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Face-to-face meeting: famous people boost your views

  1. maidiebike
    Member

    Well, if you do meet and chat up...or even have worked with a "famous" person or a person who is quite well-known in their area of expertise and has had alot of national media exposure, that MIGHT add a bit more blog traffic.

    I can attest this..after posting most recent blog post about a national politician (Jack Layton) who died recently. My partner did work with him on a committee for several yrs. I saw this person several times also (in non political) roles.

    Other people I've seen up close, "famous" to Canadians and featured on my blogs:

    *Rick Hansen - a paraplegic who cycled around the world in a wheelchair to raise money for spinal cord injuried research. He stopped by hospital where I worked. Hospital specialized in spinal cord rehabilitation care for adults. It was emotional welcome for staff and patients.
    *Sarah McLaughlin- yes, that famous platinum singer, at a corporate event
    *Maelle Richler - gold medal Canadian Olympic skier (2010)
    *Mayor Robertson- mayor for Vancouver (he is regular cyclist. He cycles to and from work/city hall regularily.)

    The blog I need help with is thirdwavecyclingblog.wordpress.com.

  2. raincoaster
    Member

    Oh, definitely: the best way to leverage this is to take an hour or two and email all the famous person's fansites. When I blogged about meeting Viggo Mortensen I drove more traffic to the NPR affiliate website than they'd ever had before.

  3. embraceaware
    Member

    Some people might not want to be publicized on WordPress without their permission, how do you deal with that, links and stuff? Is it OK or do you have to ask first, it would be nice if you did.

  4. maidiebike
    Member

    Only the Sarah and Maelle event was a situation where I was invited.

    The rest was just coincidental. For these other individuals, it was before digital personal cameras were popular/existed or just being there at the right time. But I did some research and found clips to their stuff for blogging. I gave credited on my blog posts my sources.

    For Sarah, we were instructed not to take photos of her when she and her band sang for us. Yep, we were serenaded for 1 hr. by this international, Canadian star. The photo I took was when she greeted fans from audience.

    I'm not a music fan but like her music whenever I get around to listening to it.

    If you are requested not to take a photo, then don't. Usually such folks are so well-known anyone that you will be able to find sources with a link and cite the source of your photo.

    by the way, Rick Hansen, was the gentleman who was one of the Olympic torch relay folks at the Opening ceremonies for the 2010 Winter Olympics. He had hell of time wheeling himself up in wheelchair up the ramp ..that's what he said to the press afterwards. Give the guy a break, he's paraplegic and over 40 yrs.

    Almost 20 yrs. later after I saw him the lst time at the hospital in Toronto, I saw him last year at Olympic Village when they had a ceremony several months after Olympics were over.

    http://cyclewriteblog.wordpress.com/2010/05/16/under-the-shadow-of-giant-sparrows-sharing-public-space-at-olympic-and-paraolympic-village-open-house/ I was helping man an information table for a local cycing group on-site.

    He was there as part of the dignataries. He is well-known..among Canadians.

  5. strawberryindigo
    Member

    I think I saw Roseanne Barr on a cruise to Mexico one time but I don't want to write about that, maybe one day I will meet someone good I can write about. I don't get out much.

  6. gigisanchez
    Member

    I've been lucky. I had an airline job when I was young and met a lot of famous people. These are the ones I remember most fondly. And you're right, Maidiebike, cuz just talking about it with my friends -they were in a circle around me when I told them about it.

    Bruce Springsteen
    In an airport, with his first wife, Julianne. I ran up to him and told him I saw him in a concert in Milan, Italy and he said, "What were you doing there?" And I said, "Just cruising." Conversation lasted 15 seconds. I'm sure he remembers me. HA

    Patti La Belle
    She was amazing. Her hairstylist, Norma Gordon, invited me to the Jay Leno show when Patti was going to be on it and I was asked to come at noon, when her and her band were rehearsing and let me tell you, people are *better* in rehearsals than they are live. I said something about this and I was told it's typical. I hung out in the "Green Room" with Patti's band all day and at one point, had a bite-size cucumber sandwich in my mouth when guess who walked into the room and said, "Hi everybody." It was...

    Jay Leno
    I couldn't say hello cuz my mouth was full. And then years later, I met him at the airport and he was reading a motorcycle magazine, on his way to Hawaii with his wife. I said, "I met you once with a sandwich in my mouth." And him and his wife were so nice. I asked them about Johnny Carson and they said he wouldn't return to TV, that he was up there. Carson was amazing.

