A while back Darren over at ProBlogger had asked his readers that purchased his book to take a photo with it, and sadly its taken me way longer than it should have to even take the picture. Based on that you can imagine I have yet to start reading it either. I am kind of bummed about that but it comes with good reason. I am in the process of finishing up some work contracts and have recently picked up some additional blogging opportunities. If all goes well I expect to be able to blog near 100% in the not to distant future!

While I am VERY far from making the 6 figures that Darren’s book covers, I still feel some accomplishment of being able to do what many dream of doing.

So, with that, I promise I will read the book soon, and also promise to post a review once completed.

[ProBlogger.net]

This thought came to me when I was doing my taxes, a dreaded task, but that aside it turned out to not be as bad as I expected. But moving on from there I was asked what I do for employment so they could classify it with that numeric code.

And while I know what I do, its not always easy to explain to others. Aside from the recent question while getting my taxes done, this question also comes up time to time from people I see around.

Most people see me coming and going during the day, out at the bus stop in the morning, running various errands during the day, running or biking and then appearing at the bus stop again in the afternoon. I spend time in the evening out playing with my daughter when we can and always imagine that most of the people in my neighborhood who don’t really know me either think I have a night job or more than likely a bum who just stays at home.

While I really am not hung up on what others think, it does sometimes strike me as being funny. But on some level I would just rather have them think what they want, because when they do as that dreaded (What do you do?) question I can never get away without a long explanation.

I have two main jobs sources of income, they are:

1. Blogger
2. Virtual Call Center Worker

The second, while many people do not always fully understand for some reason is actually a lot easier to explain. People often tend to be more surprised at some of the big companies that I do work and have worked for that allow people to work from home answering both sales and customer service work. Basically a Virtual Call Center Worker is a call center worker who just works from a home office instead of a call center, we have almost all of the same setups, but its up to us to arrange for the services (phone line and Internet) and maintain the equipment (computer and phone). There are also strict rules requiring back ground checks and such before employment, as well as maintaining certain ongoing requirements, such as a traditional (non-Voip) phone line, back up high-speed internet as well as the more obvious like keeping your computer, which must be dedicated just for business use, in good working order.

As for the first source, blogging. This is where it gets tough and the answer really depends on who is asking. Mostly because a lot of people don’t understand what a blog is, and just think of blogging as something more along the lines of a personal journal and not a business. So sometimes I simply answer that I am a writer, or a web publisher both of which I don’t really think fit what blogging is, but seem easier for non-techies to understand.

I know I should be pro-blogger, because essentially that is what I consider myself, a blogger. But sometimes I just do not want to be bothered explaining what it is, of course if I took the time that could mean more potential good words about blogs and blogging and in turn allow the general public to stop thinking of blogs as just journals written by 15 year old girls.

Out of the two, I, as you can most likely guess prefer to blog, simply because it allows me total control over when and where I work and is something I can do from anywhere and anytime, as long as I have a connection to the Internet. Like I mentioned in a previous post, I hope to continue to rely more on blogging and less on virtual call center work moving into the future with hopes to expand my blogging.

Well with that let me get back to blogging (as a job).

Just last month I celebrated being self-employed for two years, and this month marks my one year anniversary as a paid/pro blogger. Before I was blogging (for pay) I was doing other work from home, as a virtual call center (VCC) worker, which I am still doing, but thanks to blogging that has been scaled down to make time to blog.

My blogging experience so far has been more than I could imagine, having some ups and some downs but overall it has been very positive. Ranging from simple things such as friendly comments, to playing with and testing products to going to CES this past January.

My first paid/pro post was actually on April 11, 2007 and it was just a post, nothing that I am particularly proud of, nor am I really embarrassed by it. Since then I have written a total of 1543 paid posts, which averages out to be about 128 a month. I have gone from a blogger to a blogger/editor and will hopefully be able to continue to grow as a blogger, in terms of experience, pay and hopefully some name recognition within the community.

The recent article about stress on bloggers does have some truth to it, but it really depends on the individual situation and the type of blogging you do. Personally I have some stress, as I think most tech bloggers feel, because its all about time and urgency and being first. But my stress comes mostly from having to find and also keep quality writers, then once that happens a little more stress comes when those chosen writers are not actually writing or just writing badly. But that is why everyone should have a stress reliever, and the stress from blogging is certainly not enough to give me a heart attack.

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