Blogging for Someone (Who Doesn’t Know How to Blog)
October 19, 2008 by Deb
Filed under Freelance Writing
by Deborah Ng
My good friend Jennifer Chait and I both have a common pet peeve, one we discuss often. Yesterday I heard from another writer (who requested anonymity) who had the same pet peeve – Blogging for someone who hasn’t a clue of what blogging is about. Lordy, where do I get started.
Let me share a few stories:
I once worked for a woman who was starting a blog network (which is now struggling). She called me on the recommendation of another blogger and hired me not only because of my writing, but because I could sort of be an adviser. The woman, and her tech guy both knew nothing about blogging. They only knew that “blogging is so big on the Internet and we need to tap into that.” We discussed platforms and she said she was picking the most blogger-unfriendly one in the world, Drupal. I suggested she try WordPress but her tech guy, who never blogged in his life, told me WordPress wasn’t a good blogging platform. No really.
Just get on Digg
During the same conference call we were discussing ways to bring in traffic. I talked about building backlinks and guest blogging, writing good content, you know, the things that bring in traffic. Hot Shot Tech Guy interrupted to say, “Forget about those time wasters, you only need to get on Digg a few times.” Anyone who knows me, know how I feel about writing only for Digg. I ended the conference ready to knock my head against the wall. I only blogged for this network for two months. It was too frustrating.
Who needs community?
Another place I worked didn’t care much about building community. They just wanted me to write blogs, not posts, blogs. She even closed the comments for all her blogs because she felt it was too distracting to have all these discussions going on. More head banging.
I think you get my point now.
The letter I received the other day really hit a nerve. Let me share an excerpt:
First off, these guys (or gals) have no writing talent whatsoever.
They rely on poorly put together articles on ‘How to create great
titles’ and ‘How to sex up your blog’…and so on. I doubt most have
ever set their eyes on Problogger or FWJ.
This isn’t necessarily a blogging problem. This is a problem with most web content. When you hire folks on their ability to use Google, and not pay an expert what is deserved, you’ll get crap. Plus, anyone who starts a blog network, without knowing a thing about blogging, is only doing so to earn money and wouldn’t know how to hire a blogger anyway. He just wants to get the most for the least.
Most of us who write online content for a living know that shorter,
punchy articles bring in the most attention. 800 words is really
pushing it when you are talking to a general audience. The clients
calling for 1,000+ words for a blog post are nuts. A well
established blog like yours can get away with it because of a rapt
audience. We’re trying to learn about our careers. But when you get
into a blog that is general in nature, well, you know what happens.
Oh heck yeah I know what happens.
As alluded to above, a a big nitpick about people who don’t know about blogging are the ones who call every post a blog. “I’m going to write a blog about that?” Really? A whole blog on that one tiny subject? “When you write your next blog…” I even know someone who uses blog as a verb to provide community outreach. Instead of saying, “Can you send this bit of news out to the blogosphere” he says, “can you blog that around to everyone.” This is the same person who calls the blogosphere “the underground.”
So here are a few bits of advice for anyone wishing to start a blog network but not knowing how:
- Read a few blogs. Note brevity? No one goes on for pages, at the most 500 words’ll do it.
- Research a few blogs. Note things like blogroll and comments. Notice how it’s about community and not Digg. Note the most popular blogs are the ones where the bloggers actually know what they’re talking about.
- Research different blog platforms and hire someone who didn’t spend his whole career locked inside the server room of a company that hadn’t upgraded since 1997.
- Learn what it’s like to own and run a blog network. Look at other networks. Ask the owners. See how willing we are to share information.
- When hiring writers, research their expertise, not their ability to make it to the front page of Digg.
OK, so I got a little ranty there. Sorry, that wasn’t my intention. But honestly, if you’re going to jump on a bandwagon, make sure you know how to play an instrument first.
Have you ever worked for someone who has no clue? Share your war stories and even some solutions.
I’ll leave aside your note on brevity and just assume it’s not a personal attack.
Seriously, I do think you forgot one important item – know *something*. Anything. If you want to have a blog about jewelry, know something about jewelry. You can know it because you have a passion for it (ideally) or because you researched the Hell out of it.