    Syd Caesar
    I have no idea what we talked about but we talked for a good hour or two. Totally down to Earth, so sweet, so kind.

    I met others but these are the ones that stick out. And if I was blogging, I'd mention them. ;-)

  7. maidiebike
    Member

    Awesome little experiences gigi. They make good blog little anecdotes.

    It just occurred to me:

    I was 5 ft. away from a Canadian Prime Minister (Mulroney) over well over a decade ago at an annual exhibition/fair (Canadian National Exhibition). Totally unexpected.

    Oh yea, another former Canadian Prime Minister spoke at a Christmas fancy dress dinner that I went, hosted by a law firm that I worked for. (Kim Campbell. She used to work for the firm prior to politics.)

    And I did personally know and speak to some prominent Ontario judges..because I worked for the courts and did research for the judges. One of them oil painted regularily and his office was plastered with his wonderful oil paintings. Meanwhile beside him was a prominent judge who led human rights legislation in Ontario...she too had an office full of joyous art.

    Remember these are people who listen to testimony from murderers, fraudsters, etc.

    Life is short, gigi. There is much to write.

    If we are wondering about traffic, why not relook at one's home town and make a few folks some heros/heroines in a blog post or 2? Makes everyone happy.

  8. lettershometoyou
    Member

    You were five feet away from Mulroney? If you didn't ask him what he's doing out of jail, you opportunity missed, for sure. :-)

  9. timethief
    Member

    @lettershometoyou
    Right on!

  10. raincoaster
    Member

    I was thinking "Is that close enough to get one good punch in" but then, she's a much nicer person than I am.

  11. timethief
    Member

    @letters
    I'm with you on that but I'll spare everyone by not reiterating the details of that @#%^&! Mulroney and the Hans von schreiber Airbus Affair.

    @Jean
    I did not mean to take away from your idea. It's an excellent one for traffic generation.

  12. lettershometoyou
    Member

    Mulroney and (Karlheinz) Schreiber? That's easy. Schreibrer gives Mulroney dozens and dozens of thousand-dollar bills in kickbacks.

    From the grey old lady of May 31, 2010:
    A Canadian government inquiry found Monday that former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney had acted inappropriately when he accepted “cash-stuffed envelopes” during three meetings with a German arms and aviation lobbyist.

    In a harshly worded four-volume report, Justice Jeffrey J. Oliphant, who led the inquiry, repeatedly questioned the credibility of Mr. Mulroney and of the lobbyist, Karlheinz Schreiber, a German-born businessman who handed the former prime minister $225,000 to $300,000 in thousand-dollar bills in three separate meetings. The meetings took place after Mr. Mulroney had stepped down as prime minister.

    The meetings, Justice Oliphant said in a news conference, go “a long way, in my view, to supporting my position that the financial dealings between Mr. Schreiber and Mr. Mulroney were inappropriate.”
    (...)
    Several Canadian journalists have reported that Mr. Mulroney received kickbacks from Mr. Schreiber in exchange for Air Canada’s $1.8 billion deal with Airbus, a client of Mr. Schreiber’s, in 1988, when the carrier was owned by the government. A spokeswoman for Airbus would not comment.

  13. theinsanityaquarium
    Member

    The only 'famous' people I've ever met are from bands. Met Frank Iero from My Chemical Romance in Nottingham, and had a small conversation about t-shirts, and also William Francis from Aiden a few times. More excitingly perhaps, Simon Pegg has seen my face! He retweeted this link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-13823427 - I'm the one with the blue hair, having way too much fun to take being a zombie seriously.

    Nothing cool enough to blog about though, unfortunately.

  14. darkjade68
    Member

    In my twenties I used to tell people Charlie Sheen (before he lost his mind) took me out to dinner, and they'd be like WHAT!! and I'd say, yeah, I was working at a market bagging groceries, and he was in my line, he bought a package of ribs, and a six pack of beer... I threw em in a bag and he shook my hand and said thanks, and slipped me a $20, lol Took myself out to dinner with it :D So yeah, Charlie Sheen took me to dinner, ha

    But as far actually meeting a celebrity if you will, my mom introduced me to Cary Elwes (The Dread Pirate Roberts) from Princess Bride, I guess he used to come in where she worked once in a while... But my favorite was meeting Timothy Dalton pre James Bond, he was one of my favorites, only had to hang around a restaurant where they were filming an episode of Tales from the Crypt for like 4 hours before I was approached by Security and told that because I had not interfered with their Filming, and had behaved so well, they would introduce me to him, and let me watch them finish filming... Blew me away... The only thing I regret is he offered me a spot of Tea, and I replied "No thank you, I don't drink Tea"... Bahh, should have taken the Tea, lol

