Are you looking for some blogging inspiration? If so, you’ve come to the right place! Enjoy these stories of amazing opportunities that have come to bloggers as a result of their blogging efforts.
The day before the Seahawks/Panthers play-off game, I shared a post I’d written called “12th Man Mom: How the 
Seahawks are Making Me a Better Parent.” Thinking people who follow head coach Pete Carroll might enjoy it, I tagged him when I shared it on Twitter. A few hours later, I got an e-mail from the Seahawks Special Assistant to the Head Coach saying that Coach Carroll had read my post, that he greatly enjoyed it, and wanted to speak to me on the phone. I responded with my phone number, and within five minutes my phone was ringing! I spoke with Coach Carroll about parenting, coaching, my post, and about his Win Forever mindset training program. He offered to share my post on his Twitter account (Um, yes please!). Then he said he was going to have his partner at the Win Forever organization contact me to talk about a collaboration. And he did! I’m currently in discussions with them about writing some kind of material to help them get their philosophy out to families. I’ve never cared for Twitter, to be honest, but tweeting that post and tagging Pete Carroll was the best thing I’ve ever done!
– Annie Reneau of Motherhood and More (Follow on Facebook & Twitter)
In 2008 I wrote biweekly essays for Running Times Magazine’s website about running in Djibouti, a small Muslim country in the Horn of Africa. Five years later Runner’s World magazine and Saucony shoe company were sponsoring a documentary about the transformative power of running. The filmmaker, Brian Vernor, hunted for a story about girls running in the Muslim world and someone in the editorial offices remembered my column. Between that writing stint and 2013, I had started Djibouti’s only all-girls running club, Girls Run 2, and in June a crew came to Djibouti and filmed our team. The movie premiered, featuring this team, in New York City in October, 2013.
– Rachel Pieh Jones of Djibouti Jones (Follow on: Facebook &Twitter)
A few years ago, I submitted to a regional blog called, Triad Moms on Main. I quickly built a rapport with them and submitted pieces regularly. One such post listed the toys retailers were predicting to be most popular during Christmas of 2012. When TMOM ran my post, a local newscaster saw it and contacted me to ask if I would come on air to talk about the toys for her regular Mommy Matters segment during the morning news program . I have done the same Chirstmas toy post and gone on air with her for three years in a row now. She also interviewed me on air when I was published in The Mother of All Meltdowns.
– Lisa Witherspoon of The Golden Spoons (Follow on: Facebook & Pinterest)
Submitting to external sites means more than just a post. I tweet, share and tag many relevant people, sites, and organizations. On body image posts, I tweet eating disorder and body image experts. My body image post for The Change Blog was recently named best article of the week by The Personal Development Training Center. For posts on parenting boys, I market to men’s groups, parenting sites, and others. As a result of a Mom Babble post I shared on the Good Men Project’s Facebook page, I now have a weekly column at Good Men Project and a possible editorial role. My post on Raising Compassionate Boys on their site is at over 40,000 views. From there, an author and forensic psychologist with expertise on men and empathy requested an interview and article, and, the post has been republished onYahoo Parenting and MariaShriver.com as well as favorited by Marlo Thomas (to whom I tweeted). Finally, after three successful posts on Lipstick & Politics, I am negotiating to be a regular, paid contributor. I target sites that match my work and then creatively market on social media. So far, so good.
– Jenny Kanevsky of In Other Words (Follow on: Facebook & Twitter)
All I knew when I started Em-i-lis in early 2011 was that as a stay-at-home mom of two, I needed a creative outlet of my own that could be pursued in moments carved out around naps, infinitesimal nursery school hours and potty training. A serious cook and passionate eater who’s often been told that I speak about food with delightful gravitas, Em-i-lis was born as a space for me to candidly express my thoughts about both motherhood and food. I met with such great success selling the homemade preserves about which I blogged that I opened a catering business and was also asked to teach canning and preservation classes throughout the DC-area. I wouldn’t have found either opportunity were it not for my daily blogging about things I love to do and share with others.
