Rated “G” for “Great” – a new parenting / family blog

Last March, I was contacted by one of my blog readers, Wendy Diefendorf.  She enjoyed reading my blog, and wanted some tips on how to get her own Times Union blog.  She had already contacted the TU’s blogging majordomo, Michael Huber, and hoped to join the TU family of community bloggers with her prospective blogging idea – a blog about family-friendly restaurants and businesses, destinations and events.

Well, I may have some pull with getting the community bloggers represented in the TU’s print edition… but I don’t have the kind of pull to get Huber to sign a potential new blogger.  I asked Wendy if I could see some of her blog posts, did she have a WordPress or Blogspot.com independent page of some sort?

She did.  She showed me her debut blog post.  Okay, there’s some promise here…

She then asked me for tips on how to improve this blog.  I said that her blogging voice is very engaging, and that she should find a way to incorporate her family visits to family-friendly locales with pictures, with insight, with a reason to encourage her own readers to comment and to come back and to read more.

And over the next few months, she did just that.  Her next post featured a visit to Emack & Bolio’s, a well-written overview of a Delaware Avenue ice cream parlor.  She also added more posts over time, and even renamed her blog “Rated ‘G’ For ‘Great'” – which reinforced a positive and family-inclusive vibe to her blog.

And she started to get comments.  And she continued writing.

And then, yesterday, she e-mailed me with some good news.

I am writing with great news. I submitted my blog to Capital District Parent Pages and they have approved it. I am so happy.

I know you have been supporting my efforts so I wanted to make sure to tell you ASAP.

This is great news.  I’m glad that Wendy has found her voice and has joined a well-read blog portal.  Okay, so it wasn’t the Times Union, but it is a portal that will be read by parents throughout the Capital District.  And I wish Wendy much success and a long rung with her blog.

By the way… I know that some of you are saying to me, “Chuck, her last name sounds very familiar…”

Of course it does.  Wendy Diefendorf’s mother-in-law was Bonnie Diefendorf, the English teacher at the Street Academy of Albany, my high school teacher who inspired and encouraged me to achieve and excel and to never settle for “just good enough.”  It’s because of Bonnie Diefendorf that I became a writer.

And this was my chance to pay her gift forward.  Without question.

Good luck with the new blog, Wendy.  I’m sure you’ll find blog writing a challenge, a joy, a motivation, a creative outlet and a literary rejuvenation.

Now hurry up and get the next blog post written.  You’ve got readers who are waiting for your next adventure.