I’m regularly asked if I have a blogging mentor or coach – or if I’d consider being one for someone else.
I’ve never had a formal coach or mentor myself although there have been plenty of people who have given me advice along the way. I have not offered any kind of coaching service for many years as I found I could be more helpful to more people by writing content here on ProBlogger than working 1 on 1 with people.
But that doesn’t mean it’s not an interesting discussion for us all!
Have you had a Blogging Mentor or Coach?
If so – I’d love it if you could spare a moment or two to answer any or all of the following questions:
- How did you find them?
- Was it a paid experience or a free one?
- Was it an ongoing or short term experience?
- Was it to help you with a specific issue or more general in nature?
- What were the main benefits of the experience?
Over the years, I’ve come across quite a few bloggers who have had coaches and mentors and their experiences have been mixed.
Some of the best examples I’ve seen have been ‘peer’ mentoring experiences, where a group of bloggers band together – often around an email list or a private Facebook group – to share and learn from one another.
Also, I know of a number of bloggers who have used mentors/coaches to help them with specific problems/challenges and it’s been to great effect. For example, one blogger I know hired a coach to help them walk through creating and launching their first eBook and another who hired someone to help them design an editorial calendar.
I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this one!
I haven’t had anyone mentor or coach me for blogging as I am a quick learner and don’t really need one.
Same here Alvin, I don’t need any mentor. I learn things and implement it.
I remember when I first started out blogging in 2006 and reached out to my fellow mom bloggers since some of them were partnering with huge brands like Disney and Walmart. But what I found is that they offered no help and so I taught myself. Manually installed WordPress and began writing about my interests. I followed my own rules and my followimg grew. But because of the lack of honest and open guidence in such a confusing and overwhelming concept, people startted asking me for help… and I offered it for FREE! My thinking was that knowledge should be free and not hidden behind more useless webinars and offers/gimmicks. Somall groups and free workshops were fun and came with free wifi too (lol). Blooging is more tgan just
Michael Gass was/is my mentor and coach. When we wanted to start in the social media scene almost 4 years ago we searched and reached out to him. He helped us set the mechanical side of things and kept coaching us on what/how to write to get new business. He was paid and after several months we we off and running with Michael monitoring us on a regular basis to make sure we hadn’t got off track. AND IT’S PAID OFF!
I would highly recommend finding a coach early on so as you create habit and routines they are the right ones. When you want to learn how to play golf you don’t go out and try it for a year or two and then go get a lesson. By then you”ve got all the bad habits and muscle memories already trained wrong. Get out of the blocks on the right foot.
I never have Darren, 1 on 1 style, but I have followed blogs like yours for years and use your insights frequently…..so it is similar to long-distance mentoring. I can see the benefits of having coaching, or conducting 1 on 1 sessions because newbie bloggers often get lost in a haze of either mis-information or a deluge of content overload.
By receiving coaching you can shave years off of your learning curve. Starting intelligently makes that much of a difference. On the flip side trying to do this blogging thing on your own all but seals your doom lol…..we all have so much to learn in so little time so it makes sense to embrace the mistakes of a wise, caring mentor, who would freely share their errors with you.
I know I do – share the errors ;) – at every turn to help the new generation of bloggers and to help any vets who might be caught up in bad habits.
Thanks for sharing Darren!
Ryan
I was lucky enough to work with a popular blogger a few years ago in my career and it helped immensely.
Not sure that I would pay for the chance however because the best way to learn is to constantly test and track new ideas.
Never had a blogging coach myself but I learned a lot from your blog and from other “blogging” blogs :) I can see how a coach can be of great help and can teach you lots of things in a shorter period of time.
However, some things you still need to try, learn, and fail by yourself.
I am a member of a few blogging tribes and groups and I love the energy and support that you get in that environment, though nobody is actually mentoring anybody, in the formal sense ;)
I never had a blogging coach or mentor. However, it was a huge mistake because it took make much longer to learn it all by myself.
I did when I got started and I paid for the service too. You get what you pay for I guess because that is some of the best money I have ever spent. My blogging skills have gone on to make me a good income.
I never had one till date … All I used to do is to refer tutes available online and implement them!
I do not have a coach or mentor, but i think, a good coach or mentor will help you learn more quickly
I have never had a mentor, on my previous blog it was more a place for me to share my thoughts, so it was OK to just plod along learning as I went. But now we are trying to start a business to allow my partner to use his creativity, I need to be learning faster! Do you have any suggestions on how to find a mentor or on how to find or start a peer mentoring group?
i never had a coach for blogging. i start blogging to pass my free time but now it’s a living for me.
