Your Blogging Skills Are Worth $612,320…at least!

Bloggin’ ain’t easy.

But, that’s probably the attitude you catch from friends and family when you tell them you have a blog, right?

Those misinformed slackers have no idea what you go through, day after day, pouring yourself into your WordPress dashboard.

They probably scoff at your blog, roll their eyes, or stare at you for a moment blankly before looking away and changing the subject.

If they only knew the shit you went through to be one of the proud 1% actually contributing positively to the Internet by living the life of a blogger.

Blogging is Not for the Squeamish

If you are new to the game of blogging or find yourself reading this because one of your blogger friends mailed it to you and told you to READ IT (or die), you may be in for a surprise.

Blogging is not for the squeamish.

Blogging is not for everyone. Sorry, it’s true.

Blogging is for those passionate enough to rock the keyboard and drop ridiculous content on the web for everyone in the world to see.

As a blogger, you are a beast!

It’s time you realize what your arsenal of skills are worth.

What to Expect Livin’ the Life of a Blogger

What people see on your blog is just part of the story.

You work your ass off just to put that one piece out there for them to read.

Do you want to know the craziest thing about all of the hard work though?

Most bloggers, in some perverse and twisted form of self-neglect, actually enjoy everything I’m about to tell you.

The 10 Hats of a Badass Blogger

Being a blogger means you wear a lot of hats, especially if you are like most bloggers and doing this on your own.

You unfortunately, are forced into this role, but strangely embrace it.

In fact, many bloggers would rather do it all themselves instead of farming out particular tasks to anyone else.

Weird right?

So, let’s get into all of the roles you serve as a blogger so we can figure out what you are really worth.

I’ll even put these together in somewhat of an order to help explain the process a little bit better.

1. Researcher

Research is extremely important for bloggers.

It starts with researching topic ideas and tracking what is trending in today’s ever-changing world.

You need to be on top of your niche and follow the latest news, people, and events.

Your research will allow you the opportunity to start to collect potential blog post ideas going forward.

But, research isn’t reserved solely for front end tasking.

Each time you sit down to write a post, you need to perform some level of research. It could be researching a headline choice, researching statistics for the article, or simply researching basic data to support your position.

As a blogger, you are a researcher.

2. Idea Generator

You don’t get the luxury of having focus groups or college interns bringing you ideas to write about.

You have to sift through the underbelly of the Internet mining for ideas to write your next post.

You best believe this is a tough job. Coming up with topics for your blog can sometimes feel overwhelming.

Even when you think of an idea, you have to make sure it’s solid and put an angle on it that would make people want to read it.

Just because you’ve come up with an idea, doesn’t meant it’s good.

As a blogger, you are an idea generator.

3. Writer

Ok, this one’s easy.

If you have a blog, there is no doubt that you are a writer.

This is probably the only role your friends and family actually believe you fulfil as a blogger.

But again, it’s not simply writing. You have to be a good writer and you have to develop a voice that resonates with your audience.

Seems easy, but often isn’t.

As a blogger, you are a writer.

4. Editor

You’ve written a nice lil blog post, now someone has to make sure you don’t embarrass yourself with what you put out to the public.

Don’t look around, that editor is most likely you.

Now you have to read over your content about 38 times to make sure it logically makes sense.

Then you have to read it again 27 times to make sure your “it’s” and “its” are ok.

Then you need to format it to make sure it is structured correctly and something your mom would be proud of.

As a blogger, you are also an editor.

5. Publisher

You’ve researched the market and various topics, come up with a great idea, written a killer blog post, and edited the shit out of it.

Now you need to put it out there.

Put on your publisher hat and figure out when to publish it and where.

Sure, in the WordPress interface you simply have to click the publish button, but there is some level of strategy and business acumen required to publish it correctly.

Some of what goes on beyond publishing is covered in other hats, but it’s important to recognize that as someone that puts content out there…

you are a publisher.

6. Designer

Do you know how important visual content is to the success of your online brand and blog?

Let’s just say it’s everything.

You need to be well versed in the ability to artistically upgrade your content with stunning graphics and visual elements.

Even if you were the next Hemingway, dropping your raw content out there as simply text, with no graphics is a recipe for disaster.

Put on your designer hat, open up Photoshop or browse out to Canva and let the creative side of your brain take the wheel.

As a blogger, you also have to be a designer.

7. Marketer

Remember when I mentioned you were a publisher?

Well, you also have to be a marketer.

This hat is damn near as important as being the actual writer.

You have to have the ability to get people to find your content on their own, or put it directly in front of their faces on their laptop or phone.

You will need to understand how to drive traffic, how to market your content, and how to grow your audience if you want to have any sort of success blogging.

As a blogger, you damn sure are a helluva marketer.

8. Technician

Learning WordPress can be rather simple, or it can be a friggin nightmare – depending on your level of technical skill.

Regardless, you have to have some technical skills to run your own blog.

You have to understand basic computers, the WordPress environment, and online platform building on a large scale.

That means you need to learn about SEO, plugins, widgets, keywords, etc.

As a blogger, you are absolutely a technician.

9. Networker

You can’t just post content to the Internet and go about your offline day.

You have to be a digital citizen and interact with others in your niche.

You need to join Facebook groups and hang out where all the cool kids are in your market.

Even if you are an introvert, there is some level of interaction you just can’t avoid.

If you want to blow up to higher levels of blogging, you have to start networking with others to form relationships and the foundation of potential partnerships going forward.

The saying goes, your network is your net worth. It’s no different as a blogger.

As a blogger, you are a schmoozing networker.

10. Operator

Finally, you need to keep the whole freakin’ thing up and running.

You can’t rely on others to make sure your domain doesn’t expire or that your site is backed up.

You have to dig into Google Analytics to understand those who are visiting your site and how long it took your page to load.

You have to make sure all of your plugins stay up to date and that your site is secure.

As a blogger, you are definitely an operator of a very complex operating environment…probably across multiple channels.

In Summary

When living the life of a blogger, you wear many hats.

Hopefully, you sit back from time to time to realize and reflect on all of the hard work you do and that each of these roles is substantial.

You are a researcher ($61,290 median annual pay).

You are an idea generator ($47,890 median annual pay).

You are a writer ($58,850 median annual pay)

You are an editor ($54,890 median annual pay).

You are a publisher ($38,200 median annual pay).

You are a designer ($45,900 median annual pay).

You are a marketer ($123,450 median annual pay).

You are a technician ($50,380 median annual pay).

You are a networker ($55,680 median annual pay).

You are an operator ($75,790 median annual pay).

Literally, every one of those could be a full-time job, yet you rock each one of them in some capacity every single day.

All of those individual jobs add up to $612,320! What would you add to the list?

Hats off to you, my blogging friend!