  15. invisiblemikey
    Member

    I worked in Hollyweird behind the scenes for 20 years. Met a ton of film biz celebs. By far the most interesting are the ones you would never have heard of; the guy who did props for the 30s Universal horror movies, the second-generation immigrant cinematographer whose Dad shot for Welles and Bunuel, William Faulkner's typist, the unknown siblings of the mega-famous and the cherished secret friends of the famous who help keep them sane. I poop out a post about these people every few months, but I try not to name-drop outside of the articles.

    The first "name" I ran into by accident, the way you all have been talking about was Graham Nash, who I saw on the street my first week in town. He was friendly and shook my hand nicely.

  16. gigisanchez
    Member

    I forgot Jerry Seinfeld. :o)

    Used to do TV commercials and sometimes went on auditions for shows and films. I had an audition at Paramount Studios, which is where Seinfeld was taped. I was already on the lot and had my head down, reading my script. To my right, by about 50 feet, was Jerry Seinfeld and another man. They were talking and nobody else was around. I looked up and saw them and they turned and saw me and I gave him a thumbs up and a smile, and didn't say a thing. He said, "Oh thank you very much."

    Months later, I had a blind date with a guy at a restaurant in L.A. called "The Newsroom." I arrived before he did and must have looked like I was looking for someone I didn't know. I looked obvious. The place was jam-packed and I'm looking all over for someone I had never met before. All of a sudden, my eyes met the eyes of another restaurant patron -Seinfeld. He's sitting in a booth, watching me looking for someone and smiling. He was by himself on one side of a booth, talking to a couple on the other side. I still remember what I was wearing. I didn't normally dress up but I dressed up that day. All of a sudden, the guy I'm waiting for shows up and we get seated right next to Jerry Seinfeld. HA. He's smiling at me when we were walking toward our table and I'm embarresed to say that I wanted to ditch the guy I was with and sit with Jerry. Of course I didn't and I kept my attention on my date. And the whole time, everyone ignored Seinfeld b/c that's how you're supposed to be in L.A.; there's an unwritten rule that if you live in L.A., you don't act like a tourist.

    But then Seinfeld gets up with his friends and walks toward the door and leaves. And it was the eeriest feeling. Because everyone stopped talking and stopped eating and stopped looking at each other and stared out the door, at him. Freaky.

  17. maidiebike
    Member

    Very cool mikey ..give us some links to your best written blog posts on these interesting folks.

    Gigi..really do a little blog post. It'll get lost here over time. It's your story after all.

  18. maidiebike
    Member

    Here the links some the more well-known Canadian folks I mentioned near beginning of this thread:

    http://cyclewriteblog.wordpress.com/2010/05/12/canon-canada%e2%80%99s-gala-event-supporting-community-gardens-showcasing-excellence-in-sport-and-music/

    http://cyclewriteblog.wordpress.com/2010/02/10/an-olympic-relay-torchbearer-rick-hansen-man-in-motion-and-still-spinning/

  19. gigisanchez
    Member

    I don't blog. But I love your thread and they're all coming back to me now... Prince Charles and Princess Diana and the Queen -on horses, across from Buckingham Palace (1985). It was the Queen's birthday. You know there's a train from the mainland to England? You board the train and the train gets on a ferry! That was the summer I went to college in Europe --at the time, it was less expensive than college back home. 10 French francs to the dollar. What an amazing experience. I was lucky to have traveled when I was young -I got it all out of my system.

    Got to go... been busy... and sick. :-( Plus, Joaquin Phoenix is nibbling at my ear. ;-)
    ...will visit you soon, Maidiebike...

  20. teamoyeniyi
    Member

    Does infamous count? Not sure I've met any of those either, unless you count government ministers in writing.........

  21. timethief
    Member

    @teamoyeniyi
    You made me smile. :) Whether or not they are noteworthy or notorious names in the news are great traffic lures.

  22. gigisanchez
    Member

    infamous... ha HA... THAT is cute.

