Without a doubt, most of us got into blogging because we wanted to make a lot of money quickly or because we actually had a passion for it. When the "money quick" bunch figured out that the money wasn't exactly quick or even existent, they either disappeared or converted over to the passionate bunch.
What were they passionate about?
Perhaps making money. However, you could still see the fire in their eyes and that very state sort of reminds me of the same state an entrepreneur needs to be in.
I can almost guarantee that when you first introduced your friends or colleagues into your world of blogging, entrepreneur wasn't the first word that popped in their head. Most likely it was hobbyist, extreme hobbyist even.
Once you really get deep into blogging, however, hobby was the last word you wanted associated with your blog. Your blog was more akin to a start-up company! When we take a dive into the following values, we see just how similar we are. To be successful, you need to have:
Passion
With any entrepreneurial endeavor, you must have a fiery passion that people can feel. The same can be said for blogging. Without this important attribute, you most likely will not put as much into your work as you could. It's like having that job that you hate so you only give 75% of yourself. True entrepreneurship needs passion. True bloggers need passion.
Vision
When you are starting a company, one of the first things you sit down and come up with is a vision for where you want your business to go. Where will you be in X amount of years and how will you get there? Well, if you already haven't thought of this, you need to come up with a vision for your blog. All of our visions are probably to have the best blog in the world, but how will we get there? Just like the entrepreneur, we should have this mapped out somewhere.
Persistence
One of the most well known attributes of an entrepreneur is their persistence. After all, they say an overwhelming majority of most start-ups fail right? The same probably could be said for most new blogs, although it is far easier for us to just reinstall WordPress and start over. Down the road to blogging bliss, we will most likely make a ton of mistakes and get frustrated, but it's that persistence that keeps us going unlike the "quick money" bunch who left after the first paragraph.
The Ability To Network
Entrepreneurs use networking to build teams, get ideas, bond with mentors, secure investors, and much more. We as bloggers should be doing just as much, if not more, networking as the entrepreneur. Our networking comes in the form social media and communities. We need to be actively building relationships with those virtually around us. The Lone Blogger won't be a blogger for long most likely.
The Need for Freedom
When the entrepreneur goes to tell his friends that he wants to start his own company, unless they have the same mindset, he or she is usually met with with blank stares. They can't fathom how anyone could want to start a company when there are so many "wonderful" companies we could be working for. This is what separates the blogger and the entrepreneur from others. While we usually aren't afraid to drag ourselves to work, we realize that there is a lot more to life than the 9-5. Most of us aren't able to quit our day jobs just yet, but the point that we envision one day being in control of our own time, doing what we love to do.
Blogging is entrepreneurship, point blank. There is no other way to describe it. If you have a blog and your goal is to have more than your spouse and next door neighbor to read it, you are going to treat it like a business. Once you get into this mindset, you become The Entrepreneurial Blogger.
Your Turn
Have you fully transitioned into The Entrepreneurial Blogger or do you see your blog as more of a hobby? What other values do you think the entrepreneur and the blogger share? Let us know what you think!
Guest post by Wayne Howard. Wayne Howard is just a young blogger with an entrepreneurial mind who wants to share what he's learning with the world. He is the creator of Business & Pleasure and The Blogger's Atlas Project. Connect with him through twitter @WaynesBNP and on facebook at www.facebook.com/WaynesBNP.
The Entreprenuerial Blogger is a post from: We Blog Better. © 2010. Share it freely, but please link back to this source.