Working with someone who has an established blog would probably be the easiest, so I'd pick someone and pitch the idea to them.
With respect to the workshops, wouldn't you also have to work with someone, e.g. a store that sells a variety of counter top materials, kitchen design stores, or local adult classes.

Finally, what about publishing an e-book?

Maybe a major stone supplier like Cold Spring Granite would underwrite your speaking at industry events like Stone Expo or, better yet, a Kitchen Designer trade meeting. It is certainly to their advantage to get accurate info out to the industry particularly with all the marketing efforts by some of the quartz suppliers. To date the natural stone industry has largely lost the marketing war by not participating.

I attended a fabricator trade assoc. meeting at Cold Spring Granite's national headquarters a couple of years ago and it was very well attended by K&B types who commented that they found it very valuable.

Karin, I think that's a great idea! I would have paid for the help you gave me today :-)
An ebook would be a good format as suggested above.

Bob Vila has a series of 101 articles that might be a good fit.

Also there are youtube bloggers who might strike a deal with you. Matt Risinger is a building science guy that I have found very helpful.

Also a DIY blogger would make sense, too- someone who uses remnant and repurposed slabs a lot like Little Green Notebook.

Perhaps you could publish a little field guide and market it in the blogosphere with little giveaways.

Good luck!

Fine Homebuilders magazine seems to have more in-depth articles.

I agree: pitching yourself as a tool to help the natural stone industry fight back against quartz is a great angle.

Marketing yourself online is a whole lotta work, and it's gotten much harder. You need to try a lot of things, and see what works. Things that used to work a couple of years ago no longer do. You should be on:

- Facebook (with a fan page or business page not your personal page )
- A blog; WordPress is fine. Make sure you collect emails for a newsletter from kitchen and bath types.
- Twitter. Don't make your tweets all promotional
- YouTube: this is where people now go to learn stuff. Teach a mini course. Demonstrate your tests.

You could also write an e-book. It's a lot of work. You will need a professional cover and professional copyediting (no you can't do it yourself). But all of that stuff can now be had fairly cheaply. However, to promote an e-book that's nonfiction, you really need what's called a platform. Which includes all the stuff I already listed.

These are great suggestions, thank you!

Fine Homebuilders is a great idea. I'm a longtime Fine Gardening subscriber and I like their approach.

OlyRyer, I'm glad you chimed in because your insight is especially relevant. The idea of a stone expo or KD trade show is exactly what I was thinking. I'll check out Cold Spring Granite.

Working with a Bob Villa type is also a good idea. An e-book is too much risk, in terms of lots of work with minimal payout. I think working with someone established is a better plan.

Another possibility is a big supplier or design center that could fill a workshop just in their local region. I could imagine this being possible in metro areas.

Other ideas??

karin:

Unfortunately, writers are a lot like guitar players. There are a lot of 'em, only a few are highly paid, and they love their job so much they'll do it for nearly nothing.

The Journal of Light Construction promised me $300.00 for my rod repair article. I'm still waiting. Don't quit your day job:

Here is a link that might be useful: JLC

I've found photoshopping tiles immensely satisfying and helpful in my own searches, to the point of wondering whether it would be worth throwing out a shingle. Initial target audience in my case would be GW, perhaps yours too. I'm not ready (and paid too well by my day job) to pursue any options but perhaps contacting the good folks at GW Corporate might be helpful...?

What if you had a weekly column on houzz? Everyone ends up there eventually. You should see the questions people ask below the kitchen and bath images, and the inadequate responses they recieve. You could serve as both geo-journalist and "Ask Karin" columnist. I think it would be a match made in heaven!

My only suggestion Karin, would be to become a bit more familiar with soapstone and it's unique properties. This will only broaden your vast knowledge of the Granite/Marble choices available.
Fine homebuilding seems to always entertain guest writers.

Good luck to you, and love your write ups! Chris

" I'm not ready (and paid too well by my day job) to pursue any options but perhaps contacting the good folks at GW Corporate might be helpful�"

Good luck with that and let me know how it goes. Right now they're selling pop ups for the content we provide for free. I doubt they want to change that model.

I interned at Fine Cooking, a sister publication of Fine Homebuilding. They are always interested in people and sources such as yourself. Contact the editor. I would be willing to bet they would be interested in your information.

While I'm at it, thanks for the information. I put it to good use yesterday at the stone yard.

Oh my gosh what is with the pop-ups? They are sooooooo annoying. Treb is right, GW is not a content provider, but houzz is, so is Dwell and This Old House Magazine, and all have online versions.

Where are you located?