Editorial note – An email from one of my former colleagues about one of my current co-workers who seemed very concerned by my extracurricular wine blogging habits served as the catalyst for this post…
Given the impact the current economic malaise has had on the wine industry, and in particular wine writing, and even more so on the farm leagues of wine blogging, I labor under the assumption that 99.67% of all wine bloggers make virtually no income from their sites. I could be wrong about this, but unlikely given my unusually high IQ. 
If so, please point me in the direction of a blogger making an appreciable income from their wine blog.
I suspect that many bloggers are much like me – their wine blog serves as an outlet for their passion, with little or no desire for compensation. Of those wine bloggers who still have to get up in the morning and report to duty Monday thru Friday, I wonder how many openly share their blog with co-workers.
I have been torn on the issue of sharing this site with my co-workers for a number of reasons. First of all – other than myself, I’m not too fond of many of my co-workers, and I only ‘like’ just a small handful. Early last year I did share this site with a few of my colleagues who share my adoration for fermented grape juice.
At first they would visit sporadically, and would occasionally drop me an email to comment on a particular post. Then, about six months ago, word spread that there was a famous wine blogger in our department – I noticed the number of visits from our company domain/IP address went up significantly. Imagine the nerve of these people, looking at this site during work hours when they should be working!
The vast majority of my colleagues who visit this site do so to read a about wine and pick up a wine recommendation or two. A few others have more devious intentions (and you know who you are 
). I do find all of this very humorous. I can’t get enough of myself, and it’s clear a few of my co-workers can’t either.
I am very interested in others’ opinions on this topic. So, for all of the ‘9-5’ employed bloggers out there – how many of you openly share your wine blogging adventures with your work peeps? Reason for/against? Have you encountered a problem at work by sharing your blog with co-workers?
Thanks in advance for your comments.
Oh, for the work peeps, c’mon outta the closet – feel free to leave a comment.
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I had shared my wine blog with a couple of my wine loving friends at work. Eventually word worked it’s way around to my boss, who was surprisingly enthusiastic about it. I work for a web development company, so the success of my blog was viewed pretty favorably. Unfortunately, word has started working it’s way around to our clients, and now my office even sent out a link to my blog in a company email newsletter. I say unfortunately, because it makes me a little nervous about what I say. What if one of my periodic double entendres offends a client and they decide that they want nothing to do with a company that would employ such a lewd hooligan? What if I inadvertently leave a disparaging comment about one of our largest clients, something that I’ve been known to do in other locations? Sigh.
Definitely a double-edged sword, eh? You could always post comments to your own posts under a pseudonym…
I don’t actively promote my site at work, but word has spread. I usually get to pick the wines with dinner when we have an event.
Thanks for stopping by to comment. Same here – I don’t actively promote it. Shared with a few folks, and word has definitely spread. It’s an interesting dynamic to see the various reactions…
Hammer… I think the message was received!
I know… too funny! Got 2 emails today relative to this post. One surprised me, from someone that left my dept 2 years ago.
The original email is just a small example of the cattiness that is rampant in the workplace. People – there are no secrets (even yours!).
I only told my closer friends at work about my blog but then when an article was published in a local newspaper about me, word got around FAST! At first I felt really weird about it but I quickly discovered that everyone (especially the ‘higher-ups’) thought it was cool. In fact, when I got back from Bordeaux, the CIO even asked me to stop by his office and ‘debrief’ him on French wine. Also, like Shannon, I get invited to a lot more fancy dinners as the “sommelier”.
For me the bottom line is that as long as you aren’t actively marketing your blog at work, they can’t get upset with you for doing it in your free time. As long as it isn’t a conflict of interest, and you haven’t signed something saying that you wouldn’t blog about wine… you should be okay.
As for the coworkers f-ing with you, just ignore ‘em and they’ll find better uses for their time… and don’t forget, a set of eyeballs with bad intentions still counts as a viewer when you look at the stats.
Cheers!
