Did you hear the podcast interview with the Problogger himself, Darren Rowse? Very interesting, although there really wasn’t much that one who is familiar with Darren and/or ProBlogger wouldn’t have already known.
What I most got out of the interview were these 5 critical tips on becoming a successful blogger:
- Find a need and work tirelessly to fill it.
- Don’t be afraid of self-promotion.
- Experiment, experiment, experiment.
- Look for ways to extend your blog, e.g., forums, social networking, newsletters, audio and/or video files.
- Content is king.
That pretty much sums up Darren’s philosophy about becoming a Problogger. The plan looks awfully simple, but ask anyone who has made any significant amount of money by blogging, and they’ll tell you that, like any other small business, it’s damn hard work. I run two blogs but have had as much as six at a time. That’s nothing compared to the thirty that Darren once juggled all at once in his attempt to find the most profitable, but still such a mind-boggling exercise that I’m now focusing largely on two major blogs. The other four are dormant at the moment, although I keep them on the back burner just in case I decide to reinvigorate them again.
Blogging for money isn’t for the weak-hearted and definitely not for the lazy. If you want to become a professional blogger, you really need to hustle hustle hustle and learn from the experts. I for one am not especially interested in becoming a full-time or even part-time blogger, but as a creative professional, I’m always keen on listening the success stories of people who’ve made their living from creating and maintaining good content.
If you want to really make a go at becoming a problogger, I suggest that you head on over to Darren’s site and learn from the master. Sure, you could go all cynical and say, Well, it seems the only people making money off of blogs are those who write about how to make money off of blogs.
Fair enough. But if you read through Darren’s work, you’ll realize that he doesn’t offer pie-in-the-sky dreams, the kind you’re seduced with by those awful late-night infomercials about the bajillions of passive income you could make off of real estate. (Yawn.) He’s talking about starting a business. And like every other entrepreneurial endeavor, you have to work really, really, really hard in order to see any measure of success. Blogging is no different, whether you maintain a Make Money off Blogs site or one that pontificates on the political and social issues of the day.