I can still perfectly remember the first comment on my blog. It’s not about what the commentator said, it’s not about the fact that I was a great fan of the first person commenting, it was about receiving the first comment to something I had written and sparking a conversation. I was so thrilled!

Writing was a daily habit for me at the time. Be it novels, stories, essays, articles and projects for school, I have always enjoyed putting my thoughts on (real or electronic) paper. And I have always enjoyed having people read it and give me their feedback. So the part about having an outlet for my thoughts was not what hooked me to blogging. It was the comments, the conversation and the almost instant feedback. What kept the addiction going was the great number of friendships that resulted from my casual chat with fellow bloggers. Continue reading

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OMG! OMG! The blogger in me turns four today! Four breathtaking and amazing years! Too many exclamation marks, I know, but I really cannot describe how happy and excited I am. I’ve started on Blogger, with the first version of Words of a Broken Mirror and that’s been my home for about 3 years. On the side, I’ve launched a photo blog, Views of a Broken Mirror, also abandoned in the mean time. The photos however are still there for you to enjoy. Right now, besides managing this blog, I also have a travel blog, Travel Spells, a great source of advice, tips, reviews and magical recipes to make your trip exactly what you want it to be and I also manage the PRwave Blog.

About a year and a half ago, I’ve been blessed with my own domain, a very thoughtful gift from my great friend and later appointed big sis, Trisi. I’ve started posting here and in time, WoBM has become what it is today, a PR and Marketing blog that I’m extremely proud of. A lot of people have helped ever since: Trisi with the WoBM logo, Mig and Alex with endless Wordpress changes (Alex has also designed the new WoBM look) and old and new friends (who you can easily meet if you browse through the comments) with their constant support and cheer.

WoBM Proudly Announces the 4 Year Bloggiversary Group Writing Project

I’ve realized that today was the big day sometime after lunch. I got overexcited and when clicking the “Write new post” option in my dashboard, it hit me! What better way to celebrate these four amazing years, what better way to reward my friends and readers, than a group writing project? I got some prizes ready for you in the spur of the moment, but before tempting you with what you might get, I’d better tell you what you’d have to do to get it Continue reading

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What I think you shouldn’t have missed last week…

The last week of January 2009 comes with the 20th edition of the Monday reading tips brought to you by Words of a Broken Mirror.

We’ll start with some interesting top 10 trends for 2009 from Samll Business Trends: the top 10 software publishing trends by Tim Berry and the top 10 global trends for SMBs by Laurel Delaney.

Mihaela Lica raises the issues of spam-like ads on Twitter, an attempt thought of by Magpie, not Twitter’s monetization team as you might have thought.

Lip-sticking has published an inspirational guest post by Mary Schmidt on powerful first ladies, what they have achieved and what women in general can accomplish, regardless of being married to powerful men.

Brad Shorr of Word Sell Inc. discussed the issue of business-to-business sales and how managing daily pains helps build or demolish businesses and individual careers.

Brian Solis of PR 2.0 pointed out that social networks are growing up as more adults are joinging the conversation.

Hoping you’ve enjoyed this week’s list, I invite you, as always, to share your recommendations in the comment box. See you next week!

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A little before Christmas, Mig of eWritings tagged me with an interesting meme, one aimed at preventing people from wasting money on books that have no real value to offer them.

I’ve been lucky enough to have only bought books that either taught me something, or made me dream, or laugh, or think. I’ve never seen a book as a bad investment, unless I count some crappy text books. But those don’t count, as I didn’t exactly bought them because I really wanted to.

In order to complete the task, I thought of helping book lovers save money by offering advice that’s in the spirit of the meme, but doesn’t quite follow its guidelines to the letter. I hope Mig does not mind, as she means the world to me.

So here it goes: if you’re Romanian and want to buy a translated book but speak the language it was written it, don’t waste your money! Buy the original version through Amazon of whatever comes to mind and read it. It will save it quite some disappointment. Continue reading

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BLOGAPALOOZA has become quite a tradition around the blogosphere! And everyone, including myself, can’t wait to be a part of it. So this year Robert Hruzek of Middle Zone Musings invited bloggeres to share what they’ve learned in 2008 through their best post from each month. He than took those key findings and published them on his blog. He aimed at having 100 entries, but he got just a few more. Ok, not a few, a lot .

I’m sure you’re curious to see which I thought were the 12 best posts of 2008. Just drop by Robert’s blog and see my contribution to this bloggy effort. And if you want to also be featured in the BLOGAPALOOZA, hurry up! When the weekend is over, your change is gone with it! So start digging the archives and send it to Robert!

Each of us is extremely subjective when choosing the posts they liked most: to write, to read, to share with others. As I am sure what I liked best might not also be your very favorite, please let me know what WoBM entries from 2008 you prefer. It might be because they’re linked to somehting close to your heart, it might be because it’s something you really wanted to know more about or simply because a certain post or paragraph made you laugh. I’d love to know what it was! So don’t be shy, share it with me and the rest of the audience in the comment box!

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