Successful Blog

Blogging Your Way Into The Real World

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Todays guest post is from David Spinks.

David Spinks is the Community Manager for Scribnia, where the world’s bloggers and columnists are reviewed by their readers. He also blogs at The Spinks Blog about business, young professionals and social media.”

Starting a blog takes a lot of guts. Making that leap into the public eye isn’t easy! Even after you get started, maintaining a blog that doesn’t get much traffic or comments right away can be discouraging.

It was right here on Liz Strauss’ blog where I got my first dose of confidence in my blogging career. Back in January when I was still a senior at SUNY Genseo, I had become friends with Kathryn Jennex through twitter and my blog, and she was kind enough to include me in one of her posts on this blog.

I’ll never forget that post. It was my first reassurance that maintaining my blog was a good idea…and now here I am again almost a full year later. I now work full time doing something that I absolutely love.

Every young professional or professionally aspiring student has a great deal to gain from starting a blog. The time and commitment that you have to put into maintaining a blog is greatly outweighed by the value that you get out of it.

I started my blog at the beginning of the second semester of my senior year. While I didn’t plan it this way originally, looking back, I think this is a perfect time for students to start a blog. It’s right around the time when most college students start taking their career seriously. They see graduation day fast approaching, and worry about what they’re future will look like.

Here are some reasons why starting a blog in your senior year is a perfect transition from college into the real world:

  1. Best of both worlds. To this point, you’ve probably only learned from teachers, looking in from the outside. Reading blogs, and starting your own blog will allow you to put one foot into the real world, while keeping the other foot in school. You can learn what the industry is really like, in a setting outside of the classroom.
  2. Start to make connections. For networking, there are few methods that are better than blogging. Not only because people read your work, but also because you’ll be reading others’ work and commenting there. You can tie your blogging conversations to conversations on twitter and make connections there too. You can go to 100 job fairs in your senior year, but all you need is the right connection at the right time, and you’ll find a job.
  3. Catch up on trends. Most college courses have one major downside, they talk about the past. Very few professional courses will teach you the newest and most innovative methods that are being used today. Blogging tends to take place at the cutting edge. If there’s a new trend or tool, the blogosphere has it covered.
  4. Make yourself an attractive candidate. You’d be amazed how highly regarded bloggers are in the professional world. They’re considered thought leaders, innovators and leaders. Your blog displays your knowledge, your commitment and your ability to write/communicate. It will be a huge differentiator when you’re competing for job openings.

It’s been an amazing experience for me and has proven that the time put in truly pays off. I meet amazing people like Kathryn and Liz every day. Without blogging, none of it would have been possible.

So what are you waiting for? Start reading and writing some blog posts. Inspire yourself to inspire others.

Building a Career: Combining a Personal Blog and a Company Job

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When we are talking about building your own career, there is nothing more personal to you than your own blog.  When you are working for a company, there are many different kinds of situations which may cause you to leave or to stay temporarily.  But as you are building your career in the “real world”, you can start picking up your working knowledge and build them into useful information around your own blog in the “virtual world”.

Start building a career around your own blog today!

4 Do’s and 4 Don’ts in your blog while working on your job

Do’s

  1. Ponder about what you have learned today.  Start taking down notes, and build useful information that people will love to read about.
  2. Be an expert in your own topic.  This is your time when you can show off what you have learned.  Even though you may make mistakes at your own job, this is the time when you can learn from your mistakes and blog them.
  3. Start building your community and help people to build theirs by contributing your efforts.  Help others when you are approached if it doesn’t take you much in your time and money.  Be real and treat this like a hobby.
  4. It’s good to leverage on useful software and other people’s services.  You have a job, so start investing time and money in yourself to build a good portfolio!

Don’ts

  1. Don’t be influenced too much by all the hype about making money online. It can cause you to have information-overload syndrome  Good to listen, but just carry on building your blog.
  2. Don’t be fake.  If you are just not that kind of person, don’t do it!  If you are not the kind who will want to excel in your job, you probably won’t create a great blog anyway.  Very soon, your blog may just fade away.
  3. Don’t expect immediate results.  Blogging is just for building personal brand awareness.  If people like what you are blogging about, you will get your audience for sure.  It may take a while for the traffic to be aware of you.  Hence, start blogging if you have the patience to build it one post at a time.

