Vernetta R. Freeney aka The Truth Confidant™ is an award-winning Blogger, Speaker and Podcaster.

Blogging Is An Industry

I’m making Black history by running the nation’s only dues-based membership blog association for African American online content creators. I saw a need in a space that often silences and profits off of African American voices.

The need was a collective. It’s a space that provides training, a way for people to learn more about the blogging industry so they can get paid and not taken advantage of as well as a supportive community that understands and gets why you do what you do online every day.

I was invited to join the Houston African American Bloggers Association in 2013 because I reached out to a blogging friend and said I was looking for a local blog community to belong to. At the time, it was only a Facebook group that barely had any interaction.

In November 2014, I sat down with the creator of the group and another blogger at Starbucks. We talked about doing more with the group. Within months, both of the other people stepped aside due to personal reasons.

Creatives Are Comfortable In Their Art

By June 2015, I asked the creator of the group if I could have the group. He gave it to me. And from that moment, I worked daily to build a blog association. And to this day, we’re still the only dues-based membership blog association.

I share the journey so people know that it wasn’t without a lot of bumps in the road. Today I work to make sure that at least the African American bloggers in Houston understand what a collective power can do as well as show them how managing their blog as a business will help lead to making more money.

Creatives are comfortable in their art. But it takes a tactician like myself to help those creatives learn how to profit from their art.

Why? So many other people already are. And why shouldn’t the artist get paid for the art they create? Yes, bloggers, vloggers and podcasters are modern day artists.

Bloggers Create Art That Is Consumed Daily

We create things with our words that people gravitate towards. That people eagerly wait to consume.

I made Black history as the first person who created a dues-based membership blog association specifically for African American voices in a specific city. And I hope that one day other cities will also create their own blog associations.

As an industry, there are a plethora of blog networks. Which have their place. However, these networks lack consistent, continual training for bloggers as well as a safe, sacred space to vent, share, learn and grow.

It is my goal to help other cities create their own blog associations. If plumbers, welders and attorneys can have associations to belong to, why can’t bloggers?

Learn more about Vernetta R. Freeney:

Website –  VernettarFreeney.com

Facebook –  @Vernetta.freeney

Twitter:  @VRFreeney

Instagram:  @VRFreeney

LinkedIn:  @VRFreeney

Houston Bloggers Website: HoustonAfricanAmericanBloggers.com

Facebook: @HoustonAfricanAmericanBloggers

December 2018 Update

Since you last read about me, I have left the blog organization. I am focusing on events as an event blogger. I cover them, market them or help you create an event marketing strategy.

I also celebrated 7 years blogging on September 17th. This year has been a challenging year but one of growth and self-reflection. Through all of it, I realized I absolutely love blogging and can’t see myself doing anything else at the moment.   

And events are so much fun for me. Plus, I don’t see them as work. Going from leading an organization to just myself was rough. It wasn’t without a hard transition. However, through the bumps in the road I grew as an individual. I learned that I’m entering a season of rest so I have the time to develop and do the things that bring me joy.

As much as I loved leading that organization, I know it’s my time to be selfish (selfish to me means self-preservation) and build my own platform as I neglected it building others. I may have made history but that doesn’t mean I was meant to stay in that history forever.

And, I shouldn’t have defined myself by that history either. I can’t wait to see what comes next for me and how I grow.