could get away with doing this).
- Newspaper column – I’m not talking about anything ‘National’ here (although that would be nice), but a weekly piece in a local paper, about the ambulance side, or from the blogging side of my experiences. Wouldn’t you be interested in reading about local health concerns in your weekly newspaper? Or is there a paper out there who needs an Internet maven?
- Do something ‘Creative’ – Something fun that doesn’t necessarily have much to do with writing. Video, film, music – even writing about them would be a good thing to do. Is there something other than traditional ‘media’ that I could do? It’s a fairly nebulous feeling I have about this. Coupled with a lack of talent, this is a hard one to be concrete about.
- Get somewhere nice to live – The council are moving me to another flat, so far it’s looking like I’ll end up moving to a smaller place in a worse location. Any millionaires out there want to give me £200,000 so I can buy a place?
- TV – Any TV producers want to interview me about blogging, ambulancing, or blogging about work? I know I’m not that pretty, but I think I could pull it off.
- Talking – Anyone running a conference where a blogging ambulance bloke could do a presentation? Do you need someone who knows all about getting your employee blog accepted by your workplace? It’d be an excuse to use the ‘talk in front of a load of easily bored people’ skills that I learned when I was teaching 9 year old children. Preferably a conference somewhere warm – like Florida. I’d need my travel expenses paid though.
- A.N.Other – Anything interesting that you think I should/could be doing? Try and keep it clean…
I think that the above list is enough begging for one day.
I agree with the earlier poster who mentioned thehungersite.com; there are several sites associated with it like theanimalrescuesite.com, and other causes like literacy, the rainforest, etc.Why not write a book? I'd do it in a second myself but unfortunately I'm in the middle of a career change so there isn't too much that's interesting enough to write about .
~M
germbox.blogspot.com
You are a talented person (presumably a guy) and it is not surprising that you look for new opportunities to progress with what you have already achieved and to explore new potentialities (if that is a word). Perhaps you could brand your blog and create in that brand other people writing about other interesting professions. We spend so much time at work (well, I don't) and our employment is such an important influence on our perspectives on the world in which we occupy space and also our internal sense of identity, including cause and resolution of internal conflicts such as status anxiety and financial insecurity. I am not pretending to know anything very much about it but I am sure someone of your ability could explore themes such as this in your own profession and others, brand it and create a package for display through writing, radio, drama, it could be any media. Don't stop your blog though, it is good to read. Henry
“Use my powers for good” – how about adding a couple of 'click to donate' buttons to your page, like http://www.thehungersite.com/ or http://www.aquaplastics.org/
I like all of those ideas. it seems to me that expanding the brand is the one that is in your own hands. I think also the how to blog without losing your job could be good too. I felt as if I was walking on eggshells when I was doing Trust me i'm a civil servant, whilst I was wiht the Prince's Trust.It could be that I just need a whole new secret identity somewhere other than blogger to amke it work for me.
Comic Life lets you make cartoons out of digital photos very easily.Kevin Marks
You could probably get “How to blog without losing your job” out to more people by making it into a manifesto for Change This.
Fall in love. Seriously, it works.
It's not so much an job as a role, but I do a blog about being a school governor: http://governortales.blogspot.com/ The blogs that I find the most interesting are employee blogs, long may they continue!
Im thinking about starting a video blog, although im not sure how this would work with you. Probably just sitting in your car, videoing yourself chatting about a case, rather than sticking it infront of your patients.Of course this would mean getting a camera and relevant software for editing, and having the time for editing and whatever. It might be interesting to do a demo.
Look at videoblogging.info if you are interested anyway.
Being an independent producer I have often thought that you would make a good 'subject' for a documentary. I didn't approach you as I know you are concerned about your identity, where you work and of course, the confidentiality of the patients you deal with. But – anything is possible….!On another tack – what about starting a website like workblog.com (?) where people who work can write about what they do etc etc under the remit of your 'how to' guidleines? A sort of one-stop shop for at work bloggers.
Perhaps you could offer yourself up as a weekly or monthly columnist on The London Line. I think your writing would be perfect for such a paper; it would give loads of people an insight into the work that an EMT does, plus it would make them laugh – a great combination!I reckon it's worth approaching them directly – point them in the direction of your blog – they'd be up for it I'm sure.
If you get a column it would mean you would gain new readers, advertise some charities, and also get paid – a win/win/win situation.
Go for it mate. Good luck.
Girl
The Julie/Julia Project writer got a book deal out of her blog and is an occasional writer for Bon Appetit so it can be done. I think your writings are every bit as interesting as hers.http://blogs.salon.com/0001399/
BlogBinders.comI just saw an ad for this site and thought of you.
You've got the traffic you'd need to advertise a book. Future blogs can be written in word then pasted into the blog prog to avoid having to strip them out later. There's plenty of printers/publishers doing small print runs. Try the family history ads. Beware of Publish On Demand/POD deals that sound great. Most of the rip-off merchants operate there apparently. Dunno about prices up there by I'm guestimating you'd lose 1,000 – 2,000 pounds if you didn't sell any copies.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/18/technology/18blog.html?When the Blogger Blogs, Can the Employer Intervene?