Hey Darren; here are my replies of the questions you asked in your above post
1) Through submitting my email to a similar offer I found on blog of a promising blogger of my region
2) It was complete free that was not in so much detail
3) Whenever I need any kind of advice she happily do so for me
4) She gives me advice on all aspects of blogging but simply tips not in detail
5) I don’t have any major issue on my blog after her free mentoring
well, mentor will depend upon our understanding and how much he/she is responding to us.. i have my mentor who is help me alot. Thank for your tips darren
To tell you the truth, the thought of having a mentor or a coach for blogging never crossed my mind. I guess Darren is my mentor. He’s doing a fine job. And his advice is free.
How did you find them? I was on their mailing list and they sent me an offer I really couldn’t refuse!
Was it a paid experience or a free one? Paid (but reduced)
Was it an ongoing or short term experience? 5 sessions
Was it to help you with a specific issue or more general in nature? Both. I had a site review which was great to see my strengths and weaknesses through someone else eyes, and the specific intention of taking my site up a notch.
What were the main benefits of the experience? I read a LOT of info on best blogging practices. I obviously don’t action everything I read (and I don’t necessarily agree with everything I read!) and my main weaknesses that were picked up were all things I kinda knew I should do something about/improve but just never got round to or didn’t know how to do. Another benefit was talking sit stuff with someone that ‘got it’ as opposed to friends and family who glaze over REALLY quickly on this subject!
Janie x
Yes I’ve ever had one. I found it through search engine, it was free, for a short term experience answering one particular issue of my concern. Well, that’s the power of blogging I guess, there’s always people who like to help if we really ask for it.
Thanks for the post Darren, I’ve had a formal career coach before but not for blogging specifically. I do learn fast, however I think you can learn invaluable things from someone who is an expert. If I were to do something formal for blogging it would most likely be a Mastermind group type setting where it was led out by an experienced blogger, but the core was made up of a group of peers that banded together and met regularly for learning and well…mostly accountability (not that I could use that or anything, lol). For me, (and I would guess most beginning bloggers) blogging is a side thing that I want to work into a much bigger slice of my income, so initial cost would be huge consideration. Although, there does need to be some cost or there wont be a personal investment in participating. Timely post, I’ve been looking at trying to find a group of dedicated bloggers in my genre to band together with :) and I’d love to hear any suggestions you may have. Besides, bloggers in my situation (with a family and job) I know there are people out there who are in a spot where they can invest quite a bit financialy in coaching at the outset so I think it depends on the direction you want to go.
I learn blogging from many famous blog like yours, So all of these famous blogger is my mentor and coach. They did not teach me directly but I learn from their blog. Still learning.
I find mentorship incredibly valuable in my blogging and offline professional life. My blogging mentor is Sarah Von Bargen (Yes and Yes, Small Business Blog) and she is amazing! As someone who is just starting out and learning all the directions blogging could go, having a guide who is willing to listen and share nuggets of wisdom is so helpful. Sarah and I collaborated on a few things (I sponsored her site, wrote posts for one of her clients, and am now writing a monthly post on her blog) and she reached out about mentorship. So far I have been a pretty scattered mentee with all kinds of questions all over the place from the nitty gritty of using Twitter to the big picture of “where do you want to be in 5 years?”
In an ideal mentor-mentee relationship, both parties have something to offer the other in terms of growth. I hope that as we continue to talk that my mentor will find it as beneficial as I do!
hey Darren
yup, I’ve had a mentor, my first business partner, and another guy, a top affiliate from Australia, Allan Gardyne @ AssociatePrograms.com
Both were great mentors and provided me with the right guidance at the right time… I’ve saved a lot of money down the road and avoided some costly mistakes in my online endeavours. I thank them for all their great support (although they did it for free) and publicly want to remind others that without a mentor or someone who can guide you when you’re stuck, you could be spending months or years and go nowhere..
Hope it helps?
Adam Connell of Blogging Wizard fame has been my mentor of sorts for the past few months. After a chance encounter on Twitter, he has been advising me on how to move away from personal blogging, into something more focussed and engaging.
It hasn’t been a paid for experience, however it’s one that has been of benefit to both of us because we’ve found that we have much to learn from each other, particularly because we come from two separate areas of blogging.
Me neither. I never had a blogging coach or mentor. That is why, it is taking me to long to learn by myself. But now I’m starting to go to a conference, so I can star to learn from the expert and apply to my benefit.
Best Regards.
No, but I’d love to have one. I’m currently doing a mentoring thing via Bloggers Helping Bloggers.
okay.. honesty i’ve never had a blogging mentor or coach.. i know that means hard to success without following anybody who have been success but I think I’ll try it by myself and learning from reading lto your blog
Well, its definitely correct, it has its own benefits and disadvantages of having blogging coach.
No. I have ever had a blogging mentor or coach. Even i did not know about it before reading your post. I think, it is optional-not momentary for the bloggers. It is a type of buzzword. Personally i like to maintain my blogs. If i hire someone or outsource my blog’s work, they will destroy my blog reputation and ranking. There are lot of unskilled. I do not interest in mentor or coach. Thank you very much!
