This is a collaborative post.
When I started blogging it was something I enjoyed but I never imagined all the skills blogging would bring me. If you wonder what skills blogging could bring you then why not consider starting a blog too? You don’t need to make it a job, it could just be a hobby.
7 skills blogging can bring you
I am sure there are more skills than this but here are my favourite 7 skills that blogging has taught me. Or skills I had a little previously but they have been enhanced since I started my site.
Negotiation skills
One important thing if you want to make money from blogging is to be able to negotiate deals with brands and businesses. There will always be people who want something for nothing and others who will pay well but expect the world for it.
Every work day I am negotiating with someone that bloggers do not work for free whilst looking at how long a piece of work will take before pricing it for the brand.
Videography
Social media used to be all about sharing things and words but then it became more visual followed by video taking over. Now on some platforms (Instagram for example) the engagement you will get is much higher with videos.
Whilst there are sites like Pictory to help you, you will soon realise that you get a better eye for video and see things online and wonder why they didn’t record it from another angle for example.
Social media
Social media used to be all about relaxing, chatting to friends and finding fun groups to join. As a blogger, it is more about work and there isn’t downtime on social media in the same way as there is if you do not need it for work.
Everything you do or say can be taken out of context or affect your work. It is a skill sometimes to just keep what you think quiet and remember you are your business!
Photography and photo editing
Whilst I don’t need to do much editing I do take a lot of photos and it is really important to make sure they fit your brand. For example, I like all my photos in a gift guide to be on the same background if possible so they match nicely.
I can spend ages positioning an item for a photo, something I never realised I would get quite skilled at. Equally, some things are really hard to photograph, such as empty glass vases!
Coding
I am from an age where the only computer work we did at school was word processing (it wasn’t even word) and spreadsheets. We didn’t have a windows computer and certainly didn’t do coding.
I do very little in the way of coding now but I do know bits and keep learning more and would love to develop this skill further to really bring my website to life in new and different ways. It is one of the skills blogging has taught me that I never even considered before I started blogging.
Quick typing
When you get paid for writing an article it really pays to be able to type quickly. I have never had touch typing lessons etc but I have got very quick at typing just to make the most of my time and work quickly and efficiently.
An imagination
I am not an overly imaginative person but blogging it has really encouraged me to develop my imagination as sometimes a company want you to write an article with a specific link in and finding a way to then write something interesting with their anchor text (the part you click on to get to the link). Especially when an anchor text is quite random such as “plumbing Nottingham”.
Can you think of any other skills blogging has taught you or me? If you are a blogger do let me know of any other ideas in the comments, if not then have you seen anything I do and thought wow that is a skill she has gained by blogging!
Have these skills surprised you? Let me know in the comments below.
