Ask a blogger who they think is one the most authoritative blogging influences and the response you’re likely to hear is “Darren Rowse.”
Darren’s ProBlogger.net has become the definitive resource for authoritative yet practical information for bloggers both professional and part-time. The case study below presents a view of ProBlogger as a blog-religion. In it, I’ll look at what supports ProBlogger’s religion status and what doesn’t.
ProBlogger History
As Darren states in his book by the same name (jointly authored with Chris Garrett), he started his blog as a fragmented, multi-topic blog about 6 years ago as a part-time venture. Working three part-time jobs to support himself, Darren began his blog as most of us do, as a part-time hobby hoping to bring in enough money to cover the costs of hosting and domain registration.
As his blog became more popular, he added Google Adsense ads and started to experience a meager income. Over the next three years (while working part-time jobs), Darren grew his blog into what would become a blog-religion (my term, not Darren’s).
Case Study: The Blog-Religion of ProBlogger.net
As I mentioned in the first post on Blog-Religion, several characteristics are shared between successful blogs and thriving religions. (Click here to read the original post.)
The main metrics include:
- A charismatic figure guiding the direction and philosophy of the organization.
- There are followers – those who choose to follow the Guru or Leader of the group.
- There are guiding principles that govern how followers should interact with the world.
- There are varying degrees of membership/conversions.
- There is sense of community.
- There might even be a holy book of sorts that ties everything together.
Blog-Religion Markers for ProBlogger.net
Though Darren might not agree with me labeling ProBlogger.net a blog-religion, it has become one none-the-less. Here’s why I think so:
Authority of Leadership: Darren Rowse is the defacto leader of ProBlogger.net. He started the blog and continues to be the editorial and guiding voice behind it. Although many posts are guest-authored, it is Darren who decides what posts will be published and when. There are some sub-factors that make Darren the charismatic leader of his blog-religion.
- Teaching - Darren doesn’t deliver his message with fire-and-brimstone or with hype. His voice is patient and guiding, much like the pastor of a church. His posts offer clear guidance on how new and advance bloggers can accomplish their blogging goals.
- Focused - Darren write granular posts; his posts are highly focused on one topic. (I highly recommend reading his post on this topic by clicking here.)
Community: The main metrics for the Community characteristic for a blog are related to numbers of readers and comments. ProBlogger.net’s feed is read by over 70,000 readers That’s a lot of regular followers. It’s a ‘mega-church’ type community! The comments often number in the mid to high double digits. Darren’s Twitter following is around 35,000. Again, mega-church by most standards!
The Holy Book: As noted above, ProBlogger – Secrets to Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income -the book offered on ProBlogger.net and coauthored by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett qualifies as a Holy Book. The book pulls together the blogging success of both Darren and Chris as well as offering clear, definitive how-to advice for aspiring bloggers. (I own it and recommend it to you.)
- Guiding Principles – The book offers guiding principles that direct the aspiring blogger. It clearly defines the playing field for professional blogging, offers clear warnings on recognizing common pitfalls and how to realistically assess your blogging progress.
What’s missing from the ProBlogger Religion?
Definition of Niche-Specific Terminology:
One function of a blog-religion’s holy book is that it defines niche-specific terminology. The ProBlogger book is a very valuable overview of the entire blogging for money process. However it fails to define a niche-specific terminology. This isn’t a flaw in the book by any means, it just doesn’t meet the sub-factor standard for defining niche-specific terminology. The closest the ProBlogger book comes to this is talking about direct and in-direct monetization methods; while it’s an important concept, it’s not niche-specific for blogging as many traditional websites follow this mode of monetization.
Sunday School or Religious Education Programs:
One marker for a religion-blog is a systematic training program. Training programs, much like a church’s Sunday School program, is aimed at training students to progress further in their chosen area of interest. It is aimed at increasing skills and ability in a classroom, even a virtual-classroom, setting. This can be accomplished in audio training programs, video training programs and in-person training programs.
Degrees of Membership or Conversion:
In the blog-religion model, there are varying degrees of membership.
[tip]Click here for a list of these in my post titled: How the Religion Model Works for Blogs[/tip]
In the blog-religion model, these are called conversions. Conversions allow the reader to become a customer or member of the religion. Ideally, the conversion sequence is the same as a sequential sales funnel that invites students to progress further and further into your blog-religion. Low risk offers populate the wider upper region of the funnel while more valuable (and higher cost) offers exist for those who want a deeper experience or more detailed guidance.
There are only two levels of conversion present on ProBlogger.net.
- The first conversion is subscription to either RSS/Email posts.
- The second conversion is for those who purchase the ProBlogger book.
I’d add another level that’s aimed at those wanting a ProBlogger training course. To Darren’s credit, he and Andy Wibbels teamed to create the Six Figure Blogging training program.
For some reason (valid I’m sure, but unknown to me), it’s not tied to the ProBlogger brand. In my opinion, this is sure-fire way to increase both sales of the course and reinforcing the brand of ProBlogger.
Summary
While ProBlogger remains in the top tier of religion-blogs, there are some areas where it fails to fulfill the definition. This isn’t a slam on Darren or his blog as ProBlogger’s daily update of content in on the first updates I read each morning. I’ve learned a tremendous amount from reading ProBlogger.net as well as from both Darren and Chris in reading the ProBlogger book.
Though not a full-blown religion, the ProBlogger blog embodies several elements that make it a must-complete item on any serious blogger’s to-do list.
What About You?
Care to agree or disagree with my assessment? Are there factors I’ve overlooked in reference to ProBlogger? I’d love to hear from you. All comments are welcome. 