Blogging as a Career

As more people continue to enjoy blogging as a hobby, some have begun to consider blogging as a career.

On April 21, 2009, the Wall Street Journal published an article titled America's Newest Profession: Bloggers for Hire. According to the authors E. Kinney Zalesne and Mark Penn, there are almost as many paid bloggers in the United States as there are lawyers. They cite studies stating that there 20 million bloggers in the United States, and 1.7 million of these bloggers make a profit from their work. Additionally, 452,000 use their blogs as their primary source of income.

In an article featured on Read Write Web, author Marshall Kirkpatrick interviewed the top 20 tech bloggers and asked them about their earnings. He found that independent, freelance bloggers averaged between ten and twenty-five dollars per post. Full-time in-house career bloggers can earn between $45,000 and $90,000 annually, often with benefits and bonuses. However, Kirkpatrick states that these bloggers are often putting in 50 to 60 hours a week.

An episode of the NBC television show Lipstick Jungle shed light on the conflicts between bloggers and professional journalists. In the show, actress Kim Raver plays Nico Reilly, editor-in-chief of a fictional magazine called Bonfire. When the magazine hires a "blogger in chief," Nico questions her journalistic skills and professional ethics, especially when the blogger uses her social networking skills to get invited to a prestigious industry party, for which Nico did not receive an invitation.

This tension between bloggers and journalists is also evident in real life. The Wall Street Journal article implies that bloggers have "no enforced ethics codes and limited standards." Additionally, many newspapers have been firing and laying off professional journalists and hiring - or more often contracting with - freelance bloggers. While this may be good news for anyone who is considering blogging as a career, it adds to the tension between bloggers and journalists. Remember, most blogs have a section that allows readers to leave comments. In some cases, it's not unusual to find comments that point out the blogger's lack of professional expertise.

Bloggers can improve their reputation, and gain industry respect by studying Associated Press guidelines and improving their spelling and vocabulary. Although blogging language is more casual than traditional journalism, in order to gain respect, text message and all-lower case writing should be avoided.

Monetizing your blog is your first step to a blogging career. Google Adsense is the easiest way to do this. Google will place ads on your blog that relate to your subject matter. You make a certain amount of money if someone clicks on these ads, and even more money if they actually buy something.

However, you must first draw people to your site. This involves a sophisticated use of SEO, or search engine optimization. There are also a number of affiliate programs that can help you earn money from your blog. For best results, affiliate with companies that are related to your blog content. You can also affiliate with Amazon, and link directly to special books that relate to your topic. The Wall Street Journal article states that it takes 100,000 unique visits to earn $75,000, so use your social networking skills to get as many readers as possible.

Whether you are creating a blog as an independent business or taking a job as an in-house blogger for a company, in order to make blogging your career you must treat it as a job. Remember, this is no longer a hobby. You will need to commit 40 hours a week to your blog, just as you would to a full-time job.

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