The Blogging Mindset: Blog About Stuff That You Actually Care About

I just read this article on the New York Times about "Blogging Your Way Into a Business". I find it interesting that regular folks like you and me can find their way into a lucrative enterprise by way of their blogs.

But here's the thing: I feel that this article, along with other features on other newspapers, magazines, even radio and TV shows, seem to perpetuate the idea that blogging for money is an easy thing. Maybe it is, maybe it's not- it totally depends on a number of things, in my opinion:

1> your ability to actually communicate effectively through writing,
2> your natural passion to share thoughts and ideas through writing,
3> your discipline and commitment to keep on sharing these thoughts and ideas,
4> and your aptitude towards picking up necessary skills and using them well, like internet marketing, networking, etc.

As you can see, blogging probably isn't for everybody. And if anybody's motivation is purely to make money out of blogs, don't expect those sites to be up for long.

If its one thing I've learned- no matter how hard you try to get into it- you can't write about stuff you don't care about for long. I have this particular blog- "Blog. Blogger. Bloggest: Renzie on Blogging"- mainly because I care about learning how to blog better, and helping other casual bloggers to build better blogs.

Over the past few months, I've positioned myself as a writer-for-hire. So I end up writing for anything from pet care products to industrial packaging and memory foam. I can tell you right now that it didn't quite work out very well.

Pets are alright- in fact, I have a couple of cats at home, but the truth is, I can only care so much about how memory foam is made, and there's just way too much fun writing about industrial-grade cardboard and plastic, right?

So I started working on a couple of other blogs- I now have one on radio and the music industry, another on gaming, and then another on food reviews. Kind of shows exactly what kind of guy I am, right? They're all in the content development stage right now, and not meant to be marketed yet until a few more posts. I also plan to write up one on TV, another on movies, another on business, and the project list can go on and on.

I know it's not going to happen just yet, or at least not anytime soon. I mean, it's great if I managed to stumble onto something lucrative doing this, but it really doesn't matter. For as long as you're doing something you absolutely like, something you feel really passionate about, you can just focus on developing good content.

Which is the whole point in developing the whole positive-reader-experience concept we've been talking about all this time.

Okay, maybe the money matters a little. Got bills to pay too, you know. But that's what the day job is for :)

Bottom Line: Blog about something you care about. Keep at it. But don't rely on it to put food on the table, or pay this month's rent.

Then again, you'll never know when opportunity comes knocking at your door, as a result of what you put online. And when it does, you'll be more than ready to take on new challenges, and reap the rewards of what you've sown.

Cheers, everyone!

The Blogging Mindset: Preparation + Opportunity = Success

I remembered it hit me in the face when I saw it on an E! True Hollywood Story or something. It was a story about Keenen Ivory Wayans. You may know him as a successful and talented actor, comedian, director and producer- but for me, I will forever associate him with one of my most favorite sketch comedy shows of all time, "In Living Color".

Shout-out to my sister for getting me Season 1 on DVD, by the way. Great stuff.

Now from what I remember (I could be wrong, so bear with me), Keenen had always wanted to be a cast-member of Saturday Night Live- which has always been the benchmark for TV sketch comedy, even to this day. For some reason, he never made it into the show- but it didn't keep him from honing his craft, working on writing and directing and producing.

It wasn't long until he got noticed- this time, a TV network (FOX) presented him with the opportunity to have his own sketch comedy show- which we now know as "In Living Color", and which I think at the time was positioned against Saturday Night Live.

The show was groundbreaking. We know it now as the show that helped jumpstart the careers of Damon Wayans, Jim Carrey (back then credited as James Carrey), David Alan Grier, Jennifer Lopez (she was a Fly Girl!), and Jamie Fox. "In Living Color" went on for five seasons, until 1994- which was still a very respectable run for any TV series.

Brothers Damon, Shawn and Marlon Wayans all had fairly impressive movie careers already going on at the time the E! True Hollywood Story was done. I remember them crediting big brother Keenen for drilling into their heads this simple, but very important equation:

Preparation + Opportunity = Success.

And it has been a source of inspiration for me ever since. The story was something I've shared with people I've worked with- not just at the radio stations or the contact centers I've seen action in, but also with clients and friends.

It teaches us that success depends on two things: One- the amount of effort you put in to honing your craft, making yourself more marketable, essentially building yourself up. And Two- getting yourself into a position that opens doors for you, and grabbing the chance to showcase your skills when the opportunity presents itself. You need both to achieve success.

And yes, I believe in that.

It's no different for blogging. Building up your blog is the 'Preparation' part of the the equation. It gives you a chance to develop your writing skills, to get into the habit of churning out good content, and get completely immersed in the blogging lifestyle.

The 'Opportunity' part comes in when you start marketing your blog. You allow more people to check out your work, and you also put yourself in situations where you can get noticed by the people you want. You'll never know what you can find out there: making new online friends, getting offered to write for a blog network, getting invited to blogger events, being asked to talk about your blogging experiences at a workshop- the possibilities are endless.

In fact, blogging presents a lot of opportunities for anyone who's serious enough with it. Check out this posting for jobs for bloggers just for this month. And the way things are going, there's a rising demand for good, quality content- a need that can be filled if writing is your game.

So do you think you're ready? If so, then good for you- get yourself out in the spotlight and show us what you got. If not, well then keep building yourself up- and hope that, next time the opportunity presents itself- you'll be ready this time.

Hope this helps. Cheers, everyone!

The Blogging Mindset: Manage Your Online Portfolio

I was with a friend the other day, and just like me, she's just started blogging recently.

