Pros & Cons of Being A Confident Blogger
To a point, confidence, even a bit of conceit is a useful tool for bloggers for hire. It can also sabotage your blog. There’s a balance when it comes to confidence and blogging. It can be beneficial for you to find that balance in yourself.
Pros of being a confident blogger:
It can help you land jobs. Clients want to hire bloggers who spout confidently about the blog topic at hand. You telling a potential client, “I might be able to do a decent job writing about auto mechanics,” is not good enough. In my former writing life I wrote a lot of work and college resumes for folks. I saw people play down skills often because they didn’t want to sound cocky. Super cocky and confident are different. If you’ve got the skills to write about a topic don’t hide behind modesty during the application and interview process.
It can help you set proper pay rates: Confident bloggers ask for, and expect to get paid what they’re worth, or at the very least the going blog salary rate. Modest, unsure bloggers sometimes take lower wages because that’s what they feel they’re worth.
It can help you get over rejection: Actually it can help you to avoid rejection woes altogether. For example, at the right job I know I can bring in traffic, I’m confident in my specialty topics, and I know I’m a nice person to work with, so I tend to think if a client picks someone else; that’s their bad. Being confident helps me to almost entirely avoid rejection issues. I’ve been down exactly twice about a gig. Once for a query I sent to my favorite magazine on the planet (rejected but nicely, which only made it worse) and another time for a blog gig with super questionable hiring practices so the process pissed me off. Being upset about rejection twice isn’t bad. However, if you get upset every time you apply for and don’t get a gig, you’re going to spend a lot of time upset. Confident bloggers know another gig is around the corner and get on with it.
It allows you to say no: Along with avoiding rejection, confidence can help you learn to reject when necessary. I used to have issues saying no to a writing or blogging gig. Even if I had no extra time for a new job, I made time. The market is unsteady, it could be my last chance! Not true. With time, confidence in the blogging world as a whole allows you to see that no job is the last job. My stress is lower now that I feel fine turning down jobs.
It can make your blog better: When you’re confident about a topic your posts will sound confident. You’ll be more likely to make bold statements that draw comments, and have the ability to interact well with readers. Wishy washy blogs are dull to read and leave no reason for anyone to comment. If you’re confident in your blog topic say so, don’t do a lot of “Maybe this is the way it is” posts. Say how it is. If you signed on for a topic you’re not confident about, I’d say you should get some research going so you can learn confidence in your topic.
Cons of being a too confident blogger:
Typical Blog Wages - How Much Money You Should Make Blogging
First off there are no typical blog wages; not if you blog for yourself, and certainly not if you blog for others. Clients have different budgets, different advertising, and different situations. Still, everyone always asks about actual wages.
That said, I figured I’d post some wages that either I’ve accepted, or wages that I know other bloggers have accepted recently. This may help to give you some idea of what’s decent vs. unfair vs. really good.
Variables: In all of these situations, I’m assuming that one, the topic is one you know well, and two, you know how to do blog tasks easily. If you don’t know a topic well, or understand how blogs work, your wage goes down because you’ll waste time researching topics and trying to figure out how to work the blogroll. Also while some clients require say, five posts a week, you’ll need to consider that if you’re paid page views, you’ll likely be posting more often.
Typical blog wages:
Dealing With Blog Compensation Offers - Clients Who Offer Too Much Money
The other day I posted: When someone hires you to blog, which tasks are they hiring you for? At the end I said I’d be back to discuss clients who don’t know about blogs; who are more than happy to pay you simply to post and do nothing else. There’s actually more to this issue than clients who are only looking for posters. You’ll run into a few general negotiation scenarios as a blogger:
- Clients who offer too much money for too little work (this actually is a problem, below I’ll tell you why).
- Clients who offer you joke wages but want the world with a cherry on top. (The worst IMO)
- Clients who offer low wages but really aren’t trying to screw you over - they honestly have no clue.
- Clients who offer you a fair wage at the time you sign on, but add on tasks here and there, until eventually, you should be making more money; of course, you’re still making the old wage.
- Clients who offer the right wages for the right tasks. Networks over private clients seem to be better at this. Although, I’ve had perfectly fair private clients. I’d wager it’s dependent on experience.
Obviously, clients run the gamete - there are tons of other in-between situations you’ll see. But the above are fairly common. It would be tough to cover all the above in one post, so today let’s focus on the first one; clients who offer too much money for too little work.
When someone hires you to blog, which tasks are they hiring you for?
Lately I’ve been seeing these sorts of questions a lot at forums:
- Someone wants to hire me for their blog - should I charge extra for networking?
- How much do you charge for moderating comments?
- How much do you charge for each comment you respond to?
- Should I charge extra for commenting on other blogs?
- The client wants me to Digg stuff! What the?
- I just want to post twice a week - what do you charge for that?
Here’s the deal. To me, blogging has always been a package deal. Frankly, if you’re a blogger, there are certain tasks you need to do to make that blog successful. When someone is hiring for a blog, in my experience, they aren’t just hiring someone who can get words down, they’re looking for someone who can actually make the blog work as a whole.
The first thing to consider is what tasks bloggers do to make a blog a success. For now, forget about tasks like setting up advertising, tech work, and other blog start up issues (like finding a host, purchasing a domain name, and so fourth). If you blog for someone else, 95% of the time these tasks are taken care of for you.
Think about it as if the blog was your blog - what would you do to make it wildly successful? You’d likely…
Network Blog Compensation - Let’s Break it Down
Probably the most important question you should be asking when looking for blogging work is “how much does that job pay?” You may have noticed many blogging gigs pay less than other forms of writing. There are lots of reasons for this, mainly the advertising revenue a blog takes in may be less than your basic website, and definitely less than most print markets. It can work though. If you know enough about how the compensation thing works for most blogs, you won’t be taken advantage of.
Let’s take a look at what some networks and individuals are offering their bloggers:
Glory
Some individuals or networks don’t want to pay bloggers. Instead they offer “exposure.” They tell you your byline is compensation enough. Until my byline puts groceries on my table, I won’t agree with this. Especially for a blog with little or no traffic. In this day and age, anyone can start a blog. You might as well start up your own and get your glory there.
Advertising Revenue
Some blog networks offer only a portion of the advertising revenue. This can go either way. If a blog receives massive, and I mean massive amounts of traffic, you might be able to get by on revenue. The truth is, bloggers don’t usually stick with networks only offering a portion of the revenue since this only amounts to pocket change at the end of the month. Before accepting a job only paying ad revenue, do a little research. Find out how much traffic and how many page views the blog receives each day and each month, and how much revenue the blog brings in. You’ll also want to see the blogs stats and earnings reports each day to make sure you’re not being ripped off. If the blog network can’t give you this, move on.
