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9 Things That Makes You A “Wannabe” Problogger

5 March, 2008

Archived Posts, Blogging, Technology

In my quest to make a living of blogging I’ve now turned my attention to my equipment a.k.a my gadgets.

If you didn’t already know that, well I’m working on it. Hopefully in a couple of years I can quit my day job and make a living out of blogging. I think I would be the first Dane to do that.

I’ve compiled a list of gadgets, equipment, skills and programs that I need in order to match the stereotypical blogger.From my interview series I’ve learned that most bloggers have

  1. Use a Mac, usually a MacBook Pro, iMac or MacBook Air
  2. Keen interest in photography, usually a Canon Digital Rebel XTi or Nikon D40 or similar. Darren Rowse, Matt Mullenweg or Lisa Bettany. They all take great pictures and have a lot of followers on flickr
  3. Adobe Photoshop skills. The photographs must be edited in someway. Also great for making graphics for your blog posts
  4. Attend a convention. I always envy the bloggers that attend a blogger convention. SXSW is just one of the conventions I would love to participate in. There is so much going on there
  5. Speak at a convention.Jennifer Laycock, Guy Kawasaki, Lorelle VanFossen and Andy Beal travel the roads and sky thin speaking at conventions.
  6. Have a cool nickname. Robert Scoble is the Scobleizer and Jeremy Schoemaker is Shoemoney. Just to mention a few. I’m sure there are plenty of others out there too
  7. Vlog, podcast, lifecast or stream either your life or a daily/weekly show. Justin Kan from justin.tv, Sarah Meyers from Pop17.com, Justine Ezarik from iJustine and Chris Pirillo from LockerGnome all have a show or lifecast (sometimes both). Use services such as Revver, Qik, Ustream, Mogulus or YouTube
  8. Say smart, useful and thoughtful things on twitter or pownce
  9. Be a part of a Web 2.0 startup

So what kind of stereotypical blogger thing am I doing?

  1. I’ve been a pc-guy for many years, but I’ve decided that my next laptop will be a MacBook. (If you have any recommendations then please let me know)
  2. I just bought my own Nikon D40. It’s a great camera and a huge upgrade from my old Olympus point and click. The only followers on flickr I have are my parents. I guess the average The Beta News visitor isn’t really interested in pictures of my son with food all his face or our vacation pictures. Who would have guessed! (I do look good in shorts though).
  3. Did you notice the graphical improvement after I switched theme. I’m slowly learning to use Photoshop. I just love it, when I find a new feature and figure out how to use it.
  4. Attend a convention. Man, I would love to go to a blogger convention. All a part of my big “become a problogger and move to the States”-plan.
  5. Being the first Danish problogger that moved to the States. If that doesn’t earn me a spot as a convention speaker. Then what does?
  6. Cool nickname. In real life my nickname is Don, but that doesn’t really catch on. I’ve tried with “dennisbp”. Right now I’m trying with my full name: Dennis Bjørn Petersen. Let’s see how many remembers it.
  7. I’m experimenting with Qik.com. What a great service. I can stream directly from my cell phone. Besides that I’m trying Camtasia Studio out too. A few of my blog posts will now be recorded using Camtasia Studio. The first one was the prize draw as a part of The Beta News Contest.
  8. I try to say smart things on twitter. I’m not as clever as Maki (DoshDosh). He has some really insightful and philosophical tweets.
  9. I have no programming skills whatsoever. I do have a couple of great ideas. I just need someone to develop it for me.

Now I’ve revealed my most intimate and secret dreams for you. Which of these points do you follow? Or perhaps you are going your own way and starting your very own trend? What made these people so famous? They were usually first movers or early adopters, some might even call them visionary (not me of course).

UPDATE: I don’t usually ask for diggs, sphinns or stumbles, but as an experiment perhaps you would consider digging or sphinn this?

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About Dennis Bjørn Petersen

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  • http://www.marketingpilgrim.com Andy Beal

    Fun post! We have some things in common. I just switched to a Mac AND bought a D40!

    It sounds like your plan will give you Problogger status in no time. Good luck!

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  • http://www.thebetanews.com Dennis Bjørn Petersen

    Thank you very much for stopping by Andy. I’m glad you liked my post.

    You are well on the way too =P

    How did the Mac switch go? Is it the best thing you’ve (almost) ever done? I’m seriously considering buying one and then blog about my experience.

    MarketingPilgrim.com is a great site. I’ve had you in my feed reader for quite some time. You might not be aware of it yet, but I hope to feature you in the next “season” of Show Me Your Desktop, if you would be interested.

  • http://www.marketingpilgrim.com Andy Beal

    My desktop is too clean. :-)

    I’ve loved the switch to the Mac. It still has flaws-I guess that’s technology for you-but I love it 10X more than my old PC. Have fun!

  • http://www.askowlbert.com Barbara Ling

    I never really thought of a nickname before. I’ve always had my cartoon alter-ego, Owlbert, plus my family does have choice phrases for me (“all powerful mother unit” comes to mind, as does “mean mommy ling” and “mama bear”). Somehow, though, I can’t see that as a tagline…. :)

    Enjoy,

    Barbara

  • http://www.thebetanews.com Dennis Bjørn Petersen

    I think Owlbert is a great nickname/brand. You even use it in your url, so it couldn’t be better.

    All powerful mother unit - I think thats a compliment

  • http://www.mmmeeja.com/blog andymurd

    I bought a tired old G4 iBook on ebay for £100 and its brilliant - small, reliable and unix! I can even run Apache with copies of my websites on there.

    Other than that, I don’t fit the stereotype too much - don’t own a camera, never go to conventions. I am on twitter but not inciteful (I’ll try harder).

    Good luck with your problogging plan.

  • http://www.thebetanews.com Dennis Bjørn Petersen

    Thank you very much Andy.

    I’m really excited about the move from pc to Mac. All I need is the Mac

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  • http://minute44.com Dan

    Now you see, I don’t actually agree with all of them….

    I think the key to success as a blogger is to write something that people enjoy reading. That’s it. It doesn’t matter if you use Windows/Mac/Linux or whatever as long as people enjoy it. Using a mac for the sake of using a mac is the definition of the word “Poser” If you genuinely perfer the interface and like spending a disproportionate amount of money… then fair enough.

    Photography thing? I disagree too, you don’t need a balls-out SLR to be a successful photoblogger. Up until last week when, incidentally, he bought a Nikon D40, Gav Strange (JamFactory) used a pretty basic compact for his blogs. It’s the subject matter that makes photos a success in a blog and in many situations an SLR is too big/bulky/fiddly.

    The conventions thing, I kinda see what you’re talking about but the web, by it’s very definition has made the world a smaller place so you don’t necessarily be physically at places to be a valued contributor.

    Photoshop skills…. hmm they’re handy to have if you’re a blogger or not but if you really want to shine them on you should get really really good at using the GIMP. Then you can brag about creating as good a graphics as them without spending a penny.

    Well, I wish you the best of luck with your problogging venture Dennis.

    Dan

  • http://www.roadtoclarity.net Lisa

    Yes to 1, 2, 3. Not yet to the rest, but in the plans. And I doubt I’ll ever have a cool nickname.

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  • http://techmalaya.com Syahid A.

    Funnily, I’ve noticed the same thing on no.2
    Photography must have made their blogs pageviews increases.

  • http://insomniatic.tumblr.com SilentLaugh

    How ’bout just DennisBjørn?
    or
    Bjørn?
    (: