Ah Raj,
We really outght tell them the rest of the story. . . . 🙂
If you’re thinking about being a problogger, folks don’t tell you everything you might want to know about it. You might see what looks exciting. Take a looke a little closer.
Glamour is only glamorous from far away. I sit at my keyboard writing this at 10pm tonight.
Those 940,000 hits I just looked up by my name on Google aren’t fun or interesting when I want play or read instead of write another post that’s due tomorrow.
If you become a problogger you will find
- that you have to explain what you do to every person you know over and and over and over and over again. . . . I tell my mother-in-law I write spy novels. It’s easier.
- that every job you get will take longer than you thought it would. I don’t know how this happens. . . . It’s a Murphy’s law thing.
- that occasionally folks who become your fans will send you email and expect you to stop your work to answer them over and over and over and over again. . . . . Unfortuantely, telling them you’re in the middle of blogging a spy novel won’t work with them.
- that you’ll still have the same problems with traffic and stats that you had before, escept they’ll feel bigger because now you think about losing money.
- that no one will be as excited as you are that you’re finally a problogger.
So Why Does Anyone Do It?
We do it because we can’t NOT do it. Blogging is something that makes us better. It makes a connection that is more than what people can see on the surface. We do it because
On top of it all, a problogger gets paid for that.
Okay, so it’s not so glamorous, but with a payoff like that the work is sweet, when you can get it.
Don’t just sit, there. Help them out. 🙂
Liz Strauss
28 thoughts on “Are You Sure You’re a ProBlogger Wanna-be?”
That’s a good suggestion, I think. “I’m in publishing,” might not invite as many consequent questions.
@Jose: There’s nothing wrong with expanding past one blog. Just don’t make my mistake of doing it all at once, without establishing some credibility on one blog. In my case, as a result, I have several dozen sites with spotty traffic and posting and only a few that are just starting to gain consistent traffic, after nearly 2 years.
In my case, I WAS a pro blogger wanna-be and I made pretty much every mistake possible.
Franky, You’re on for that tanktop!
Jose, focus is definitely the key. I want to know that you care about ME and my problems. That means that you know ME and my business. The more you focus the closer I feel you are to what I’m about.
A second blog is a tricky question. It’s based on the time you have. For folks with time it’s the right answer. For other folks, there’s always a problem of one blog hogging all of the blogger’s best time and attention.
Raj, I’m in Chicago. I find that silk long underwear works better than thermals . . .
@David: Hey, how about a Performancing T-shirt? You don’t even need to manage it. Just set up an account at CafePress or some such. I’d pay for a “P” on the front of a t-shirt (and I don’t normall wear logos).
Now Perf underwear, that’s another story, but if they’re thermal, for the Canadian winters
Hi Liz,
Thanks for the advice. I really appreciate it. You’ve got me thinking. I definitely need to narrow my focus and find ny niche. I’ve got a few ideas, but they might require an additional blog. Would that be a bad thing?
Thanks again for the advice. I’ll drop you an email some time. Oh, and by the way, did I tell you I used to work in the CIA Langley building? I didn’t know that there were so many funny comments on this post!
Take care,
Jose
Ps. Sorry about the personal link. My eyes did not see the glaring RED Important: note just above the comment window.
And I had almost sent you a tank top. Women.
So back to the topic. 😛
Should a problogger have own apparel?
Franky, Franky,
If you have that t-shirt that says, “I’m internet famous.” Why haven’t you sent me a men’s small or medium in color you think might look attractive? After all we once were to each other, here I sit once again the only girl in the neighborhood, where the boys get all of the cool stuff.
[she thinks about pouting, but knows they’ll something about girls always doing that, even though boys do that too.]
Hi Liz, life caught up with me, but I am working at being a fulltime nerd again. 😉
You want that ‘I’m internet famous’ shirt? Bummer, I’ll have to sue you because you’re infringing my brand. Or I’d have to sell you the domain.
Maybe I should just sell shirts.
And underwear.
Raj, the CPC of blogger underwear is rather high, low number of hits most of time a hit brings you your targeted audience and if you can confirm, they will stay for a long time. 😉
On a sidenote, I didn’t know Darren had already started his underwear line!
Blogging, the most amazing world : from zero to hero to underwear designer!
A dream come true.
Raj could be pushing the edge and going for reform — He could be saying maybe, as probloggers, we should blog about the problogger underwear . That’s radical, revolutionary, and outright revealing.
