I know many of you are curious about blogging. How are we making money doing this? If we’re making money at it, it must be difficult and complicated, right? We all know the real reason Renee and Elliott rock is because Elliott is Asian and Asians are good on the computer. Actually, in the process of becoming “whitewashed,” his computer skills are handicapped. He needs a no-hassle user-friendly computer like a Mac to do anything.

Yaro Starak just launched a new site aimed at beginners and those who are not tech-savvy. The new site is called “Become a Blogger.”

Like almost every blog out there, this site is completely free. You don’t even have to sign up for an email newsletter. The video tutorials are professionally produced, easy to understand and very informative. Here’s a sneak-peek at what you’ll learn:

1. Why You Should Use WordPress
2. How To Get Your Own Domain Name
3. How To Get A Web Host
4. How To Install WordPress With One Click
5. How To Upload Files To Your Webhost Using FTP
6. Choosing A WordPress Theme For Your New Blog
7. How To Install And Use WordPress Plugins
8. How To Create Your First Blog Post And Blog Page
9. What RSS Is And Why You Need It
10. How To Use Feedburner For Supercharging Your RSS Capabilities

We’ve been doing this for a little while now, but the External Resources page still has a few gems for us. Our friends ask us about blogging all the time. Take a peek at Become a Blogger sometime soon.

Further Reading and Related Posts:

1. What is a Blog and How To Make Money Blogging
2. A Few Good Bloggers
3. Essential Skills for Blogging
4. A Digital Literacy Guide (free ebook)

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

Asha Dornfest – Parent Hacks

Parent Hacks is the brainchild of Asha Dornfest. She writes and edits readers’ contributions. As visual artists, we both love their logo and identity. The “Swiss Army Knife” with lollipop, crayon, spoon, and safety pin is just as clever as the site’s premise.

Steve Pavlina – Personal Development For Smart People

Steve Pavlina‘s site gets over 2 million visitors per month. According to his article, How To Make Money From Your Blog, his site brings in over $1000 per day.

There are more than 600 articles already and he is adding more every week. It seems like you’ll never run out of articles to read on personal development, career planning, time management, and many other topics of interest to smart people. Steve is also a Toastmaster.

David Hobby – Photography and Lighting

Strobist covers techniques on using small flash units more creatively to achieve results similar to those you’d get with big studio lights. David peppers his writing with liberal doses of humor and offers credibility through his work as a photojournalist. His photos are pretty darn good too. Strobist is a great resource for photographers, but it was one of Elliott’s main inspirations to start blogging.

David started the blog in February of 2006 as a way to store his notes. It has since grown to get over 1 million page views a month. He took a leave of absence from his job in June of 2007 to focus on the blog full-time. The blogger’s lifestyle allows David to spend more time with his favorite Hobbys – Susan, Emily, and Ben.

Ben Cook – Professional Blogging

The Blogging Experiment is a pleasure to read. Ben’s style is direct and easy to digest. He promises total transparency, sharing his successes and his mistakes. As of this writing, there are only two posts in the “My Mistakes” category. He must be doing well.

Ben officially launched this blog on July 4th, 2007 and set a goal of achieving a full-time income from this blog within one year. Choosing Independence Day as the launch date and deadline was an inspired move. I wish him the best.

Yaro Starak – eCommerce and Blogging

Ben Cook recommends Yaro Starak’s free e-book, Blog Profits Blueprint. His e-book hits a sweet spot that lies between the quick overview and the exhaustive reference. His blog expands upon the principles covered in the e-book.

We have an inside joke about the magic word, “Yaro Starak.” It occasionally transforms a restaurant meal into a business expense.

Darren Rowse – Professional Blogging

ProBlogger.net is a great resource for professional bloggers or those hoping to make the jump. He regularly features video posts alongside text articles. The articles listed under “Best of Problogger” serve as a great primer for professional blogging and those who are merely curious about what a blog is. He is highly recommended by David Hobby at Strobist.

Email

Email is often vilified as the enemy of effective time management. We get caught up in the immediacy of it and feel compelled to answer it right away. We got it right away. Why not answer it right away? It doesn’t have to be that way. Some people think of email as a substitute for a telephone call. Others think of it as a business letter.

