With Social media taking a front row seat in main stream media and Hollywood. The value of bloggers is sure to rise in the coming years. Almost every main stream program from ESPN to Entertainment Tonight is Twittering. Which to me, a long time social media lover, is kind of mind boggling..

Great Post!

Cheers to Bad Ass Renegades and a Rogue.
.-= Jonathan | EnlightenYourDay.com´s last blog ..Inspiring Tweets and Zen Retweets from my Twitter Contributors =-.

I agree that some of the problem comes from terms like “Blogging”, but I don’t think it’s due to specifics. I think it’s the lack of specifics that gets people.

There are millions upon millions of blogs out there, yet there’s a huge range in their style, goals, what they cover and so on.

Aside from being ugly and sounding a lot like “bog”, blogging is an unfortunate term as it is not capable of capturing the exact essence of a site. Calling someone a “blogger” is like calling a volunteer life saver and heart surgeon “heart fixers”. They both do very broadly similar things – get someone’s heart working again when it is in trouble, but the differences between them are huge.

To identify value, someone needs to focus in on specifics. For example, when I hired Men with Pens to design my site, I didn’t hire them to design a site. I hired them for two reasons:

1. they are capable of creating artistic looks while retaining functionality; and
2. great customer service.

Those are the things I was prepared to pay for. Even I can whack up a website, but I can’t do it artistically.

Being a “blogger” does not capture the true essence of what someone does. To be paid commensurate with what you do, you need to define what exactly are the benefits you provide.

And sadly, I think the word “blogging” works against that. Aside from not actually meaning anything, it also tends to be weighted towards what the vast majority of blogs actually are – incoherent politiclly motivated ramblings. Who would pay for that?

Patrick Vuleta´s last blog post…Site facelift – a big thank you to Men with Pens!

How to write a writing – Good metaphors help, too.

Kaushik – Pro-bloggers who post on schedule can (and often do) create remarkably good work. There are many journalists out there who write to deadlines, too, and the quality of their work is not expected to be lower.

James – Oh, sure. Like you weren’t just stealing the credit. Pish.

Marc – I believe the logic goes that you should get something for nothing. Then Wall Street crashed, and . . . .

Melinda – Thanks for the defense of deadlines. I was too polite to say. But yeah, I think you get what you pay for is a worthy adage to be using here.

Laura – Man, burnt toast SUCKS. That’s terrible. When it starts to leave black bits in the butter? Worst. Thing. Ever.

John – Good. Hopefully they’ll find out that low rates command mediocre blogging, and they’ll come back to you.

Martin – I beg your pardon. I am prone to exaggeration. Sometimes monkeys show up in my posts when no monkeys are actually present, too.

Guy – Good luck with the blogging!

Deb – I have a unicycle, so it must mean I can ride it. Right?

George – Interestingly, this is actually not my field. Whether keyword optimized articles are effective in terms of SEO is actually a question for an SEO expert, which I am not. Using keywords in a smooth and seamless fashion so that the reader is unaware the article is keyworded is more my forte. Determining whether they should be used and using them well are two different things.

And actually, keyworded articles CAN be very valuable. Many blogs simply want something like a single phrase repeated in every blog post so that people in their area can find them – they still want quality posts, they just want one keyword phrase in them. I know there are many people who focus on keywords over quality, but the two aren’t mutually exclusive.

The Office Newb – Elitism is a wonderful thing. I am a huge grammar snob.

Pat – Gotta hope.

Online Printing – Being a writer is, I believe, easier than being an engineer or a doctor, true. Mostly because of the training required to do those jobs. However, we all deviate toward our own special skills, and some people simply have a talent for hearing the difference between good language and bad. Everyone can learn to have decent grammar and spelling, but that feel for language is hard to come by.

Brett – No. No I cannot. We would die in a horrible power-plant-induced fashion. I concede the floor, sah!

Engineers not inclined to writing?

What? Are you kidding me?

Writing is 90% of my job.

Not only do I have to write well enough to convey the right design and operations concepts to clients and contractors, but I have to be very careful to make sure the right regulatory/safety codes apply and that contractual obligations are met.

This is something that not just any professional blogger can pick up do. You need an engineering degree on top of that, plus years of experience.

And what are the consequences if a blogger writes a bad post for someone? THeir blog dosen’t get read. The client might lose some business.

What are the consequences if an engineer writes a bad document? Million dollar contracts going over budget. Failure in a design, safety hazards, which can result in loss of property, or even loss of life. And possibly jail time if you’re found criminally negligent.

So, mabye that’s why bloggers arent’ paid as much as other professions.

(Didn’t mean to sound harsh…Like Brett, I feel I have there is a need to defend Engineer’s honour)

Agreed – writing is not easy… but (engineer here) I can probably write about half as well as a really great writer.

Can that same writer say as much for her ability to do my job?

(I’m just kidding around, I had to defend the engineering honour!)

The medium is the message, folks. Let’s not forget that that!

The Office Newb´s last blog post…Picking Out Business Cards