The Writers Coin

On Friday I wrote about the different ways blogging can make you more money and get you a better job. Believe it or not, I ran out of space, so here is the part II of a post that I’m really proud of because I honestly believe that blogging is something everyone can do to make themselves a better employee.

SEO

Why on earth would you need to know about search-engine optimization? Well, because it’s how people find things online, and knowing how it works (at least the basics) is essential if you’re doing any kind of business (or blogging) online.

Because I had done so much research to drive traffic to this site (with varying levels of success), when I began to see opportunities at my new job to put some of the things I’d learned into practice, I had the confidence to do it. Why? I had already experimented with some things on this site and had read so much about it that I knew what I was talking about.

That gave me a chance to lead on a project I wouldn’t of otherwise.

Metrics

Never heard of time on site, bounce rate, or % new visits? After starting a blog and running it for a while, you’ll learn this stuff (or you should).

Odds are, your job has some kind of Internet component to it. And simply knowing this stuff will allow you take part in conversations without sounding like a moron. Which is always a good thing.

Communication Skills

What on earth could blogging teach you about communicating? Well, you’re going to have to communicate with A LOT of people when you blog. Other bloggers, your readers, advertisers (if you go that route), and a whole bunch of other people that are going to help you on your way.

If you can’t communicate what you want or what you need to them, you’re going to have a really hard time of it. Remember, you’re basically running your own business here so you have to be able to communicate with all the different aspects of the biz.

After doing this for a while, it felt easy going to work and only having to communicate with a select group of people, most of which were in the same office. When we opened a new office on the west coast, I felt like communicating with people over there was pretty easy: I was used to emailing with a bunch of strangers from around the world while running this blog.

Networking

If you’re read any of the “How to Become a Better Blogger” posts that are out there, you know that one of the big rules is to interact with other bloggers. It’s the best way to get tips, advice, and inbound links.

Successful bloggers will probably tell you that they spend 25% of their time writing and 50% of the time networking. At least at the start (the rest of the time is spend fiddling with technical details…a nightmare).

And remember, networking isn’t about getting what you want. Real, genuine networking is a lot deeper than that.

Portfolio

Wait a minute…aren’t portfolios for ad guys or writers or designers? Sure, but if you aren’t any of them, wouldn’t you love to walk into an interview and say, “Here is a link to my portfolio of work”?

It’s distinguish you from every other candidate in the pile. The trick is to make sure your blog is relevant to what you do. If you’re a writer, write about writing. If you’re an accountant, tackle changes in the law and better ways of dealing with issues that come out of those changes.

The idea is to show employers that you’ve been doing interesting work in this field for some time now. All by yourself, for no money at all (or very little money).

I’ve said this before and one reader asked me how he could write about “Applications Support” stuff on a blog when a lot of the stuff he’s touching is “sensitive material.” Well, it leads into my last point…

Creativity

Imagine if you work in “Applications Support” and most of what you do every day is “sensitive.” You go to a job interview and the interviewer asks you some questions, then says, “I see you have a blog. What’s it about?”

And you explain to him/her that since you deal with sensitive data, you’ve written about stuff like efficiency and forecasting the types of problems that could arise.

It’s a chance to show off your creativity and initiative. How many Applications Support candidates come in the door with that in their holster?

Blogging is The New Sliced Bread

Yeah, that’s right. Blogging can get you a better job, more money, and it will cure AIDS. There, I said it.

Everyone should start a blog right away because, in a few years, you’ll probably be the minority and job interviews might screech to a halt with “Oh you DON’T have a blog? We’ll let you know.”

A couple of years ago I was working at a job I hated, making very little money, and not feeling challenged at all.

Today I have a new job in a totally different field (I went from publishing to finance) making 43% more money than I made at my old job. I’m challenged every day and I enjoy what I do.

Did I get an MBA? Did I become a trader? Nope, it all happened thanks to this blog.

Things I Learned from Blogging

There are the obvious things like picking the right titles to draw people in, improving your writing, and so on. But when you look past the superficial parts of blogging (and if you keep doing it for a while), there much more important skills that you’ll start to acquire.

Running Your Own Business

It’s one of the coolest parts of running your own site: you’re the boss. You decide what to write about, what the color scheme is, what your logo will be, etc. At first it’s a little overwhelming because there are so many decisions to make (which FTP program to use, which host to use, what you should call the blog, etc…). After a while though, you start to feel empowered.

If you think changing things would attract more visitors, try it. For those of us that aren’t “bosses” in our work life, this is a great outlet to unleash your bossyness. The only downside is you have to boss yourself around, but that can also be a good thing.

The more you do this, the more you’ll hone your decision making and overall strategizing—something you’ll need as you work your way up in the “real world.”

Internet Behavior

Who cares what people do on the Internet, right? It’s mostly naughty stuff, anyway, isn’t it?

Actually, lots of people do. Odds are that any job you have from here until you retire will have some kind of Internet component. Knowing how people behave, how to surround content with ads effectively, what constitutes “bad design”—all these things may seem irrelevant to you, but if you ever end up leading a project that has to do with online strategies, it’ll come in handy. Better yet, it’ll allow you to take charge if a project comes up because you’ll know what you’re talking about.