    Personally, I would never blog to try and get traffic. I would tag my posts well and do what I had to do to get more traffic by setting my blog up correctly b/c I'd want a higher readership, but I would never *write* with the intention of getting more readers. I'm never impressed by traffic b/c the numbers are skewed. It's not indicative of how many readers you have. Someone creates a hit just by landing on your page and it's still a hit if they log out one second later. To me, that's akin to an author being happy that a bunch of people saw their book but never picked it up and read it. The readership in the publications I wrote for did not represent the number of readers that read the stories I wrote -that number was always smaller, and that's the case for anyone writing in any publication. So for me, what matters is how long someone spends on a page -did they read the story from beginning to end. That's the mark of a good writer. Did you grab them and hold them from beginning to end. Even a comment is skewed; some people comment b/c they feel they owe you or b/c they don't want to lose you as a reader (this is evident with most blogrolls, where people list the blogs of their readers). Meanwhile, there are people that read a post from beginning to end and never leave a comment.

    Embaressed to say I don't know how everyone knows how many hits they have. All I see is page views. Unless people are talking about the info on site meter? I lost my password there a year ago and never bothered to change it.

  23. theinsanityaquarium
    Member

    Might be relevant... I'm gonna be in a movie tomorrow with Jean Claude Van Damme. Just as a background person in a riot scene. TTLY gonna get squashed and killed.

    Also, this would probably be more impressive if I actually knew who this was myself.

  24. maidiebike
    Member

    Meanwhile, there are people that read a post from beginning to end and never leave a comment.

    Yea, one is bound to have a good % of these folks. I only leave a comment 20% of the time or less. And yes, if it's a post I learned something new (even while also entertained), then I might give some sort of feedback.

    The people who I chose to profile, as noted, are not movie stars since I never did follow movie stars. Or musicians for that matter. I was just lucky to get the ticket that included a concert by Sarah MacLauchlan. The event was to highlight community gardens donation from the a corporate donor to the municipality. I barely know her music well.

    It's just one of those small moments in life. I was actually surprised to see some viewers clicking on the photos...

    But what I do want to say: every community has someone who gives generously their time, money or expertise freely and often. These are the people who deserve some limelight at a public event and may be worth showcasing by a blogger who writes well and already has some traffic.

    There are ways for a blogger to ..give back to their community. Community can mean where you live or within an international community of Internet readers who share the same niche topic/activity that your blog may specialize.

  25. invisiblemikey
    Member

    @maidebike,

    I wrote various posts about working in various areas of movies and TV and will be writing more of them, but these were my favorites.

    A four part series about being Robert Carradine's stand-in on a bad detective movie, which meant I was on the set every day for nine weeks:
    http://invisiblemikey.wordpress.com/2010/03/07/fly-on-the-wall-part-one/

    and my experiences at a big agent's holiday party, full of old and new celebs:
    http://invisiblemikey.wordpress.com/2011/05/28/the-curse-of-catwoman/

  26. darkjade68
    Member

    @Anna, trust me Anna, you aren't missing much, no offense to those Action High Yah loven Film Goers... Bruce Lee is actually one of my Three Main Heroes, but Jean Claude is def not, lol. Ironically when I was a kid I was in a mall, and Jean Claude Van Damme was sitting in the Food Court, Cowboy Boots kicked up on the second chair, head cocked back, smoking a Cigar, lol... In the mall, lol I don't think people were allowed to smoke "inside" the mall, lol My sister does some backround extra work as well, it's a blast, have fun

  27. laavventura
    Member

    http://laavventura.wordpress.com/2011/07/30/lillies-bordello-dublin-ireland/

    Here's the link to a post I wrote about seeing a super famous person.

  28. timethief
    Member

    @invisiblemikey
    I'm following your blog but missed those posts so I'll be visiting. Thanks for posting them.

    @laavventura
    Hi there. I'm following your blog and will comment. Thanks for posting the link.

  29. theinsanityaquarium
    Member

    @darkjade68: Turned out he wasn't at the filming today (technically 'yesterday' now, damn sleeplessness!) but it was an amazing experience nonetheless! Met some great people and had a thoroughly wonderful and exhausting time doing the same 10 minute scene over and over for 6 hours :D But it was like ttly worth it for the soup at the end, ha ha! Plus, I'm pretty sure I'll be in the final cuts of the film... pretty excited for it's release now!

  30. darkjade68
    Member

    @Anna Nice. Yeah, I know my sister works really long hours when she does the Extra's Work. I've never done any Extra Work, but many years back I did try a day as a Production Assistant, wow do you run your ass off. In fact I spent half of the day Lost in L.A. trying to deliver some little box of something from the Studio, to the Business Office's, and back again. They were not thrilled how long it took me, but I really don't know L.A., lol... Try to stay out of it as much as possible.

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