but I am SO TIRED of blogs about blogging. I removed every single blog about blogging (including ProBlogger) from my Google reader because I was sick of seeing articles like: “how to get 50 million new RSS readers overnight” and “make billions on your blog.” Right, so I exaggerate a little, but you know what I mean don’t you? I went through a phase when I was reading tons of articles and websites about blogging, SEO, marketing, site design, and even bought a few ebooks (gasp!) but I came to the conclusion that they’re all FULL OF SHIT. Pardon the expletive, but I’m now of the firm belief that
you CAN and WILL be successful with your blog if you write about what you are passionate about, feature original content, engage with your readers, and treat it seriously – like a business if you want it to make you money.
It also takes time.
There’s no secret to blogging successfully, and I’m not sure it can be taught. I started grechenblogs because I was getting questions about how I make money from my blogs and wanted to address them on a larger scale. I also wanted to talk about my own experiences and what I learned from them, in an effort to help others. And, I really, really, really like to talk 
What blogs about blogging do you read? Do you find them helpful?
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{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
The only 2 I have are Copyblogger & Problogger–but most of the time, I skip them.
It’s HARD to become a successful blogger. I’ve been on DP for 3 years now, and am no closer to making money off of it as when I started (so if you want to chat & give me suggestions, I’m open to it!). That being said– there’s something really fulfilling about IGNORING all of that other stuff–pagerank, subscribers, SEO, and just WRITING. We get SO bogged down by the “professional & technical side,” that I think a lot of us forget why we did it in the first place.
Ashe Mischief´s last blog ..What’s so Dazzling about ShoeDazzle
totally agree – i was spending so much time reading blogs about blogging that i wasn’t blogging…and then, what’s the point? maybe i learned a few things, but now they’re all the same, and a waste of time IMO.
and i’m always open for a chat, or to answer questions…i was thinking actually of doing a twitter “chat” session one evening, that could be interesting, no?
That would definitely be interesting! You’re a huge inspiration to me, and I’m sure many other bloggers.
And you’re right– you can only spend so much time reading about HOW TO DO things before it interferes with your ability to actually DO them.
Ashe Mischief´s last blog ..What’s so Dazzling about ShoeDazzle
I read ProBlogger and a few others – obviously not much because I don’t even remember their names. Sometimes I find that the articles help and most of the time, I feel like they don’t apply to me at all or are so cold and technical, I don’t want to use them. I figure if I keep writing and posting, if I’m good enough, the people will come. Right?
Amy´s last blog ..Music Monday- 10 Things I Would Do With A Billion Dollars
yes…if you keep writing and posting and build your community AND give it LOTS of time, success will come. you do have to define success for yourself though, so you’ll know it when it’s there
I read just a few blogging blogs, but I have to correct Ashe in that Copyblogger is about copywriting, not blogging. I think that blogs about blogging don’t make a clear connection to fashion blogs because they are selling information in the forms of ebooks, services, consulting. What do we sell? What pressing information are we providing? What we do is provide entertainment and inspiration, and those are very difficult to monetize.
When fashion bloggers start rethinking their business models, we will start seeing some bloggers make money.
As it stands, the bloggers that are making some sort of money are doing it from projects that have come as a result of their blog and relationships they have formed with brands, not from the blog itself.
I’m with you on this frustration. and bleep away Grechen. We have been at this for a very long time (I’ve been blogging for 5 years). It’s a good thing we are passionate about our topics right?!
You’re right– Copyblogger is about copywriting, but I think a lot of his articles make strong cases for why and how to use copywriting in your blog, how it strengthens your blog, and how it can optimize SEO and such. So while it’s not about blogging per se, it’s definitely a tool for blogging (if that makes sense). Hell, I’m actually reading Copyblogger’s SEO handbook right now!
That being said, you make a GREAT point about how fashion bloggers are in a weird place when it comes to making money. I’m working on a post right now for IFB on why the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog is a great tool for fashion bloggers– but I can’t always argue that ProBlogger is. It can be REALLY time consuming to weed through all of those sites to find out the info that is relevant to growing the fashion site….
