Are you a professional blogger? An extreme example would be Darren Rowse with http://www.problogger.net/. He earns a 6 figure income blogging all day long. It is interesting that before he started his blog he had no background in writing.

Why is he a professional?

1. He writes everyday and has several blogs he does it for. If you have a blog you have to post often. You either become a blog writer or hire one.

2. He earns a full time living blogging. I do not think this has to apply to eveyone, but someday you could earn a full time living blogging if you get enough traffic and set your blog up to make money.

3. His posts are interesting and in a very short time he has made himself the authority on blogging and making money from blogging. As a matter of fact if you Google Search that phrase or make money blogging, or just about any version of this keyword phrase he is #1. I come up #9 for make money blog.

4. Your content has to be more than selling a product. When I look at the broad range of topics he is posting on everyday it is amazing to me. He is posting 3-4 times a day and sometimes even more than that. Keep in mind he has several other blogs he maintains. That is a professional.

5. A professional blogger mixes in advertising with content. As I look at his blog you see ads but they blend in so easily you almost have to look for them.

6. A professional blogger understands the power of search engine optimization and uses his posts to hyperlink keyword phrases to other archived blog posts or web pages creating a valuable backlink. This is a great way to keep traffic at your blog as well as they go from page to page.

7. Another thing I see is how a professional blogger just writes. Not articles so much, but more in a conversational way that you almost feel like you are talking to them.

8. A blog written by a pro is very interactive. Visitors get to comment, vote on surveys, watch videos, listen to audio, buy a product, and often they are invited to post or write for the blog. It also contains some blog pictures to make it more appealing and exciting.

9. Your post must be relative to the theme of your blog and they must be unique to get any search engine value. We are all finding out that the Google Supplemental Index is a very strict way of saying you have already said this somewhere on your site, or this is not relative to the theme of your site.

My Team-Schuman.com website has over 500 web pages and blog posts in the GSI. JohnChow.com has over 2000. I think no matter how hard you try you will always be in the GSI with some pages and it is better to just write what is on your mind.

There is more. John Chow came up with a very unique strategy where he gives a backlink to anyone who reviews his blog. He specifically asked that the words make money online be hyperlinked back to his home page in the review.

Did this work? For a while he was #1 on Google for the phrase make money online. He has now disappeared from that phrase and I see he his now letting his readers choose to hyperlink back to several different phrases including make money at home, make money, make money on the internet, and a few others.

I think it is a creative idea and has gotten him thousands of backlinks, but the problem with this is you end up with a bunch of reviews that really are for the purpose of exchanging links only and Google seems to disount that kind of linking.

This is a few thoughts of mine on a professional blogger. Unless you are independently wealthy, or make your money some other way like a job or other websites, you are going to have to make money with your blog.

The only way to do that is to pay to advertise or get free traffic. Social marketing is the key here. Web 2.0 and articles in various directories can bring in a steady flow of traffic. Your job as a professional is to keep them coming back by doing some of the thing we have listed here today.