Are You a Blogger or Just Blogging?

~ Jordan Peters

Here’s a harsh truth for you: blogging is a bit like sports. Anyone can do it, but few can do it at a professional level.

And while hardly anybody with an ounce of sanity who takes up tennis or golf thinks they’ll eventually turn pro at it, just about everyone who starts a blog, or is secretly writing a novel, all of them are dreaming of hitting it big somehow.

This is a brave new world: anyone can do it, just push a button and you’re out there. Suddenly everybody is blogging, and they all wish this was what they’d be doing as a job.

But there’s a big difference between blogging and being a blogger.

Everyone who blogs and has even a single e-book for sale on their site is out to conquer the world. Just like the thousands of people who have self-published a novel, the name of the game is promotion. Networking. Linking. Joining a community. Branding yourself. One of the best strategies for all of it is blogging. It’s why we’re here today.

But pretty soon you may find yourself distanced from the writing itself.

Quality First, then Promotion

The best and most effective blogs are about the reader. About delivering value, however you want to define the word. A blogger who forgets about delivering value merely promotes… until the promotion itself becomes the blog. It becomes just about selling something (which ironically tends to sell less).

This is a mistake that I am guilty of. It’s easy to get sidetracked, so to speak, when there are bills to pay, services and technology to buy, add-ons, domains, software, and all that jazz…

It’s easy to forget that if you write the best blog posts that you can, if you work on over-delivering, then all else will somehow take care of itself.

In other words, if you write a fantastic blog that is read by hundreds of thousands of people, even a lousy donate button will do the trick. If your content sucks, then even the most amazing e-course accompanied by great copywriting won’t sell.

Trust me, I’ve been there.

At the end of the day, at least if you do it right, it’s just about quality content. About delivering a gift to your reader. About throwing it out there and seeing what comes back to you.

That’s the difference between a blogger and someone who just blogs. A blogger is someone who thinks of their blog as their gift to the world.

High-quality blogs live this ethic day in and day out. Read them carefully and you’ll see that the common element is a selfless focus on the reader, an enthusiastic delivery of real value, with a foundation of credibility.

It’s why lots of folks subscribe, it’s why they have the chance to earn a living by doing only that.

Bottom line – value is the one business model that never fails. Even for bloggers.

116 thoughts on “Are You a Blogger or Just Blogging?”

  2. What a fricking awesome post!!
    The blog/ sport star analogy hit me hard too.

    You’re so right that most people accept they won’t become a pro in sports but nearly everyone thinks they can in blogging.

    Man you’re so spot on about value too. If we can really add that then nothing else matters, you’re s*** will get promoted for you.

    FOOD FOR THOUGHT!

    thanks

    Mike

    Liked by 6 people

    Reply

  7. This post reminds me of Simon Sineks book – Start with Why – which to be honest I haven’t finished yet but I do like his philosophy that if you believe in what you’re doing then so will your consumer, employee, audienc, etc …

    Liked by 6 people

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  9. I made a similar post regarding the 30 day challenge and what I learned from the experience. No I didn’t get any offers, or paid in any form, and I’m lucky to have the followers I have now. But one thing I can say, if you use blogging as a passion, the rest will fall into place. Blog for money, you won’t ever see anything outside paid commissions.

    Liked by 5 people

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  14. I am just blogging 😊 I like writing, am happy with a few readers and want time to focus on my work, which is not blogging. Good post and something for me to think on if I decide to blog as a career.

    Liked by 7 people

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  18. I was informed at a conference for writers to build a website and start blogging regardless if you have a product or not. So, blogging is a little frustrating as a novice and hard to do, since I am trying to find my niche.

    Liked by 3 people

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  19. Just blogging 😁 If I were to think of writing professionally I’d focus it on storytelling through comics (the struggle!) Anything outside my self is beyond comprehension right now 🤣

    Liked by 3 people

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  21. Great post. I will admit that I’m really just blogging and I have work to do if I really want to consider myself a blogger. I will say that I always try to provide value and that my readers are able to take something away from my blog post that they can apply to their lives.

    Liked by 3 people

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  22. Informative post . Quality writing is what every true blogger must adapt for the rest of the needs to fall in place. Sometime it really gets difficult to difference between being a real Blogger or just blogging and that is when the quality of the work comes into picture as a tie breaker.

    Liked by 5 people

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  26. I loved this. So straight forward and to the point. I’m new to this… So, I’m unsure if I’m a blogger. More of a dreamer who now wants to share the thoughts in my head 🙂
    Thank you Jordan.

    Liked by 5 people

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  29. All I can say is I’m glad I don’t do this for money 🙂 But, I am working on making my content enjoyable to read and see (via photos). As I continue to venture out of my comfort zone I am learning that I still want to post quality over quantity. I appreciate your perspective.

    Liked by 1 person

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  33. Thank you for this. I’ve been struggling with blogging for years and my biggest takeaway is “A blogger is someone who thinks of their blog as their gift to the world.” I haven’t really considered. I really just blogged for me, like a public journal out for whoever wants to read. But about 5-7 years of inconsistently doing that– I was never good a journaling– I’m busier and my focus for the purpose has changed. This was rather inspiring and eye opening. I had considered closing my blog for a while, now I know I will until I actually have a gift to give.

    Liked by 1 person

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  38. So inspiring! For me, the issue is consistency. Creating a schedule and publishing posts at a regular time is difficult for me! It’s something that I definitely want to work on, but I also don’t want to create a habit of publishing a post just to have one published at the due date. Quality is important to me! I like putting out posts that I was really inspired to write, so I’m still trying to balance out consistency with quality. Thankyou for this reminder!

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  39. I was just blogging as a hobby.
    But now, Your post gave me a boost to convert this hobby into professional blogging.
    Thank you so much for this wonderful post.
    I will definitely recommend this post to my colleagues for reading.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

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