As you may remember, I recently wrote a post inspired by the great Darren Rowse. Something he said inspired me to refine and restate my mission, or rather, the mission of this blog. Said mission turned out to be the telling of stories in all their different facets and mediums: written or told stories, stories in pictures, on film, and the stories that our lived-in spaces tell about us.
I left it at that. It was a nice long post in which I waxed poetic on how stories are at the basis of everything in our lives and how much we all enjoy telling them and hearing them (or reading or watching them unfold on stage or on a screen). A few days went by and I realized, Dammit, I forgot to mention another really important part of my mission! So, drum roll please, seat yourselves so as not to be taken by surprise. Here is part 2 of my mission statement:

To bring the untold stories I find into the world, disseminate them, give them light and air, allow them to be enjoyed by any and everyone.
This includes unpublished novels, such as Scarborough Baby, by Amanda Ackroyd, which I am publishing serially on a weekly basis, short stories that may have won awards but never been published, poems that have been hidden in shoe boxes in the bottom of closets… you get the idea.
So my desire is not merely to tell stories that belong to me or that are already well known but I think merit another word or two. No, I long to help orphaned stories find the light of day. Or help people who are a little timid bring forth their stories.
There, that is the other half of the mission.

This brings me to today’s mission. The great Darren Rowse has launched a project (he has done it twice before, but it’s slightly different every time) called the 31-Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge.The title of the challenge is self-explanatory. The way it unfolds is that the participants receive a daily email for 31 days, linked to a blog post on Problogger, with instructions for the day. The registered participants may receive a few odd tidbits that the regular readers of the blog do not, but on the whole you may follow along by reading the blog every day almost as well.

So I registered for the challenge, and today is Day 1! Today’s task is to write an Elevator Pitch for our blog. This too is fairly self-explanatory. Imagine you get onto an elevator and you bump into someone whom you’ve been trying to reach but who never gets back to you, or someone you have never had the courage to approach (we’re talking about networking here). Well, this person is now your captive audience, but only for as long as it takes to ride the elevator up to whichever floor he is going to (if your floor comes first, you will of course skip your floor, get off with him, and then find a way to slink down the emergency stairs back to your original destination floor).

It’s a great idea to have this pitch ready, so that at a moment’s notice you can regale your audience with a 30-second spiel which enlightens them while also tantalizing them. They should get off the elevator feeling that they get the general idea, but also intrigued, thinking, I’m going to log onto my computer and check this blog out, it sounds interesting.

The main and best reason to have an elevator pitch is, of course, for yourself. It will help you become laser focused on your mission, so that everything you do is guided by the Primary Objective (I know, I watch too many TV shows). Over time, and not even too much time, this practice will give a shape and direction to your blog which will make it immediately identifiable to your readers. And this is good, because it begins to establish your BRAND.

Darren says all this and more in his post, but I want to add just one little thing. Another great reason to have an elevator pitch is to increase your ability to believe in yourself and what you’re doing. Blogging is only a little less lonely than writing books. There is some interaction with readers and other bloggers, but when you are writing in your own little room, you are all alone, and having the elevator pitch that you can repeat to yourself when doubt starts creeping in helpt tremendously. It makes you think, oh, yes, this is real. I am doing a real thing for a real reason. Lastly, but not leastly (hee hee), the elevator pitch, though brief and to the point, is not usually actually delivered in an elevator. So if you learn to deliver your pitch in 30 seconds (and you should really practice saying it out loud, because it is meant to be spoken, like epic Greek poems, and not read), without requiring a paper bag to gasp into at the end, then when the time comes to say it to someone you have just met at a conference or party, the pitch will be able to breathe, will come to life, and will make perfect sense to the person you are speaking to.

After all this, would you like to hear my elevator pitch for turtle^haus? Well, hang on to your hats, here it is:

Nice to meet you, my name is Ilaria and I write a blog called turtle^haus (that’s H-A-U-S). It’s all about stories. I focus on three mediums of expression: writing and speaking, architecture and design, and film and theater. If you like to hear, watch, read stories and look at people’s houses to understand something about their lives, then you should become a reader. I also help un- or little known storytellers find an audience.

I can deliver it comfortably, with pauses for expression, in 24 seconds. Please let me know in the comments what you think! See you tomorrow!

Related posts:

1. Darren Rowse Helps Me Redefine My Mission In this post, after a period of meditation and a...
2. 6 Reasons Why Mario Kluser of Mario Live! Inspires Me – Day 2 – 31DBBB This post is part of the two series: Bloggers Who...
3. Announcement: visit my aStore (Amazon Store)! In this post I announce the opening of my very...

