It’s not always about your written words.  Many bloggers write beautiful prose and inspire with their written words.  I have often been persuaded to try a product just because the way it was explained to me in a blog post.  That in itself is a powerful tool in being a professional blogger.

“…anyone can write.”

The problem is, anyone can write.  Now before you go off and start slinging arrows at me, I’m the first to say I am not the writer in the cool kids group, this is what is told to me by C level employees of companies.  They can find anyone to write, they want people of influence and large networks that can rally the troops.

In other words, they want to get people that are well respected and have large followings to be their professional blogger.  I joked about this earlier on Twitter, when I sent a tweet stating that many companies open an email introduction with “how many of the top 100 bloggers on Technorati can you get to link to me and write about my company?”  Of course, there is also this line taken directly from a recent email, “How soon can you get me featured on TechCrunch?”

“…with good content comes good customers…”

Companies want your reach and your influence.  They are caught up in the metrics of numbers of followers, page views and mass broadcasting. If you have 10,000 followers you can send your blog post link to, they are suddenly interested.  It is usually not about the content.  I have been on the pulpit sending out the message that with good content comes good customers, but it is not the rallying cry heard from those that are hiring the bloggers.  My advice to those looking to get into the world of professionally blogging for companies is to increase your reach.  Be an influencer in the genre in which you write.  it will help you get to the real work which is blogging for a living.

The power of social media was tested and found alive and well over the holiday weekend, as One by One Media and Bloggers 4 Hire CEO Jim Turner hosted a 24-hour telethon to help the people of Haiti.

Jim, AKA Genuine, is the man behind the telethon. He was aided and abetted by Chris Noble of WhatGives.com, and Jim used his 24 hours wisely and well, interviewing many concerned people and emphasizing over and over to all of us that the inspiration for his telethon was an image of  a little Haitian girl, alone, frightened, hungry, and thirsty, amidst the rubble; the image had pierced him to the heart and would probably haunt him forever.  This vision convinced Jim that he needed to DO SOMETHING, and he DID do something, something wonderful!

Jim’s telethon raised a lot of dollars for Haiti.  The Twitter hashtag @HART (Haitian Assistance Relief Telethon) quickly took over the MLK holiday Twitter posts, sending more and more people to view and/or listen to the telethon and phone in with their contributions and concern.

One by One Media and Bloggers 4 Hire’s CEO was already well-known for his generous heart and his love of children and family, but his telethon not only proved it over again; it also convinced hundreds of others to open their hearts and wallets, as well.

The power of social media is mighty; it’s easy to get a mind-fix that these catastrophes usually happen far away to people we don’t know, but the fact is, we’re all in this together. Today, it’s someone else who needs help; tomorrow, it could be us, right here. WhatGives.com posted a list of many ways to contribute, including how to do so with a cell phone!  On Twitter, people read the thoughts and comments of other kind-hearted people – all linked with the #HART hashtag so they were easy to find – and decided to do likewise.  #HART made it easy to find a means to give, and Jim’s constant and intense outpourings, during the telethon,  of love and good will made it almost impossible to say “no.”

Let the good that we do come back to us. And even if it doesn’t, let’s do it anyway.

On Twitter, the hashtag #HART is still going strong.  Social media can unite people and “spread the word” faster than lightning, and Jim Turner and his heart-felt telethon was a way to unite us all even faster, aiming at a common goal: to help others.

You can’t live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you. — John Wooden

You’re right, John Wooden.  Thank you, Jim Turner.  Truly, you are a Genuine kind of guy.

From all of us at Bloggers For Hire to all of you, Happy New Year! 

We sincerely hope that 2010 is your best year yet!

Many companies are out there looking for bloggers.  This is a prime example and these come into us here at Bloggers For Hire on a weekly basis. 

Jason Calacanis is looking for a blogger at This Week In Startups and describes the listing:

"…looking for someone to do a blog post every day or two"

"…looking for someone to do a blog post every day or two for the www.thisweekinstartups.com blog to "keep the conversation moving" between shows. For example, we now have 40 or so companies that have been on the show, I’d like to cover them in between episodes in a wrap up post (i.e. LocalBacon did this, WordPress announced this, etc). Also, maybe a pre-post about an upcoming guests (i.e. Sky Dayton preview)."

I’m curious how Jason will interview for this position and would love to talk to him about what he is looking for in a blogger.  Every company that approaches us has a laundry list of what they think makes a good blogger.  What characteristics do you think makes the perfect blogger?  Companies have a different philosophy than of course the bloggers themselves. I think I will follow this up with some of the things companies have asked in the past and what they describe as their needs and wants, which should give bloggers a better idea about what companies want.  Pay and salary for a blogger is the next biggest discrepancy.

Tags: Bloggers, Professional Bloggers, Blogging Help Wanted, Blog Jobs, This Week In Startups, Jason Calacanis, Bloggers For Hire

Many companies contact us to handle their content and we specialize in providing content to companies and their blogs.  It has been shouted from the mountain tops that "Content is King."  This is something I have been known to say and others have preached this from the very beginning.  I stand behind the statement and believe it carries with it the proper message.  The problem with the statement, is it gives an incomplete message for the power of blogging and social media.

