The 3 Rs of Blogging - A Pro Bloggers Job Description
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The more and more I am immersed in the blogosphere it’s becoming clearer to me that pro blogging is less about pounding out a never ending series of navel gazing topically related articles and more about establishing yourself as a go-to person for information and news about your topic.
Here’s list of skills essential for blogging. I’ve left off any technical skills, since I see them as a separate thing and it is possible to have a great blog without any technical skills.
Readin’
- aggregate and devour every possible [including off line and non-traditional]source of information that relates to your topic.
- understand which stories to blog about and which ones are worth letting go of
- read related sites and learn interesting ways the other sites are presenting content
- constantly increase the depth and breadth of your subject matter knowledge
- study which posts get the most traffic and comments and understand why
- keep up to date with basic blogging developments: SEO, monetization avenues, blogging tools, sources of images, videos and other sharable content
Writin’
- write, edit and update engaging content
- be aware of basic grammar skills and know how to proof-read [at least quickly] before publishing a post
- know how to properly cite other people’s work when it is included in your posts
- understand copyright and when it is cool to quote and what is a violation of the creator’s rights
- understand how to and when to use images to clarify and illustrate your posts
- try new things…experiment with different posting styles and rhythm
- be conversational in your posts
- know when to bite your tongue
- know that you may edit the post after you publish, but the RSS feed has already been blasted out all over the Internet
- encourage, moderate and respond to comments
- use an off line blog writing tool to improve efficiency
- vary the length, visual presentation and tone of your posts
- use the “more” tag for longer posts
- understand at least enough search engine optimization [SEO] to know how to clearly indicate to a search engine what it is that your posts are about - to help them send traffic to your site
- study copywriting and headline writing as a way to increase readership
- understand what the goal is before you be begin a post and align the article with the goal [every post has a goal; these can range from providing a funny news tidbit, to facilitating life-transforming change]
Relatin’
- ping stories on other related sites
- leave high value comments on related sites
- participate in related online and off line forums and promote your site with links and other materials [business cards, email signatures etc]
- use social bookmarks to promote your site and other related sites
- make friends with other bloggers and related subject matter experts. Exchange ideas by:
- Skype
- meeting in person
- sending emails
- read the comments and emails that you receive closely to really understand who your audience is and what their burning desires are.
Woosh, that’s a bigger list than I expected it would be…pretty soon blogging will become a real job 
I’m sure there are more that I didn’t think of, so let me know in a comment below and I’ll add them to the list.
Jon Symons
Thinking about blogging job descriptions…so you don’t have to.
P.S. if you’re wondering why I’m thinking about blogger’s job descriptions, here’s a clue.