Linking social media back to your blog

There are tons of networking opportunities in the social media through the exposure of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.  Social media brings the world even closer now that we are able to communicate and do business together in two different worlds of ours.

As you are communicating more and more in the social media, people will tend to find your blog if they have connected with you socially via an exchange of messages.  The blog can offer assurance to visitors about your worth in that industry you are in.  

Today, there are a lot of attractive blogging themes that we can leverage on, both free and paid versions.  All we need to do, is to populate our social media profile in our own blog accordingly, and to start blogging!

What may happen when you continue to do this?

  1. You may be able to make some money out of it through the huge audience that you may have created.  There are more and more people who seem to be able to work full time on their blogs just because of what they have shared.
  2. Or, you have actually done yourself a very big favor in your career path because this may lead you into a job opportunity or even a business opportunity!
  3. Or if you have gotten far enough in your blog and your industry, there are tons of businesses out there who are looking for bloggers who are either influential in their blogs, or are experienced in the social media.

Is this for real?

Seriously speaking, it is not easy.  The whole journey can be really tough and unexpected.  As for myself, I am actually perform a full time job e-marketing while I am blogging about what I have learned from my job experience.  In fact, I got my job because I used my blog as my resume!

My job is helping me to learn a lot more about the Internet, making my exposure even far greater than I have thought I would achieve on my own.  And with that experience, I actually “document” them down in a meaningful way in my blogs, and allowing my visitors to enjoy what I have learned so far.

Even if I am not going to be able to make a full time job out of blogging, I still get to know more and more fantastic people (such as Liz Strauss here!) through my online journey.  I really thank God for that.

The whole blogging experience is really a fruitful one for me, and I will continue and do even more than what I am doing today!

My question to all of you: What career values or opportunities have your blog brought you today?  Do share with us, I will love to hear about it  too!

This post was written by Charles. He has been an Internet reviewer since June 2007.  He pours his passion for Internet marketing and Internet branding into his Twitter account actively at @charleslau.

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How to Be a Successful Blogger . . . Without a Blog

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A Guest Post by Ali Hale

The Living Web

“Can you be a successful blogger without a blog?” It sounds like a trick question, doesn’t it? The sort of thing you might ask on Twitter when you’re bored and wanting some funny responses.

But I’m here to tell you that it is possible. I’ll explain how, but first, you might want to think about what being a “successful blogger” means to you. Here are a few possibilities:

  • Making a living from blogging (many bloggers have this goal)
  • Having thousands, or tens of thousands, of readers
  • Getting your name known around the blogosphere
  • Enjoying writing about topics that really interest you
  • Receiving emails from readers who say you’ve brightened their day

We all have different definitions of success, but chances are, one of the above will resonate with you. They’re all ways in which I’d judge my own success as a blogger – and I achieved them all without my own blog.

Guest Blogging

Most bloggers – even most people who read blogs but don’t write them – know that it’s possible to get a guest post onto another blog. Some bloggers have never attempted this, but for me, it was the first step in achieving blogging success.

(If you want proof that you don’t need a blog to be a guest blogger, check out Scott McIntyre’s excellent guest series from a non-blogger’s perspective.)

Having just one post published on a big blog can win you dozens of appreciative comments and emails from readers. If you can get a regular guest-posting slot, you can take this even further: you’ll have a chance to write about topics that interest you, and you’ll have a ready-made audience of thousands.

The one drawback to guest blogging is that it’s unlikely to give you the financial success that you might be after. So…

Paid Blogging

The next step up from regular guest blogging is to get a regular and paid slot on a blog: what I call “staff blogging”, as you become a “staff writer” for the blog.

Many bloggers aren’t even aware that this is possible – or if they are, they dismiss it as not being for them. This might be because their concept of what “blogging success” constitutes is a little limited. Maybe they’re fixated on getting our own blog into the Technorati Top 100, or winning a certain number of RSS subscribers.