I know I’m not going to make money off of my blog, but I don’t think many people do. But I follow (most of) the rules you’ve mentioned all the same. They’re just good practice. That’s what’s important.
Your comment about how she calls the blogosphere “the underground” made me laugh! I haven’t blogged for anyone who didn’t have a clue, but I have written for the clueless. One client wanted me to write service descriptions and find pictures to accompany them for his site. I couldn’t find good pics in the Morge File, so I asked him where he wanted to purchase the rest of the photos from. Him: “Just go to Google Images and find pictures.” Me: “I can’t just take someone’s pictures without their permission.” Him: “Oh, people do it all the time. The worst that can happen is that they ask me to take them down.” Me: “…” I felt like telling him that people are murdered all the time, too, but it doesn’t make it okay!
I swear that it said “Morgue File” when I submitted my comment. Oops!
Lordy. It doesn’t take five minutes to get an overview of any topic and most of the time it takes about the same to find out who the leading authorities on that topic and where to find them so you can learn more.
I’m constantly aghast at the lack of self-education abilities in people. Perhaps that’s just the geek in me? Or perhaps it’s just that I learned the concept and value of self-education very early? (I read encyclopedias for fun as a small child…)
I blog just to blog, though I would like on making one of them more professional. I just have to get myself straightened out first.
Your post hit a nerve.
I replied to an ad about the need for a blogger, but when we discussed payment, the would-be employer said that he would pay $2 for each blogpost.
“It’s just a blog and it’s a no brainer task,” he emphasized.
I reminded him, very gently and tactfully of course, why he still needed to hire a blogger.
” Because I’m busy, ” came the prompt reply, ” and I have not yet really learned to blog.”
I find this employer ” funny”. He had the nerve to call blogging a no brainer and yet he doesn’t know how to compose one.
(Sorry, I don’t bang my head, Deb. But I admit I wanted to bang this employer’s head.)
PS. I turned down his offer.
500 words a post?!? You mean I only have to write 500 words a post? I usually prattle on for about 1100 words.
Thank you, thank you for covering this. I have just about gone around the bend thanks to these sort of antics lately. Everyone wants to own a blog, but so many have no clue.
Right now this potential client is being demanding beyond anything I have ever seen. I would go into more details, but this person owes me money and before I call them a scammer, I want to see if the promise of payment is kept.
I will say this, this person only wants controversial ‘blogs’ on something that is important to me. I applied in good faith and now find that the client really cares about nothing but traffic, no matter if people are being fed wrong information or even illegal information.
I will update Deb on who it is by Monday afternoon, because the ad was shown here and Problogger.
Thank you again, Deb. This was a GREAT post.
Good one Deb. Clueless picture is a nice touch; that made me laugh.
This is every day of my life. Lawyers don’t understand blogging. I spend more time explaining things and talking about why certain things aren’t a good idea than I do actually writing. (I recently had another guy try to hire me to spam forums with his firms’ url, for crying out loud.) I’ve turned it around ok though. Recently began charging for consulting.
P.S. I probably shouldn’t have said lawyers don’t understand blogging. Because some of them do. But most of the ones who find me… don’t.
Arlyn: People like that need to be reminded of the 13th Amendment. It’s the one that outlawed slavery.
John: I aim for 600-800 words, standard editorial page length. Anything over about 1000 is a bit much, even for me. Sorry.
Amy: How do you find people like this? I mean, that’ll pay for the consultation, that is. Nice work! Incidentally, how’d you get the sheep for a pic? Thanks!
If only I was a member of the blog underground … or better yet, the blog underworld. Youse guys want a blog? It’s gonna cost ya. What say we take some of dem other blogs out while we’re at it, capiche?
Great points Deb. While blogging ain’t brain surgery, some brain surgeons can’t blog.
To blog well, you not only have to know how to write (how painful it is to try to read a poorly written post), you have to know enough about the topic to sound intelligent and you have to be able to come up with new ideas even when your brain is telling you that it really doesn’t want to think anymore.
Marijke
http://www.helpmyhurt.com
http://www.wombwithin.com
I’m struggling with the same issue with someone who hired me to blog! It’s nice to know I’m not the only one beating my head against a wall!