Randy – thanks for stopping by to comment. Given the ‘cattiness’ factor, I’ve always been careful about using my own time to blog. And, I definitely don’t market this blog at work or any where else for that matter. I’ve only told a very small handful who are really in to wine.
I definitely ignore a few of them, others I try to antagonize any chance I get. One of them in particular was under the misguided assumption (as this person normally is), that this site was some type of secret that they should expose. Oh well… I hated to burst their bubble.
As long as you don’t recommend Hollywood & Vine to the CIO, you’re fine!
Hey Frank,
I gave out my purple pens to a few coworkers about two years ago and news spread quickly about my hobby. A few Loudoun residents I work with also saw the stories I did for Loudoun magazine so many of my coworkers know that I have a love affair with wine. My blog is my hobby, I don’t blog at work, so IMHO, it’s all good! My coworkers usually ask me questions about wine, food pairings, Virginia wine country, and most know that I’m more about wine appreciations and wine education than anything else. I often tell them that I smell wine more than I sip wine; well sometimes.
I think your view on wine as well as your blog conveys the same thoughts. It is not like you are partying with “The Wine Girls Gone Bad” or anything like that. [BTW, if you do, please invite me!] I don’t quite see how a well written wine blog can be taken as a negative. We work for a living and wine is our outlet, you know. For me, wine is art and it reemphasizes my love for history and geography too. Wine is one of the few drinks to make you think! I agree with Randy, that in the end their views add to your already great stats, bro! You should think about getting the culprit(s) a bottle of Barefoot Reserve Chardonnay and tell them to turn that frown upside down
Nice posts.
Happy Sipping
Dezel – thanks for commenting – I appreciate your perspective on this.
Writing this blog definitely is a hobby for me – something I really like to do. Given the fact that I only average one post per week, one could argue that it’s not a very active hobby. I have actually never mentioned this blog at work, but more in after hours wine social occasions when prompted.
Wait just a minute tho… if there were such a thing as ‘The Wine Girls Gone Bad,’ you better believe I would be partying with them! And I would probably invite you when we were on the road in the DC area.
Overall, I don’t think too many care about this blog, me, or what I do… but a couple of catty, snippy, ‘lonely’ people with little positive going on in their lives did find my extracurricular blogging worrisome (what’s interesting about this duo is that they talk about each other more than anything – altho either is supposed to know they talk badly about each other… ugh). Of course this ‘spying’ could be construed as stalking I guess… I think they really do like me and just like to keep tabs on me.
Oh well… to them I say get rid of that ‘National Enquirer tabloid mindset’ and get a freakin life people!
Here is my 2 cents. Coming in with a Human Resources perspective, all of you are on target.
There is such a dream as work/life balance in the corporate mentality. However, any company that perpetuates to squelch the creativity and positive energy of their employees hobbies would be aborting a gift that truly supports morale. Getting employees to share a little and build a solid foundation only strengthens their working relationship. So even if management supports this, there will still be those rogue peers out there that will never get it. Sad.
More ill will is done by folks that are insecure(yes you know who you are). This cancerous jealousy is truly unpalatable to those with a secure sense of being. Yes these curmudgeon-ed souls can only attach themselves to weaker cells to kill their happiness as well, thriving on negativity.
My advice is to keep your work performance stellar, not blog on company time, not share any of your employer trade secrets, not speak ill of your employer and enjoy the few talents you have Frank.;)
Well put, Jen. Thanks for providing an HR perspective. I believe the fact that I love myself so much qualifies as a ‘secure sense of being.’
I must take issue with the ‘few talents’… at last count I had 5 talents which equates to using the word ‘many’ vice ‘few.’ In the future, please be sure to reinforce my insanely secure sense of being by referencing my ‘many’ talents!
Cheers!
