Now it's your turn...

So now you've heard from a bunch of us. (Some might say "too much" from one of us.) It's amazing how chatty some people get when they realize people are listening. Anyways, I'll keep it short and simple - now that we've opened this line of communication, I want to know what you think, and what you're pondering about us. So, go ahead and send me an email: nkelly@thewantad.com

I can't guarantee everything will be answered - some stuff might be things we need to keep to ourselves (corporate spies are everywhere) but we'll try to answer as much as possible in future blog posts.

HOW DOES IT FEEL TO WANT???

HOW DOES IT FEEL TO WANT???

Well I’ll tell you what I want. I want to aspire to writing a blog comparable to the “bloggy” goodness that are Graphics Guy Matt’s blogs! But here is my question… can you blog about another person’s blog? And if so how many times can you say the word blog in your blog when referring to someone else’s blog?
Confused? Yeah, me too.
Well I guess you can blog about someone else’s blog because that’s what I’m doing here.
I’ve been urged for months now to contribute to our new Want AD blog link & in the beginning I jumped at the chance to share my well intended if not sometimes odd thoughts on work & life in general. But when it got down to it & I sat in my corner cubicle of the department staring at the walls I’ve covered in posters & pictures & private jokes between other employees & myself I was stumped. My writer’s block was the size of the Great Wall of China. Completely uninspired which is kind of a first for me. I was disappointed with myself considering I always seem to have plenty to talk about, lots of strong opinions & a wealth of useless knowledge to share with the world. But what do I write about? Why would anyone want to know what little old me was thinking anyways? Well I’ll tell you why because I’m a big deal… well not really but I do have a big if not fragile ego.
First off I suppose introducing myself is an order. I am Leah… the graphics girl. I’ve worked in our Graphics department alongside my awesome co-workers for over 2 years but I kind of ended up in this department accidentally. I started at The Wantad 5-1/2 years ago at the tender age of 19 in the call center. I had no prior graphic design experience but worked my way up helping out every department that would have me & eventually found my “calling” here among the self-professed “computer geeks”. I don’t necessarily fit the mold but that’s ok. I’ve always been known around the company as kind of an outspoken, fun-loving if not slightly over-the-top type, so on first impressions I might not be pegged as artsy-per say but looks & personality can be deceiving sometimes.
Since joining the guys in Graphics I have kind of become a good source of entertainment for the guys, I always seem to be running my mouth about something, flouncing around or telling you my latest story from my inevitably crazy weekend. Anyways it seems to have become the natural progression for me to be involved in all of our newest ventures from free web advertising to blogging! And since I tend to leave my timidity at the door I became the online spokes-girl for our website a couple of months back when we finally went free. You could see me with one of our former interns (and a good friend of mine) the first couple of times we updated our site with the splendid news that we’d gone free & then by myself staring through a pair of binoculars checking out all the fun things we have for sale. It became kind of a running joke with the guys & I that I was a celebrity of sorts now. I signed mock autographs & gave myself a marquee screensaver that simply read CELEBUTANTE. Though I do sport the oversized shades & the extra large attitude sometimes don’t worry! There are no crashed sports luxury vehicles or jail time in my future!
I’m just a ham who doesn’t mind being seen by our Want AD Web Users once in a while…
So I think I ran out of stuff to say for now, but I shall return with more nonsensical babblings that hopefully entertain you for a minute or so out of your day!
Keepin’ It Classy, Leah

Wow, people can actually find and read our blog now!

Although many of you may not have realized, we've actually had our blog up for a little while. But as Matt says below, it's now up "front and center" on our homepage as of yesterday.

I wanted to extend a THANKS for all the feedback we are getting about our New Powered Cover. We are getting a lot of great feedback thus far. Wish I could win those Patriots tickets myself, but.......the rules say I'm not eligible because I'm an employee. Bummer!

Don't forget you have until Oct 12th to submit your feedback and be entered automatically to win the Pats tickets.

Also I wanted to say hello and let everyone know that we have a new resident blogger Justin who just joined the Marketing team. Hey JUSTIN!!!

Cheers,
Eric

Is this thing on?

TAP…TAP…(Deafening feedback noise) Hello?

Hey! The WANT AD blog finally has a link up on thewantad.com homepage. This is a big deal. This blog lived in obscurity up until a few hours ago. Through the miracle of modern technology thousands of people now have access to it. Alright, adding one link isn't too miraculous. But it sure feels that way.

As one of our resident bloggers, I feel like a musician that just went from playing small clubs at 2AM in front of about 6 people each night to playing sold-out gigs at the Garden. I’m getting a bit nervous just thinking about it. Have I really hit the big time? Will I get lost backstage like Spinal Tap? Can I expect masses of people to hold up lighters after I’m done typing this? Probably not.

So, for the many of you who haven’t seen it before, welcome to The WANT AD Blog. We've been doing this for a little while, and there's plenty of good information here already. Check it out. A handful of us Want Ad employees will be in here, adding stuff as often as we can (they do keep us busy here...). Expect to see updates on upcoming events from the Marketing folks, some technical and practical stuff from Neil the IT guy, and some bloggy goodness about us and what we do from me, the Graphics guy.

Keep on rockin'

Matt

Grass Drags, and a silly little misunderstanding

We’re heading up to New Hampshire on October 5-7 for the Grass Drags event. “Great!” I thought, “But is this event appropriate for us?” To me, “grass drags” sounds suspiciously like an event where men show up in Hawaiian hula skirts.

Turns out I was wrong. Way wrong. This event is perfectly appropriate for us and our readers; it’s all about racing snowmobiles without snow. There's water cross racing, tricks and other stuff too.

How cool is that? Even cooler is that this event is the largest of its kind, with 3 days of non-stop ATV and snowmobile action. So make your way up to Fremont, New Hampshire that weekend and check it out. Stop by and say hello to Eric while you’re there. Oh, and guys, leave the grass skirt at home.

So, Do You Guys Have All of this Stuff at Your Building?

A couple of years ago someone asked me at a trade show, “So, do you guys have all of this stuff at your building?”

I was kind of thrown by the question. Where would we put all of that stuff? There’s no way it would work! I responded with something like, “Well, no. We’re not a store. The people who place the ads own these items, and they keep them until they sell it. If you want to buy it, you make arrangements with them, go to their place and pick it up.”

But this got me to thinking; what if we did have all of that stuff here at the Want Ad offices? How much fun would that be? There was an ad for a life-size John Wayne statue in the magazine a couple of years ago. There’s no doubt in my mind that I would have put that in my office, with his six-shooter pointed at the life-size statue of the alien from “Aliens” or maybe at the life size hand carved wooden bear (also real ads…). My office walls (which are plain white, pretty boring for a Graphics guy) would be covered in neon signs, or maybe flat-screen TVs.Pinball machines would be placed next to the desks of all Graphics staff. My desk chair would probably be an ATV. There’s a Honda Fourtrax ad running right now that looks pretty cool. The possibilities would be endless.

Of course, I’d be sad when these items sold, as my office would have to be cleared out. But there’s new stuff showing up each week, and I’m sure I’d find a way to borrow it for a few days. The Graphics staff would be redecorating the department constantly, finding the newest “most unusual item” to display in our workspace. We’d probably make a competition out of it, turning it into an on-the-clock scavenger hunt.

Then again, it’s probably a good thing that people keep their items for sale at their place. While it would be fun to have access to all of this stuff, we’d never get the magazine to the press on time, and then where would we be? No magazine means no new ads which means no cool stuff.

Oh well. Reality crushes yet another fragile dream.

Until next time,
Matt