I enjoy working with others. As for myself, I did use a more “private” training system to learn blogging and, all other aspects of marketing online… I would say it has worked extremely well. Today I do the same thing, coach and mentor, plus I work for an SEO company… But you are tight Darren, I see the mixed reviews out there from some of this so-called training and coaching all the time, especially it’s results… And, if anyone here wants to really know, I bought Darrens books…GET THEM, they will educate you and, save you some time and money….
Every new blogger who is following posts of other professional bloggers then these professional bloggers are mentors or coach.
Hello Darren,
I’ve never really heard of anyone hiring a blogging mentor, but I’m sure that are people out there who aren’t quite tech savvy that would be interested in learning how to blog. I think blogging for the average tech savvy person is somewhat intuitive, but it doesn’t hurt to have someone hold your hand through the blog creation and content process. Excellent post.
Hi, excellent question;
I’ve never had a coach or mentor, test after test I developed my way of doing a blog about history. But I think that, like any profession in life, it would be good to have outside help, a good teacher to give you the first steps.
yea i have a blog mentor and darren you are one of them, thanks for this awesome piece of writing
I have more of a writing mentor than a blogging one, which is good because my blog is very word based, personally. I could do with a kick up the bum though!
your website is great.thank you
Greetings Darren;
My older brother’s name is Darren by the way. Here are my replies of the questions you asked in your above post
1) Through submitting my email to a similar offer I found on blog of a promising blogger of my region as well as going to conferences I wrote a post about it on published on yahoo voices CashFlowsToYou.com/remarkable.
2) All my mentoring relationships were free; I wrote a post about this to at CashFlowsToYou.com/mentorship. My coaching relationships however have been paid engagements. When mentorships have been complete free there are some that have been even more informative than coaching engagements.
3) Whenever I need any kind of advice they happily do so for me. Mentors do it in person or over the phone at no charge.
4) They gave me advice on all aspects of business & blogging but simple tips & in detail
5) I continue to grow learn and adapt. I don’t have any major issue on my blog, but I’m also looking to enhance modify and change it to improve thing for my blogging community. I see to one day be a blogging mentor as well.
Hmm, i think i never had a blogging coach or mentor, like u said.
When I look back on my blogging journey I have a lot of people help me get to where I am now.(Still a beginner just better at hiding it!).What I did is I put in the keywords for my niche and found the people with top sites plus I tried to pay attention to the people whose names kept coming up on everyone blog.And I found the common denominators. I also found that the best thing to do is dive right in and be unique and when that happens sometimes the pros find you and want to help.This is what happened when I met DragonBlogger- Justin Germino who helped me reshape my whole blog and strategy! For free!! I learned a lot about blogging,networking and the importance of building relationships in and outside your niche
I don’t have any mentor or coach. All things I learnt about blogging by referring problogger.net and quciksporut.com for my blog squarems.com
Thank to Darren Rowse and Neil Patel for sharing their experience with us……
I wish I had one a few years ago when I got started. However, I have been catching up on the subject by reading about blogging daily.
Nice Sharing. I loved your post thanks for sharing :)
what your body need
yes – Jon Morrow, via guestblogging.com
paid, ongoing, for general and specific help – and it was tremendously valuable
not just blogging – but writing. and marketing, copywriting in particular
I am a Minion of Morrow. And quite fortunate to be one.
I don’t have any mentors officially. I learned everything through blogs from experts such as Darren, John Chow, Showmoney, Pat Flynn, etc ….
I squeeze as much articles as possible so I don’t waste a single minute. Whenever I’m free, such as waiting in queue, I’ll just bring out my smartphone and read.
That’s how I learn. No mentor, but everyone’s my mentors.
well, I think Darren you are my mentor :)
I have learned many things from you and What ever i am today it is just because of you. :)
Thanks
Hi Darren
Five months ago when I lost my job I decided to start a blog. I didn’t have half a clue as to what I was doing. It was a bit overwhelming. I did hundreds of Google searches and read every bit of info I could get my hands on.
Several months ago I was ready to quit because it turned out to be a lot more complicated and I could not even seam to achieve the perfection I felt there should be.
On what I consider one of the luckiest days of my life I came across the website Pro Blogger.
Through this site I have acquired 2 mentors.
Number 1 is Darren Rowse.
Number 2 is Jeff Goins
Both of these writers are great in different ways.
Darren so willingly throws out an immense amount of how to info on setting up a blog and maintaining.
Jeff on the other hand feeds the motivational, emotional side. The “kick in the ass” side of it.
Both writers have been detrimental in fueling my determination to continue on.
I am deeply grateful to both of them
.
This is nice post. To have a blogging mentor or coach have it’s own advantages and disadvantages