Isn’t the definition of blogging kind of general?
Not really the word itself, rather the definition of the profession.
There are many individual parts that fit together to form a successful blogging venture.
What exactly do I mean by this?
It’s simple really…
A blog is not just a collection of words.
Its doesn’t depend solely upon a good design.
Connecting on social media is only a portion of success.
Other than providing beneficial value, blogs also need to get people sticking around in order to grow…
In order to be a masterful blogger
mastering as many of these various skills as possible is important.
But, I’m not here to tell you of the importance of mastering skills. That’s a basic understanding…
The important message here are the few skills to actually master. They are crucial if you desire to build your blog hands on and grow it effectively. I understand a lot of people prefer to outsource.
That’s why this is the art of mastering skills.
As with other forms of art, it’s only pursued by those who are interested in being skilled.
As a self proclaimed chronic do-it-yourselfer, I prefer to master the skills first and if I don’t thoroughly enjoy them over time, then I outsource.
When you find skills that you enjoy learning and doing, that make this process worth it.
Not only does this allow you to gain a specialized skill (or a few!) for your profession, it becomes an enjoyable craft as well.
3 Skills All Bloggers Should Adopt for Proficient Blogging Habits
These are three skills to have as a “well rounded” blogger. All are learned through practice and concentrated effort.
Of course, each skill has other parts to it. I’ve got the “sub skills” shown here as well so that you can relate the main skill towards blogging in a way that’s beneficial to your venture:
1. Experimentation
Sub skills: being creative, patient, and learning how to test.
Experimentation is: learning how to run with new ideas and adapt yourself along the way for improvement.
Being creative transforms almost any venture you undertake into one of enjoyment. Just as painters enjoy painting and poets enjoy reading/writing poetry, bloggers enjoy their craft as well.
But it’s only enjoyable if viewed from a creative standpoint rather than a business or work standpoint.
People don’t like the idea of work… it plagues them.
But when your job becomes a place that you can extend your skills creatively it gains a certain luster. Having that spark and applying the desire to make something better than before leads you towards the cultivating of grand ideas.
Experiment using patience, always apply creativity, and learn how to test your ideas for results. If you can do these things you’ll expand your knowledge into new areas and maximize your benefits from doing so.
What kind of experiments should you do?
Well you can branch out into other forms of media. If you aren’t making videos and sharing them online, start doing it. If you aren’t putting out guest posts, start doing that too.
The key is to start doing new things you aren’t currently doing. That’s an experiment because your taking a problem and attempting to overcome it using this “new thing” as the solution.
Then you analyze your results from doing that “new thing” and improve accordingly…. it sounds like a lot, but it’s really a no brainer for getting better at what you want to do.
2. Persuasion
Sub skills: building rapport, understanding benefits vs audience problems, psychological triggers.
I’ve been talking a lot about this topic over at my blog recently. There’s a good reason for this.
Persuasion will help you get what you want in life. It’s a tool you should carry with you in all areas.
Understand though, I’m not talking about manipulating people. What I’m talking about is natural persuasion. Being attractive enough so that people will join your cause willingly.
How can you get someone join what you’re doing… without trying so hard to influence them?
It isn’t how hard you try to persuade them that makes influence work…
It’s how much benefit they perceive to get out of you, followed by a simple “triggering” of an emotional chord inside of them to get an action.
This works for blogging in very powerful ways.
Your web design, brand (going in depth on this one below), and overall impression you make on your incoming audience establishes a sense of rapport.
Rapport is a form of trust in case you were wondering. It’s when you have something in common and are seen as genuine to someone. Rapport is an inner connection with a stranger.
You need to establish a connection with your audience, understand what problems they are having, present to them benefits through your value, and use psychological triggers to help direct their attention for growing your blog.
3. Branding
Sub skills: web & graphic design, developing your personal story, developing your unique voice
Your online brand represents your identity across the internet. It’s not so much what people believe about your brand that matters.
It only acts as a trigger.
What matters is the basic image you give off to others. They will build a perception of you and your business and through branding you can trigger them to recall associated emotions from that perception.
You create your identity slowly over time through your actions. It’s important that you build a reputation. The entire time you are building a reputation and fleshing out your personal story, you should be doing so in a uniform way.
This is why I put web and graphic design in the sub skills list.
It isn’t necessary that you become a Photoshop expert overnight… the actual web design skill itself isn’t super crucial to have.
Understanding the motive which drives this skill in the background is crucial.
When creating your brand… color scheme, slogans, logos, and all of that are a part of it and must be tied together appropriately for your cause.
As you create value and solve your audience’s problems, you should also be sharing your own personal story. It’s unique to you and is what gravitates people to listen to you. Others will find you interesting only according to your personal story… otherwise we’d all be the same, right?
Information is all out there; it’s my belief that people are looking for unique style.
Together, your personal story and creativity will help you to develop your own unique voice. As you present this story and unique voice across the internet in various ways (experimenting), doing so with a uniform appearance will “brand” your persona to your cause.
That’s how you create your own unique style and tie everything together.
Eventually they will become one and the same to a point that someone merely needs to mention your name or your brand’s name and others immediately feel a certain emotion or thought about you.
Now I want to know…
A lot of successful bloggers use these methods to help them grow their businesses. I know I’ve mentioned a few important skills to master, but there are more. It’s because of this reason that I’m running a long term series teaching every important skill I can think of for those who wanna really learn to blog.
What other skills are important for us bloggers to master in order to really gain an understanding of this wide reaching profession?
If you have any examples of these skills in action, care to share your thoughts?
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