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.

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 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

Perhaps Thord Daniel Hedengren of the Blog Herald has said it best:  Blogging probably is America’s Newest Profession, and it shows.

Over at The Wall Street Journal’s Busines website, Mark Penn states that there are almost as many people making their living as bloggers as there are lawyers.

There are, of course, those who disagree with this statement, but I am not one of those.  I think Penn is correct.

Here is the Wall Street Journal article.  What do you think of it?  Is Penn’s view of paid bloggers accurate?  Please.  Give us YOUR take on this! Let the comments commence:

In America today, there are almost as many people making their living as bloggers as there are lawyers. Already more Americans are making their primary income from posting their opinions than Americans working as computer programmers or firefighters.

Paid bloggers fit just about every definition of a microtrend: Their ranks have grown dramatically over the years, blogging is an important social and cultural movement that people care passionately about, and the number of people doing it for at least some income is approaching 1% of American adults.

The best studies we can find say we are a nation of over 20 million bloggers, with 1.7 million profiting from the work, and 452,000 of those using blogging as their primary source of income. That’s almost 2 million Americans getting paid by the word, the post, or the click — whether on their site or someone else’s. And that’s nearly half a million of whom it can be said, as Bob Dylan did of Hurricane Carter: “It’s my work he’d say, I do it for pay.”

This could make us the most noisily opinionated nation on earth. The Information Age has spawned many new professions, but blogging could well be the one with the most profound effect on our culture. If journalists were the Fourth Estate, bloggers are becoming the Fifth Estate.

What started as a discussion forum for progressive politics and new technologies has now been applied to motherhood, health care, the arts, fashion, dentistry — and just about every other imaginable area of life. What started as a hobby and an outlet for volunteers is becoming big business for newly emerging sites, for companies that now depend upon their reviews and for the people who work in this new industry.

All this fits with the trend toward Opinion TV. Less and less of our information flow is devoted to gathering facts, and more and more is going toward popularizing opinion. Twenty-four-hour news channels have been replaced by 24-hour opinion channels. The chatter is the story.

Demographically, bloggers are extremely well educated: three out of every four are college graduates. Most are white males reporting above-average incomes. One out of three young people reports blogging, but bloggers who do it for a living successfully are 2% of bloggers overall. It takes about 100,000 unique visitors a month to generate an income of $75,000 a year. Bloggers can get $75 to $200 for a good post, and some even serve as “spokesbloggers” — paid by advertisers to blog about products. As a job with zero commuting, blogging could be one of the most environmentally friendly jobs around — but it can also be quite profitable. For sites at the top, the returns can be substantial. At some point the value of the Huffington Post will no doubt pass the value of the Washington Post.

The barriers to entry couldn’t be lower. Most bloggers for hire pay $80 to get started, do it for about 35 months, and make a few hundred dollars. But a subgroup of these bloggers are the true professionals who work at corporations, serve as highly paid blogging consultants or write for sites with substantial traffic.

Pros who work for companies are typically paid $45,000 to $90,000 a year for their blogging. One percent make over $200,000. And they report long hours — 50 to 60 hours a week.

As bloggers have increased in numbers, the number of journalists has significantly declined. In Washington alone, there are now 79% fewer DC-based employees of major newspapers than there were just few years ago. At the same time, Washington is easily the most blogged-about city in America, if not the world.

Almost no blogging is by subscription; rather, it owes it economic model to on-line advertising. Bloggers make money if their consumers click the ads on their sites. Some sites even pay writers by the click, which is of course a system that promotes sensationalism, or doing whatever it takes to get noticed.

The United Kingdom has just had a major scandal in which an official at 10 Downing Street had planned to leak to a friendly blogger all sorts of lurid stories about the Conservatives, complete with descriptions of secret sex tapes. But all of it was to be made up, and the friendly blogger who was going to post it all thought it was an “absolutely brilliant” idea. Someone blew the whistle, but had the plot gone through, this blogstorm could have played a major role in the upcoming election.

