This is a guest post by Ryan Biddulph. He shares smart blogging tips at Blogging From Paradise.
Blogging is a skill.
Skills require 1000s of practice hours to master any skill.
Becoming a professional blogger requires thousands of:
- learning
- studying
- practicing
hours in order to become skilled enough to be a pro blogger. Becoming a pro blogger demands you blog for 1000s of hours spanning years, well before you earn a professional blogger income. Most bloggers struggle, fail and quit when times get tough versus seeing the journey through. How can you develop any skill if you quit before you put in real time?
Imagine that you want to become a doctor. After spending 6 months in college – studying biology – you become frustrated at not earning one cent of income as a doctor. Does this sound insane? You bet it does. No college student with 6 months of experience as a bio major has enough skills to become a doctor running a thriving practice. Expect to give 10 to 15 years of your life to become a highly prospering doctor with no debts to pay off because being that skilled requires ample practice.
But aspiring bloggers exhibit a similar level of delusion after being upset about not making a dime as newbies. Why would someone hire you to coach them if you have only 3 months of blogging skills under your belt? You can only give what you have. Bloggers have nowhere near the skill set to develop as doctors do, yet we need to spend 1000s upon 1000s of hours writing, creating, connecting and monetizing our way to professional blogging careers. Shortcuts do not exist.
Amateur bloggers often look for blogging shortcuts.
Aspiring pros sometimes foolishly believe one can take shortcuts to a pro career but no one can skip skills development. Even if you had a time machine you cannot fast forward to succeed because you would miss the 1000s of work hours required to become highly skilled, clear and confident. No one skips skills development and goes pro because the skills make you a professional blogger. Sans skills, you do not go pro.
Blogging is a serious skill because one needs to develop various skill sets in order to become a professional. Become a skilled writer to gain credibility. Learn how to network with influential bloggers to move higher in blogging circles. Monetizing is yet another skill to learn, practice and master in order to increase your blogging income effectively. No one learns and masters these skills overnight because each requires 1000s of study and practice hours in order to become highly proficient in each area.
Do you understand why few bloggers seem to go pro?
Most think being a pro blogger is:
- sitting down to your laptop
- writing whatever comes to mind
- hitting the publish button
- plastering a few ads along your sidebar
- counting sweet pro blogger money
In reality, being a pro blogger involves:
- careful study of how to become a pro blogger by investing money in courses and eBooks from pros, consuming resources voraciously and putting their knowledge into action
- listening to reader needs
- solving their problems with your content
- networking by promoting fellow bloggers in your niche
- monetizing your blog through resonant channels
- spending 5000 to 7000 plus hours doing these things through thick, thin, fun, fears and everything in between
Being free is worth it. Circling the globe as a pro or simply blogging in your hometown as a professional is a fun, freeing, fulfilling way to live but getting in your skill work challenges you mightily at times. No one tastes the blogging sweet unless you down the less palatable blogging sour at times.
Blogging is a skill with many moving parts.
Remember this as you dive headfirst into your blogging campaign going forward.
