Geek in Heels is a blog that highlights blogger Jenny Hwang’s interests ranging from gadgets to motherhood. The site reflects her diverse interests, which means she’s always posting new and interesting content. Make sure to also keep up with Hwang on Facebook and Twitter
Blogger Jenny Hwang of Geek in Heels
Q: When and why did you start blogging?
A: I started blogging in 2001, simply because all my friends were doing it! I have kept diaries and journals for as long as I could remember, so blogging came easily to me as I began to think of it as a way of sharing a piece of my life with the world. Unfortunately, most of my friends have since quit blogging, but I kept up with it over the years.
Q: How do you think your blog stands out amongst blogs of the same genre?
A: To be completely honest, I don’t think that my blog has a specific genre. In addition to the happenings of my life, I also share funny and interesting tidbits I find on the web. I am a geek and so I write about tech and gadgets and the web, but I also devote a lot of space to motherhood and to my relationship with my husband. So I guess that my blog is different from many of the more popular blogs out there in that it is niche-less.
Q: What does your family think of your blogging?
A: My family knows that I have a blog, but they do not make a big deal of it. My husband sees it as a hobby, as something I do to maintain my sanity and to vent and share. My parents do not know much English, so while they know that I have a personal website, I’m not sure that they know what a blog is!
That being said, I have gotten in trouble in the past for over-sharing parts of my life that my loved ones prefer to keep under wraps. As such, I am much more careful these days when blogging about situations that involve others, or I will ask their permission first.
Q: What blogs do you read?
A: How much room do I get for this answer? 😉 I currently have a little under 1,000 blogs on my Google Reader and I try my best to read them all, every day. They range from big-name blogs that are read by millions a day to small, personal blogs that get 10 daily visitors. I try my best to keep my blog subscriptions as diverse as possible so that I — as a stay-at-home-mom and a hermit — do not feel so disconnected from the outside world.
I must, however, admit that I tend to favor blogs that are more personal in nature. I have made many blogging friends over the years, and we frequently comment on each others’ blogs. I also love to visit the blogs of those who comment on my own blog so that I can feel more connected with my readers.
Q: How much time daily do you spend blogging?
A: I used to devote at least an hour a day blogging, but this has become difficult with an almost-1-year-old and another baby due in just a month! So these days, I try to spend whatever free time I get to writing, researching, and editing posts. This can be as little as 10 minutes a day, or as much as 3 hours. And I try my best to write as many posts in advance — sometimes as many as 5 in one sitting — so that I will have entries ready to be published even on days when I only have 5 minutes of extra tome, or when I am feeling uninspired.
Q: How many times have you redesigned your blog since it started?
A: I have used 5 different blogging platforms (Xanga, Blogger, Movable Type, Squarespace, and WordPress) since I first started blogging, and each came with a new design. And each platform has had at least two different designs. So while I can’t give you an exact number, I can safely say that it is at least 15.
Q: How much do you correspond one-on-one with readers?
A: Whenever I get some extra time, I like to respond to comments that are particularly interesting, or have caught my attention in other ways. If the reader also blogs (and links to their blog via the comment form), I will try my best to visit their blog and leave comments as well.
I also keep my blog’s
Facebook Page active and try to keep my readers engaged that way. I used to use
Twitter a lot too, but I haven’t been using it quite as much these days due to time restraints.
Q: What joys did you not expect when you started blogging? What pains?
A: I never expected to personally touch others’ lives. I have received many emails over the years, thanking me for my honesty, or even to ask me follow-up questions on a problematic situations I have written about in the past. I have even been recognized a few times — at parties, on the subway, and even on the other side of the nation!
As for pains, I guess that the biggest lesson I have learned from blogging is that you can’t always please everyone. And that is especially true when you write about more controversial issues such as religion, racial identity, and parenting. Strangers have cussed me out and called me names, and I have even disassociated myself from a few people I used to consider friends. I used to be a lot more sensitive to this, but I have grown a thicker skin over the years and just shake my head at those who judge a blogger for what he/she chooses to share online.
Q: What’s something your readers don’t know about you?
A: I have never, ever, in my life had macaroni and cheese. I only just realized this last month and I’m willing to give it a try…but I am too lazy and uncomfortably pregnant to cook it from scratch. If anyone can recommend a good brand of instant macaroni and cheese, I’d love to hear it!
Q: What’s your personal favorite blog post?
A: This is a tough one. If I
had to choose just one, I guess it would have to be
Top 5 Star Wars Designs and What Inspired Them, due to the amount of research that went into writing that post, the attention it received (it was featured on a couple of very big-name blogs), and…well, it’s
Star Wars.
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