As a political pollster, I always observed that the poll that often got the most coverage was the one that was different from the others, regardless of whether it was right, or whether the pollster had any track record. This is true with opinions, too: those on the extreme right or left, or those that are the most titillating, seem to drive the most traffic through their sites. The center doesn’t seem to have either the edge or the passion to grab the same kind of traffic.

The implications of bloggers for hire are substantial. While many bloggers probably support unionization in general, they have no union of their own. Most have no benefits, yet they work long hours in front of computer screens which could cause a variety of health ailments. And the owners of the big sites most often pay their bloggers as freelancers, avoiding all of those taxes and benefits that newspapers have to pay for their writers.

For now, bloggers say they are overwhelmingly happy in their work, reporting high job satisfaction. But what happens if they, too, lose work; are they covered by unemployment insurance if tastes change and their sites go under? Are they considered journalists under shield laws? Are they subject to libel suits? Are there any limits to the opinions they churn out, or any standards to rein them in? Is there someone to complain to about false blogs or hidden conflicts? At the recent Consumer Electronics Show, Panasonic outfitted bloggers with free Panasonic equipment; did that affect their opinions about the companies they wrote about? There are more questions than answers about America’s Newest Profession.

It is hard to think of another job category that has grown so quickly and become such a force in society without having any tests, degrees, or regulation of virtually any kind. Courses on blogging are now cropping up, and we can’t be far away from the Columbia School of Bloggerism. There is a lot of interest now in Twittering and Facebooking — but those venues don’t offer the career opportunities of blogging. Not since eBay opened its doors have so many been able to sit at their computer screens and make some money, or even make a whole living.

And with millions of human-hours now going into writing and recording opinion, we have to wonder whether being the blogging capital of the world will help America compete in the global economy. Maybe all this self-criticism will propel us forward by putting us on the right track and helping us choose the right products. Maybe it will create a resurgence in the art of writing and writing courses. Or serve as a safety net for out of work professionals in the crisis. But for how long can nearly 500,000 people who are gradually replacing whole swaths of journalists survive with no worker protections, no enforced ethics codes, limited standards, and, for most , no formal training? Even the “Wild West” eventually became just the “West.”

Mark Penn Responds:

People have raised questions about the calculations on the numbers of bloggers for hire. First, I was surprised at how few studies there are on this and I believe there definitely should be more. So perhaps in the future I will do some original research, but for this piece we took the best we could find and referenced every number so people would know where they came from.

There is no question that the blogosphere, fast-growing as it is, has yet to nail down one way to measure itself or gauge its activity. But the most comprehensive sources we could find, conducted by reputable professionals, say there are over 22 million bloggers out there; and that 2% of bloggers are making their living blogging. Do the math, and you get roughly 450,000. It’s a fast-growing group and we ignore their needs, and influence, at our peril.

As far as the $75,000, the Technorati report says that of those bloggers who had 100,000 or more unique visitors, the average income is $75,000. True, it’s not the median, but it is the average. We can quibble about how easy it is to make this kind of money — but the point is, the huge potential is there.

Here are some further details on the sources and calculations:

The Technorati Poll — The methodology stipulates that in order to qualify for the survey, Technorati “state of the blogosphere” respondents needed to be bloggers over 18 years old. The survey was hosted by Decipher Inc., was in the field from July 28, 2008 through August 4, 2008, and received 1,290 completed responses from 66 countries. Survey design and analysis was conducted by Dr. Michele Madansky and Polly Arenberg. Dr. Michele Madansky runs a media and market research consultancy specializing in online media and Internet startups. From 2003 to 2007, Michele was vice president of global market research for Yahoo! Polly Arenberg is a marketing strategist with more than 20 years of experience; her clients include Yahoo!, Microsoft and Flickr, as well as numerous start-ups.

The 2% of bloggers making a living comes straight from the Technorati Poll. The total number of bloggers–22.6 million–is supported by a research report from eMarketer (2% of 22,6 million is 452,000). This report was written in May 2008 by Paul Verna, a senior analyst there: “The Blogosphere report aggregates the latest data from marketing and communications researchers with eMarketer analysis to provide the information you need to make smart, accurate business decisions.”

