The Difference Between Me and Darren Rowse

Darren Rowse is, as you probably know, the guy behind ProBlogger. If you are interested in blogging, then chances are you know who Darren is. He is considered to be the creator of the concept of professional blogging.

Darren is a stand-up guy. He knows his stuff and he is a super nice guy. I had the opportunity to meet him and talk to him for awhile at BlogWorld last year, and I expect I’ll see him again at BlogWorld this year. I believe he’ll be at Izeafest as well, so I’ll see him there for sure.

There is a fairly fundamental difference, though, between Darren and myself…

What got me thinking of this was a strange tweet that came out of nowhere from somebody I don’t know. The tweet stated:

@problogger is quite better than @davidrisley’s blog. I compare them because they both have the same purpose: to blog about blogging.

Interesting. And I wouldn’t even begin to disagree, actually. Problogger.Net is the flagship site in this market and I wouldn’t assume that I’m better than that. I’ll let my audience decide.

But, what it reminded me of is that my approach and Darren’s approach is different. While Darren has strong focus on blogging and the act of building a blog, my focus leans more toward the blog as a hub for business by employing MARKETING. I get into concepts of marketing that I don’t see Darren touch on.

What I try to do on this blog is bridge the gap between blogging and internet marketing. I believe STRONGLY that a competent blogger who understood how to market their own products can absolutely KILL IT on the Internet. Six figure incomes could be the norm.

ProBlogger is an awesome blog, but it is not a marketing blog. Darren Rowse just recently stepped into the field of marketing a bit when he launched his 31 Days To Build a Better Blog book. If Darren begins doing launches like that more often, he will make significantly more money due to his position in this market.

My guess, however, is that his approach will remain different than traditional internet marketing. I suspect it is against Darren’s nature to overtly market products to his audience. In his post about 13 lessons he learned while launching that product, he talks about how he was too shy to market this product aggressively.

That’s the primary difference between us. Every person who blogs about blogging brings their own style and approach. Darren, Yaro, John….we all do it our own way.

I look at myself as a blog marketer. I am a student of online marketing, and I use blogs as part of the overall strategy.

And I also have a pretty different style of going about it and communicating it to my readers. :)

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  • http://www.davidwalshonline.com/ David Walsh

    I have to agree with you also David. Since we’ve met at a few marketing events, etc, I much prefer your blog as marketing is what I do.

    I feel that bloggers (and people in general) have to get over their fear of upsetting their list by directing them to order a product that they’ve created. If the product is of value to that person, then there’s no reason to be afraid.

    Provide value and your list and soon to be customers will love you for it. This is what Frank Kern, Eben Pagan, et al do. You’ve seen the hysteria that Frank creates when he’s in a room at Mass Control 2.

    Anyway, as a marketer I enjoy your site way more than Problogger. ;)

    David

  • http://www.davidwalshonline.com David Walsh

    I have to agree with you also David. Since we’ve met at a few marketing events, etc, I much prefer your blog as marketing is what I do.

    I feel that bloggers (and people in general) have to get over their fear of upsetting their list by directing them to order a product that they’ve created. If the product is of value to that person, then there’s no reason to be afraid.

    Provide value and your list and soon to be customers will love you for it. This is what Frank Kern, Eben Pagan, et al do. You’ve seen the hysteria that Frank creates when he’s in a room at Mass Control 2.

    Anyway, as a marketer I enjoy your site way more than Problogger. ;)

    David

  • Anonymous

    David,

    Happy father’s day. I enjoyed reading the wonderful comments preceding mine about the terrific value you provide your readers. I second that emotion.

    The real life lesson I took away from this post is the beautiful way you addressed a cyberspace tweet about your brand. You handled the tweet in an even handed, intelligent manner; while differentiating yourself from ProBlogger, and staking out your territory as a marketing blog. You even provided links to ProBlogger’s stuff.

    Kudos for a job well done.

  • http://www.shapiroberezin.com lawrence berezin

    David,

    Happy father’s day. I enjoyed reading the wonderful comments preceding mine about the terrific value you provide your readers. I second that emotion.

    The real life lesson I took away from this post is the beautiful way you addressed a cyberspace tweet about your brand. You handled the tweet in an even handed, intelligent manner; while differentiating yourself from ProBlogger, and staking out your territory as a marketing blog. You even provided links to ProBlogger’s stuff.

    Kudos for a job well done.

  • http://therealtimjones.com/ Tim Jones

    It’s interesting that you point out this difference between yourself and Darren. I saw Darren and Brian Clark of Copyblogger on the same panel at BlogWorld, last year and it really struck me that Brian said his blog income sky-rocketed from selling his own products. That was his primary suggestion for increasing your blog’s income. I’m a bit surprised that Darren didn’t pick up on that and run with it, sooner..

  • http://therealtimjones.com/ Tim Jones

    It’s interesting that you point out this difference between yourself and Darren. I saw Darren and Brian Clark of Copyblogger on the same panel at BlogWorld, last year and it really struck me that Brian said his blog income sky-rocketed from selling his own products. That was his primary suggestion for increasing your blog’s income. I’m a bit surprised that Darren didn’t pick up on that and run with it, sooner..

  • http://therealtimjones.com Tim Jones

    It’s interesting that you point out this difference between yourself and Darren. I saw Darren and Brian Clark of Copyblogger on the same panel at BlogWorld, last year and it really struck me that Brian said his blog income sky-rocketed from selling his own products. That was his primary suggestion for increasing your blog’s income. I’m a bit surprised that Darren didn’t pick up on that and run with it, sooner..

  • http://freenintendopoints.net/ Free Nintendo Points

    Different styles allow for biased opinions. What makes a successful blogger is one that is doing what he/she enjoys and gets traffic and has readers that enjoy the content as well.