Interview with a Blogger - Kerry Greasley

Kerry is an Online Content Editor at GAAPweb (a specialist financial jobs site).  The biog on her blog tells us  "She can be found five out of her seven days in the GAAPweb offices in West Kensington knocking the jobs on the site into shape. The other two she spends on her allotment or at her karate class, defeating weeds at both."  If you're wondering why she looks so startled in this photo you'll need to check out her very entertaining Penny Millionaire Project.

How long have you been blogging?
Not long. I started writing my first blogs 5 months ago, and they’ve been live for 3 months.

Why did you start?
We appointed a new MD, who was keen to develop a bit more of a relationship between GAAPweb and the people who use the site. He told us we should stop being coy and get a little closer.

What do you do, work related, when you aren't blogging?
I’m in the team responsible for editing every job that appears on the site, editing the news feeds, creating banners and other twiddly bits, and writing some of the editorial content.

Do you think blogging has helped your business?
It’s very hard to quantify, but it’s certainly added a new dimension to the editorial, and played its part in making things feel a bit more personal. Whether or not loads of new people have started visiting the site solely to read our blogs, I couldn’t possibly comment.

What do you feel is the biggest challenge about writing a blog?
In an ideal world we’d all be professional bloggers with an army of adoring ‘fans’ hanging on our every word, and could devote all our time to coming up with witty diatribes about finance and recruitment, but it can be quite a challenge to find inspiration and time.

What's another blog that you read and why do you recommend it?
Here I should probably say something like the FT, but if I’m honest, Perez Hilton’s celebrity gossip blog, “the most hated blog in Hollywood”, is brilliant. From a financial point of view, it provides daily evidence of the corruptive power of too much money.

What do you want your readers to know about you?
I read the National Enquirer every week.

If you knew someone was thinking about starting a recruitment related blog, what advice would you want to give them?
Write what you’d want to read if you were your target audience. We’re paid to write blogs, but people aren’t paid to read them! Remember people don’t go in for reading anything too lengthy or dense on screen, so try and keep it snappy. And always keep an ear out for any stories that might interest your readers. There’s usually something in the newspaper that you can put your own slant on.

Is there a question you wished I asked you?
Now about your fee – cash or cheque?