Written on January 22nd, 2005 at 12:01 am by Darren Rowse

Professional Blogger Association - Some Observations

Pro Blogging News 5 comments

I’m really happy to see the caliber of Professional Bloggers Association’s Founding Team Members - whilst some have critiqued having such an association I’m pleased that it seems to be moving ahead. They’ve named a board and voted on office bearers which is a good first step and now have a lot of work to do to get it up and running.

This might seem like I’m having a go at them, I’m not in fact I’ve offered my full support and assistance in any way I can a couple of times now. I believe in the ideas of pro bloggers coming together - however I would give one initial observation of the group that have kicked this thing off.

Whilst Paul mentions that they are international in their scope I’m left wondering whether this is really just a north american association. Yes they have Hans on the team (and there could be another European or two in there that doesn’t say so on their bio) but the vast majority of those on the founding membership list are from the US with a few from Canada.

Ok - let me critique my own observation.

  • Of course this is only a founding membership list and it would make sense to have the initial group clustered together to help with the logistics of setting up the process.
  • Yes the majority of pro-bloggers probably do live in the US.
  • The founding membership needs to be of a high caliber/profile - again the US and Canada has a lot of pro bloggers that fit this bill
  • Yes it would make good business sense that pro bloggers in a region would want to network together…..

I understand and affirm all these things - however would suggest that blogging is a medium (and pro blogging as a subset of it) that crosses all borders, genders, ethnicities, skin colors and ages. I’d guess I’d like to hope that a group that seeks to represent, support and advocate for such a diverse group of people will take some steps to reflect its diversity from the ground up.

Anyway - its early days for the PBA and I honestly am looking forward to how it unfolds. I’m still interested to know how they will define ‘professional blogger’ (which will probably answer my pondering of whether I will join or not).

Like I’ve said before ‘Pro blogging’ is a pretty wide term and is being used to talk about everyone from ‘business blogs’ to ‘blog consultants’ to ‘bloggers who make money from their blogs directly’ to ‘those who provide blog tools/services’ for blogging.’

I personally have a pretty wide definition of Professional Blogger - anyone who earns (or attempts to earn) a significant part of their income from their blogging, whether that be directly from their readership, from their consulting clients, from their advertisers, from their business (ie it is a job or part of their job), from the sales of books that came about out of their blogging etc….

I qualify the statement with ‘attempts to earn’ because everyone starts somewhere. I think Problogging is partly about a state of mind. I also say ’significant part of their income’ because I don’t think it includes the many hobby bloggers who have an ad or affiliate button or two on their blogs and make a few dollars every now and again.

One of their first tasks I guess will be giving some scope and boundaries to the group. I’ll be watching on with interest.

Update: Have been pondering this a little more this morning and wondered if another addition to the core team might be a Pro Blogger who makes money directly from their blogs. I guess I’m thinking about Nick or Jason type or one of their offsiders. The spread of people on the initial team covers everything from consultants, to PR bloggers, to marketers, to bloggers associated with businesses that blog, to blog tool/service people - but not seeing too many actually doing the magazine style thing….just another thought….

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5 Responses to “Professional Blogger Association - Some Observations”

  • Tris Hussey

    January 21st, 2005 1:51 pm

    Darren,

    You are completely correct. PBA is certainly too heavy with North American bloggers, right now. And Hans Henrik keeps this high on our agenda.

    I can’t speak for the invitation process, but I know that I am looking forward to you being part of the organization.

    Blogging is global in scope. All of us on the PBA agree on that.

    On your question on the definition of a professional blogger…we’re going to probably keep it very simple. But I would be speaking out of turn if I said what the prevailing wisdom is (publically).

    Thank you for your comments!

  • Darren

    January 21st, 2005 2:03 pm

    thanks for the response Tris, again I’m not wanting to cause a stir with this but just make sure the global thing is on the agenda. I’m also not writing this to weasel myself into the founding team - I wouldn’t want to be the token Aussie! :-)

    I actually think the qualifications and profile of those on the team are great and think that this is what the selection criteria should have been (and obviously were). Good stuff.

  • Hans Henrik

    January 21st, 2005 5:05 pm

    Hi Darren

    You’re right – the blogosphere is borderless. We all agree on that. And as Tris already said it’s high on our agenda.

    The founding phase is – as it is when you establish a company – a critical one. All on the team are very open minded and I feel quite confident when saying that every possible aspect will be taken into consideration. Your thoughts are much appreciated.

    Can I skype you? – I would love to have a talk with you about your thoughts on PBA :-)

    Best regards
    Hans Henrik

  • A Real enternetusers

    January 21st, 2005 11:22 pm

    Just face it Darren, you are just being childish and having a bit of a tantrum because they didn’t ask you to join there petty little club and can’t face the fact that while you all yourself a Professional Blogger that in fact you are not recognized by any others as being one.

    If you were one they would have invited you to join up when you offered. Take the hint pal and get on with your little meaningless projects which in my opinion are a waste of bandwidth, or better still, get a real job and stop inflicting your spin on the rest of us.

  • » You don’t need to get fired to be a enternetusers @ Ambot ah! [ technology news and reviews ]

    December 23rd, 2005 3:27 am

    […] I’ve been looking around for some earlier thoughts on this and found one at enternetusers.net ; ‘Pro blogging’ is a pretty wide term and is being used to talk about everyone from ‘business blogs’ to ‘blog consultants’ to ‘bloggers who make money from their blogs directly’ to ‘those who provide blog tools/services’ for blogging.’ […]

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