DojoBlog was created in the autumn of 2011 as a means to share some ideas and information. The ‘brain’ behind it is a 30+ woman who lives in Romania and works as a full time web designer. That woman is me.
I’m Ramona Iftode, I’ve worked at a radio station for 10 years and then switched careers. Web design had been a hobby for quite some time and, since I was already spending too many hours tweaking my sites and working for various clients, I became a freelancer. Best thing I’ve ever done in my life.
My Dojo nickname started in March 2002, when I created my first ever site. Dojo.ro, was made for us Romanians who’d like to find out more about Karate (and other martial arts, since the site is not only about a style). Back then my knowledge of web design was close to zero. I had a friend upload my files and show me how to use an FTP client and, if Front Page wasn’t so simple to use that my dog could make a ‘site’, I’d still be at .. zero.
Everything else came after this initial project. I had to tweak it and, since money was scarce, this was my ‘school’. I studied Letters at the college, so I am not an ‘educated’ web designer. But I have worked for 10 years and taught myself all I know now.
I’ve been blogging in Romanian since 2007 and I pride myself with being a respected blogger in my country. The activity in this niche is fun and challenging, so I wanted to ‘replicate’ it for my ‘international’ public. This is why we have this blog here.
What’s our goal?
I’ll start using ‘we’, since this won’t be just my blog, but I’d like to gather other people who love writing and feel like they have something to say.
So, OUR goal is to have some fun. Remember? When blogging wasn’t only SEO and writing ‘how to articles’ cause they bring in traffic? When you could write an article about anything you felt like, when you could be sincere and just share an idea?
This is why our team of writers have no restrictions. Is there a new movie everyone is talking about? Do you actually like it? If not, just write about an old one that really made an impression. We’re not running after ‘today’s trends traffic’, we’re interested in letting YOU decide what to write about. Wanna write about The Godfather? Why not? Or Casablanca? Who cares? If you want to write about something old or new, we don’t put a damper on your creativity, we just leave you handle your topics AND HAVE FUN.
My personal goal is to do what I am doing on my Romanian blog. Write about anything that gives me a reaction, start topics I’d like to discuss with my readers and enjoy the ride. I don’t se myself limits there, I won’t set limits for our editorial team here either.