More about Blogs: What Experts Have to Say

In my quest for understanding more about blogging, outside the realm of Technorati updates, I read up on what the experienced have to say about it.
I got an excerpt from The Golden Pencil blog which featured Jen Miller, a New Jersey–based freelancer, who started blogging to promote her new book. Here’s to say how a blog can have so many uses.
“Some writers have a hard time justifying starting a blog—they take time and they often do not involve pay. Do you think all writers should have a blog?
This topic has benefited from a blog. The great thing about the Web is that it crosses all borders. If someone from California has fond memories of the Jersey Shore, they can still find and buy the book by just typing in some key words in a search engine. It’s been a the perfect way to promote the book to a very niche audience.
I only tell people to blog if they have something to say. I could probably have a general interest “Hey, here’s Jen’s blog!” type thing, but I didn’t see anything unique about that. I put some personal stuff into my shore blog, and that’s OK because of the title “Down the Shore with Jen.” But a general interest blog? I’m not sure it would find as big an audience.
How have your blogs benefited your freelance career? Have they led to paying assignments? What about any other opportunities?
The shore blog has helped position me as an expert about the shore. Of course I had the book, but the blog was easier to find through search engines, and I told my editors about it. I’ve already been assigned shore articles for Summer 2009, in part because editors found out about me and my book BECAUSE of my blog.
I’ve already made more money on freelance assignments about the shore than I have so far from the book, writing about the shore for The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, New Jersey Monthly, and USAirways magazine, among others. And that was just last year. Now editors are coming to me. I don’t think I’d have been nearly so successful freelance-wise in writing about the shore without the blog. I’ve been surprised of late by PR people who are pitching me stories for the blog! It’s great that I’m on their radar, and I usually try to turn those into paying magazine or newspaper articles.
The book blog is different. I still feel like I’m doing that for myself, though I don’t think it’s a waste of time. It’s a place where I can almost doodle about how I react to a book, and it produces a lot of ideas. I just finished book 4 of 52 of round two, and I already got two article assignments based on the reading.”
I also found out there are personal blogs and company blogs. Let me cite Seth Godin, a known American author and speaker who popularized permission marketing, in his e-book Incomplete Guide to Blogs and the New Web. He said there are three kinds of blogs: Cat blogs, Boss blogs, and Viral blogs. Cat blogs are by, for and about the blogger himself. A boss blog is one that speaks to a circle of people. This is where company blogs fall. The blogger knows from the onset what he’s going to say and to whom. Third kind is viral blogs. These blogs are the kind we usually imagine like Instapundit, gapingvoid.com., or Boing Boing. Seth Godin said in his e-book: “These are the blogs that are changing the face of marketing, journalism, and the spread of ideas.” 
Well, from the start I know why I have to blog. It’s more of how to get myself read. Now there’s the issue: clutter; that’s the reason why we need to be reminded about why we’re blogging in the first place, to bring us back to reason, away from clutter. Get me?

Meeting Paypal

In all of my entrepreneurial life, I have never come across online accounts until my dear poker client. So technically when I accepted the project, it was my baptism in fire. It was in that situation when I first heard the word Paypal. You can just imagine how my fellow writers had a good laugh when I thought it was another courier company, which I presumed to be FedEx’s newest rival.

If they could have seen me using it for the first time, they would have lost their respect of me; why in God’s universe can’t I put in the right security code for my Visa card? Well, it was after almost thirty minutes of not giving up did I realize that I was typing in the last three digits of my account number. And that’s not all, here comes withdrawal, I simply didn’t know how to do it. So I swallowed my pretentious pride and asked my client. My alibi? I used another payment method before as I exasperatedly said, “How can Paypal be so troublesome?” Luckily, my client is a good level-headed man, who seems to have a calm attitude about everything. I’m now on my way of making Paypal my best pal for now until I discover other means of online payment.

And so there goes my first Paypal encounter; The lesson to learn here is, just like any other business in its early stages, going into freelance work has birthing pains. It starts from how to direct the flow of your blog (by the way, how am I doing?), learning the ropes around the trade, but nothing beats rejections; you should know how to handle them. A freelancer should have a high threshold for rejection pain. It’s that kick and punch you give the air when you’re given a no or more nos than yesses.

