The number of people interested in blogging has only increased in time. Everyone’s enamored into plunking away on their keyboards for a bit of fame, creative outlet or perhaps, revenue. When people recognize the potential to earn money via blogging for others professionally, the interest waxes. Unfortunately, not many people know what “blogging” truly means. It’s not only the amateurs I’m talking about. Even professional writers can’t be bloggers all the time. Thing is, blogs are different from any other type of media. And most of all, the job description doesn’t stop at writing. There’s so much more to blogging that meets the eye.

Not everyone can be a blogger yet whenever there’s an opening for a blogging job, everyone applies. Sadly, there are not enough problogging jobs to employ everyone who wants to blog professionally. Despite the fact that blogs are far too numerous, the concept of problogging, in my own humble opinion, still hasn’t reached its peak. In short, the jobs are too few compared to the sheer number of hopefuls, so be prepared to take on a slew of competitors every single time you apply for a job. How do you ensure, then, that you’ll be able to land a gig and not one of your competitors? Here’s what I’ve learned from first-hand experience:

1. Have Blogging Experience

Clients who know what blogging truly is would want someone with blogging experience. It would be preferable if it’s something relevant to the niche you’re applying for, but if you’re proven to be in the know in that niche yet have blogging experience in another field, that would work too. What’s important is that the client knows you’re familiar with the usual informal tone of blogs as well as if you can handle posting on a frequent basis. Blog posts are different from traditional articles and believe me, great writers don’t always make great bloggers. To be fair however, that’s also the same vice versa.

2. Know Your Niche

Let me just say that you don’t have to be an expert on a niche when you start blogging about it. The niche I’m currently active in is technology. When I first started out, I had no idea about the latest gadgets or tech news and I was completely clueless. I made the mistake many newbies make and applied for a tech blog gig I wasn’t qualified for. The client was kind enough to reply and tell me about my inexperience. Challenged, I studied the tech niche extensively, particularly the gadget arm of the niche. I’m far from an expert even now. I’m still in the midst of the learning process and I glean more knowledge as I go along. What matters when applying for a blog gig is to at least have substantial knowledge about your niche. You can build on that knowledge later and hopefully, in a few years’ time, become somewhat of an authority.

3. Write Fast

There are niches which require you to be able to source news stories and post on the fly. If it takes you 3 hours to write one 500-word article, blogging is not for you. Most bloggers have to find their own stories to write and that itself might take up considerable time. Since you can’t spend the whole day writing one post, you must be able to crank out a post at the shortest time possible.

4. Have Social Networking Credentials

In this area of blogging, I’m still only learning. I’m used to the old version of social networking. I go to other blogs and post comments, make friends, post in forums and everything similar. The concept of using StumbleUpon, Digg and other social bookmarking web sites is something that’s fairly new to me and I’ve only started using them mid of this year. Still, it’s a plus point if you even know what social networking is.

5. Apply Fast

As I’ve said, the competition is pretty fierce. I can’t count the number of gigs I’ve gotten because I was the one who applied. A client would get tired sifting through applications after the first 20 or so, hence it really helps being the first.

6. Prepare a Kickass Cover Letter

Get noticed with your cover letter. Make sure it’s not like the 1000+ other cover letters. Strive to stand out. Deb Ng of Freelance Writing Jobs conducts a Cover Letter Clinic on a regular basis. I’ve learned much from it and I hope you do too.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 20th, 2007 at 11:11 am and is filed under blogging. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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