A Booming Blogging Industry!

Speaking of advances in the technology sector, guess what particular field in the said sector has been benefiting from today's downturn?

The answer is blogging.

In comparing relative additions of JOB numbers in the US, bloggers have scored the second in terms of adding employment.

According to Mark Penn in the Wall Street Journal (all bold highlights mine), ``In America today, there are almost as many people making their living as bloggers as there are lawyers. Already more Americans are making their primary income from posting their opinions than Americans working as computer programmers, firefighters or even bartenders.

``Paid bloggers fit just about every definition of a microtrend: Their ranks have grown dramatically over the years, blogging is an important social and cultural movement that people care passionately about, and the number of people doing it for at least some income is approaching 1% of American adults.

``The best studies we can find say we are a nation of over 20 million bloggers, with 1.7 million profiting from the work,and 452,000 of those using blogging as their primary source of income. That's almost 2 million Americans getting paid by the word, the post, or the click -- whether on their site or someone else's. And that's nearly half a million of whom it can be said, as Bob Dylan did of Hurricane Carter: "It's my work he'd say, I do it for pay."

``This could make us the most noisily opinionated nation on earth. The Information Age has spawned many new professions, but blogging could well be the one with the most profound effect on our culture. If journalists were the Fourth Estate, bloggers are becoming the Fifth Estate."

I've never realized that this hobby can have significant income generating potentials or can function as an alternative career.

More from Mr. Penn but with some of my comments interposed, ``Demographically, bloggers are extremely well educated: three out of every four are college graduates. Most are white males reporting above-average incomes. One out of three young people reports blogging, but bloggers who do it for a living successfully are 2% of bloggers overall. [am definitely a long long way to go -comment mine] It takes about 100,000 unique visitors a month to generate an income of $75,000 a year [woah!]. Bloggers can get $75 to $200 for a good post, and some even serve as "spokesbloggers" -- paid by advertisers to blog about products."

Now, at least I have some numbers.

Other benefits of blogging again from Mr. Penn, ``As a job with zero commuting, blogging could be one of the most environmentally friendly jobs around -- but it can also be quite profitable. For sites at the top, the returns can be substantial. At some point the value of the Huffington Post will no doubt pass the value of the Washington Post.

``The barriers to entry couldn't be lower. Most bloggers for hire pay $80 to get started, do it for about 35 months, and make a few hundred dollars. But a subgroup of these bloggers are the true professionals who work at corporations, serve as highly paid blogging consultants or write for sites with substantial traffic.

``Pros who work for companies are typically paid $45,000 to $90,000 a year for their blogging. [wow!-comment mine] One percent make over $200,000. [even more wow!!!] And they report long hours -- 50 to 60 hours a week [more in my experience].

``As bloggers have increased in numbers, the number of journalists has significantly declined [economics is about tradeoffs, so blogs are replacing the dinosaur newspapers, clearly Schumpeter's creative destruction in operation]. In Washington alone, there are now 79% fewer DC-based employees of major newspapers than there were just few years ago. At the same time, Washington is easily the most blogged-about city in America, if not the world.

``Almost no blogging is by subscription; rather, it owes it economic model to on-line advertising. [true-comment mine] Bloggers make money if their consumers click the ads on their sites [readers pls do]. Some sites even pay writers by the click, which is of course a system that promotes sensationalism, or doing whatever it takes to get noticed."

Lastly education directed at the industry underscores growth and is the icing in the cake as a fully blooming industry.

``It is hard to think of another job category that has grown so quickly and become such a force in society without having any tests, degrees, or regulation of virtually any kind. Courses on blogging are now cropping up, and we can't be far away from the Columbia School of Bloggerism. There is a lot of interest now in Twittering and Facebooking -- but those venues don't offer the career opportunities of blogging. Not since eBay opened its doors have so many been able to sit at their computer screens and make some money, or even make a whole living."

From now on, my calling card will highlight as my occupation "BLOGGER"!!!