Tips on How to Apply for a Blog Job

24 Hours ago I decided to use my own job board here at ProBlogger for the first time. I’ve used it before to advertise jobs for b5media – but never before to advertise for a blogger on one of the blogs that I manage.

The job I put up is here for a Digital Photography Blogger – someone to take a little of the load of producing posts for DPS off my shoulders to allow me to work on other projects.

The exercise of placing the ad has been quite interesting. While I’ve watched other advertisers use the job boards actually being on the receiving end of job applications has been fascinating.

Here’s some raw observations of and results from the process followed by a few random thoughts for bloggers and advertisers wanting to use the boards:

• In 24 hours I’ve had 20 applications
• Applications have largely been from the type of person that I wanted – in fact I’ve been surprised by the number of Professional Photographers that have applied
• The job ad has actually been picked up by a number of other job syndication services. I’d known that a few other sites were picking up my ads and republishing them but hadn’t realized how many – so far I’ve seen it on 5 other sites – so the reach of these ads is going beyond the thousand subscribers the RSS feed has.
• Applications themselves have been at a higher quality than I’d expected. I’ve previously written a number of suggestions for those applying for jobs and was pleased to find that most applicants followed instructions in the ad and put together helpful pictures of who they were and what they could bring to the job

Further Advice for Bloggers Applying for Jobs

Much of my advice for bloggers has been in the article that I’ve referred to above – however I’ll reemphasize two points.

1. Sell Yourself – while the vast majority of applicants did this well, a couple fell well short of presenting themselves well in their application. This is a job you are going for so if you’re serious about getting it you need to give reasons why you’d be good for the position. Highlight your strengths, relevant experience and what makes you unique. Write your application carefully as those reviewing it will be looking at your ability to write well (after all blogging is a written medium and if you can’t demonstrate an ability to communicate clearly in your application it’s a signal that you might not be the person for the job).
2. Follow Instructions – again this was not an issue for almost all applications but one or two applicants didn’t demonstrate that they could follow instructions and failed to include information that was asked for. While for some it may not have been possible to include everything that I asked for at least an attempt to do so would have demonstrated that they’d read the advertisement beyond the first line or two. Again – this sends a signal to the advertiser about your ability to work with them.

Overall it’s been a great experience for me. My only concern now is how to choose one or two applicants out of a list of 20 amazing people!