That also being said– Grechen, I’d love to see you do more guest posts on IFB. I think there’s a real space there to have this conversation with the community “at large” and make those topics about blogging relevant and useful for an untapped niche…. (or hell, if you’re busy, have the convo with me, and I’ll write the post.)
Ashe Mischief´s last blog ..What’s so Dazzling about ShoeDazzle
OMG…i keep writing this long response to your comment, and it keeps disappearing!!! so i’m going to keep it short:
i do make good money from my blogs, but that’s because my passion is online shopping, which is easier to monetize, relatively speaking, than strictly “fashion” or style blogs.
and when you say that bloggers should start rethinking their business models, what do you suggest? what should their/our models be? this is a question i’ve been throwing around for a lont time, because while i still make money from advertisements and affiliate sales, i don’t believe it will ALWAYS be like that. i just haven’t figured out what the next step is.
I agree Ashe – I loved 31 Days as well. I found many of the lessons useful. It would be great to collaborate and pull some of the relevant gems and share them here or/and on IFB.
I want in on this Convo as well.
Sandra´s last blog ..Vintage Jewelry Elva Fields Has a New Collection
it’s odd… i used to read these blogs about blogging religiously, and they are helpful. i started IFB because these blogging blogs didn’t cater to the fashion community, and it seems like we have a whole different culture and things that work. while problogger would talk about how chititika chiquita? whatever, this site he said was really great for monetization, had no value for anything fashion related. also some other suggestions, like asking bloggers to post about your blog… pisses a lot of fashion bloggers off.
that said, you’re right, there is no magic solution…what annoys me about these blogging blogs, is that most of the posts are theoretical. not many of them are experiential. there was this one post about how to write a post in 30 minutes, and I was like, really? but then he talked about how he had to think about the post in advance. i’d say that’s not writing a post in 30 minutes.
i give everyone the side-eye when they say they only spend a few hours a day on their blog. maybe that works if you’re tavi, but for the rest of us, it’s work.
jennine´s last blog ..Links à la Mode – The IFB Weekly Roundup- July 1
i should have said that i did find some of the very good blogs, like problogger, helpful a couple of years ago, when i was transitioning my sites to blogs as opposed to just “websites.” but i just don’t find them relevant anymore – especially not for fashion bloggers. and i feel like many have “jumped the shark” and have gone from just how to write and maintain a “good” blog to how to make tons of money and get lots of subscribers. numbers come later, posts and community should come first…
ITA with you about not many of the blogging blogs being experiential – if they are, i’m amazed. most seem to be full of tricks and shortcuts to success – some of which can be helpful, but not if taken alone.
the community that you’ve built of fashion bloggers is amazing, i love being a part of it, and it’s so necessary, because fashion/style blogging is a totally different world than “blogging;” it’s much more difficult to monetize – and there are so many different WAYS to monetize. my niche (because of what i’m passionate about) is shopping – a combination of contemporary & independent designers – which is, in relative terms, easier to monetize than a style blog, so even my experiences can’t always translate well, but i try
as for 30 minutes on a post? or a few hours a day on a blog? i cannot even relate…not even when i first started in 2004 was i only spending a few hours a day!!!
I still have some of those blogs on my reader, but like many others I do skip over a lot of that buzz. Lately I’ve been really into Tara Gentile’s concept of getting more personal on your blog, and getting back to kind of where blogging started. (I’m thinking about Livejournal circa 2001 here…) I’m guilty of it myself, but yeah, we tend to fall into this rut where we follow all the rules and sort of forget to just be ourselves on our blogs. And isn’t that what it’s all about?
whoa. thanks for that link!! i can’t wait to read more of tara’s stuff…
i totally agree with being personal – i THINK i’ve always been quite personal on all of my blogs, i just can’t imagine being any other way. and i think that’s what makes successful blogs successful, really, if the readers can identify somehow with the blogger.
I love Tara’s blog and I love how she is expanding. I’m thinking of hiring her for a brainstorming session because she really gets that lifestyle blogs are a completely different animal. Her latest ebook about telling your story really hit home for me. When I saw her on the Third Tribe Marketing forum, I was giddy that “one of us” was there to represent fashion/lifestyle/crafting.
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