How Head Coach Gwendolyn Alley Became A Blogger

On a whim, and with encouragement from friends, I started my first blog, Art Predator, in November 2007.

I was quickly hooked on bloggging.

Art Predator grew out of a newspaper column. You can read where the name Art Predator came from here and about how the Art Predator column evolved here.

I loved blogging so much that immediately I saw applications for my college teaching, and so in January 2008, I began my second blog, Whisper Down The Write Alley Soon I realized the name was too long–what a mouthful! But now I’m glad I saved that name for this blog!

When I began Whisper Down The Write Alley, I was the content provider: I uploaded content for my students to read. I also posted exams there to save paper and took them off immediately after. Soon I realized we all needed to be content providers and I got all my students going on blogs of their own, both as individuals, and in groups about specific topics related to research and reading.

With so much enthusiasm about blogging, no wonder I attended WordCamp SF August 2008. Even though much of it was over my head, I still got a lot out of it–and blogged like crazy at it!

Because I was blogging a lot about wine, in August 2008, I started Wine Predator.

Wine Predator really didn’t get going though until I attended the first Wine Bloggers Conference in Santa Rosa a few months later. I continued with wine blogging on a regular basis and attended the second Wine Bloggers Conference in July. The following November, I was in Portugal following my winning a trip there to the European Wine Bloggers Conference and for a trip to the Alentejo wine region with host Enoforum Wines, a company dedicated to bringing the wines and the culture of Portugal to the world (with help of master blogger and wine industry publicist Jo Diaz). This June, I will attend my third Wine Bloggers Conference,  this one in Walla Walla Washington. I won a scholarship to attend it as well as a spot on a bus for tasting and touring before and after the conference.

My next blog, bikergogal, began when I fell in love with a bike at Burning Man 2009. Again, I was starting to write A LOT about one subject, bicycling and how to develop a bicycle culture, and it made sense to start a blog with a focus on bicycles, and my adventures with my bikergo.

In January 2010, I learned about Guan Yin, the Compassionate Rebel. Since I am always finding art I love, that blog is devoted to images by artists that to me say “compassionate rebel.”

Which brings us here to today and my latest blog, The Write Alley. I hope it inspires YOU to go on a blogging journey yourself! What kind of a blog to you want to start?