Dear Readers,

it is with great pleasure that I announce the opening of my very own aStore on turtle^haus. Having my own Amazon store will allow me to promote my own recommended products. It’s easier than going to Amazon directly, because it’s not overwhelming and you will see only the products I have either mentioned or reviewed here on the blog. Here are some advantages:

• If you are in the mood to buy a book or a gadget, rather than going to Amazon, you can click on the “swimturtle’s store” button in the upper right-hand corner of the screen and browse. If you trust my recommendations, then you will certainly find something you like;
• You don’t have to ever to go Amazon to finish your purchase, as there is a shopping cart right in m store;
• There is an additional and very nice benefit for me: not only will I get a commission on whatever you decide to purchase in my store, but if during the same session you stray from my store to anywhere else in the Amazon site and buy something, from a spoon to a high definition TV, I will get a commission on that too. Amazon’s reasoning is that if if had not been for me you would not have gone to Amazon that day, so since you came in to the site through my “portal,” as it were.

So by all means, step right up and make all your Amazon purchases at turtle^haus. You will be helping me and the economy!

Related posts:

1. Announcement: We Have Newsletter! In this post I introduce the newsletter and invite readers...
2. Review: Amazon Kindle – part II This is the second post in the Kindle series and...
3. Renewed Mission – Part 2 and day 1-31DBBB I define the second half of my mission for this...

Dear readers,

the time has come for turtle^haus to have a newsletter. It will be biweekly, issued on the first and third Friday of every month (if there are five Fridays, I get one off). This is a momentous occasion, because it will help me to bring the blog to a new level of professionalism. Here’s what you can expect to find in the newsletter:

• A roundup of the blog’s activity for the two weeks prior to the newsletter issue. This is very useful for those of you who are too busy to read daily posts (daily? hahahahaha! — I know, I’ve been remiss of late, but that is only because I was cooking up all sorts of wonderful new things for you!). You will get the highlights and links in case you want to go back and read something cool you may have missed;
• Special content that is features only in the newsletter — this could take the form of an interview, a poem, an article, a review… you name it;
• Links and tips relating to things I have found interesting on the web — other blogs, websites, new programs, services, social networking tools, events, etc.
• I may also put in videos, pictures and other goodies from time to time.

You will find the subscription form in the header of the site, so come one, come all, subscribe to our wonderful new newsletter. And don’t worry about spam or any of that nonsense. I will use your email address exclusively to send you the newsletter and possibly at some point in the future to communicate with you about projects of mine you might be interested in. See you in the newsletter!

Related posts:

1. Announcement: visit my aStore (Amazon Store)! In this post I announce the opening of my very...
2. Ask Swimturtle: a New Feature! In this post I introduce the new feature "ask swimturtle,"...
3. Day 3 – 31-DBBB: A Particularly Challenging Task for Me Here I continue to chronicle my experience of the 31-day...

I should perhaps have titled this post “Introducing our Good Reviews.” It’s not that I don’t believe in bad reviews. If there is something (a book, a movie) that offends me particularly (The Da Vinci Code, anyone? — did I say that out loud?) then I might write a bad or scathing review.
But the purpose of my reviews is to bring things I like and love to the attention of my readers and the world, to share my enjoyment of books, design, interiors, objects that aid in the enjoyment of life, and movies with as many people as possible. I feel it is our duty as members of the human community to remember and remind ourselves and others that art is important, beauty is important and living in a beautiful, comfortable environment is important.
Hence, the Reviews page.
That’s all I’m going to say in this brief introductory post, because I’m anxious to move on to the next post, the first real review. See you there, my friends!

Related posts:

1. Announcement: We Have Newsletter! In this post I introduce the newsletter and invite readers...
2. Darren Rowse Helps Me Redefine My Mission In this post, after a period of meditation and a...
3. Renewed Mission – Part 2 and day 1-31DBBB I define the second half of my mission for this...

Hello, dear readers! I would like to introduce you to a new feature of turtle^haus. I added a feature to the blog that allows you to ask me questions directly. If you click on the button in this post you will be taken directly to the Contact Form (which of course can be accessed also by clicking on the Contact tab at the top — but where websites are concerned redundancy is the name of the game). Just fill it out and ask away.

I will be happy to answer questions relative to the following subjects:

• advice on how to deal with household or workspace organization, decoration, renovation, etc.;
• advice on buying and selling apartments or houses — in the sense of finding the right space for you, or figuring out that the space you have now is not suited to you and deciding to let go of it;
• advice on reading, writing, authors, etc.
• advice on films (even though I have not yet launched the third thread of this blog, it will be coming soon), directors, screenwriting, playwrighting, etc.
• advice on how to integrate the use of Web 2.0 tools with “real life.”
• Anything else you can think of that might fall within my sphere of interests…

If there are specific things you would like to see discussed in the blog, people you would like to see interviewed… ask away. I am here to serve and share! Much love to all my readers… S.

Related posts:

1. Announcement: visit my aStore (Amazon Store)! In this post I announce the opening of my very...
2. Renewed Mission – Part 2 and day 1-31DBBB I define the second half of my mission for this...
3. Announcement: We Have Newsletter! In this post I introduce the newsletter and invite readers...