Posted by: Elena Grama - 10 January 2011 / 9:00
Welcome to Behind the Blogs, where we take a moment to get to know the bloggers in the Scribnia Community on a more personal level. We’ve read their words, but now it’s time to learn a little bit about the person behind the keyboard.
Today’s interview is with Tia Peterson, the Editor-in-Chief for BizChickBlogs, a blogzine for smart women by smart women. She lives in Tucson, Arizona with her three year old son.
1) Why did you start blogging? Why do you blog today?
I started blogging as a way to help people like my clients build better, more social blogs. I had been developing them for a couple of years, and before that, had about 7 years experience in web development, along with business analysis and product management experience. When I realized that people wanted blogs but had no idea how to make them social or develop a readership, I decided to take on the challenge myself and then just blog about it.
2) What was your life like growing up?
I come from a family of five kids – two boys and three girls, and I am right in the middle of them all. I’m 8 years younger than my older brother and 8 years older than my younger brother. We are all spread out. My family is awesome, and I had an active church life which I do now, also. And I went to an amazing high school that won Time Magazine’s School of the Year award in 2001. I was really, really blessed growing up.
3) What advice would you provide for people looking to start a blog?
I would say to step back and look at the entire picture first. Never start blogging in a vacuum unless you are doing it for purely personal reasons. A blog is just one format for communicating a message, and it’s best used in conjunction with several other formats. So I would advise people to consider the outcome first – what exactly are they wanting to go with their business, or what will success looks like? Until they can articulate that, I’d say hold off and spend some time developing a clear picture of success. The picture itself will determine the best strategies and marketing methods and even the content plan.
4) How do you define success?
I define success as an accomplishment or lesson learned. An experiment is successful if you either got what you wanted out of it, or got something better, which could be educational.
5) What are 5 things you want to do before you die?
Great question. (1) I want to travel overseas just for fun, as I’ve never done that. (2) I’d like to win the World Poker Tour – okay, I’d settle for just playing in it. 
(3) I’d like to get a non-profit launched which teaches practical job skills in blogging, social media, and search engine optimization to people who are out of work and need to develop a new career. (4) I’d like to see my son go to a great college. (5) I’d like to buy a house. Or two.
6) What is your idea of the perfect blog?
I don’t know that there’s any such thing as a perfect blog. They all serve such different purposes! We all want our blogs to mean something to the readers – to become important or interesting enough for the reader to come back. An ideal blog is a social blog (in my opinion). However, I would say that in order for a blog to be social, there must be a way to share the content. That’s a must. As long as sharing tools are present, the blog can be whatever the owner wants it to be.
7) What is your dream job?
My dream job is to run a media company that has a publishing arm and a marketing arm. I’m working on that. We’re getting there. And when we do, what will make it a dream job is the opportunity to work with fun, brilliant people who have aspirations and goals beyond just working the 9 to 5 for two weeks vacation every year. I want people around me who have bigger dreams than that. In that kind of environment, creativity is everywhere and the energy level is consistently high. I would love to wake up every day and go to a place like that.
Thanks so much for sharing your story with us Tia. A great blog from a great woman to great women. Keep up the great writing.
Again..Make sure to read Tia’s Blog, follow her on Twitter and review her.
If you know of an interesting blogger/author that we should interview for the Behind the Blogs series, or if YOU are that blogger, send me an email at Elena [at] Scribnia.com
Tags: Behind, BizChick, blog, Interview, Peterson, Scribnia, Tia
