Interview: Arieanna Schweber, Professional Blogger

For all the discussion lately about Professional Blogging, both here at 901am, Performancing and elsewhere, one name has continually sat in the back of my head: Arieanna Schweber. Arieanna is the only person I know to be anything close to resembling a professional blogger. When I first met Arieanna she was writing for something like 20-30 blogs. The number has since decreased, but she’s still making her living primarily first and foremost from blogging. What follows is my interview with her.

Would you call yourself a professional blogger, and if so why?

I use to call myself a professional blogger, but not only does that cause confusion (what’s a blog, how do you make money?), the continued misunderstanding of a blog as a ‘journal written by teenagers’ can devalue the work that one does ‘professionally’. The activities of ‘blogging’ are also unclear in the title, since as a hobbyist I might simply write a journal, but professionally, my aim has more purpose. Meaning, working with business clients to design and manage blogs, working on SEO, developing strong cohesive communities, and of course passing on my knowledge to other bloggers in b5[media]. I am part blogger, part consultant, part manager.

Right now, I try re-angle my job description to be about community. I’d say “community evangelist” but then people would think about Scoble and that doesn’t work out so well. There is no single phrase that wraps it all up nicely. Professional blogger? Yes, it’s a loaded title. :-)

How many blogs do you currently write for/ post to?

Good question. The number goes up and down depending on my client roster. At the moment, 13. Ignore the unluckiness of said figure. The figure of blogs I manage within b5media’s Celebrity & Entertainment channels is currently 40, including 4 of my own.

How many hours a day do you spend blogging, or related to blogging including research time, maintenance etc

The blogging or web 2.0 sphere is my full time job, and being self-employed, that means a really full time job. I spend approximately 9 hours a day doing consistent work, multi tasking between all the jobs, but also work 4 hours each day on the weekend, at least, and some evenings. For example, if my tv show is on, technically that’s work. I need to recap it, monitor the responses, get out spoilers, do video editing, etc. I’ve had to excuse myself from dinners to go watch tv, which is somewhat hard to explain to most people.

My day has become fairly regulated in terms of activities, although I multitask throughout. First comes all the email. Then the spam and comment checking. Going through comments takes about an hour in the morning. After that, I move into Bloglines to check my feeds, starting with the important ones, and open any links in the forum subscription emails I received that morning. If there is an “urgent” piece of news, I start writing immediately until I’ve exhausted the topic. If not, I continue researching for all my blogs until the afternoon, the time when I usually switch gears into writing mode. Blogs are written based on the urgency of the news, the size of the blog, or the obligations attached to it. Approximately 40 posts will go out a day, but it varies.

What in your opinion, makes a professional blogger?

Well, I would liken it to any profession. If you do it for a hobby, it’s not really your profession, profit or not. I may speak at conferences, but I am not a professional speaker. I think a professional blogger is someone who devotes most of their ‘work’ time to the industry and considers it their part or full-time job.

What advice would you give to people wanting to get to your level?

Be patient. My route has been different than most. I would say that the majority of bloggers out there will focus on a single or very few niche topics, very intensely. I have, however, spread myself out quite a bit more and also diversified my activities – personal sites, network sites, corporate consulting. The diversification was a choice for personal satisfaction and professional security, but it can slow your overall growth. I would suggest that bloggers focus their energies or, if they have the time, spread them out over multiple areas, but never too thinly. Building a community in an ever increasingly competitive landscape takes time. I would also caution bloggers from wasting too much time with “new” ideas or things. One can become obsessive about stats, SEO or the latest widget, but not all will justify your time.

How would you rate/ describe being a professional blogger..is it rewarding etc..?

Definitely. I would have to quantify it though. I am fiercely independent, so I like the control I have over my own activities. Also, I like the experimentalism of it. I am drawn towards how people think and use sites and enjoy the satisfaction of improving user experience over time. I was not always happy with being a ‘pro blogger,’ however. There are social drawbacks, to some extent. I travel more, but daily am more at home. Given my health, that has rather been a plus. Additionally, I made certain topical choices for business reasons rather than following my interests – my analysis showed profit potential in celebrities, so I dove in. For a long time I hated it. Found it petty and demanding and frivolous. However, they are probably now my most rewarding. Not only are they large in size, but the readers are intensely interactive. Gossip aside, my sites are a place for people from around the world to talk & exchange ideas and it makes them intensely happy. Not just providing information, but providing a sense of community and happiness – that is incredibly rewarding.

 

Tags: Arieanna Schweber

Originally posted on February 21, 2007 @ 10:26 pm