The question of how much traffic it takes to make a living also comes from the Technorati report. We say it takes “about 100,000 unique visitors a month to generate an income of $75,000 a year” and Technorati states those who had 100,000 or more unique visitors the average income is $75,000

I was reading a blog post by Seth Godin this morning and he asks the question: What would a professional do? I can see the campaign now behind WWPD. All kidding aside Seth raises some good points in the blog post. In our everyday lives we are up against professionals. I consider myself a jack of all trades master of none, and I grasp his point with clarity. How do we as business owners compete with that? He suggests a list of how we can look at it:

When you compete with professionals, you have a problem, because generally speaking, they’re better at what they do than you are.

I think there are four valid ways the think your way out of this situation:

1. Hire a professional.

2. Be as good as a professional.

3. Realize that professional-quality work is not required or available and merely come close.

4. Do work that a professional wouldn’t dare do, and use this as an advantage.

I like the first option as someone that helps businesses by outsourcing talent like professional bloggers. He is correct in stating that this option requires time and money and these may not be the best options given your situation. I would argue that it is the best investment however, and your time and energy can be used in other areas for a small investment of money. The second option is a good if you can afford a little time and effort. The third option is for those that just want to get into the blogosphere and participate. This is still a good option for your business. There are benefits of being in the game that you will have over your competition. I really like that he put in the fourth option as this is what makes you stand out in the crowd. So what if you are not a professional blogger. You still have an edge because its your business and you can be flexible and passionate. Do something fun with it, and know that you are the one that is to blame if it goes wrong. This is a powerful way of blogging. Seth is right, you are the Captain of your own ship, and there is no way a professional blogger can compete with that way of doing business.

We have heard the idea behind “Blogging Is Dead…” We have also heard about the death of newspapers and the traditional media journalists that are losing their careers to the “citizen journalists” and those that are doing it as hobbyists. We have seen this in play for 2008, but what does this mean for the future of blogging and the future of journalism? I was reading recently about Ann Handley discussing the fact that companies should be hiring journalists if they want to leverage content in the future on their sites. Here is Ann’s prediction and advice:

“If you are thinking of increasing your content play in 2009, hire a journalist.” ~ Ann Handley

“In 2009, an increasing number of journalists find themselves out of work at traditional newspapers, which continue to struggle with sustaining their business. Good news: the writers find a home as “content producers” and “content managers” on the corporate side, in companies of all shapes and sizes.

People who are trained as journalists are specifically geared to helping companies execute on their 2009 marketing strategy, which is to become trusted sources of information within their specific industries. They can help companies see the wisdom of talking less about the company itself, and more about solutions they can help their customers with. They are wonderfully creative in developing interesting and compelling content.

Advice: If you are thinking of increasing your content play in 2009, hire a journalist.”

This is going to be what I see as 2009 unfolds. I have been gettting many inquiries about our service. Companies are seeing the benefits of outsourcing their content needs. I am not going to address the “Bloggers vs. Journalists” debate that many have bantered about over the past, that is for another post. Suffice it to say, journalists will need to learn the blogging trade, and you bloggers should probably begin to take some of the wisdom we see in journalism and make it part of your arsenal. I myself could use some lessons in journalistic writing.

This is going to be the new look of professional blogging and it really began when the demise of newspapers and other traditional media began to lose readers to the dreaded Internet. Just as the scribes lost their monopoly when the printing press became prolific, so to are traditional media outlets losing their grip on what they held as a monopoly. This is really a career and position that is in its infancy. I am looking to leverage the future of professional blogging and how companies are looking to a better blogger. Journalists are far ahead in the professional blogging game. They already have the tools necessary. When they learn the blogging game, the ability to network, market and build community as bloggers, they will dominate this space.

