What does a blog consultant do?

A client asked an awkward question last night. "What exactly did I pay you to do?"

Ah, the life of a blogging consultant! It should first be pointed out that both "Blogger" and "Consultant" managed to find their way into the book titled, 100 Bullshit Jobs by Stanley Bing. I wonder if I qualify for any of the other 98!

It's true that when I tell people what I do, they usually ask, "Blog Consultant? What does that mean?" Well, it's a very real and important job. I manage to save business owners hours (days? weeks?) of time tinkering with blog design, RSS feeds, looking through help pages, learning Technorati, etc.

Business owners call me because they have a business to run and don't have the time or desire to learn all that. They want a finished product with all the bells and whistles in place so that they can simply sit down and start blogging.

With that said, here's what I do:

Create the blog for a business owner, show them good posting techniques, and teach them RSS technology to keep them on top of their field.

Can you learn all this on your own? Yes. I did! But it literally took me months of blogging to figure out everything I know. If you read Pajama Market from the beginning, you can probably actually see the the learning taking place!

Luckily, my client wasn't asking what I do because he was questioning my value. He simply wanted a concise answer that he could use in pitching a blog to the other company he works for. So far he loves his new blog (Chimney Balloon) and thinks I'd create a great blog for the other company as well.

With that in mind I told him I was compiling a checklist of everything I did in the process of making his blog. I'm still working on it, but it looks like it will be more than 60 items long. While it's true that anyone can sign up with Typepad and start blogging in ten minutes, the 60+ additional tasks I perform are what makes the blog a premier business blog with all the bells and whistles in place for maximum exposure and the ability to retain readership.

If you would like a copy of the checklist to see what's involved, email me and I'll be happy to send it to you. My email address is frisco3 [at] gmail [dot] com.

Comments

[chimneyballoon]

Brian, Nice article. I didnt mean to make you squirm when I asked you that question on the phone, but you did answer it well, and you expounded you answer on this article. BTW I am in Google now...what can we do about that search bar that is so impreative?