Brenda Barron
Escritor
About Brenda
Brenda has a BA in English Literature and likes to think she uses that degree in her daily life. The college experience was positive so she naturally moved toward a career in writing. But more than anything else, it was the need for moola to pay for her tuition and books sparked her freelance writing career. She paid for college with the occasional article in now defunct print magazines (Except for Cat Fancy — you keep being you!) and SEO-focused keyword articles.
From there, she wrote in innumerable niches including, but not limited to, pregnancy, health and fitness, and mesothelioma. Product descriptions, too. Finally, in early 2013, she settled in the business and technology niche. Her primary focus these days is WordPress but she writes regularly about social media, marketing, as well as general business management.
Getting to Know Brenda
WIHT: How long have you been active online?
Brenda: Since my family got our first computer for Christmas in 1997. It was like a whole new world opened up to me. I was about 13 years old and immediately developed an interest in building websites. I tried, on several occasions, to create sites using Word. Nope; I’m not joking.
WIHT: What was your first website about?
Brenda: Irish step dancing. I was a competitive dancer in my early teens and grew quite obsessed. My site had animated GIFs before they were hipster cool and a MIDI song playing the background. Yup, I was that person.
WIHT: Do you still have websites? If so, what are they?
Brenda: I do! I currently run two websites but I’m terrible about updating them. My writing portfolio site is Digital Inkwell. There, you can find all my latest work, a semi-regularly updated blog about the business and craft of writing, and other odds and ends about me. I also run WPThemeRoundups.com, which is a curated WordPress theme collection site. Finally, I’m working on another site about how to improve freelancing called Freelancing Sucks, but it’s not done yet.
WIHT: What hosting provider(s) do you rely on?
Brenda: I use two: HostGator for my writing site and Bluehost for the other two. I’ve had positive experiences with both in terms of customer service and uptime.
WIHT: How do you handle that whole freelance/home life balance thing?
Brenda: Eh, what’s that? In all seriousness, it can be very challenging to separate work and my home life. Since I work out of my home, it requires establishing boundaries, like not working after a certain hour and not checking email in the middle of the night. To be honest, I don’t always succeed. It has to be a very conscious thing.
WIHT: What is your favorite unplugged activity?
Brenda: Knitting. It’s meditative. I also like going on walks with my kids, enjoying time outside, and binge watching TV shows on Netflix.
WIHT: Do you have a favorite sci-fi or fantasy series?
Brenda: Several, actually. Back to the Future is one of my all-time favorites. I have to watch the Lord of the Rings movies every year around Christmas. And don’t get me started on Doctor Who.
WIHT: What are your favorite books?
Brenda: I love The Hobbit. Vivid storytelling and world building there. I also enjoyed Slaughterhouse Five. Stephen King has been particularly influential in my life. His writing instruction manual and memoir, On Writing is wonderful. Other favorites by him and others include:
- The Dark Tower series
- I Am Legend
- Anything by David Sedaris
Selected WhoIsHostingThis Writing
Brenda has been one of the primary writers at WhoIsHostingThis.com for over a year. Here’s a few articles she and her team have worked on:
Create a WordPress eCommerce Site in Minutes: an overview of the tools you need and the steps you need to take to create an online business using the WordPress CMS.
Cool WordPress Tips and Tricks: you can do a lot with WordPress and this article talks about several ways you can use the platform to meet your goals. From setting up online stores to using child themes to creating custom widgets.
Copyright for Bloggers: understanding the copyright laws is imperative for your success online. This guide walks you through the rules that apply to bloggers.
Quick Guide to Safe Online Shopping: not sure if an online store is safe or not? This blog post goes over best practices for online shopping so you walk away with your purchase and not your identity stolen.
Intro and Resources for Blogging Category: these introductory materials to the blogging category on the WhoIsHostingThis.com blog breakdown some of the essentials you need to know before you launch your next blog site.
Using Whitespace in Web Design: this guide walks designers through how to use whitespace to create more functional and visually appealing websites.
RavenDB Introduction and Resources: a breakdown of what this NoSQL database system is, how it works, and why you should care about it.
Nestify: a comprehensive profile and review of the Texas-based web hosting provider.
