What is a Professional Blogger?

What makes a blogger professional? There are very few variables that many consider today in order to qualify someone, or themselves, as being part of the professional bloggers’ community. I once said on my site that you can be professional in 5 ways in almost any situation, anywhere, regardless of any profession involved, or whether you even have a profession. You may have read things to the contrary about about professional bloggers yourself. You may have even seen someone claiming to be a “Professional Blogger.” Many times, you may have noticed that those that claim to be professional bloggers blog only to make money.

Today I would like to draw your attention to the puzzle that defines a professional blogger for many people. Figuring out this puzzle even a little bit can help us appreciate many bloggers more. Figuring out this puzzle can also allow us to see which bloggers are manipulating and twisting the idea of professional blogging in order to simply portray an illusion of superiority and to lure us in as readers so that they can benefit.

Is there a criteria for determining a Professional Blogger?

To determine whether or not one is a professional blogger, what is needed is an element or a group of elements that can be combined and that stay valid in each and every form and in every case. If an element that is used as a criteria does not apply to any blog, then either something is wrong with the theory or something is wrong with the element that is being used in the criteria.

There are several ways to look into these variables. In one way, we can first look at the people who claim some variables to be important and then at whether or not such variables are indeed important. Taking this approach, we can see that different people have different ways to look at traffic, comments, rss feed subscribers and amount of income in order to determine whether or not one is a professional blogger. Many people come up with different requirements for being a professional blogger since those people themselves are professional bloggers and they wish to justify their own self-proclaimed status.

There is another way we can look at this. We can first look at the elements and then look at the reasons why those elements were brought up to be considered by others. Here are the main elements majority of the famous bloggers today consider in order to call someone or themselves professional bloggers:

Traffic

This one is easy to dissect. If the amount of traffic classifies one as a professional blogger, then does that mean that a blogger blogging only a single post on a blog, attracting that attracts millions of readers, is a professional blog? In many perspectives no, that blogger is not a professional blogger, as one post, which can be something important or something controversial, does not define the professionalism of that person in the topic of blogging.

All blogs that claim to be professional blogs based on traffic are not professional blogs if traffic is the only criteria they use. Show that blogger this post or show the blog to me, please.

RSS Subscribers

People who decide whether or not one is a professional blogger based on RSS Subscribers do not know how to determine a professional blogger. If someone does not have RSS feeds, does that automatically disqualify them from being a professional blogger? It should not, in the original unmodified theory of simple blogging and professionalism, and thus this criteria is not valid in determining whether or not one is a professional blogger.

Number of posts and posting frequency

It can be a grave mistake to assume that the more posts you have, the more professional you are. Many people keep telling others to keep writing, and keep writing. “Sooner or later comments/readers/traffic will start pouring in.” I hate such advice, and I am a bit wary of anyone who gives such advice. I write something to be heard. I eat bread and milk through money earned outside of my blog. Therefore, if I write something, I want people to hear it. I want people to read it. I want people to know what I said. It is the same as in the offline world: I am not going to talk if no one is listening. Even if there is a potential for anyone or anything to listen, I will talk.

The people who keep telling others to keep writing without worrying about who is listening are usually focusing on search engines. As time passes, search engines will find your site and your many posts will get indexed. Thus, the mentality of such people is that the more posts you write, sooner or later comments and traffic will come in. These people do not focus on the message or the effect that the message is hoping to achieve. Well, I do, and that is why I sometimes post every day, and I sometimes post every now and then. I try to maintain a schedule but I do my best to not be obligated. I want to write what I feel like, and not what I am forced to write. If it was a job to write, I would write everything in advance in a random, chaotic order, so that I can have things ready without any bias, and things that truly express myself.

Comments

This can be one of the tricky elements. Many bloggers hold the view that people commenting on a post mean people are supporting a post and thus the post content is good. However, many times you can easily seduce people into posting even without giving them anything back. For example, the recent birthday contest held by ProBlogger, most of the contests had only a single winner.

That means that 99.99% of all the commentors wanting to win a prize got nothing back, and commented solely in hopes of getting something. Thus, they commented not to verify and validify the quality of a site but to get a monetary prize in a contest and in the end, the very validity they were providing resulted in them not getting anything back. Most of the new people commented because they saw prizes in a competition, and not because they wanted to talk about what the ProBlogger site was actually about.

Another example if Seth Godins’ blog; he does not allow comments on his blog, yet he publishes information that is considered top notch by many in the marketing industry. Does not having comments mean Seth Godin is not a professional blogger? We need a single element or a combination of elements that define professional bloggers in every manner, and the number of comments is not one of them.

Thus, the number of comments can sometimes be asily increased by having things like competition which do not mean that all the comments signify the good quality of a blog.

