I saw that Penelope Trunk running a training series called: Secrets of an A-List Blogger: A Week with Penelope Trunk, which I’m sure is a great training series, but the title struck me very funny!  So, let’s be clear so that Penelope and her gang of 20 somethings don’t come after me – I’m not making fun of Penelope, I’m making fun of the difference between the level of bloggers – A-List to D-List.

I have no idea what Penelope is teaching in her A-List series for Bloggers, but I can give you the D-List version and it won’t take you a week – let me spin you some knowledge in 3 minutes or less.

Secrets of a D-List Blogger:

1. You don’t have to be a good writer to be a good blogger – but you better have an opinion and a take on what’s going on in the world.  No one wants to read anything by someone sitting on the fence.

2. If sitting down to write a blog post feels like you’re back in high school and you have a writing assignment – blogging isn’t for you.  Writing should come naturally and easily – 99.9% of bloggers (especially those of us on the D-List) don’t get paid, so you better love writing and sharing your opinions.

3.  No one wants to hear about your cats – unless your Laurie Ruettimann – and well, she already captured that market.  What this means is, before you start to blog, decide why you want to blog and to who you want to blog to.  Laurie got the cat loving HR ladies – you’ll have to pick some other group!  I chose to go after the 17 HR people who don’t read Laurie – it’s a small audience, but they’re loyal!

4.  Creating content doesn’t have to be hard.  Fill up your Google Reader with great stuff, then pick out an article, drop a couple paragraphs from the article into your post, respond to it and give your perspective. Bam! The 15 minute post.

5.  If you want to create an audience and drive traffic – you better ask Penelope – I’m on the D-List – I still tell myself it’s about the love of writing and HR.  Please leave me a comment and tell me that’s what it’s about!  You can hang out in the community you’re writing in, via social media, and read, comment and interact to grow your audience, but to be honest it’s freaking exhausting – and let’s be real, you’re blogging, you don’t really care what other people have to say, just what you have to say – a least that what my therapists tells me!

6.  No one wants to read boring stuff and be educated (that’s what Wiki’s for), they want to be entertained for the 60 seconds they’ll spend at your blog – so Dance Monkey! This also means you’ll have to title your blogs in a provocative manner to get people to read your posts (i.e., 10 Ways to Nail a Stripper Interview – would be highly read over 10 Ways to Knock that Interview out of the Park – same content, different title, way different click thru’s).

7. Don’t listen to your critics, unless they’re a better writer than you.  Don’t worry, you’ll know if they are better.

So, there you go, just shy of the $195 Penelope is going to charge you – but hey – you only got the D-List version!