Problogger Defined

I was thinking about who I envisioned the audience of this site to be (of course I thought, “It’s the problogger”) and it occurred to me that there could be multiple definitions of what a problogger is.

What exactly is a “problogger”? The first time I heard the term was when I happened across Darren Rowse’s blog a couple of years back and when he only had a few hundred subscribers. Darren was a one man operation back in the day with 20-something blogs and him updating all of them! Can you believe that?!

Darren was very efficient even though he worked 18 hours a day. He was also able to generate $50,000 a year from blogging (later he was well on his way to $500,000+ a year). Before Darren went “galactic” as a “problogger”, he and I even traded links to our cell phone blogs that to this day is still there on each of our sites.

When I think about what a problogger is, I think about the qualities that Darren Rowse exhibits since I’ve followed him and his blog for a few years now, and because he has become so successful. So what, exactly, is a “problogger”? Below I’ve listed some qualities I think probloggers share.

A problogger is:

1. A free agent, meaning that he is not an employee though he may be contracted to blog professionally.
2. Well read, meaning that he stays focussed on breaking news for the niches he covers in his blogs.
3. Persistent, meaning that he blogs regularly and with a plan.
4. Connected, meaning that he leaves comments and regularly participates in blog conversations.
5. Funny, because humor is a very important trait of anyone who blogs for a living.
6. Balanced, meaning that he makes time for other things besides blogging because problogging can be very lonely otherwise.
7. Analytical, meaning that he carefully considers stats, revenue streams and other signals that makes his blog a viable business because problogging is about making money after all.
8. Has a plan, meaning that he is blogging for a purpose and that purpose is to make a living off of his blogging.
9. Focussed, because blogs that are not focussed are called “online diaries” and don’t make money.
10. Not easily discouraged, because it can take a while before a problogger really becomes successful enough to just be a problogger.

Why did I make this post? Because it is easy to lose focus, get frustrated and quit too early from being a problogger, but hopefully a list of qualities of successful probloggers can bring back the focus needed to carrry on. I’d be interested to read about what others think a problogger is.