Marcia made me do it

I am guilty as charged.

I am the painter whose walls at home are nicked and chipped. I am the landscaper whose yard is overrun by weeds. I am the chef who eats a frozen dinner every night.

I am a social media consultant for full-time clients by day and freelance clients by night who never updates her own social media sites. After being witty and engaging and sharing all my best stuff on behalf of my clients 24-7, I find myself without the compulsion to say it again on behalf of myself.

But then my dear friend Marcia decided to launch a blog and came to me for advice. To answer her questions, I had to re-examine my own blog, set up long ago in a seeming fog. I needed to retrace my steps and explore new paths to blogger success based on developments I've learned in my growing social media practice. So here I am, blogging again after many months of slacking, after tweaking and testing and refreshing Spellabella. Instead of dropping the link from my email signature line, I might actually give 'em something to talk about, to quote an old Bonnie Raitt song.

Marcia, thanks for challenging my complacency. I am most happy when figuring things out, and performing surgery on the guts of my Blogger site while feeding vitamins to the SEO beast has been a happy challenge. Be sure to read Marcia's excellent work, by the way, on one of my favorite topics: nutrition. She is listed in my brand-spankin' new blogroll.

And watch for further updates here. I'm writing for the Chicago Sun-Times again, a story on buying specialty foods in Chicago. I'm also working on a profile of one of the world's most famous Napa winemakers for Sommelier Journal. I promise to post these and more, artfully identified with keywords and tabs and linked to from my Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.

Marcia, thank you for wonderful lunches, even better conversation and the motivation to revive this blog. Now we're cookin' with gas.