Habits of Semi-Effective ProBloggers

Darren challenged his readers to come up with group project of sorts. In writing a post about the “X habits of highly effective bloggers” he found that he found examples both for and against each habit. The challenge was then put forth to post what you believe are the habits of a highly effective blogger. Now, I am most certainly not a “ProBlogger” in the sense that I make my living from blogging. I am a “ProBlogger” in the sense that I do make some money from blogging. Barely enough to cover my hosting, but that is beside the point.

Darren started us all off by listing the habits he believes are conducive to highly effective blogging and now, I’m going to rattle off a few that I think are essential.

1) Organization – Organize your work path. Have a set order that you work in. I, for instance, open up bloglines and begin reading. As I read my feeds, I open up the ones that I am interested in blogging about or because of in new tabs(guess which browser I use). That isn’t to say that all of my blogging comes from this method, but a majority of blogging is participation in the conversation.

2) Participation – Your Blog is not a Pulpit. Participate in your comments and on the blogs of your fellow bloggers. The greatest bit about the blogosphere is that it is a worldwide conversation where you can be heard. If all you do is read, you can’t be read.

3) Expand your Horizons – Darren and other probloggers will be the first ones to tell you that you need to know your topic and stay on topic.  While those ideas are true, I find it enjoyable to have one site like this one in which I give myself free reign to post on whatever topic I so choose.  Most of the time, it follows my hobbies, but every once in a while something comes along that I feel I must write on and this is the best place for it.  I write a topic blog at A Penny Saved… and that one stays on the topic of Personal Finance and it’s related issues. Also, as you open yourself up to new ideas and expand your horizons, you just might stumble on a topic that you want to write on.

4) Write Pretty – I am constantly finding blogs whose authors are… shall we say less than gifted writers.  I’m not saying you need to be a Hemingway, but a basic grasp of your language would certainly be helpful. I’ll let a few spelling mistakes by here and there, and even a few grammar ones.  At some point it just becomes painful to read.

5) Enjoy yourself – If you really want to be a ProBlogger, it has to be the job that you love going to each and every day.  If it’s just another way to make a paycheck, you’ll end up being in the 50%+ that stops completely after 3 months.  If you’re going to write on a topic, make sure it’s a topic that you enjoy writing and learning about.

It’s not exactly 10 habits, and they are somewhat condensed.  The title of this post is Habits of Semi-Effective bloggers because I don’t think that I qualify to speak about highly-effective blogging.  Maybe someday.

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