My example: All the reading I did to make sure that I didn’t scare people away from my blog wound up giving me a strong enough knowledge base in my current job to know what I’m doing. More than your average person, anyway, and that has meant some deferment to me on certain things. Which is good, because I got to kind of be the boss of some projects because I knew what I was talking about.

Was I the smartest guy in the room? On some meetings I was, and that carries lot of weight.

Learning Something New From Scratch

This is a big deal. Have you tried learning a new language as an adult? It’s not easy. Actually, learning anything from scratch as an adult is pretty tough. And the only way to keep the brain in good shape to learn new things is by…learning new things.

Blogging doesn’t just involve writing. It involves traffic metrics, advertising, scheduling, SEO, pagerank, linkbacks, and on and on. There is A LOT of stuff that falls under “blogging.” Learning it all takes time and dedication.

Recently, I was telling a friend what she needed to do to get people to visit her photography blog and I wound up going off on all kinds of tangents.

Her response: “How do you know all this stuff?”

My response: “I’ve been doing it for years.”

In other words, there’s a lot to learn here, and picking it up and learning it is going to make it easier for you to learn other stuff down the road.

Patience

You think you know about patience? You don’t know patience until you start trying to edit style sheets in WordPress. Things never seem to do exactly what you want them to do. Want a teeny bit more space between two lines? It might take you a couple of hours.

Seriously.

And it might break something else.

Want to set up your blog, write about ten posts, and then watch the traffic roll in? Not so fast, my young grasshopper. That’s not how it goes. The boundaries of your patience will be tested and they’ll be tested hard.

Blogging is not for everyone, and you’ll know pretty quick whether you can handle it or not. If you think you can’t, you’ll be glad to know that there’s something else you’ll learn too…

Persistence

Every time I read a successful blog, I tip my hat. This person put all the hard work into it and made it work. They never quit.

And trust me, quitting is the easiest thing in the world to do. When no one is reading what you write and you’re spending hours on getting links to underline themselves when you hover over them, what’s the point?

The point is to keep on trucking until you start to “get it” and people start to show up. Is it hard and will it piss you off? Yes.

Is it worth it? You’re damn right it is. Persistence is what separates quitters from people that “make it.” And no matter what you’re doing in your life, persistence will take you a long way.

Part II Coming Soon…

This post is starting to get a little long, so I’m going to cover some other stuff blogging can teach you to improve your career in a follow up post: SEO, metrics, communication skills, networking, and a few other things.

See part II

Image by john a ward

When I first started this site, it was out of the enthusiasm that I felt about having a place where I could write about the things I thought were interesting. A place where I could share them with other people. I had gotten really into reading a lot of the other personal-finance sites out there and part of me felt I had something new I could bring to the conversation.

Instead of talking about minute details like CDs, shopping for a better rate on your savings account, and other helpful stuff, I wanted to take a look at the bigger picture. At the role money plays in our lives and our careers. After all, I did get a degree in Philosophy…so I love debating about this kind of stuff all day long.

And wayyyy in the back of my head, I thought to myself, “I wonder if I can make some money at it, too.”

Well, I’m making some money but I’m not making anywhere near what a lot of other sites out there make.

Not even close, and this has frustrated me a bit because I’ve kept money in mind every time I sit down to write.

Try as I might, it just hasn’t happened and I think I know why: things that I find incredible interesting just aren’t that interesting to the mass of people it takes to draw a huge following. It’s either that or I’m just not a very compelling writer, but I’m blocking that thought out for now.

And I think I’ve finally come to the point where I make a decision about trying to squeeze as much money as I can out of what I write for The Writer’s Coin.

I don’t want to think about what might go viral when I write for this site.

I don’t want to think about what keywords are being searched for.

I don’t want to think about what topics are in high demand or who will link to my post.

I don’t want to feel like I have to post something every day.

Here’s what I do want:

I want to write about things I find interesting.

I want to really let my personality loose in my writing.

I want to connect with my readers on a deeper level than just around money stuff.

I want to expand what I write about far beyond money.

I want to have fun doing all of this.

I know I had a similar moment a while back when I laid down my manifesto on my new blogging philosophy. But that was still under the old model of writing “in the PF space.” I want to go beyond that. Basically, I want to move more towards sites like Brip Blap and Ben Casnocha’s blog.

What About Making Money?

I still want to make some money, I won’t lie. But that’s where partnerships like the one I have with Wisebread come in. I like writing for them because that’s where I can write about things their audience is looking for and a LOT more people are going to read them, comment on them, and hopefully enjoy them. Plus I get paid way more than if I put it on my own site.

It’s just a matter of putting the right content in front of the right people. It just makes sense.

I’m also looking at some other partnerships that might make sense, allowing me to send my content to other sites that can better monetize it, leaving me with more income for that type of writing and giving me my site back so I can write about the things that I’m truly engrossed in.

Things like Viktor Frankl, psychology, and philosophy.

Anyway, I hope that those of you out there will still come back and enjoy what I’m writing. I’ll always link out to the stuff I write, so you can consider this your one-stop shop for all Writer’s Coin-related content.

That is all.

OK, I have some more one-month trial codes so anyone out there that would like to try Netflix out, let me know. Just email me and I’ll send you the code. Update: I’m all out of codes for now. Sorry!

Another Update: I’ve become a Netflix affiliate so you check them out via the banner below to get a free trial.