01 Apr 09 Creating A Professional Blog To Sell Your Experience

Written by: SamElli

There’s little purpose in having a blog that nobody reads, unless of course you’re a big fan of posting your ramblings onto the internet for nobody else’s benefit besides your own.  And if that’s your game, you may as well just buy a diary and write in that, because it would be exactly the same.  Blogging can be an incredibly useful way to put yourself out there, your qualifications, your work history, and your musings about the effectiveness of C++ vs. C#.

In short, a brilliant way to showcase your talents, and create interest in the unique services you can provide.  And in fact, a successful blog can even get contractors to approach you for consultations or even jobs.  But how do you get to that stage, where your blog can be found among the helpless rabble of a million pointless blog entries on the entirety of the internet’s blogosphere?

First off, your professional personal blog needs one thing more importantly than anything else, to be taken absolutely seriously.  This is a facet of your job, a way to sell yourself, and nothing will turn off a potential buyer like wasting blog space on your latest theory as to what’s going to happen in the final episode of Lost.  You want to stick to work related topics, and something that demonstrates your talents, and experience, or for lack of experience, then the educational experiences that make you a worthy professional.

And don’t forget, as with any blog, you don’t want to sound stiff or boring.  You want to take an appropriately humorous tone to educate as well as titillate.  This isn’t a resume, just your writings about the industry and your experiences therein.

Which brings me to another glaring error a ton of people make.  Never bash colleagues or companies you’ve worked with, as that also is a great way to make yourself undesirable as a worker.

Also, take advantage of putting yourself out into the Blogosphere by making contact with other bloggers in your niche.  Network yourself, read other blogs, learn from them to develop your unique blogging voice, and in turn see if you can exchange links by linking back to their site.  Linking is probably still the best way to grow you blog’s audience, and remains one of the most important aspects of building a successful site.

Follow those pointers and you’ll be off to a rollicking start by making yourself look like an excellent future employee to any hiring company surfing the net.  And they do that a lot more often than you’d think.

Tags: Bloggers, blogging, Blogosphere, Colleagues, Consultations, Diary, Educational Experiences, Facet, Glaring Error, Humorous Tone, Little Purpose, Musings, Niche, Personal Blog, Rabble, Ramblings, Resume, Showcase Your Talents, Unique Services, Work History