Whoa! that would turn the entire problogging community upside-down.
he’s a FAKE!
you DON’T wear problogger underwear? Oh my!
Could you go over that one more time?
I’m Internet famous!
Hi Franky! I’ve missed you! Sure, I call you an SOB, and you desert me. I feel like the guy in that cartoon. Heck I’m used to it. I was the only girl in my neighborhood. I can tough it out.
You’re famous now. I know who you are.
Maybe we should be pro underwear bloggers? Wonder what the CPC on lingerie / underwear is ?
That was the encrypted version. You were supposed to decrypt it with the 23rd page of Catcher in the Rye, then you would have found (and I can say it now as it has been declassified) that the secret to wealth and prosperity is Adsense.
Just send me $29 to my paypal address and I will forward you the ebook that repeats the secret in a dilluted conversation full of bad quotes for 8 pages straight.
The spy author remark reminds of an old drawing of Hugh McLeod.
Person A: I’ve started a blog.
Person B: I’m still going to ignore you.
Believe it or not, I have it on my wall at work. But still haven’t found out who the ignored one is. The passionated blogger or the blogger newbie?
When I carry a shirt with my URL (yes I am a nerd like that) people ask me what I sell online. Am I Famous Now?
My underwear of course.
Glad to hear you found Performancing and that you’ve found what you think could be your calling. Now it’s time to find and focus. Get a laser like sight on the direction and the niche that you want to own. It’s never too soon to do that.
Don’t read too much. Don’t try be someone else. Blog your passion in service to those who love the same thing that you do.
Email me
Smiles,
Liz
Hello Liz,
Thanks for the post. I appreciate your honesty about the pros an cons of being a pro blogger. I have aspirations of becoming a pro blogger myself, but have only been at it for a month. All it took was a few nights of blogging and I was hooked. I would like nothing more than to be able to do this full time, for myself as well as for a few clients (that is, if I ever get that good it).
Since you’re a busy pro blogger, I will be check in on you from time to time, but if you ever get a moment to give a newbie some advice, that would be greatly appreciated as well.
Take care, and all the best to you.
Jose
Tried It Myself!”
Hey Ahmed,
Don’t worry about your name. I’ve just arrange dor 75 men and 4 woman in locations around the world to change their history so that they have the same name as you. It could get a little complicated once in a while, but the benefits outweigh the small issues.
Is a spy blogger someone who spies and works as blogger?
Is a spy bloggers someone who blogs and works as a spy?
Is the spy every spying on bloggers? That would not be transparent and we would have to take that spy outside the Internet. Explain to him or her why that didn’t work in the blogospher.
Hi Brett!
Are you the spy . . . ahem . . . guy, who told me what to do the bridge in Paris, in that links story a few months back? Do you look and type the same or was that a disguise? . . . Maybe you were the guitar player Rene? Hmmmmm.
spy blogger?
damn, already registered
Funny how the world turns
I think that they hear the word “blog” and I see their eyes kind of glaze over . . . they start to pretend that they are listening, when they don’t really want to be . . . I get tempted to talk about random things sometimes just to see what they would do then.
If they don’t think much of your blogging choices or passion, I assume that they don’t think much of any of my other life choices and I always give the worse possible scenario for every aspect of my life, work (offline and online), health and finances.
If they think I spend too much time blogging, I will intermingle blogging verbs and adjectives into normal conversation to confirm their beliefs that I am truly “mad” or obsessed about blogging and blog too much (and carry a camera around with me taking useless pictures if I can)
It’s actually a sub-hobby of mine, and *sigh* .. someday I was thinking of starting a blog about all my exploits teasing the masses // Hmm .. maybe I do blog too much!
Spy novels does make for great conversation. The other one that works well is to say that I’m an assistant notary public and then to ask whether I can have a copy of their signature.
Hi Ahmed,
When I was in print publishing, I had to tell my mother-in-law I wrote spy novels then too. Folks seemed to think that publishers print and write the books. So they would ask “Are you the author?” and when I said, “No I make the books and decide which ones we publish.” They would assume I was the printer.” I started just saying that I read books for a living.
I think “spy novels” sounds much sexier
hat you have to explain what you do to every person you know over and and over and over and over again. . . . I tell my mother-in-law I write spy novels. It’s easier.
Luckily people understand publishing, so maybe if we gave examples of publishing – e.g. I own a magazine on xyz – would be better?
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