The true secret sauce of blogging and other tools of social media is truly the engagement of the reader, the participant, and the receiver of the message.  You can shout at someone in the crowd and get their attention with your message and your company mission statement.  Google allows them to even seek it out and hear it on a one to one basis.  The magic ends there however and the true meaning of your message is not necessarily "heard".  To get the most of what you need from the content, you need a potential customer or a potential reader, or other person to interact with you.  You need them to comment on your content, to agree or disagree with it, to question its truth or to carry that message and content on to their own community. This is the true secret sauce that everyone is trying for in the area of social media.

I have seen too often that our own customer comes to us and hires us to provide them with a number of blog posts per week, a set number of words, in the proper categories with the proper key words and phrases added into the blog post.  This is all they want and they later want to know why the great content didn’t change their world.  It is because they didn’t add the "secret sauce" to the recipe for success.  Content is definitely king, but sprinkle a little sauce over the content, and you will have something that will make your company really cook!

Tags: Blogging, Professional Bloggers, Bloggers For Hire, Content, Conversations, Social Media, Social Networking

I wanted to just chime in on a post I was reading by Peter Kim and instead of hijacking his comment section I thought I would just jot down the thought I had when his post entitled "Should you be paid to participate in social media?" made me shout, "YES!"

"I would venture to guess that with 250 million people on Facebook there might be a few people talking about their jobs and where they work."

I know Peter was talking about your employees, but in our case we provide the person to handle your social media needs and therefore, we like to get paid.  It’s part of our business plan right under what we do.  This does make me think about social media as a service.  Many employees are doing what we outsource.  This is probably not a good post to be jotting down now that I think about it, but I wonder how many employees are participating in social media yet are not only not getting paid for it, but their employees have no idea that it is even taking place?  I have been saying this is the year of listening and I wonder how many employers are out there listening and stumble upon one of their own out and about evangelizing for the company? I would venture to guess that with 250 million people on Facebook there might be a few people talking about their jobs and where they work.  Is that on the clock time?  This is what spurred me to think of this post.  We get paid to post on various social networking sites on behalf of companies as their social media evangelist.  They may be getting this service free from their own.  How about your employees are they talking about you?  This appears to be another sub-heading in the year of listening thesis I seem to be writing in my head.

Tags: Peter Kim, Social Media, Pay For Blogging, Social Media Salary

I was not sure how to discuss this in terms of how content seems to make its way to those that matter, but then I thought about the saw that Cream Always Rises to the Top.  Writing well is a great thing in blogs, but writing well is not always the most important thing.  Perhaps writing persuasively or writing for a certain purpose has the priority.  Many companies are merely looking for someone to keep fresh content on their site for purposes of good search results, or perhaps they are merely putting copy on a page because that was what some social media expert said they needed to do.  With that said, content is important for any of these functions.  Having someone that can write well is a good place to start, but they must also be good at be conversational in their writing, being persuasive and being engaging.  That is the real content of a blog or a site that wants to increase its readers.

I have seen some awesome web pages  all done up in beautiful flash and colors and well thought out user experiences.  I have seen them put great copy on the site, and have perfect grammar and sentence structure.  A nice photo that was well placed and captioned.  All of this is the best of content.  It is the rule that Content is King, and I won’t change that statement now, but I will say that the type of content is the important thing.  All of the above illustrates a perfectly executed plan for putting up a business site with all the right recipe.  The problem is it sits there and not a single person gets to find it because the content on the site is lacking.  Not the curb appeal of the site but the engagement.  A good blogger can provide engagement for your site.

A professional blogger can help your site rise to the top with the secret sauce to blogging.

An engaged blogger can rise to the top of the competition.  If a blogger or person handling your social media management is engaging with your customers, their cream will always rise to the top if they are doing it well.  Your site that you have painstakingly put together with all the bells and whistles will also add to the experience at that point.  Part of the problem is the adage of signal vs. noise.  If you don’t rise above the noise it matters not how well your site is crafted, it will never be discovered.  A professional blogger can help your site rise to the top with the secret sauce to blogging.  Engaging content.

Tags: Professional Bloggers, Content, SEO, Website, UI

It seems that there are many bloggers out there that believe that to be a professional blogger you only have to have a domain name a few extra moments in the day and the ability to put two sentences together.  I am afraid that this is not nearly enough.  If that were the case, I would have been John Elway.  That is the metaphor for me being a professional football player. I played football I wore number 6, and could throw the ball 60 yards with ease. I was not on the shortlist for the Broncos however. 

This job and career of blogging takes a talent.  I spoke earlier about wearing hats and other job descriptions and that is all part of the fabric of being a professional blogger, but it takes more than handing over a business card that says, "Professional Blogger."

"…it takes more than handing over a business card that says, "Professional Blogger."’

If you already have a successful blog, you know what I am talking about.  People like Brian Clark and Darren Rowse are not successful because they had cool URL’s to put up a blog and some adsense ads.  They had a talent, they worked really hard and put in their time.  I don’t want to scare anyone off and say, "you don’t have a chance," (just look at me for an instance as the anomaly) because that would not be the case.  I will tell you that when I go to look at you as a candidate to represent a company as its evangelist or social media maven, community manager or whatever the title may be, I look to see how successful you are in your own niche or in your own backyard. 

