On Wednesday, July 16th, 2008, I, or more accurately "One Dad's Life", made it into The Riverfront Times (online edition) as "Unreal's Local Blog o' the Week." Click here for proof. (scroll towards the bottom of the page)
Executive Summary on how I got there: I have no idea!
Here's my assumption on how this works: Someone sent in my website, One Dad's Life, for possible inclusion in "Local Blog o' the Week." (Whoever you are, thank you, thank you, thank you!) The Riverfront Times then decided that since there was nothing else fit to print, or perhaps no other blog submissions, they would add a link to my blog and an excerpt from my June 30th post about taking my daughter Rebecca to the Rush concert.
Now, you would think that for an honor such as this that some retired B-list celebrity would have delivered the announcement about my inclusion to me personally, but I didn't directly find out from the Riverfront Times. No. I found out because I was looking for people stealing my posts and putting them on their websites as their own. I found the Riverfront Times inclusion instead. BTW, this post stealing happens a LOT I've discovered. The Internet is a thieving, mean place!
I had no idea how to handle this! I mean, an actual large number of people read The Riverfront Times. The first thing I did was turn to the incredible St. Louis Blogging community, where I asked the following question:
"Hey "One Dad's Life" got Unreal's "Local blog o' the Week" on the RFT site. Does this mean I'm famous?"
I received a good number of congratulatory statements, and a bit of expressed jealousy (tongue-in-cheek I'm thinking), but no real help on how to handle my potential new found fame. Do I need a manager now? A personal secretary to screen my email? Should I start wearing dark sunglasses and non-descript baggy workout clothes in public? Will my wife now become arm-candy, forced to wear glamorous designer dresses while appearing outwardly aloof and uninterested? Will my number of twitter followers become frighteningly large? Will I need to investigate tax-shelters in some off-shore bank? I don't even have shoes that match my outfit! (Oops, sorry, that last one seems to be a carry-over from writing for a "Mommy Blog" on Monday.)
This is so complicated.
So far, checking my blog records and statistics it looks like the total number of visitors that came to me via the Riverfront Times website is, um, well, ... zero.
Well, I'm sure it's just a matter of time!
Just think, you'll be able to say that you knew me "before I hit it big." You lucky dog, you!
update: As Christy and Kathy mentioned, this is also in the print version. I also got some emails from friends mentioning this...some who probably didn't even know about the blog! I am going to have to get me one of this week's editions.
I saw this yesterday afternoon in the hard copy. Congratulations...
christy (the RFT's 3rd ever blogger o' the week -- I was not so happy, however, and shut my site down for a week).
Posted by: christy | July 17, 2008 at 08:49 AM
Congrats! But it is kind of weird. You would have thought that someone from the RFT's would have called you and let you know that it was going to be in there, maybe asked your permission?
Posted by: Monkey's Momma | July 17, 2008 at 12:09 PM
YOU ... are my new blogging hero! Way to go, Gregg!
Posted by: Ron | July 17, 2008 at 02:07 PM
Congrats! very happy and excited for you.
You're one of my favoritest new reads. (Ok. You've been around almost a year but 'new' to me.) So its not surprising that you've been "discovered".
Posted by: Motherofbun | July 17, 2008 at 03:35 PM
You are new to me too..like ms bun said.. Maybe cause you are on line w/ the St Louis Bloggers guild..maybe they are snagging people from there??? I would think though it would be nice to warn people..wouldn't you think?
Congrats again~
Posted by: MP | July 17, 2008 at 04:54 PM
Congratulations.
I read it in the hard copy today; first time I've ever "known" someone in that column!
Posted by: Kathy G | July 17, 2008 at 05:18 PM
Nice work Gregg! That is really awesome! You are a blogging genius and photographer extraordinaire!
Posted by: Deb | July 18, 2008 at 03:11 PM
Congrats on the exposure! How Cool is it to be famous?! :)
~K
Posted by: kel | July 22, 2008 at 02:48 PM