I attended a “Blogging for Business” seminar today given by the owner of CoolCleveland.com. Sitting next to me was a woman who was just starting her new business as a night nanny. I had actually never heard of that!  She works for families who have kids with different bedtimes. She watches the awake kids while the younger ones (and the parents!) get a good night’s sleep.

That was a new one on me, I don’t think I’d ever heard of a night nanny. Of course, she does do day work too. One of her clients is going on an adult-only vacation, so she’ll have the kids for a whole week. She doesn’t have a web site yet so I can’t promote her, but she’s here in Cleveland, Ohio, and her business is called Rock-A-Bye-Baby. Good luck!

Now, regarding Thomas Mulready of CoolCleveland.com, this guy is amazing.  I’ve subscribed to his e-newsletter for probably a year now and never realized what a huge venture it actually is. This guy has done everything from Communications for National City Bank and Vicks to founding a performance arts festival that has showcased 100 acts a year for over ten years here in Cleveland.

He stressed the importance of podcasts. He said videos get clicked more than text links 5 to 1 in his emails. He had a cute story about how his email list began. Cirque du Soleil was in Cleveland and he met some of the performers, who expressed their boredom with the city to him. He said he would prove them wrong, asked for their email addresses, and promised to email them a list of cool things to do here in Cleveland. After sending it to the performers, he sent it to his friends, who started to tell him about THEIR events and ask to be included. Now he sells advertising, holds parties, and gives speeches like the one I attended today.

He also highlighted for us just how much we’ve shifted. I know as a writer, I dream of getting published in hard print. Well Thomas Mulready had a monthly, full-page column in an important local magazine for 3 years. In his talks, he asks people to raise their hands if they get the magazine.  Then he asks how many of them had ever seen his column. Today, I think one person still had a hand up. He said that always happens, people have read the magazine faithfully for years and have no idea who he is.

His point was the internet is preferred because we SEEK out the information that is important to us. It’s hard to push information down someone’s throat unless they were already looking for it.