Poker Client

Chris Ferguson

I’d come across several blogs pointing out do’s and don’ts for freelance writing. Then I didn’t think about my own run-ins with different people as clients not to mention the products that they want me to work on. It’s funny how when you’re just starting to get hold of your freelancing career, you realize there’s so much to learn out there.

My first client is a poker site account. They wanted to put in a tab on their site for poker-related articles. And mind you, these articles are some sort of press releases. For somebody who’s more into literature, poetry, and the arts, the idea of writing about gambling is like a pie in the sky. But in a freelancing writing career, something about you has to give. For me, it’s my self-restrained idea of adventure. The result is it made me want to travel alone to a place I barely know of. I don’t know but I really think it was that trigger.

Anyway, all throughout my reading, I learned some famous people in poker. I wanted to understand what made them hooked to the game so I read up about their past. I bumped into Chris Ferguson and how he plays poker intellectually. He’s believed to have been using some self-conjured theories in poker as much as he does for his profession; Ferguson has an exemplary academic backgound. Some professional poker players are coming from communist countries. And I remember one recounting not being able to afford buying a ball for a toy when he was a child; so he resorted to blowing up some cattle’s innards and making a ball out of it; he now lives in a mansion, driving a Ferrari.

Interesting I’d say but it’s not just that. If only it were… I have to learn to play the game myself; otherwise I won’t know what the rules of the game are and that translates to not knowing what I’m writing about. Poker is not a theoretical game; it’s a skill-based game and writing about it demands learning the skills myself.

Right now I can’t say I’m a pro but I pretty much learned a lot of poker; thanks to my client!

First Steps in Blogging

Besides the fact that I took to blogging because it is inevitable anyway, I also took in another challenging feat and that is to discipline myself: no idle time for malling or indiscriminate time for snacking or just sneaking around looking for another date, which more often than not is lousy.

I have to read and make myself knowledgeable of a lot of things that pertain to my niche. All right, I give in I still watch a couple DVDs at slack time, just when my brain tank is about to go empty. And sometimes too I’m confused on how to go about this.

Luckily, this one great guy of a blogger helped me out. I landed on this blog post that somehow gives me an idea on what to do for my words to make it out there in the public, not just hiding around the sites of my closest friends.

This guy, Darren Rowes, posted a blog of a guest blogger on his site. The post tackles what to do with your young blog and how to make it mature in the market. Let’s give it up to him:

7 Essential Things You Should Be Doing When Your Blog Is Still Young 

This is a guest post from Leo Babauta of Zen Habits and Write To Done.

These days my blog, Zen Habits, no longer has the problems of finding its identity and finding an audience … but there was a time not too long ago when Zen Habits was just a baby going through the inevitable growing pains.

And yes, I remember struggling to find new readers — to just let people know I was even there. The early days of a blog are the toughest, by far.

But they don’t have to be. When a blog is still young, just as in childhood, it can be freer, carefree, and fun. Everything is a learning experience. Best yet, a young blog has endless potential — it can be anything (except perhaps President of the United States).

So if you’re the owner of a young blog, here are seven things I recommend you do, based on my experiences:

