Darren Rowse Where I think out loud

What Do I Do?

I had a conversation earlier today with a friend who I’d not seen for a while. After an awkward pause in the conversation where he obviously wanted to ask me something but didn’t quite know how he said:

“I know I should know this…. but what exactly do you do?”

He went on to explain that he knew I was a blogger and that I somehow made a living from that – but because we’d not seen each other much lately and because I seemed to be starting new things all the time, he didn’t really have a grasp of what it was that I was spending time on these days.

Interestingly this is not the first time I’ve been asked this lately – I guess since I started blogging 8 years ago things have changed a bit for me and perhaps I’ve not communicated what it is that I actually do these days well enough to everyone. Life’s certainly changed a lot in the last decade – from being a theology student/minister (with part time jobs on the side) to full time blogger….

So – this post is an attempt to do just that for friends, family and anyone else who needs a catch up on what I do in my work. I won’t get into the nitty gritty of how my blogs make money – but what follows is an update of the ‘pies’ I have my fingers in these day. I hope it helps.

What I do – at least in my Work

Much of what I do these days revolves around my blogs. This isn’t that different to what I’ve been doing since I started blogging in some ways – but there have been some changes as some of the blogs are ‘newish’. The three blogs I own/edit/manage (in order of size from biggest to smallest):

• Digital Photography School – a blog about photography that aims to help people improve how they use their cameras.
• ProBlogger – a blog about blogging and how to make a living from it (sad but it’s amazing how many people want to learn how to do it)
• TwiTip – a newer blog about Twitter and how to use it

Each of those blogs have a variety of spinoffs and other social media sites attached to them. For example ProBlogger also has a membership site/forum that people pay to be a part of each month, a Twitter account, a job board where people advertise for bloggers, a facebook page, a YouTube channel etc. Digital Photography School has a forum (free), weekly newsletter and social media sites too.

I also have started selling eBooks off Digital Photography School (3 of them, one that I wrote and 2 that I’ve partnered with others on) and one on ProBlogger.

Then there’s the ProBlogger book – a real book made of paper (yes, very old fashioned but people still read them). This I co-authored with a friend and it recently was updated into a 2nd edition.

I also have partnered with others on a few other businesses. Some of you will be familiar with one of these – b5media which I started with 3 other bloggers a number of years ago. These days I’m not really active with that business but am a minority shareholder. I am more active however with a newer collaboration called Third Tribe – a membership site for online entrepreneurs.

That’s mainly what I do and am involved with. I do get asked to speak a fair bit at conferences but as most of it is in the USA don’t do a whole lot of that these days (I go over twice a year most years).

All in all business is good. I’m at a point now where my blogs are read by 3-4 million people each month (it can vary quite a bit) and where it’s more than a full time job. Things are at a point now where I’m getting ready to hire some help which will enable me to concentrate on the parts of the business that I enjoy most and to take advantage of some of the new opportunities that keep presenting themselves.

I hope that that gives at least some insight into ‘what I do’ at least as it pertains to the work area of my life. If it’s not clear or you need some clarification – do feel free to ask!

If it’s still utterly confusing – don’t worry, it is for me too!

PS: of course I’m more than just my work – I ‘do’ other stuff too…. but I thought rather than ramble on about ‘the rest’ I’d keep this just to work. Hope it helps.

Welcome to a More Personal Home for Darren Rowse

Welcome to DarrenRowse.com

I’ve had this domain for quite a few years now but have never done much more than forward it to one of my other blogs.

However over the past few months I’ve had a growing desire to create a space online to write about topics that have less to do with the niches that my blogs talk about and to write more about ‘life’.

I’m not exactly sure what I’ll blog about or how often I’ll post – but whatever it ends up being it’ll be more of a glimpse into what I’m thinking and feeling passionate.

Don’t expect too much in the way of writing about blogging, photography or anything much else to do with social media – I’ve got blogs for each of those topics (see sidebar) – rather expect to see me think out loud about life.

Posts will by no means be daily – they may not even be weekly – rather they’ll come as I’m inspired to add them.

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