I’m a professional blogger, because I make money blogging. At least that’s what one person seems to think.
There are lot of different ways that you can try to promote your business or your blog. Some people take the Google Adwords route. Others may try to run contests — like giving away two iPod nanos — to try to garner some attention. The more evil among us may attempt some viral marketing scheme for linkbait, perhaps telling us that their bovine blog has been sued and they have to shut down, only to re-emerge from the grave to say that it was an ill-timed April Fool’s joke (you know who I’m talking about). And then sometimes a marketing opportunity just, well, falls in your lap.
That’s what happened to me the other day when I got an unsolicited email from Usman of Usman’s World. He recently launched a new online community that focuses on development and information technology (IT), and he wanted to feature me as a person who makes all of his money online. He was referred to me by Alex, a writer for Usman’s World and a frequent commenter on this site.
In going through his questions, I talk about starting out as a freelance writer and how Beyond the Rhetoric came to be. I discuss my previous writing efforts at Now That’s Entertainment, as well as what I’ve done to try and promote my blog. The interview was conducted via email, so it’s a little impersonal, but I thought it would be a good opportunity to get my name (as well as my website and my freelance writing services) out there in the public eye, in a realm that may not have seen me before. Sure, I write for Mobile Magazine and John Chow, but people in the web development and IT community probably haven’t seen me in those places. Or they might not put 2 and 2 together (they may prefer 1s and 0s, I have no idea).
I wasn’t really sure how Usman was going to frame the interview, but I figured it was a good promotional opportunity. I also got a valuable backlink in the process, which will help with the next Google PageRank update. Maybe I can get onto the first page of Google search results for “freelance writing” if I keep this kind of thing up.
Anyways, the interview is now live at thedevnetwork.com, the aforementioned online development and IT community created by Usman. I was expecting the title to say something like “Interview with freelance writer Michael Kwan.” And then, I hopped on over to the interview page and found that he is billing me as a “pro blogger and freelance writer.” The second part makes sense, but I think this is the first time that anyone has referred to me as a “pro blogger” (not to be confused with the Problogger). I take this blog semi-seriously, sure, but I never really thought of myself as a “professional blogger.”
I guess if you expand the definition, the title might fit, because the writing I do for Mobile Magazine, for example, isn’t really news reporting; it’s tech blogging. In any case, it looks like I can now add another line to my resume. Not that I ever use that thing anymore… having my own business rocks. 🙂
Ya you’re pro 🙂
You seem to have a professional style blog to me. If you do it for a living, it seems to fit the title.
It’s up to you though, but then again, you’ve wrote this nice article and that gives us something to talk about. 😉
Oh, I’m not necessarily disagreeing. It’s just that no one has called me a pro blogger before. 😉
There is nothing better than working for yourself. I would not have it any other way!
Way to go, Michael! Well, you’re doing something right because they interviewed you. Any attention is a good thing! 🙂
Awesome. Blogging is great and being able to make money from it (no matter how much) is really great! Especially when its a good blog with lots of commenters/interaction as well.
My congratulations, Michael!
It’s always a great hour and huge responsibly to get the “Master Degree” in your sphere- no matter what are you doing- blogging or building the spaceships.