If your goals are financial, though – if you want to earn a living from blogging – the easiest and quickest way to do it is to write for other blogs. This is exactly how I’ve been paying my rent and bills for the last eleven months, so I’m proof that it works! Unlike the more traditional model of blogging, where you start from scratch on your own blog and slowly build up an audience and various revenue streams, staff blogging will earn you good money from day one.

Plus, as well as the financial side, I enjoy all the other successes I listed above: big audiences, appreciative feedback, and the chance to write on numerous topics for several different blogs.

So how do you go about finding yourself a staff position on a blog? You could trawl through online jobs boards, or places like elance and Craigslist – but you might well find that it’s a frustrating and time-consuming process. I outline four methods of finding paid jobs in my Staff Blogging Course, but the one that’s worked best for me is to contact editors directly.

Don’t just start writing to all the blogs which you read, asking for a job, though. You need an action plan – and here it is:

Step 1: Check the blog uses paid writers
Many blogs, even quite large ones, are one-man bands: Darren Rowse at ProBlogger doesn’t use paid bloggers, for instance, so you’d be wasting your time by trying to butter him up for a job!

How can you find out if a blog does have regular paid writers? A couple of big clues are:

  • Multiple authors appearing each week on the blog, without the words “guest post” or similar
  • A page about contributions that mentions payment (like this page on Dumb Little Man)

Step 2: Send the editor a guest post

How can you convince a blog editor who’s never heard of you that you’d be a great addition to his/her team? Simple: send a guest post. Check the blog for any guest posting guidelines, and if you can’t find these, carefully read a few posts and make yours a similar length and style.

Write a short, polite email to go along with your guest post, and send it off to the editor.

When your guest post is published (and if you did your research and took the time to write it well, it will be!) make sure you email the editor to say “thanks”. Keep an eye on comments and respond to any that come up.

Step 3: Ask for a job

This is the scary step! Assuming your guest post went down well, write to the editor again. Say how much you enjoyed guest posting, mention that you’re a freelance blogger, and ask if there are any vacancies on the blog.

In some cases, you’ll be told that the blog has a full contingent of writers – but that there might be a slot coming up in a month or two. I’ve found that patience, and the occasional polite follow-up email, works well in these situations.

This three-step method is how I landed several of my blogging gigs (and twice, I just sent a guest post and was offered a job without even asking). The last two blogs I’ve started working for headhunted me, having seen my work on other blogs.

So there you have it: proof that you can be a successful blogger without a blog. Even better, if you do decide to launch your own blog (I launched mine just a few weeks ago), you’ll be able to bypass the frustrating first few months of having almost no readers – you’ve already got name-recognition in the blogosphere, and there’ll be plenty of readers keen to come and see what you have to say when you’re on your own ground.

Could you branch out by guest posting or writing for pay on blogs other than your own? Why not shake up your definition of being a “successful blogger”?

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Ali Hale is a freelance blogger and part-time post-grad student of creative writing. She’s the author of the Staff Blogging Course, a complete guide to becoming a well-paid, successful blogger. She’s recently launched her own blog, Aliventures, where she writes about getting more from life.
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Awesome, Ali!
Great connecting with you. You’re a blogger to me. 🙂

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Provocative vs. Genuine

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sealionI’ve been thinking about the difference between being provocative and being genuine lately.

We all read stories or see ads that are “provocative.” They are fun to read and see from time to time. But I wonder… do you trust a provocative story or would you prefer genuine writing?

There have been a few blog posts going around this week about being provocative in your blogging, marketing or overall strategy. I read that being being provocative has value in challenging people and pushing them to think.

Sure, I can agree with that.

Another blog I read suggested, “Being provocative isn’t about being controversial. It’s about being ahead of your time, solving problems in new and interesting ways, and creating awesome brands and products.”

But what does the word “provocative” really mean, I wondered. Here’s one definition that seems to be generally accepted: “Making people angry or excited: deliberately aimed at exciting or annoying people.”

