15 Essential Blogging Skills

What do I need to know to get started? A professional blogger does not just publish content. A professional blogger is a researcher, writer, editor, marketer, promoter, producer, administrator, evangelist, sales person and PR person. To be proficient in these roles there is a basic set of essential skill that you need to learn.

1. Conduct keyword research and analysis.
2. Network and build relationships.
3. Create content that is purposeful, compelling and focused.
4. Promote your content.
5. Promote your blog (create and maintain a brand).
6. Basic link building; internal and external.
7. Build and maintain a community.
8. Track and analyze blogging metrics.
9. Convert casual visitors to loyal readers, subscribers or clients.
10. Basics of search engine optimization.
11. Properly monetize your blog.
12. Administer, secure, and maintain your blog and plug-ins.
13. Being active with social media.
14. Basic HTML, CSS and PHP.
15. Balance your blogging life with real life.

These are not simple skills. They all take time to develop. They each require a bit of knowledge of the other. Being efficient in one essential blogging skill reduces the time required to learn another skill.

Take the time to understand the basics and build the essential skills. As you become more efficient at using your newly mastered skills you will spend less time completing day-to-day tasks. And, you will have more time to develop new skills.

Over the next few weeks I will dissect each of these skills. I’ll lay out what it is, a process for developing the skill and what it means to be efficient at that skill.

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