Blogging: Passion is not enough

"You must be passionate about what you blog on," we always say and hear. "Passion separates successful from unsuccessful bloggers," etc.

Sorry, passion alone is not enough!

You also need a "beat." Dianna Huff has a great post on developing a beat as well as her beat.
"Ted, what ARE you talking about?" -- it's so simple and obviously we overlook it!

For example, I have a friend who is passionate about surfing. He lives to surf. His whole life is set up around being able to drop everything when "surf's up!"  His vacations are only to surf spots.

He has passion, but, when he's not surfing, he doesn't care to talk about it much. He doesn't follow discussions on the latest surf spots, new and better surfboards, different techniques, and other stuff surfers may follow.

In other words, he doesn't have a "beat" when it comes to surfing. He does it endlessly, but he doesn't follow it.

He wouldn't make a good blogger on surfing, despite his passion.

I have another friend who is passionate about wine. Drinks it daily. Has a few thousand bottles in his cellar. His wine is worth  ore than his house!

But he doesn't particularly care to discuss wine, as most oenophiles do, other than "what should we open?" He doesn't follow what's new in the wine world, what the latest vintage of XYZ is like, what the grape current growing conditions are like in his favorite wine growing areas, etc.

He used to years ago, but he's lost his beat (happily) and now just thrives on drinking the stuff!

Passion, but no beat. You won't (and shouldn't) see him blogging.

Successful bloggers need passion, but they also need a "beat."

They need to both be passionate about and immersed in and naturally follow what they're blogging on.

Comments

[Steven Di Pietro]

Very good point.

The litmus test should be whether you spend time reading about the topic on the web AND whether you comment on other websites. Passively reading magazines does not count.