Understanding the email habitsof the people you communicate with regularly will help tremendously. If you’re a crackberry addict, don’t get upset when your email isn’t responded to immediately. The person you are writing to may have a different mentality about email.

Instant Messenger

Renee and I do not use this often. We both feel it’s sensory overload. This is the means we choose to limit or abstain from. There’s an immediacy to it, but it’s also a huge distraction and time-sucker.

Others limit their telephone time or email time.

Telephone and Voice Mail

I use the telephone when I need real-time interaction when a face-to-face meeting is impractical. I reach for the phone when I want an immediate answer. I don’t always get it, but the possibility exists.

One must also pay attention to how a voice mail is crafted. You had a specific objective in mind when you made the call. Why do people fall apart and leave rambling voice mails? Speak clearly and be concise. Say your name, leave your number, state the purpose of your call, make any relevant disclosures about times you may be unavailable, state phone number once again, and a succinct pleasantry.

Text Messaging

Text messaging or SMS has exploded over the past few years. In 1998, I changed cell phone carriers for the first time. AT&T (which became Cingular, and it’s now AT&T again) offered text messaging. I could immediately see its potential. However, I grew frustrated as an isolated early-adopter. I used it sparingly until I met Renée.

One of my friends recently told me that it never occurred to him to send a text message until I sent him one for the first time. He thought it was just as good to make the phone call. Can you tell I hang out with people of all ages, from babies to the chronologically enhanced?

Some information is more effectively relayed via text message. A message that doesn’t require a reply would be a logical choice. It’s also great during downtime. Random “I love you,” messages to your significant other works wonders. You’ll never be bored at meetings and lectures again.

Meetings

Meetings incur costs in time and money. They are valuable for certain agendas, while others can be fulfilled by other means. If the agenda is important enough or if a high level of interaction is necessary, a face-to-face meeting is the best choice. Messages of high profundity also warrant a face-to-face meeting. It’s considered a low-blow to get dumped by a significant other via telephone, email or instant messenger. In one episode of Sex And The City, Carrie is upset that a man dumped her via Post-It™ Note.

Conclusion

That’s it? Far from it. There are entire books written on communication. This article covers the technological and logistical means. Each method described above warrants further discussion in future articles. Stay tuned.

If you found this article informative or entertaining, please consider making a donation.

I’ve been online since 1992. If you count dialup BBSs, that pushes the provenance back another 6 years. I saw personal computing in an early and raw state. It’s a glorious time to be a computer user today.

The e-book has some basic concepts that I’ve digested before most MySpace users were born. However, I don’t mind reviewing stuff I already know. A fresh perspective can be gained, and I might learn of an easier way to explain it to others. It also preps my mind for the new information that’s coming my way.

Download it.

Special thanks to David Hobby at Strobist for calling this to my attention.

Blogs are usually written by one person on a specific topic. It can be any topic of interest to the author and/or personal experiences of the author. The articles, entries, or posts are presented in reverse chronological order. Archives of older articles organized by date and topic. A key feature of blogs is the ability granted to the reader. Readers can leave comments on each post, creating a dialogue between bloggers and their readers.

Blogs can be published through different methods. Google’s Blogger service allows you to have a blog up and running as fast as you can type your first entry. There are other blog hosts like LiveJournal, and TypePad. Social networking sites like MySpace also have a blogging component to them. Renee and Elliott endorse self-hosted blogs using WordPress as the blogging platform. WordPress is a highly-customizable open-source (a techie way to say “free”) platform and gives ultimate control over the appearance and functionality of the blog. It’s a trade-off. Blogger makes it easy, but is very limited in its capabilities. WordPress can be tweaked to meet your specific needs, but requires some technical knowledge or outside assistance.

Blogging may seem like an innocuous online diary, but it can be so much more. It is the ultimate manifestation of the First Amendment. You’re speaking your mind, and the entire world has access to it. You can get up on your cyber-soapbox and champion the causes you believe in, talk about your favorite hobbies, or promote your business. When a blog is focused on a niche topic, it can be monetized. With enough traffic, a blog can provide a sustainable income.

