#MediaMonday – Ted Nelson

Each Monday, we are posting a blog to help our readers get to know the media just a little bit better.
With a TWIST!
No, we aren’t posting story pitch tips or media lists, but instead great stories from the media themselves about their lives, their work and other little known facts! Think of it as your first “networking” opportunity of the week!
Today’s #MediaMonday comes to us from Ted Nelson, one of our favorite Examiners.
So, Ted, time to share!
What do you want to tell the blogosphere about yourself today?
I write for Examiner.com as the Chicago Adventure Travel Examiner, and I would like to share how I began writing for this column and the opportunities it has opened.
I have been hiking, canoeing, and cross-country skiing for over 30 years all over the Midwest and the United States. This was only a hobby and for 28 years I never wrote anything about my adventures. In 2005 I took a three-month trip through Southeast Asia and took my adventures to an international level.
I played around with blogging and sometimes posted my writings on Facebook, but was not really serious about it. Then a friend from high school noticed my work and encouraged me to apply to Examiner that was hiring writers in Chicago.
Examiner is an online-only publication that hires thousands of Examiners that write about their passion. They basically give you a platform and teach you a little bit about social marketing.
I started writing and then opened an account on twitter as @travelingted and started to market myself. This was a year and a half ago and now I have 4,000 followers on twitter, almost 350 fans on the Traveling Ted facebook fan page, and have over 150 email subscribers.
Online editors have taken notice and I will soon be writing for Rumbum.com and in May of 2011 I will have my first article published in print for Wisconsin Trails Magazine.
What started as a hobby has turned into a part time career and something where people have started to follow and take notice. I have recently started my own blog at www.travelingted.tv.
Other passions of mine include reading, music, and history. The best books I have read lately include Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving, Surviving Paradise by Peter Rudiak-Gould, and a book by Jeff Alt on his hiking the Appalachian Trail. I also enjoy Larry McMurtry, Paul Theroux, Kurt Vonnegut, and Thomas Hardy.
Musical interests include Son Volt, Wilco, Lucinda Williams, Gillian Welch, REM, and the Beatles.