Whether or not to share my wine blog with co-workers (and my work details with blog readers) is a constant source of concern for me because I work for Congress. For me, it’s not only a matter of whether or not my immediate coworkers know, but also the lobbyists, associations, and people from the district that I work with. I don’t work on any wine/agriculture-issues or for a member who has a particular interest in those areas, but I still have a lot of discomfort around the two worlds colliding. For example, what’s the best way to handle my Linked-In Account? Do you have two separate ones or do I come out to my co-workers that I’m not just a wino, but a wino with a blog…and do I come out to my wine media relations/blogger folks that I work in politics? I will say that the difficulty goes both ways, particularly as my blog is called “A Glass After Work.” It implies that there will at least be the hint of what my work life is like, and there is also, I must admit, a little discomfort in my wine blogger colleagues knowing what I do. For example, it created some moments of tension at the Wine Blogger Conference in 2009.
As for at the office itself, several of my coworkers in my old office found out about my wine classes, which lead to conversations about my wine blog, and the news of my taking classes and my writing a blog spread like wildfire. I actually ended up doing a Spanish wine tasting for my old office and the Senator occasionally talked wine, once he learned about our shared interest. I admit that was interesting, although awkward.
My new office is very excited about my wine knowledge. The blog came up in conversation a few weeks after I started because we had a Friday afternoon happy hour where we all supposed to bring a bottle of wine or a 6-pack. The bottle I brought was emptied almost immediately and several people just gushed about it. At that point, one of my new coworkers, who I was good friends with before starting the job, outed me to the entire group. After that, I started getting a lot of emails asking me for recommendations for this dinner party or for that fundraiser.
I think that because what I do is SO different from the wine world, but yet, so many of us find ourselves in situations where we are drinking wine at work events (fundraisers, receptions, etc), my colleagues are surprisingly interested in tapping into the knowledge so that they can use it when they go to events on their own.
We’ll see how it goes, but I will say that for me, the whole situation is very awkward. I don’t hide it, but I’m very careful to not talk about it too much because I don’t want there to appear to be any conflict of interests.
(Sorry for writing a novel, but I think this is a fascinating discussion. Thanks for bringing up something that I think many of us puzzle over on our own, but don’t necessarily talk about with each other)
Alleigh – Thanks very much for sharing your thoughts and experiences on this topic! I too have a certain level of ‘discomfort’ with the two worlds colliding. Had I to do it over again, I would not have mentioned this site to any co-workers. Since I travel quite a bit, I feel (and know) that a couple of co-workers seem to use this site as a way to track what I do while I’m traveling. Oh well. Perhaps they live vicariously through me.
Thanks again for your comment!
I think the “co” in co-workers stands for co-dependent as in most people need to get a life outside of work. When I worked in the crazy corporate world I rarely divulged anything personal. I didn’t even keep family photos on my desk. That may be extreme, but I am of the belief that work is work…not personal. I think the mafia has the same slogan,but whatever. It’s like that reality show trope…”I did not come here to make friends.” Oh how I dreaded the company picnics! But once in a while I would meet someone on the job who made the workplace more tolerable and fun; and for those folks I was grateful and made exceptions to the rule.
Whoever is jealous of you at your workplace probably wishes they had such a great life and wrote as well.
I’m a nine to fiver, actually 1:30 pm to 10:00 pm and just recently noticed that I am making money on my blog. In two years I am now up to $21.47, mostly from google ads. Now I can retire???
I do let friends and co-workers know about the blog. I have business cards on the bulletin board and I am often asked about wines and pairing recommendations. My usual answer to that query is “Drink what you like” (Pretty good answer, don’t you think)
Also, have found a few wine drinking co-workers who now share what they find in certain wines and a few that are now regular Friday and Saturday night wino’s at my son’s lounge.
As far as the blog goes, it’s just some stress relief for me and a hobby I am starting to enjoy. It has also been a great learning tool in all things ‘wine.’ Just wish I was a better writer.
I am intentionally oblivious to whether or not my co-workers still want to hear about my blog. I live under the impression that they can’t get enough of me – I certainly can’t. Isn’t that what the word “blog” means?
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