The Blogging Manifesto

Contents

By Ruhi Jiwani

blogging Everyone has to start somewhere. So start doing what you love, and start writing for pay.

Many writers looking for work get turned off by the phrase “content mill.” They imagine that they’re going to be churning out writing day by day without any thought as to quality. Writers who might be writing for more prestigious print publications also do their best to enforce the idea that writing for the internet is somehow not as worthwhile as what they do.

Plus, there are the people who will tell you that you’re not making enough money or that you deserve to have your name attached to anything you write. And, of course, there’s the usual “you’re better than this” form of encouragement, which is really discouragement in disguise. If you’re a writer thinking about taking up blogging for small business, you need to squelch the naysayers. So read on for a few good reasons why you should take up blogging.

  1. No one’s going to say no to good writing. If you’re afraid that you’re going to have to produce bad writing in order to get published, you can rest easy. No one at BlogMutt is actually going to say “no, you can’t produce quality content.” Most customers love it when you put a bit of thought into writing something good for them. If you give them something original, quirky, or creative, they are most likely going to accept it. Some companies may have restrictions about the type of content they need but no one’s actually going to make you produce bad writing. At some point, you might have to stop revising and just turn in your piece. But this is true of writing for any medium.
  2. The internet is the future. You must have noticed how bookstores are now closing down and people have started reading e-books instead. The internet is replacing newspapers and magazines as a source of news and entertainment. So those people who keep telling you that writing for print is more prestigious? They’re jealous. Yes, that’s right. They’ve spent all this time writing for print and print is now going out of fashion. You probably just started writing a couple of years ago but you are now pretty good at writing for the internet. People who have been writing for print are going to have to develop a new set of skills, to which they’re resistant. So pay no attention to them. If you’re getting a job writing for print, that’s great. But there’s absolutely nothing wrong with writing for the internet.
  3. You can make money blogging. Everyone has to start somewhere. If you haven’t written much in your life, you can’t expect to start making pots of money right away. Consider Malcolm Gladwell who started writing right out of college. Now, Gladwell writes for The New Yorker and has also published several non-fiction books. But when he was a recent graduate, the only job he was offered was for The American Spectator out in Indiana. He worked at a couple of smaller publications for three years, then moved to The Washington Post and finally ended up at The New Yorker. The process of getting to The New Yorker took him 12 years. Have you been writing day in and day out for 12 years? If not, you can’t really expect to be at the New Yorker level, can you? Follow Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule by putting 10,000 hours into doing what you love. At the end of it, you will surely have the job of your dreams.
  4. BlogMutt is a great place to write. For people who are struggling with the “you’re better than this” comment all the time, consider the fact that BlogMutt is a great place to write. The people who work here are always polite and helpful, even if you accidentally mess things up. You can write as much as you want or as little as you want. You get paid on time. And if you get to level 8, you even become a co-owner with shares in the company. If you really want to see your name attached to your blog post, write a few posts for BlogMutt itself so you can show them off to friends and family (unless, of course, they are the naysayers you’re trying to fight off in the first place!)

Editor’s note: This blog is an example of the kind of writing you can get for your blog. The only thing that’s different is that it has the name of the writer. For your blog, you can say you wrote it. That’s fine with us. We’re happy mutts. Click here for more explanation of this series of posts.

This is from a writer who loves to find the (admittedly sometimes absurd) connection between celebrities and blogging for small business. Her last was about Taylor Swift. It’s a little wacky to connect the two, but somehow she does it from her home office in New Jersey. (Maybe it’s because she lives closer to real celebrities than I do in Colorado.) Anyway, while it’s wacky, it shows how fun a business blog can be. There’s no need that every post be super educational, and it still has the right keywords in the right spots, so it still helps with SEO, etc. And real people love this kind of stuff. — Scott

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