Money

In my view, this is the most complicated factor today that is being counted as the sole factor in determining the professional status of a blogger by many, if not most, people. Does this mean that any blog that does not earn money is not, and can never be, a professional blogger? Is this the reason why many pro-money bloggers hate and keep insulting teenager and other bloggers who do not blog for money, and vice versa?

Money is different than all other elements because it is a physical, end result that can be had directly or indirectly, online or offline. Many of the other elements are important for many bloggers because it earns them money in the end. You hear of bloggers calling their business partners or bloggers with power “friends”? They do that to get contacts in hopes of making money in the future. Ever hear of niched blogs, which are blogs with niches, which tend to make money or send direct or indirect, online or offline, referrals of any kind so that the blogger in question can make money? Almost all of such blogs exist solely to make money.

How many blogs will still blog in order to make money? I know money is important, and for me, blogging is a passion. I try my best not to allow money to become part of blogging. How many blogs that you know will still blog if they were not allowed to put any ads on their site, and if they were also not allowed to link to their companies, to their businesses, to their resumes and last, to mention their name? I can safely say I have done all of that, and for a long time in various forms. However, I do not see myself calling myself a professional blogger. Why and how is it then that someone blogging for money, since money is the common element here, can claim that he or she is a professional blogger? See if you can figure out whether any blogger from the following list blogs for money, or does not blog for money, and whether or not any of the following bloggers claim that they are professional bloggers. Also, see if you can notice any similarities or differences in these blogs and bloggers:

Chris G
CopyBlogger
Daily Blog Tips
John Chow
Kottke
ProBlogger
Seth Godin

On top of all this, what is a professional blogger anyhow? Can I, after all these years of blogging and keeping my online knowledge and wisdom in a small titanium safe under my bed, call myself a professional blogger? I have been online, writing and blogging longer and more thoroughly than many of these bloggers. Now, if time is not an element, then I have talked about different important topics and trends that affect us so that you and I can both benefit. I have talked about things without the influence of money, and that has resulted in more problems than solutions for me. Was not making money the main point of my blog a bad thing? Is the “professional blogger” status a real status? Is it necessary? Is it being abused? Is it being over-used? It is a way to differentiate the rich from the non-rich? Can you please point me to anyone who calls themselves a professional blogger so I can ask them “What criteria did you use to self-proclaim a professional blogger status?” I grew up all my life thinking honor and respect is earned. Maybe I needed special childhood training that many other bloggers have and had, so that I could have been taught to self-proclaim being better without showing it. Can you please tell me where I should have been born instead, so that I can know and maybe regret forever where such a pro-self-proclaimist training during childhood takes place?

How about those that do not claim to be professional bloggers?

Since we are asking questions, how about this: Why are the following bloggers not talking about being professional bloggers as of today, and why are they not recognized by the A-listers, a list that in its very nature is founded on shaky and monetary grounds, as being professional bloggers? These people have blogged about more controversial and thought-provoking topics than any of the top 50 A-listers [name them, and I will show you], and even if any of these below bloggers is earning money through their blog, they even blog negatively and openly about the very people that pay them, in those people are doing something wrong. In contrast, all you see from the self-proclaimed professional bloggers is sucking to advertisors and topics which are related to their jobs, and some more sucking up. And wait! I almost forgot: even more sucking up. Here are the bloggers that do not claim to be professional bloggers, yet they have contributed more to the blogosphere than the self-proclaimists. Here are a few of the bloggers who at the moment stand away from the self-proclaimed professional bloggers. Some of these bloggers I know for a long time and some for a short time; the level of interaction I have had with each one varies tremendously.

All Tips And Tricks
Chase the Stars
Jeffro 2pt0
Ronalfy
Sawai
Valerie
Vera
Vixx

In addition to the nice pattern design the above list makes, do you notice any similarities or differences between the different bloggers and blogs?

Do you think I am a professional blogger?

Who here thinks I’m a professional blogger? Raise your hands higher please, I can’t see anyone. Anybody? Anyone? Hello? Hmmm, ok, I have to wait maybe another 10 years to get heard and then maybe recognized, then. Being heard is more important, unfortunately, so I can deal with that, I think. I can figure out how to earn main money through channels other than my blog; that way my blog cannot be tainted easily and can survive the ages, as it has been.

Thank you for reading!

Thanks for reading. I hope this allows you to question more and to come up with some more answers, so that you can realize whether or not the idea of being a professional blogger should have any effect on anything, and whether or not it has an effect on the blogosphere currently and on you. If you blog honestly, regardless of the amount of money you make or if you even make any money online, and if you talk about what you think is right whether or not it is always good only or mainly for you, you are a professional blogger in my view. Rock on!