How do you monetize your blog? You can think of it like broadcast media, like television or radio. The content is provided for free, but supported by advertisers. Our monetization strategy includes:

• Google AdSense – These are the pay-per-click and pay-per-impression ads that you see throughout the site.
• Amazon Associates – This is an affiliate program. We get a small commission on products you buy when you click through to Amazon from our site.
• Donations – This is like a tip jar. Sometimes I think of it as PBS or NPR plus commercials. We use PayPal to process these payments.

This is not an exhaustive list. There are myriad advertising and affiliate programs available. Many bloggers have had great success selling ad space privately.

If the content you write is worthwhile and you have a monetization strategy in place, it becomes a numbers game. Earning money through blogging becomes a function of traffic. The more traffic you get, the more money you earn. That’s the basic idea.

Further reading:

• How To Make Money From Your Blog
• ProBlogger.net
• The Wikipedia entry on “blog”

~e

But the climate of Corporate America has changed in the last two decades. Professionals are no longer being taken care of by the corporate machine. This whole scenario warrants its own diatribe. We’ll discuss it in detail another time.

I really want to talk about the difference between a career and a CALLING. We all know there’s a difference between a JOB and a CAREER. Yet many people are content with “a good job”. Others take pride in the growth and development of the all-important career. Maybe this career was the natural progression from your education. Or maybe it’s in a completely different field. (And you justify not “using your education” because the money is good, the location is good… or whatever the case may be.) But how many people can honestly say they were born to do what they’re currently occupied doing?

A CALLING is that thing that you were BORN to do. It’s that thing that has been in the back (or front) of your mind since you were a child. A few people are lucky enough to find their way ONTO this path early. More often, it takes some sort of existential crisis to wake a person up to the fact that they’re NOT fulfilling that duty. And most people endure several such crises before they awake to, and answer this calling.

I’ve been in the process of this awakening for a couple of years. For as much as I’d like to say it’s all “love and light”, I cannot honestly say this is always the case. I get flashes of brilliance. These keep me on track. Most of the time, I fight entropy. But even though it takes a higher initial investment of intention to maintain the higher road, it always proves to be more nourishing to the soul.

My calling is all about VISION. It encompasses aesthetic (design, color, art, geometry, photographic composition), perceptic (interpersonal, circumstantial, practical) and systematic (seeing patterns and processes). This is the broad interpretation. I believe it is necessary to first find the general vicinity of the calling, especially if one’s interests and talents are diverse. Now I am trying to narrow it down to 2 or 3 symbiotic activities that I can run either simultaneously, or parallel to one another.

I am also becoming more interested with forming alliances with other professionals who are fulfilling THEIR duty to their higher call. I realize that if I’m born to do something specific, I should do THAT THING, and not worry about being good at EVERYTHING!

The greater challenge is to let go of, or DELEGATE, the other activities. Obviously, things like accounting cannot be let go of. This is the perfect opportunity to enlist someone to fulfill their calling! It is really a simple notion. But it is one that is so easy to overlook. In the age of INDEPENDENCE, we have become resistant to seeking assistance.

I have already lived most of my “career objectives”. But I am still left knowing that I have yet to truly pursue my calling. This has been the subject of much deliberation and intention examination. I then take inventory. I have worked (jobs, not careers OR callings) in retail, consumer finance, law and clerical. I have successfully navigated career paths in graphic design, web design, web art direction, project management, as an architectural and interior design assistant, and even as the vice president of our own graphic and web design business!

Yet, there was always something missing. Despite the success I have enjoyed in these areas, I still did not feel fulfilled. For a long time, I thought I was just being finicky. But when asked if I would continue these careers if I was not being PAID, I had to say, “No way, Jose!”

I believe we have the responsibility to not only pursue our passions, but to also SHARE our abilities. In this way, we will have more happy and fulfilled individuals, all helping one another AND being compensated for it.

Answer the call! Share your gift! Enjoy watching your loved ones thrive!

**How are you living your calling? Please leave a comment about your calling**