Being successful does not mean that you are holding up a check with your six figure earnings either.  That would probably mean you are not applying to be a representative of a company, and I might be asking you for the job.  I mean that you interact with your community.  Don’t have a community?  I’ll wait while you have you AHA moment.  You don’t need to be a hall of fame quarterback, but be able to run a huddle.  Sorry, I tend to speak in sports metaphors. 

Photo via Examiner.com

Tags: Professional Blogger, Blogging Jobs, Blogging Careers, Social Media Managers, Community

I often talk about the job description of a professional blogger and when people ask me about that description, they ask if this the job of a writer, a networker, a advertiser or a web designer?  My response to them is usually along the lines of, "Yes."  It gets the same reception as when your lawyer responds to your all important Yes or No question with "It depends."  Most professional bloggers wear many hats. I was reading recently over at SEOmoz.com and they discussed some of the same issues about getting a job as an SEO copywriter.  Ms. Langdon in the piece writes a disclaimer:

"This post is a fairly simple checklist for copywriters who need to be able to walk the SEO walk. It’s pretty top level but I’ve made sure to link out to essential resources."

I would argue that copywriters cannot jump in and swim in the blogging pool.  Blogging is a skill that can be taught yes, but to say that a copywriter is a good blogger is a false statement in my opinion.  Yes, over time they can be trained in the ways of being a blogger like most of us were trained in being a blogger. I will also say that not all bloggers are good copywriters.  I myself am not the person you want teaching copywriting 101.  My grammar is poor, my spelling is often worse and I never seem to have the proper words to get across what I am wanting to say.  Good copywriters are a great commodity.  Copywriters often make some of the best professional bloggers that is true as she states:

"Content is king. Another tattoo for the back of your eyelids. And, crucially, this is why you’re getting hired to write about your Top 10 Favourite Bond Villains. Content that ranks on search means content that ranks naturally in the search engines."

"Content is King has been the war cry of all SEO professionals…"

Content is King has been the war cry of all SEO professionals and certainly someone that is good at make that their kingdom has a leg up on their competition.  This post is written from the perspective of copywriters and from the SEO point of view which are two very important segments in our world as professional bloggers.  I would say that this is not only a post that should be read by the person looking for a blogging job, but also for the person that is hiring a professional.  These are some points that should be covered when you are offering a job to a blogging professional. 

photo via Joe Shlabotnik

Tags: Professional Bloggers, Hiring Bloggers, Copywriting, Blogging, Business Blogging, Business Bloggers, SEO

One of the things that we are seeing in the news and in blogs and across every other medium is the fact that "old media" is dead and "new media" is taking over.  One of the things that is discussed is the fact that old media is dying because their revenue is going away.  Where is it going?  It is headed towards the next big thing, online media, which we refer to now as "new".  So how is the news changing?  It is changing not so much in the items being reported, but it is taking a whole new shape in how and where.  So why is new media being successful?  I have to think that one of the reasons is–costs.

An average journalist according to the graph I found at Payscale is as follows:

Now multiply that by say a staff of an average of perhaps 20 writers.  Now factor in the brick and mortar place they show up for work, and all of the departments that support that and you have quite a large infrastructure of "costs." 

When blogging fist took hold in the laste 90’s and the early part of this century, it was new and exciting and many were learning their craft at how to be a citizen reporter.  We all saw new talent rise to the top like in any business.  They learned how to monetize their talents to some degree, and we saw businesses popping up all over trying to leverage this talent and "new media".

Old Media is taking that large champagne taste and trying to fit it into a beer budget.

Today we have seen the emergence of companies like Weblogs, Inc., and b5Media and others that have taken those talented bloggers and turned them into their counterparts.  This is the new "old media" model.  The difference is in all of this is perhaps they are not charging the inordinate amount of money for advertising for one and the payment of bloggers is another issue.  Bloggers in my experience are not making near the salaries that we see above. If they are they are working at some of the places like TechCrunch and Gizmodo or other large high trafficked sites.

Deb Ng mentioned over at the Blog World Expo Blog her own take on the issues related to Old Versus New in the media realm.  She sees the difference and I make a note of it here:

In case you haven’t been at this “media” thing as long as me, here are a few comparisons:

Old Media: Pay a freelance writer $1 per word to research, interview and write up an expert article. Publish and pay six months to a year later.

New Media: Pay freelance blogger $1 per post to Google and rewrite someone else’s researched, expert article. Publish and pay on the same day.

The problem for old media companies is they are trying to put their square peg in a round hole.  Old Media is taking that large champagne taste and trying to fit it into a beer budget.  There is no way they can compete.  I wish now that bloggers would have stepped up and asked for the money that journalists were getting in their field.  It would certainly have leveled the playing field for old media.  Now we clamor for the ability to demand new salaries and more money as bloggers.  We have set the bar a little low.

Tags: New Media, Old Media, Mainstream Media, Bloggers, Blogger Pay, Blogger Salaries, Professional Blloggers, Journalists