So we've been talking about how blogging can open so many doors for anyone: not only is it a great way to practice writing, and general English use, it's also a springboard for learning other cool stuff like internet marketing, SEO, programming, digital photography and graphics.

So after a while we started talking about what our plans were for blogging- basically, exactly how do we see ourselves as bloggers.

Right off the bat, she said she wanted to write for other companies- which really wasn't a bad idea. After all, one of the companies I worked with recently paid their copywriters quite alright as long as they churned out quality material. I'm down with that; writing for a company helps give you discipline and structure, and helps you build a body of work.

She said, on the side though, she wanted to do reviews- book reviews, spa reviews- whatever she could write on to get herself some free stuff. I dig that. Heck, I'll write for some free stuff, mercenary that I am.

So she goes on saying that she had gone ahead to apply with a few companies- all of which turned her down in favor of some other (seemingly) more qualified candidate.

Did they check out your blogs, I asked. She said, 'yes', and so we went online so I could check out what she has done so far.

Now I admit right off the bat that I'm no expert on blogging. At least not yet, and definitely nowhere some of the fine chicks and dudes I've met on- and offline I know who have definitely been blogging for quite some time.

But when I saw that all she had to show for were a few posts- most of which were dated months ago- I could see how things didn't fall in her favor.

Which pretty much brings us to our topic at hand: Build Your Online Portfolio

Landing yourself the job you want is an exercise in marketing and selling yourself. Sure you got the killer resume, you look sharp and show up on time. But if you say you're a writer, and you want to land a relatively favorable position doing so, then you have to have a sizeable portfolio to show and back up your claims.

Of course, you just can't expect people to take your word for it. You could say you're a kick-ass writer, but what any company really needs is a kick-ass writer that can consistently deliver results.

So I gave her advice- this same advice I'm giving to other aspiring pro-bloggers out there: you want to be taken seriously as a professional writer or a professional blogger? Build up your blogs.

Specifically, put some content- 50 to 100 posts showcases not only what you know, but also how you write, and the kind of personality you have, but also shows how dedicated you are with what you're doing.

If you want to land a job in internet marketing, or as an SEO consultant, then you have to show that you have a few optimized sites under your belt- not just theories you've read from books or from websites. Show your clients you actually gave them increased traffic to their sites, and more importantly, show them how you were able to monetize that traffic.

If you say you're a professional photographer, open a couple of photo-oriented social networking sites like Photobucket, Multiply or Flickr and put up your own galleries from your own shots. Or start a photo-blog.

Remember, anyone can come up with an impressive resume. As someone who's been hiring personnel for years in my previous line of work, I've seen more than enough of those to have some conviction to say you can't believe everything on a CV.

Bottom line: you have to have some proof of your claims to fame. It's what sets you apart from the wannabes who just want to ride the wave and coast along. So get to it, and good luck building up your portfolio!

Cheers, everyone!

The Blogging Mindset: Manage Self-Doubt

When you're just starting out your very own blogging career- just like me- you can easily get overwhelmed jumping from one blog/site to another.

As blogs and blogging have steadily gained popularity, you'll find a wide variety of material out there- stuff you'd like to read, stuff you'd like to comment on, stuff you'd like to link to and share to your friends.

You can always check out the most popular blogs on Technorati, Digg or del.icio.us, and network with bloggers from all over the world on Facebook, Multiply or even Myspace. Or even just browse through other blogs on Blogger/Blogspot or Wordpress.

Then you realize- damn, my blog is nowhere near these other guys' blogs! My 20 posts are nowhere near the volume of articles put out by this one who's been blogging since 2004! Wow, it's got podcasts? Photo galleries? It's got streaming video too?

So you suddenly get hit by a wave of self-doubt and get rattled by the realization of how puny you look next to a whole bunch of other blogs.

At least, that's how I feel.

But the split personality in my head that is the voice of reason comes to the fore- "you should take a chill pill, man," it says, almost way-too-relaxed.

Remember that these guys- these veteran bloggers- have really put in the time building their blogs. The awe, fascination and authority is definitely well-deserved. The respect for what they have going on just comes naturally.

But remember this: all those veteran bloggers? They started where you started out too. Everyone at some point had been grasping at straws to come up with a post worthy of posting, just like many of us are right now.

Everyone must have, at some point, felt some degree of self-doubt. Just as some of us do now.

Story of my life, I suppose. When I started out as a jock at this local radio station in Metro Manila (99.5 RT) in 1994, I was a lowly trainee with these big, famous, hotshot DJs walking around. Naturally I was awestruck, at the same time I was the new kid, and I didn't mind that they'd almost totally ignore me, or make me do far-out exercises like talk about a random subject for fifteen minutes non-stop, or keep practicing my calls for everyone to hear. It was all part of training.

But part of the whole training process also tells you to just focus on your own thing- don't worry about what the listeners think, don't worry about your family and friends think. Listen to your seniors. Learn with your peers. Hone your craft and keep at it regardless of any kind of opposition.

A valuable lesson I keep coming back to every now and then.

So it's really that kind of persistence that helps build credibility. Every post you put up adds to your cred. Put in the effort, put in the time, play it smart, and you'll be running with the rest of the pack in no time.

Besides, blogging is supposed to be fun! Heck, it's really all about writing about the things you're totally into and sharing it with others. The money, fame, recognition, authority- everything else- means squat if you're not blogging for the love of it.

So next time you write your next post, take a deep breath and put yourself in a state of focus. This is your blog. This is what you have to say. This is your voice online. And in this blog, you are master of your own domain.

Cheers, everyone.