My business has changed over time. When I first started, I regarded what I did as blog consulting. I used the word consulting as a catch-all to describe a range of work. I did blog design, installation, maintenance, and other tasks. Part of that was advising people.
That was the part I loved. Yes, I have skills and experience in all these other areas, but what I really loved was the one-on-one and the group blog coaching over the phone. The results from this kind of work has not only transformed and “powered up” my clients’ blogs… it has changed lives.
And although words are always inadequate to a degree, what I do now is more the role of a blog coach than a blog consultant. And in the “I hadn’t thought about it in that way before” department, Naomi Dunford describes consulting as something you do for companies and coaching as something you do for people (there is an entire module on coaching and consulting in her Online Business School full of precious gems like that one).
Those are the differences, as far as I see them. I still use both words to refer to my site and myself because I know that many people don’t know or don’t care enough about the differences in meaning, and I need to be easily found via search.
Have you had trouble deciding what to call or label your profession, or has it been easy for you?
I call what I do consulting only because I have a kneejerk “ech” feeling around the word coaching. (So many people use it whatever their expertise that it seems meaningless and even a little bit shady to me.)
And in reality what I do is a lot of hand-holding!! (My usual client tends to be someone who is a little afraid of computers and/or the internet but who really wants to start blogging.)
This is a great article….I often struggling when asked the question “what do you do for a living”. It’s hard to say that I’m a professional blogger, as most people have no clue what it entails. I have found myself telling people that I’m in Online Marketing.
Hi Michael, I like the distinction that you point out. I believe that my own business falls into both categories, as I help both kinds of clients.
Trying to pigeon-hole the two definitions is sort of like trying to describe the difference between a cook and a chef. It is probably more about attitude than anything else.
Such a great post, and a big distinction to make. Too many throw out the words coaching and consulting — they are different, but not necessarily mutually exclusive… Hope that makes sense LOL