The dreaded three letter word that marketers wrestle with each month in their reports, the same three letters that advertisers are shying away from and of course those in social media are shouting from the mountain tops–ROI.  Better known as return on investment.  There are variations of ROI, but for the most part it means for every dollar I spend, how much comes back to me in revenue?  Revenue in this particular post means money, or sales or whatever you use to measure your success in business, but for the most part we all like to make money.  I don’t intend this to be a discussion about what the return is or what the investment is or what the dollars are, I want to keep it simple.  When you pay me, you usually pay in money, and that is what you want the number to include when I tell you what to expect for ROI.

I was spurred to write this post today because of a post written by Jay Baer over at Convince & Convert called “Calculate Your Blogging ROI in 9 Steps“.  This is an awesome post and I suggest you bookmark it if you are looking for reasons to implement a blog into your social media campaign.  If you are a CMO, you may want to add this as a line item in your reporting to the CEO and the Board.  I am not going to go over the entire 9 steps that Jay has covered, but I want to concentrate on the first step and that being the expense of the blog or what he refers to as the “Blogging Expense Calculation”.

“Creating and sustaining a good blog for yourself or your company is a highly labor-intensive proposition. The people (maybe you) working on the blog could be doing something else that helps the company make money, save money, or both.” ~ Jay Bear

Jay sets forth a calculation of 3 blog posts a week and for the numbers he uses,  and makes the time of completion at 3 hours.  This is pretty long I think for a blog post, but for some good research, good links and a decent image, it may take about that long to complete the task. He also adds tracking and some other things into the mix, but I think for the most part Jay has written enough blog posts to know what he is talking about in this instance.  His number for the labor costs are what I want to highlight for our purposes.  he shows the final cost to be $2037 by paying your existing employees to complete a month of blogging.  The costs of blogging can be larger or smaller based on the amount of posts and the length of the post and other factors.  These numbers however are fixed, and we know the costs associated.  It is up to you or your social media manager to come up with the benefits and the revenue derived from the blog itself, but Jay offers his own example. Our number does not include benefits, therefore you can assume our number to be lower which should increase your ROI percentage.

We want to help you with your fixed costs here at Bloggers For Hire.  We have been successful because we offer an alternative to the costs you see by having your own employees perform all of the blogging duties associated with a properly run company blog.  We put a professional blogger in that role.  We are a fixed cost each month and that can lend you the sense of security needed to weigh that against the benefits of the blog itself.  I talk a number of times all over the country about how blogs increase the sales funnel, help with SEO and drive traffic to a company website among other benefits.  I can discuss those with you as well and help you with your needs.  Reduce your costs going in to business blogging and then you can decide for yourself if blogging can help you with your ROI.  I think Jay makes a good case and I know I can make a good case for you having your own blog.  Get started as soon as today.

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 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

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

Deb Ng has experience as a community manager and I know of other community managers as well in other companies and they all have one thing in common, they are excellent bloggers.  Deb recently wrote a blog post about community managers and how not to treat them when in an employment situation.  This is a good post and over all sketch at how companies should look at the position.  Don’t set you community manager up to fail is the gist of the post and to blindfold them and handcuff them it is really tough to do your job.

Bloggers are natural conversationalists.  They need to be able to keep up with the conversation and contribute to that conversation.  The thing they most need is knowledge of the subject and they need to have things to discuss, they need to have answers and they need to have expertise in what the conversation entails.  If this is not something that a social media manager or community manager offers, one they should be talking about you or your company and two they are ultimately going to fail at their job.

Tags: Deb Ng, Community Managers, Social Media Managers, Bloggers, Hiring Bloggers

I have been wondering about time lately.  Where do I get it and how can I make more of it.  It seems as though this is the gold standard in my business this days.  I wake up early go to bed late and never seem to leave the keyboard yet I never seem to be in the cockpit of this craziness long enough.  Part of the problem is I love the world of social media and always feel like I need to have a hand in it.  I often joke about the idea of having a USB port installed in my forehead to stay connected longer and more focused.  I didn’t see that chapter in Tim Ferris’ book about the 4 hour work week.  I try to work the four hour work week into an hour time slot into my already 80 hour week.

I talk to many businesses and they all seem to have the same problem.  The business owner or person leading the charge  always feels as though there is never enough time in the day to get all of it done.  Part of my problem is my infrastructure.  I have myself and that is about it when it comes to the "organization".  Yes I have an assistant that can help with some of the small stuff but my core business runs on me, myself and I.  This can be a problem.  I tried yesterday to get some reading done on blogs, RSS and other social networks and go back to writing and doing some of the things that I have ignored over the last few weeks since I have been traveling and I really enjoyed that luxury.  The problem with having that luxury is you have to pay for it somewhere.  I look today over my calendar after doing that and I had to jam my schedule with phone calls and other areas that need to catch now that I spent the day hooked into my network.  Obviously, time plays a big part in how you lay out a plan for your social media program.  I see social media as a commitment to doing it day in and day out.  Not something that can be done just now and then (please do  not look  at me when I preach this – do as I say not as I do).

The best way is to balance all of the activity and prioritize.  Yes, that is like telling my kids to clean their room.  It all works well in theory, but when it comes down to execution that is another thing entirely.  I try to help businesses with their social media plans and how they can work it into their already tough to crack schedules.  I need to take a page out of my own book.  Perhaps I need to hire my own social media manager.  Anyone need a low paying high intensity job for little to no praise with little to no guidance?  I have the job waiting here for you.

Photo via Leo Reynolds

I have been trying to explain to myself, perhaps even come up with excuses about why I haven’t updated my own personal blog, why I am a professional blogger and my own blogs are completely suffering from lack of attention.  It has to do with professional blogging versus personal blogging.  I started out as a personal blogger.  The personal hobby as it started then became a passion.  I love it.  Then I found a way to take my passion and make into a way I could earn money doing it.  That to me was a bonus.  As is with everything it seems I took that to the next level and then the next and so on until finally now I am a business owner doing it as a career.  This is where I forget about the old days and talk about how hard this fun passionate thing has become.

We all have heard me say I am like the saw about the cobbler’s son not having shoes and that is more of an excuse than I care to admit to, but on this occasion it is true.  I must first sit down and pound out a blog post for a client and by the time I get done with the blogging for the pay, the blogging for the fun seems not so fun anymore.  I had that same experience as a ski patrolman here in Colorado.  I loved to ski.  I then made it a job and it was not so fun anymore.  We always talk about doing what we love.  But what happens when your love becomes a job?  I am still wondering about this myself as I sit here and finally put my thought down here at a blog that has been completely neglected.  It seems that most of my epiphanies and all gone to client posts and this one gets the leftovers.  I guess if nothing else, a little whining now and then is easy to write about too.

Tags: Blogging, Professional Bloggers, Pro Blogging, Jobs