By TOM ZELLER Jr.
Published: April 18, 2005
There are about 10 million blogs out there, give or take, including one belonging to Niall Kennedy, an employee at Technorati, a small San Francisco-based company that, yes, tracks blogs.
Like many employees at many companies, Mr. Kennedy has opinions, even when he is not working. One evening last month, he channeled one of those off-duty opinions into a satiric bit of artwork – an appropriation of a “loose lips sink ships” World War II-era propaganda poster altered to provide a harsh comment on the growing fears among corporations over the blogging activities of their employees. He then posted it on his personal Web log.
But in a paradoxical turn, Mr. Kennedy's employer, having received some complaints about the artwork, stepped in and asked him to reconsider the posting and Mr. Kennedy complied, taking the image down.
“The past day has been a huge wake-up call,” Mr. Kennedy wrote soon afterward. “I see now that the voice of a company is not limited to top-level executives, vice presidents and public relations officers.”
As the practice of blogging has spread, employees like Mr. Kennedy are coming to the realization that corporations, which spend millions of dollars protecting their brands, are under no particular obligation to tolerate threats, real or perceived, from the activities of people who become identified with those brands, even if it is on their personal Web sites.
They are also learning that the law offers no special protections for blogging – certainly no more than for any other off-duty activity.
As Annalee Newitz, a policy analyst with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights advocacy group in Washington, put it, “What we found is there really is quite a bit of diversity in how employers are responding to blogging.”
A rising tide of employees have recently been reprimanded or let go for running afoul of their employers' taste or temperament on personal blogs, including a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines who learned the hard way that the carrier frowns on cheeky photos while in uniform and a Google employee who mused on the company's financial condition and was fired.
Some interpreted these actions as meaning that even in their living rooms, even in their private basement computer caves, employees are required to be at least a little bit worried about losing their jobs if they write or post the wrong thing on their personal Web logs.
“I would have expected that some of the louder, more strident voices on the Internet would have risen up in a frenzy over this,” said Stowe Boyd, the president of Corante, a daily online news digest on the technology sector. “But that didn't happen.”
In Mr. Boyd's opinion, everything about what Mr. Kennedy did was protected speech. The use of trademarks was fair use in a satirical work, Mr. Boyd said, and it seemed unlikely that the company would be somehow liable for the off-duty actions of an employee, as Technorati executives argued. It was, in Mr. Boyd's eyes, an indication that corporate interests were eclipsing individual rights.
“I don't know what else to say,” he declared. “I'm astonished.”
But Ms. Newitz and others have cautioned that employees must be careful not to confuse freedom of speech with a freedom from consequences that might follow from what they say. Indeed, the vast majority of states are considered “at will” states – meaning that employees can quit, and employers can fire them, at will – without evident reason (barring statutory exceptions like race or religion, where discrimination would have to be proved).
“There really are no laws that protect you,” Ms. Newitz said.
Martin H. Malin, a professor of law and director of the Institute for Law and the Workplace at the Chicago-Kent College of Law, said there were only a few exceptions.
“It depends on what the blog is,” he said, “what the content is, and whether there's any contractual protection for the employee.”
Those who work for the United States Postal Service, for instance, or a local sanitation department may have some special blogging privileges. That is because, depending on the circumstances, the online speech of public employees can be considered “of public concern,” and enjoys a measure of protection, Professor Malin explained.
– article continues; see website
I will donate money if you do something good and stupid for it.
I think you should go for them all. They are all achievable and if dont with the proper percautions, you have nothing to lose.
I can't see me stopping this blog anytime soon. Don't worry – it's just too much fun.
Ahhh…but is there a Windows version? Suw suggested the same software, and she forgot I don't own a Mac as well.
Now that is a great idea.
Good article – thanks for drawing my attention to it.
Easier said than done, don't you think?Especially with shift work.
I did think of it, but I've only got a smartphone camera, which isn't that great.Also, I'm not that pretty…
Well…drop me an email and we can have a chat about it…(I love stroking my own ego…)And as for workblog.com … There's an idea…
I think I'll do that – let me have a think about it…Could be interesting, although writing for a 'real' publication is very diferent to blogging
(or so I have been told by a writer I respect).
I enjoy your blog, keep up the interesting posts.My father writes a blog and published it as a book.
http://grumpyoldbookman.blogspot.com/
“Publish on demand” is not too dificult to do if you
prepare the manuscript yourself. But as you say it all takes
time.
Ah pie in the sky, yummy.
Write the Book of the WebsiteYeah, good idea. Be careful to get an editor and some advice about writing the damn thing though. The only other book of the blog I've seen has been belle du jour, but that alleged author is already a published novelist.
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Interesting to be reading this on 15th September 2006, Tom!. . . and having just finished your book and seen you on TV . . .
. . . getting there!