Blogging leads to new and valuable skills needed for online business success. When you first begin blogging, you think “it’s just writing,” but you are quickly dispelled of that illusion when you have to fiddle with your blog’s template code or get a plugin. The moment you realize nobody is hardly reading your blog makes you understand there is much more to blogging than… just blogging.
Most of us need to learn new skills in order to truly succeed online. I already had a background in web design, which gave me a head start, but even I have been surprised at the constant barrage of new things I’ve had to learn in order to succeed with my blogs, past and present. If you’re a new blogger, you may be experiencing that sinking feeling of dread at all the stuff you have to learn.
Since I’ve already been there, let me give you a roadmap of new skills you should pick up that will best help you.
Writing
Many of us think we’re much better writers than we really are. Suddenly writing for a blog when you haven’t done much writing recently will make that painfully obvious. Writing coherently, consicely, and skillfully takes practice. See my recent Blog Writing Series of posts for more help on this.
Despite all the fun I like to have with techniques, social media, and SEO, good content is still the foundation upon which everything is built. Do what you can to improve your writing, and specifically learn about copywriting.
Web Design
It’s hard to get your blog to do what you want if you don’t know a thing about FTP, HTML, CSS, and a bunch of other alphabet soup. My suggestions are to:
- Learn how to use an FTP program to upload files to your blog. This is how you get plugins for WordPress. Even if you get plugins that let you install stuff more easily, those plugins still have to be added to your blog via FTP. I use FileZilla, which is free and open source software.
- Learn HTML/CSS. Hypertext Markup Language is not as tough as you might think. Not only does knowing HTML help you with design issues, it helps you write better-formatted posts, too. Cascading Style Sheets is how web pages are visually formatted now. It’s easy to get yourself into a formatting jam the visual controls in your blog software won’t get you out of. Only people who can write a little code can do that. You can learn HTML from several sources. I recommend the W3C Schools. HTML.net is also a good place to learn.
Marketing
Blogging is often a form of marketing. People market a product or service with their blog. You need to have some understanding (the more the better) of these areas:
Research
In order to learn all this stuff and write great blog posts, you’ll need to learn how to find the information you need quickly and efficiently. You need to become adept at searching online. You need to learn how to take notes on paper or electronically.
People Skills and Networking
Perhaps the most important new skills of all are the ones you have to develop in communicating with others and networking. I can attribute my success directly to an intense focus on this, which has been difficult, since I’m a bit of an introvert. But by forcing myself to make contact with people, I have made excellent friends and now have a posse that has got my back. Opportunities come my way through my network. Social media helps a lot with this, especially Twitter.
Have Your Say
What new skills has blogging brought you? Tell us in the comments below.