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. )

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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?

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.

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.

“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.

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.