Essential Skills for Blogging
Every job has a required skill set and job description. Blogging is no exception. It does have a low barrier to entry, but still requires a high level of skill in various areas to succeed.
I have compiled a list of skills a blogger must hone to have a successful blog. You may be surprised at where technical knowledge falls on this list.
Time Management
This is the top skill required by bloggers. Effective time management allows us to make more lines through our to-do list items. It has longevity and relevance through every area in our lives. Even if you’re not a blogger, it’s a high-priority skill to learn and sharpen.
We have to go out and live our lives in order to blog about it. If it’s a niche blog, we have to be immersed in that niche. Some of us may have children. That’s a time management challenge in and of itself. There are pesky little things like sleep, grocery shopping, work, laundry, eating, and household chores to do.
Sleep deprivation, caffeine, and spending less time with your family are not sustainable time management tactics.
This skill is difficult or impossible to outsource.
Business Skills
This is another critical skill set that will serve you well outside of the blogosphere. I’m including it on my list for those of you who plan to monetize your blog. Several bloggers are making a comfortable full-time income from blogging and the opportunities that come from blogging. If you expand beyond blogging into running seminars, selling product, or consulting work, you definitely need core business skills.
Outsourcing this one isn’t practical in the early stages. You have to take this one on yourself.
Communication Skills
This is another high-value skill with longevity and usefulness outside of the blogosphere. A blog is all about communicating. As the publisher, your message isn’t just going in one direction. You have comments to moderate and respond to. You’re getting emails about anything and everything. Nothing happens until people communicate.
Don’t even think about outsourcing this one.
Writing
Blogging is powered by technology, but it’s foundation is in the core skills we need as functional members of society. Writing is another high-value, high-longevity, crossover skill. You have to be a good writer. Grammar, spelling, and punctuation are very important. The written word, like every other method of communication, is extremely rich and horribly deficient all at the same time. It pays to be competent in every method of communication available to you.
Perhaps it’s my prep school upbringing. I cringe at bad spelling and poor use of English. I’m not perfect, but poor writing turns me off. I am only forgiving to those whose native language isn’t English.
There is some outsourcing help available here. You have to decide how much you want to collaborate or rely on guest writers. The volume of writing one must do makes hiring an editor cost-prohibitive, especially since you end up doing some of it for free. If writing isn’t one of your strengths, look into podcasting or pimping yourself on YouTube.
Technical Skills
You will find people at all levels of proficiency here and it can be outsourced easily. That’s why it ranks so low compared to the other skills. A platform like Blogger allows the novice to start blogging right away. WordPress is a powerful blogging platform right off the shelf with a great deal of customization available to you.
Doing your own WordPress installation allows you to customize the look of your site. Maintenance, upgrades, and backup of your site are all up to you. Web design skills are necessary for high levels of customization or the creation of your own theme.
You will need a certain comfort level with your tools - your computer, the web, search engines, and your digital camera. There is plenty of help available for you if there are any deficiencies. Sites like guru.com, eLance.com, or rentacoder.com can provide the technical assistance you need. There are also internet and blogging consultants willing to help you out.
Photography
Blogs with photographs are always prettier. They hold our interest longer. A photograph or illustration can bolster your message where the written word falls short. Don’t steal images from other sites, especially if your blog is monetized. Copyright infringement is a big deal.
Most people know how to operate a camera. That’s why I’ve ranked this skill last. You don’t need a fancy camera. Any consumer digital camera with optical zoom will handle most of your needs.
If you can’t take a photo that fits your needs, you can use a stock image. iStockPhoto.com and others offer web-sized downloads for about $1. These are the same high quality images used on high-traffic websites and in national advertising campaigns.
The photographer would be thrilled to see his or her work in action. Every stock photo you use is another pair of eyeballs on your blog.
Conclusion
Blogging isn’t the domain of the technically literate only. If you can attach a file to an email, you can blog. The other skills I’ve outlined are essential skills for life. They are mentioned here in the context of blogging. Even if you think your writing skills are just OK, you’ll improve through blogging.
~e
