Benefits of being a problogger

The other day I posted about why you might want to think twice before becoming (or trying to become) a problogger. So you don’t get the impression that I spend all my time at work brooding, their are some very definite benefits to problogging.

NOTE before reading any further it’s good to note that these pros and my cons from yesterday are directly related to blogging for others - NOT myself. I do own many of my own blogs but the majority of my income comes from blogging for clients.

Pros of blogging for a living:

I LOVE blogging. I love reading blogs. I love looking at how people design their blogs. I really like networking. I love most things about blogs. Long before I was a paid blogger, I blogged for myself, for free. To think I get paid to do something I’d be doing anyhow is amazingly cool to me. Blogging is more work now then when I blogged on my own for no pay and sometimes I can’t stand to write one more post (we all have a bad day at work) but all in all I consider myself very lucky to be able to make a living at a job I adore.

It’s flexible to a point. If I’m sick or have something else to do, I still do have to blog, but my clients don’t care if I blog at 2am or 9am, so I can usually fit weird stuff into my schedule when necessary. Also I have mostly awesome clients. Although I don’t technically get many days off they understand if a life crisis comes up.

It’s a more regular paycheck than other forms of writing. When you blog for others you will, as I pointed out in my cons post, be paid late often. That said, when I wrote for business clients and magazines there was a much less reliable pay schedule. With magazines you may be paid six+ months after you’re published and business clients can also take months to pay you. It sucks not having any pay on a schedule. Blogging for others means I get paid on a monthly basis. Yeah some are late, but it’s nothing like always waiting months to get paid.

I don’t have to do tech or ad related stuff! At my own blogs I deal with tech and ad stuff all the time but that doesn’t mean I like to do it. I’d rather just be writing.  If a server goes down at a client’s blog, if images aren’t showing up, if ad placement sucks guess who doesn’t have to deal with any of it? Me! At most of my client’s blogs I write, network, and do some basic blog maintenance, but nothing too stressful.

The pay is catching up. I used to always tell people that they’d make more in other writing venues – and it’s not totally false. You can make a cool $600-$1000+ for a magazine or high end website article. You can make BIG fat bucks writing resumes and business copy. That said, now that I’ve been blogging a good long while, my blogging pay is just as lucrative. It took longer to get there, but it is possible to not only make a living blogging for others but a very good living.

I get to write with my own voice. When I wrote business copy my voice had to match the client’s perfectly. When I wrote proposals I had to write in an impersonal manner most of the time. Blogging allows me to use my own voice, my own expressions and allows me to offer up opinions o’ plenty.

With experience comes less querying and job hunting. Like anyone else I still have to look for new gigs at time, but having been round the blogging block I have a much easier time getting said jobs now. That means less queries which is good since I don’t find queries much fun. Once you’re an experienced blogger it’s easier to find work, you interview more confidentially, and people will even approach you with job offers which is so much nicer than hitting the job boards on a daily basis.

Experience with blogging can open new doors. I’d never write a whole book on my own because books sound terribly difficult to me but because people have found me through my blogs I’ve managed to get some of my work published in popular books. I’ve been asked to write for major websites and recently had an invite to be a guest on a radio show. Some bloggers do go on to publish their own books or score major blogging gigs with big companies. Blogging is a nice gateway to many other opportunities.

Blogging keeps you thinking. Of course some days my brain would like to shut down for a vacation, but most of the time I appreciate that blogging keeps me up on all my favorite issues. I’m constantly looking for story ideas, reading news, and thinking about my take on various issues. I like that I have a job that’s always sending fresh thoughts my way.

I hate being a loner. I am one of the worst candidates for a work-at-home job. I hate sitting by myself. I hate having no one to talk to. I really didn’t like writing in other venues because of my social needs. Luckily, I get my social needs (and then some) filled up with blogging. Read more about the social benefits of blogging.

There are other pros of course but the ones above are the main reasons why I keep right on blogging.

Why do you like blogging for others?

The Warm & Fuzzy Side of Blogging for Others

The other day I posted what I think the negatives of blogging for others are. Today – the nicer side of blogging. All the positives about blogging for someone else.

• I get to do something I love every day – blog. I’d blog anyhow, but the fact that people actually give me money to blog amazes me. Most days I feel pretty lucky.

• What other job would allow me, a single mama, to work from home like this? I get to homeschool my son Cedar, and if I blog at night we can hang at the park all day if we want. I guess there are other work-at-home jobs, but none I’d have as much fun with.

• I can make a decent living. I made more when I wrote other mediums, but the perk of being happier with blogging outweighs that right now.

• On top of blogging paying my bills, it’s far more regular than when I’d wait six months for a magazine to pay me. It’s steadier and feels a little more secure, at least as secure as freelancing can feel.

• No advertising! I love blogging but I don’t love dealing with the advertising side of blogging, and at blogs other people own, I don’t have to.

• I don’t have to pay for hosting, themes, or invest time in setting a blog up. Once in a while, at a cool network, they’ll ask you to help choose colors, or names if a blog was your idea, but mostly I don’t deal with any of the blog set-up.

• Know what’s funny. Tonight one of my networks had some unexpected downtime due to tech issues. Ironically so did this blog. For this blog, I had to mess around, call tech support, deal with it. My network blogs – well, the network tech support was busy making it all better while I did absolutely nothing. Ah nice.

• Once you’re a little more well established it’s fairly easy to get new work, if you want it. You know people who know people. Other clients can view your work online, see that you’re established, and they want to hire you. It’s no longer a life of everyday queries. That to me, is a huge perk. I hated querying all the time.

• Personally blogging has allowed me to be more involved in my work. When I wrote in other areas, I always felt like I was handing off someone else’s needs and ideas. Sure I’ll post issues that a client or editor wants me to at some of my blogs, but the telling part, the how I feel about it part, that’s all my voice. My voice was never so loud in other forms of paid writing.

Then of course there are the social aspects.
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