– Emily Nichols Grossi of Em_i_lis (Follow on Facebook & Twitter)
As a new member of the Smith Mountain Lake, VA community, three years ago I picked up a copy of Laker Magazine – the local publication. I noticed a cute feature, “Take the Laker” which highlights locals on travel, holding up Laker in a picture. I enticed Hubs to pose with Laker during an Alaskan fishing trip. When I submitted this picture via email, my author’s signature block was at the bottom of the email. The Editor-in-Chief at Laker, Andie Gibson, checked out several of my blog posts via the link in the signature block, and it just so happened she was looking for a humor columnist for the magazine. She invited me to lunch, and I’ve been writing a humor column for Laker for the past two years! Oh, and they used the picture!
– Kimba Dalferes of The Middle-Aged Cheap Seats (Follow on Facebook & Twitter)
In my short writing career I think my #1 seed for coolest experience has to be when I was offered the opportunity to be on a panel during a discussion on Huff Post Live based on a piece I had written. The topic was “When does spanking become abuse? and Does culture play a role in how abuse should be viewed in society?” I was the lone-blogger on a panel with 3 doctors/psychologists and was told by HuffPost that I held my own really well, and that they would love to have me back some day.
– Mike Cruse of Papa Does Preach (Follow on Facebook & Twitter)
From my balcony to the banks of Lake Michigan, my blog, Fashionably Employed, gave me a chance to step up my personal style game as a Business Model for Crain’s Chicago Business publication. Each week, Crain’s highlights the personal style of one local member of the Chicago business community. After posing day after day in my everyday, business casual outfits on my apartment’s balcony, Crain’s discovered me through their Instagram hashtag #ccbstyle and offered me a chance to pose like a boss on the banks of Lake Michigan. It tickled me purple, to say the least!
– Jen P of Fashionably Employed (Follow on Google+ & Twitter)
A while back, I was Editor of a small, local parenting magazine. The job had come about as a result of contributing to a blog. One of the writers allowed us to use excerpts from her books on raising babies and toddlers as articles. She also helmed an online radio show based on her books. One day, she offered me a spot as a guest on her radio show, discussing being a work-at-home mom as well as the mom of a special needs child. What a thrill! People told me I sounded very natural. I would love to be on a radio or TV show again!
– MB Sanok of Maple Brown Sugar (Follow on Facebook & Twitter)
More than eight years after starting Barnestormin, in late 2013 I got to blog for my longtime client Engineering News-Record. I’d sold essays from Barnestormin to mainstream media, and I’d had a blog essay re-published in a journal. The editor of another journal liked Barnestormin and suggested I submit a piece to her, which she accepted. But being offered pay to blog as Barnestormin was huge. The topics are specific to engineering/construction and for business-minded readers, and have to be pre-approved by my editor. It’s thrilling to weave my style into the nation’s most prominent construction magazine. I’m a journalist with thousands of newspaper, magazine and news service stories published, and my blog has helped give me opportunities to read my essays at Carnegie Mellon University, and also to judge an essay writing contest there.
Jonathan Barnes of Barnestormin (Follow on LinkedIn & Twitter)
After publishing a post called A New Definition of Success on Huffington Post, Vanessa Jane (a motivational speaker in Australia) hired me for freelance writing assignments and featured me in one of her newsletters. Another opportunity came after publishing 10 Reasons I Quit Competitive Parenting on Scary Mommy. As a result, I was interviewed on HLN, a national CNN television network that focuses on the “must-see, must-share” stories of the day.
– Christine Organ of ChristineOrgan.com (Follow on Facebook & Twitter)
I was inspired to submit something to In the Powder Room after listening to the Beyond Your Blog podcast interview with Leslie Marinelli, the editor at ITPR. I was thrilled when she told me she wanted to run my piece the day after my birthday… Happy Birthday to me! Just a few days later, Leslie emailed me to find out whether I minded if Huffington Post Parents could run the piece. I’d only been submitting to them for months with nary a response! Not only did HuffPo Parents run my piece, it was the featured post of the day.
– Pam Moore of Whatevs… (Follow on Facebook & Twitter)
I have always dreamed of being a translator. For many reasons, it didn’t happen until I started my blog, The European Mama. I was asked to join a group of other multicultural bloggers and exchanged guest posts with fellow board member, Giselle Shardlow, author of Kids Yoga Stories. She needed translations of her book into other languages. I volunteered for German and was accepted. Not only is she paying me for it but I get to do something I love (besides writing): translating! I was also asked to do an interview for ARTE (a French/German TV channel) after I wrote a post.
– Olga Mecking of The European Mama (Follow on Facebook and Twitter)