THE USEFUL PORTLAND BOOMER BLOGGER

The Common Question.

Show Me The Influence?
via fuelyourblogging.com

What is it you ask when you meet someone new?

Networking people want to know, “What do you do?”

So do most others, but they won’t admit it. They don’t want to seem pushy. Portland business is polite business.

When you meet others in a regularly planned gathering it’s not a question of what you do, but refining your pitch for what you do.

They already know who you are and what you do. What they want to know is how you’re doing.

Since you asked, I’ll tell you.

Boomerpdx had it’s second highest traffic month in history. January, a traditionally slow time, was a barn burner. In this case, history is a relative term since boomerpdx is just over a year old and still finding traction.

What is this traction? Traction and traffic are interchangeable.

Blog traffic, for the non-blogger, is an up and down adventure. One day it’s grounded, the next it soars, which leaves the poor blogger wondering what went wrong.

And what went right.

When traffic dies you wonder: did I offend the Google gods? Did Google roll out another update that targets bloggers like me? You’re sure it’s your fault for being a bad blogger. You want to quit the whole notion of blogging, the whole idea of using blogging as a platform for bigger and better things.

Without traffic your blogging platform feels more like the scaffold for a hanging and it’s your turn in the noose.

If you feel like this and someone asks you what you do, you might say, “I have no idea. Maybe you could tell me. I used to be a blogger.”

But, you buck up, choke down the apparent failure and push onward vowing to fail better. You blog, therefore you’re a blogger.

Do that and you’ll eventually get the question haunting all bloggers: “How do you make money blogging?”

The correct answer may be, “I don’t make a dime. My wife/husband/partner works. We share the same lunacy that writing is reality based and writing for money is the best money in the world. Better than bitcoins.”

If this is your answer you might be a great salesman, if not a great writer, so keep practicing. Build one sentence that forces you to the next. Finish one paragraph that compels you to read the next, one page that makes you turn to the next, then you’re in the writer-salesman-storyteller zone. And you’re happy.

Bloggers, professional bloggers, money making bloggers, are headline writers. They’ll explain five ways to save money in the checkout line, ten sunny places to go in the winter, or how to detect a bad friend in three easy steps.

The sharp blogger looks for trending keywords and writes their post around search terms. That’s how they drive traffic their way. Call it blogging strategy.

Boomerpdx looks for the third rail, the blogging super power, the sponsored posts.

Tell me if this makes sense: find a product you use and enjoy, contact the manufacturer, the retailer, and propose a deal. You’ll write a post that includes their product in the brightest light possible and share it with your network for a reasonable sum. This keeps your website clean, your client happy, while your readers get to find a better way.

A better way sounds pretty good right about now. What’s yours?