Create amazingly useful content. This is the most important thing you can do the first month or two of your blog’s existence. The next item (branding) is also important to think about as you start, but in terms of how you spend your time, writing amazing and useful content should be 95% of what you do. Your design, ads, technical stuff … all that can be worked on later. Right now, write your butt off. Create tip-packed posts that will knock the reader’s socks off. Read more: What Makes Great Blogwriting?
Create a great brand. When you first create your blog, you should think a bit about the brand you’re going to create. When you create a brand, you are sending an unspoken message. What unspoken message do you want to send? Start by defining your target audience, then by figuring out what desires you will tap into. Then craft an unspoken message that will be true to yourself while tapping into those desires. Use that unspoken message to craft your brand (the title of your blog) as well as everything else you do, from blog design to post topics to the tone you write with and more. Read more: Branding 101: How to Promote Your Blog Like the Big Guys Do.
Network with other bloggers. When you first start out, you might not know many other bloggers. Rectify that situation by commenting on other blogs in your niche, and sending friendly emails to other bloggers whose blogs you enjoy. Offer to collaborate with them, to do guest posts for them (see next item) and in general be helpful and friendly. Develop a relationship with other bloggers — it’ll pay off in the long run.
Write guest posts. One of the absolute best ways to promote your blog and your brand, and to find new readers, is to write guest posts on other blogs with readers who are among your target audience. Of course, it’s hard to get a guest post slot on big blogs when you’re just a little guy. So start with blogs that are just a little bigger than you — if you have 10 readers, go for a blog with 100-200 readers. If you have 100 readers, go for a blog with 300-500 readers, and so on. Before you start doing guest posts, however, be sure to have 10-12 solid, powerful, insanely useful posts on your blog. You want your new readers to come to your blog and be struck by a great first impression. Every guest post you write should be as amazingly useful and tip-packed as the ones on your blog (see first item).
Experiment and have fun. Once you’re a blogging powerhouse, you have thousands of readers’ expectations to live up to. You have to put up great content every day, and each word is scrutinized. So take advantage of your youth as a blog — have a blast! Experiment, try out different writing techniques, imitate other blogs, try humor and rants and moving personal essays. Try to write a post that will become popular in the social media. Find your voice as a writer. Seek inspiration and write whatever you’re inspired to write.
Get out there, often. Now is the time to start becoming more visible, and to spread your brand as much as possible. Comment on many other blogs, participate in blog carnivals, send links to other bloggers and see if they’ll share them with their readers, participate in contests. Be visible.
Seek out your potential. You can be anything you want to be when you’re just starting out. Figure out what that will be. Aspire to great heights, and seek to raise your level of blogging each step of the way. Find your path to greatness as a blogger. Try new paths, and find what fits you. Follow your passion, your inspiration, and above all, enjoy the journey!

Writer’s Perks

All right, let me tell you the truth. I didn’t plan on blogging about my writing services. The irony of it all, is that a client was the one shoving me to do it (how very kind of him). I was about to give up on my writing, cause like many in my league I’m afraid of poverty and I have such grandiose ambitions (a grand vacation to Europe and living in an eighteenth-century mansion).

Then I started reading about what some other freelance writers are blogging about. I found out that we are in pretty much the same shape although they may have resigned to the idea of writing as a lifetime profession so long ago. So to give me a boost, I wrote a list of all the perks a writer can have:

Respect- I don’t know with you but the moment I finished my Journalism degree and went out to the world to make myself useful, people started believing in whatever I say whenever they know I’m a journalist, no matter if I’m practicing it or not. Then I realized just recently it’s not the degree but the fact that I write that makes them look up to me like I’m John the Baptist.

Freedom from Conventions- I can dress, say, do, eat, go, and sing about anything I want to even if it’s the most unusual thing for someone to do and people will just say, “Oh, she’s always like that; she’s a writer.” So I can gate crash a party wearing my nightie and let it pass off as a dress.

Variety of Friends- I don’t think being a writer demands you to rub elbows with only the great and mighty; you’ll never encounter real life characters in that line of business. Since a writer is a person who’s mind isn’t restrained to one mold, he can easily go by with different people. Oh, unless you’re Danielle Steel or John Grisham, but even so, they still need a dose of inspiration from people.

Creativity- When you’re born with it, the very thing of letting it off in any medium you are inclined to is a gift and a lifetime opportunity. Most people just express but not create. Creativity is more like finding a seed and making it grow into a eucalyptus tree with a poinsettia on top.

Love and Life- Although writers are believed to be suicide prone, I have a different manner of looking at it. Virginia Woolf killed herself cause she didn’t want to hurt her husband of the truth that she’s a lesbian. Sylvia Plath burned her head in an oven to escape the path of not raising her children well. As you can see, writers are filled with life and love to the brim; it’s only that they have peculiarities in showing it.

This may be just a good shot at rationalizing my existence, but one thing I’m sure of: you are born once with it; there’s no way you’re born again without it.