The three of these things, when brought together correctly, are worth much more than the sum of their parts. Collectively, they can educate, engage and entertain. They can change minds, build trust and bring about relationships. Interdependent and intertwined, they work together to make something extremely powerful, yet very delicate. In the right hands, they can bring dreams to life. In the wrong hands, they can create living nightmares.
It takes a careful hand to manage the mix and keep the formula tuned for optimal performance. It is making the sale without selling. It is producing content that does not feel produced. It is managing the systems that deliver it all for the best possible experience. This, my friend, this is bloggery.
What Makes a Practitioner of Bloggery?
An aspiring practitioner of bloggery is trying to master not just one, but all three of the concepts that work together to complete the whole. He understands that the three are inexorably bound and that without the presence of each in proper measures, the zen of true bloggery can not be attained.
Sales Without Selling
He strives to learn how to persuade, convince and sell using methods so subtle, yet so effective, that the audience never thinks anything other than they have made up their own mind to purchase that which they have not needed until now. He is proud and grateful for the thanks he receives from his audience when he has been successful. He never gloats. He will always turn praise and thanks it into another opportunity to promote. He is a confidant, advisor and perhaps even teacher, never a salesman.
Content That Doesn’t Feel Produced
He strives to learn his language well, beyond the average speaker. His language is not just a means of communication, it is a craft; an art to be mastered and manipulated. He understands that the words have more worth than their meanings. He knows that the choices he makes now will affect the choices others make later. He knows that the slightest mistake will betray their trust and reduce his authority. He chooses carefully and deliberately as he crafts his thoughts into words that will influence theirs.
Details of Delivery
His training is not all mental, but physical as well. He works to learn the systems that will deliver his messages. He must learn to tune them so his message is delivered precisely, in good time and in good condition. He understands that a message which arrives too late is just as good as not having been sent at all. He knows that the medium used for delivery can influence the reader just as much as the message itself. He works to make sure that the message is delivered always in the most convenient way possible, with no obstruction, no confusion, and no delay.
So What Is the Zen of Bloggery?
The zen of bloggery provides a unified and complete experience to the target audience. Content and content delivery systems are tuned and targeted for the audience. Everything under the control of one person, one personality, one vision of an overall goal. When a bloggery master, having reached the point of zen, oversees all three planes of the bloggery experience, he can produce results far superior to those produced by any three people working separately.
The bloggery practitioner will tune himself to the audience he wishes to target. He will devise content that will attract and educate that audience. He will engage and interact with them as necessary. He will also work to make sure the systems behind his content are working properly and tuned for optimal performance. He will make use of analytics and other available data and tools to constantly and consistently tune both his messages and the method of delivery.
The practitioner makes no excuses. He is the master of his own domain and accountable for everything that happens within it. The choices and the results they bring are his and his alone. He will not blame poor performance on a topic chosen by someone else or a poorly configured plugin that was chosen by a coworker. He will strive always for the best, and he will expect to be rewarded well for it when successful.
He understands that his is a journey of unending learning. Change is not only expected, it is anticipated and relied upon. With each step the student of bloggery takes, he becomes stronger, more influential, and more valuable. His influence can grow beyond the status of legends. His reach is limited only by his own restraint, and his value is immeasurable.
So where are you?
If you’ve got your own blog, are you striving for the zen of bloggery, or are you just blogging?
If you’ve got a business blog, who’s running it? Have you got a true practitioner of bloggery or just a blogger?
Good article. I like it.
Thanks! I’m glad you got something out of it.