[Photo via aloshbennett]

I am often asked by many clients and companies that I consult with about blogging, “Do I link out to my competition?” In a word, absolutely. I want to keep in that fashion with today’s post. There are just some blog posts that need to be brought to the attention of readers, and my competition (more like a colleague or partner in crime) has written such a blog post that needs to be read by you my readers. Chris Brogan writes today about “40 Ways To Deliver Killer Blog Content.” Being as it is, and Chris’ regional dialect, I would have guessed he would have called it “Wicked Blog Content”, but I digress. Chris talks about getting a jump on your New Year’s Resolution:

This is your chance to get out there and kick ass. ~ Chris Brogan

“You can make your New Year’s resolution almost a full month early. Here’s what you can commit to for 2009: you’re going to have a killer blog. You’re going to write the kind of blog people post, tweet, link, and even print to stick up on their office wall. Your blog in 2009 is going to be the kind of blog that people use to power their own change. This is your chance to get out there and kick ass.”

Chris is right of course. Now is the time to get ready for the 2009 year of new business. Many companies are just now gearing dow for the year and ending 2008 budgets and plans, but are also looking ahead to 2009 and new programs and campaigns. If you are a blogger that is producing ‘Killer Content” then you too can be ahead of the game when companies go looking for that perfect blogger or social media evangelist.

If you are a blogger you should pay attention to this post and learn the 40 ways to deliver “Killer Content.” As a company looking to hire a blogger, you should and can expect your professional blogger to bring to the table this type of expertise.

I will be in Miami next week speaking on a panel put together by Rick Calvert of Blog World Expo, and Chris Brogan will be on the panel with Rick and I. I am looking forward to spending a little time with Chris and picking his brain a little more on what I still think should be how to produce “wicked cool content.”

[photo via abnelphoto.com]

Some of the things that is an important part of being a professional blogger or being a blogger that companies want to hire is your online portfolio or what they can find of your work. You need to build your online presence that can be found by potential employers or companies looking to hire your services. I ran across that very chance to increase your resume. My friend Peter is calling for articles for Website Magazine:

“If you are a Web professional who has mastered SEO, SEM, analytics, Web design, Web development, e-commerce or affiliate marketing, and are interested in being published in the most widely distributed print publication on Web success, send an email with a brief descirption of your idea(s) for an article to editors@websitemagazine.com or contact WM online now.”

Get yourself published in some of these places and you might get that job over someone that is not as “experienced”.

I recently attended an invitation only conference or business meeting here in Boulder just last month, and was able to meet a new colleague in the social media marketing area.  This person is doing very cool things and not just in business, but also because he jumps out of perfectly good airplanes!  I am speaking about Peter Shankman.

Peter has been in the public relations industry for a while now and he has done some really cool things, like write a book.  His site describes him perfectly as I remember him from the conference:

…when you harness the power of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and make it work to your advantage.

“PR Week Magazine has described Peter as “redefining the art of networking,” and Investor’s Business Daily has called him “crazy, but effective.”  Peter Shankman is a spectacular example of what happens when you harness the power of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and make it work to your advantage.  An entrepreneur, author, speaker, and ingenious worldwide connector, Peter is recognized nationally and globally for radically new ways of thinking about social media, PR, marketing, advertising, creativity, and just about everything else, as well.”

It is his latest project that has everyone including his competition standing up to take notice.  The phrase that gets the attention for his new project is “Everyone Is An Expert At Something.”  Peter does not lie, as I think I can be an expert in at least two or three things in this world such as procrastination or daydreaming, but his premise is right on the money.  I sell the idea to companies all the time.  There is an expert blogger out there for just about any business.  Go ahead and challenge me.  I can’t think of a business that doesn’t have at least one person that is passionate about it.  The thing that can be a problem is how do they get the information for their blog posts after they run out of their own expertise? 

HARO could be seen as the perfect matchmaker.

One way is to go out and get the information.  Peter’s business allows for that very concept in Help A Reporter Out. HARO, as it is known, is a site that can allow for reporters, journalists and yes in some cases even us lowly bloggers, to get information from experts in any field.  It does one of the things that Peter does so well but on a much larger scale, it puts people together that need each other.  HARO could be seen as the perfect matchmaker.  It’s easy to sign up for the service if you are looking for or are wanting to loan your own expertise.  Take the time, and you may be the next expert quoted in the New York Times, or perhaps even one of your favorite blogs!

[Peter Shankman photo via Shankman.com, Reporter Notebook photo via sskennel]