How and why to get started with blogging: The REAL answer

afkatws, via Flickr (CC license)

Don’t just start blogging. Spend some time scoping things out first.

Almost daily, people e-mail me to ask me for advice about their online-media careers. I just got such an inquiry this morning. It started out pretty typically:

“I found your Contentious.com recently. I’m very interested in online writing as a career. Can you tell me something about it? How do you start, etc.”

OK, after I explained that I needed his question to be more specific so I could offer a meaningful answer, he offered a bit more detail: He’s about to graduate with a sociology degree, likes writing, and wants to combine those skills to earn a living. Still an overly generic inquiry — but since it’s a basic question many people have, here’s my honest answer:

Don’t assume in advance that being a writer (in any medium) is your ultimate career goal. Often, media is merely a means to an end — I guess that’s why they call it “media,” since it’s usually “in between” real stuff happening.

In my experience, it’s more useful to pay attention to what’s really going on, what people really want or need, and what you really have to offer, than to assume you already know what you “should” be doing. You can’t really be in business by yourself, since business is about the exchange of value. Who are you going to trade with, and what do they need?

Increasingly, participating in online, conversational, and social media (from blogs and forums to Twitter and Second Life) can help nearly anyone find their niche and their path. Because ultimately, these forms of media are about PEOPLE (especially binding communities) — not technology.

On the practical side, here’s the advice I offered this reader…

Find relevant blogs and forums, subscribe to them, and start reading them regularly.
Comment frequently on relevant blogs and forums. It’s usually more useful to speak up in public than to converse behind the scenes. You learn more about communities that way, and you make yourself more visible and findable.
After you’ve gained experience with and built connections with the communities you want to reach — and once you’ve learned what’s already available to them — THEN figure out what kind of unique value you can add and what kind of business or project might support it. That may be an ad-supported, subscription-based, or grant-funded project; or working for a mainstream media organization or other company; or a consulting business; or publishing a book (or e-book); or selling a product; or an academic or research career; or something entirely different.

In other words, starting with the assumption that you already know what kind of work you should be doing puts the cart before the horse. It also deprives you of options, since you’ll probably only copy what kinds of work other people are doing than focusing on yoru communities and their needs. There is no business without a market, and markets are about people. So start by connecting with people, and grow from there.

Make sense? Agree or disagree? Please comment below.

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7 Comments so far (Add 1 more)

Excellent essay, and excellent comments. I would agree with everything that you have said.

Only problem–I can’t seem to follow that advice in my own blog. I combine classical music, politics, and environment, etc. in my blog. I realize that some people find that offensive and unfocuse, but that is just how I am put together. I can’t understand musicians who don’t have something to say about the current political world and the current environmental situation.

Signed,
Unfocused in Florida


1. Dave Irwin on December 23rd, 2007 at 12:57 am
Today’s “societies,” and the conversations happening within them, are also evolving. Only by participating within your community can you keep up and evolve with the ever-changing needs of those around you. What I think is my current value today might be worthless 6 months from now. And what appears to be worthless right now might be valuable 3 months later.

Seems like it’s time to update the old question, “What should I do with my life?” to “What should I do with my life right now?”


2. Jeremy Osborne on December 21st, 2007 at 12:32 pm
Thanks, Jeremy. Yes, being able to demonstrate what you’re about is definitely one important and useful way to use a blog or social media.

What I’m getting at here is slightly different: If you’re trying to figure out what you should be doing to make a living, it helps to use online or social media as a way to get to know and get involved with communities relevant to your skills and passions — and basically let that context help guide how you choose to define what you have to offer.

Two related yet separate purposes, both important

- Amy Gahran


3. Amy Gahran on December 20th, 2007 at 10:50 am
I believe Amy is right 100%. Just jumping in and thinking you can make money blogging your opinions, altruisms, stories and whatnot is a conversation I remember too well from just a decade ago, one that sounded like, “Hey, time to buy a house, I have 10,000 shares of stock in ariba.com!”

Nowadays is not the yesterday. Companies will google you when you interview with them. Potential dates will find out just how wild you are through Myspace or Facebook. You really can’t hide anymore… and that begs the question:

“What do you want people to know you for?”

and,

“What is your unique contribution to the world?”

Being part of the online community is your chance to act first, your chance to plant a stake and say, “This is who I am, this is what you can count on me for.” When people know you, trust your opinion, and well, even like you, doors will open that you never expected.


5. Jeremy Osborne on December 19th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
Karoli — Yes, focus helps a lot, but I’m thinking the best focus starts to emerge from the process I described, no?

That is, pay attention and see what’s available and needed first, and that’ll largely tell you what to do — or focus on.

- Amy Gahran


6. Amy Gahran on December 19th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
I would add “focus” to that list. If you’re looking to start blogging with an eye to making money at it, you’d better be focused on a specific target rather than shooting at many. There are so many blogs out there already to read — if you want yours to stand out, be focused on a topic people want to read about.

On your other bullets, this was exactly the lecture I gave my husband last night — he has a great idea for a weblog, very focused, very interesting. But I told him not to just launch off into it without first reading lots of blogs first from all facets of the area he’s thinking about blogging in.


7. Karoli on December 19th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
To everyone:

I’m the sociology student that Amy shared this information with. It’s already proven to be valuable. I was making media the goal instead of the needs of online communities. I can now begin to conclude what I should be doing as a business or career using education as well as primarily addressing the real needs of people.

Thanks,
Dan


8. Dan on December 19th, 2007 at 11:31 am

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