What really struck me about your post was the rudeness of that “tech guy”. Since he had already made one bad recommendation (Drupal rather than Wordpress for a blog) I think you have to assume that he didn’t know his a$$ from his elbow and that he was really afraid of being “found out”. Often people who call themselves “tech guys” don’t know anything – I had an in-law who claimed that he was a huge computer expert because he knew how to download movies and use Photoshop. True story.
I would have opted out of that situation right away and admire your courage for sticking it out for two months – I wouldn’t have lasted a minute in a room with that guy. I’ll bet he was charging the lady out the keister in the bargain too. The internet is full of these used car salesmen who think that they can fool most small business owners with just a few well-placed lines about how much they know – sadly they manage to fool a lot of them. All we can do is hold ourselves to a higher standard and teach our clients that we aren’t all like that.
Eric, I know you got the pic thing already.
To answer the other question, I started out consultations with a few folks I already wrote for. Then the word of mouth thing kinda spread to a few more. I think many people want consultation though, because they don’t really know how to begin. I get most of my new clients through email pitches, when not through word of mouth recommendations.
Thanks for the Sunday afternoon chuckle:) I’ve only worked for one person like that, and she was so condescending it only lasted about a month. She acted like I was clueless and she was the one with no clue.
I have soo been there. One blogging client insisted on a ratio of 3 internal links to every external link. He was afraid that linking out too much would dilute our message. But of course, the stinginess in linking out meant that few blogs linked to us and traffic was disappointing. I also managed a couple of blogging interns who were paid by the hour and he insisted that they should be able to churn out four posts per hour, which resulted in short, flimsy posts (again, not great for traffic).
Another guy was really fixated on the “more is more” approach to post length. Occasionally he’d write posts of his own and they were long, rambling, and without any links. Fortunately, I’m no longer working with those clients, because these types of situations are incredibly frustrating!
One of my pet peeves is the client who says write anything and then tears apart what you write. Give me some specifics so I have something to work with or just leave me alone!
“I’m going to write a blog about that?” Really?
Aaaagh That is definitely one of my pet peeves! I haven’t worked as a paid blogger enough to have war stories to tell on the topic, but I constantly get suggestions to write a blog about this or that. Then I get lengthy explanations on why I’m wrong to call a post a post… by people who neither read nor write blogs. >:-(
Rant over.
First of all thanks for the link love
You were right, I did like this post. Of course, not as much as I love drupal (just kidding).
Everything is smack on, and exactly why I hate when non-bloggers run blogs (especially when people tell me they need 5 blogs a week, when they mean “POSTS”). Something new I’ve been running into lately, is what Leigh commented on – the image thing. A blog client of mine told another blogger I know to always go to Google images first! AND wanted to search Google Images for the actual blog theme image. Holy. All this nonsense makes my head want to explode.
I’ve had that photo discussion, too. If you search Flickr.com for photos that are available under the Creative Commons license, you may be able to find what you need WITHOUT breaking copyright law. Often the photographer is flattered if you send them a message asking to use their photo, but this does suck up extra time. One of my clients wanted photos of celebrities, and those don’t tend to be readily available on Flickr, so he was out of luck.
I confess: in my own blog, I write posts (usually book reviews) that have occasionally hit 4000 or more words. Fortunately, I’m not worried about anyone reading it or making money off of it. I once had a dog that was very fluffy with an extremely dense, thick coat of hair. Sometimes we’d find dead ticks halfway into his coat, like they tried to get down to his skin and couldn’t make it. I think that’s how unlucky people who accidentally stumble onto my blog must feel.
“When you hire folks on their ability to use Google, and not pay an expert what is deserved, you’ll get crap.”
AMEN, ALLELUIA! That’s exactly the problem that permeates blogging today, and will continue to infect the industry thanks to clueless people like the ones you tried to advise, Deb.
The trouble is people are approaching blogging like they’re approaching article writing. Uh, two different beasts here. Blogs aren’t articles – they’re mini-sagas, journals, communities, and they’re in-the-moment and personal (and personable). You build a blog and you build your own blogger credentials through your online blogging network.
Ah, you got ME started.
)
That has to be frustrating but useful. Create your own importance to call the shots and get rid of the tech guy causing you problems!