Being provocative to me means trying to get people to react emotionally, quickly, instead of giving them something to think about, and respond to in time. It can mean prodding someone’s emotions instead of challenging the way they think.

If you were talking to a person face-to-face and you could tell they were being “provocative” or controversial just to get a reaction out of you, how would you feel? Would you feel challenged intellectually, or emotionally annoyed?

Every now and again I catch myself getting incensed by something I read which *I* know is “wrong.” I start a post and am writing away but I stop myself because what I am in fact doing is reactionary. I’m not carefully considering the points put forward and formulating an intelligent response.

That could very well be because in many provocative ads or blog posts there are few ideas to think about, only phrases to react to. I’ve read that writing like this is like the loud person at a party who swears a lot and is “controversial” just because he or she has nothing intelligent to say.

Do you read “provocative” blogs and enjoy “provocative” marketing strategies because you are enriched or learn from them, or do you just enjoy the controversy?

By Kathryn Jennex
www.kathrynjennex.com

Toeing the Line

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“If you are asked to toe the line the you are expected to conform to the rules of the situation.” from James Briggs

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately.

We all have certain roles and responsibilities we are committed to upholding. Some of these commitments are made by choice, others we as a result of that choice. (Ex: you chose to marry someone: choice; you have a relationship with their family as well: acquistion).

528447370_1ffc43878c_m Some of these choices mean supressing certain aspects of our personalities. Some choices we make definitely require us to toe the line and I’m okay with that.

When we have a blog we have responsibilities to ourselves to be true in our writing but then we start to find an audience and often that audience comes with expectations. Those expectations can be seen in the comments and in the reactions to certain content. It does seem tempting to just stick with what’s been working.

“Don’t fix it if it isn’t broken.”

But I wonder if we all toe the line a little too much.

Do you blog like you’re expected to in a “certain situation”, maybe according to what your readers expect? Do you write according to how you have always written? Do you write about the same things you have always written about?

When I meet someone offline that I read regularly online I’m always surprised by something about them. A crazy way they dress, an interest they have never expressed through their blog or an amazing sense of humor that I didn’t pick up in their writing.

I’d like to think I can write about all the things I am interested in and not hold anything back . I’d like to provide content a little outside the box from time to time. Something to get people thinking and hopefully provide some value. This could work as an advantage by attracting new readers and that’s always good! New conversation and opinions are always worthwhile.

The disadvantage may come from throwing off some of your regular readers and making them feel a little alienated. Hopefully we can think of ourselves as accepting and patient enough with those we read to allow them room to change, grow and try new things.

I’d like to think I’m adventurous enough. Are you?

from Kathryn Jennex aka @northernchick

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Hearing the Conversation

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Blogs tell stories. 

There are different elements within a blog that make people care about your blog. Joel Kelly would suggest these are “the story, the content and the offer”. All of this makes sense but, what happens when the story you’re trying to tell isn’t the one people hear? What happens when the conversation that occurs as a result of your story isn’t the one you were hoping would happen? 

People are commenting but totally missing the point of your story? You were writing about X and the conversation that happened was all about Y. 

It’s always great to start a conversation, especially one that leads to building a community, but what if you want to talk about your remarkable insights into marketing strategies, your product or service or just delight people with your amazing writing talent and your audience only picks up on a tiny detail you revealed about your personal life?

I keep mulling that over in my mind. I’ve listened to Brian Clark talk about finding your intersection, your purple cow (although I thought he said elephant). I started blogging on my own site this week. Maybe it’s too soon to tell what people want to hear from me. Or maybe I should take the advice of CCseed and wait for the people to find me that do want to hear what I think I want to say.

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Or, maybe, the way I see myself as a writer, as a person, isn’t really what others see.

We’re all storytellers. Whether we practice the art through blogging, writing, painting, photography, film making, song writing, poetry  (I could go on) it doesn’t matter. 

What matters is we’re all telling a story.

Have you had any experience with this?

from Kathryn Jennex aka @northernchick