America’s Newest Profession: Blogging
Posted by Mert Erkal on Apr 25, 2009 in Problogger | 10 commentsI have read an interesting article at The Wall Street Journal’s website written by Mark Penn titled America’s Newest Profession: Bloggers for Hire. According to Mark, there are over 20 million bloggers in USA, with 1.7 million profiting from the work, and 452,000 of those using blogging as their primary source of income. In other words, almost 2 million Americans getting paid by the post, word, or the click.
From a problogger’s point of view, the most significant part of the article is this: “One out of three young people reports blogging, but bloggers who do it for a living successfully are only 2% of overall.”
Out of 20 million bloggers, only 2% can earn their living solely from blogging. In other words, most bloggers still continue to earn peanuts. The blogosphere is full of dead blogs. The main problem seems like lack of patience.
It is possible to earn your living from blogging but it is a lot of work and takes a long time. You can not expect a glory in the first 6 months. You can not even make significant money within the first 6 months. Rome wasn’t built in one day. You need to keep blogging every day, and build your own empire within 2-3 years period.
Problogging is a long term dedication and commitment. I have already written a few articles on my own problogging experience. I would like to share them with you so that you may inspire from them:
How I Quit My Job and Become A Problogger
Why Do Some Bloggers Make More Money Than Majority Of Bloggers?
I saw that article and it gave me hope! Getting my real estate license thankfully led me to blogging and I hope blogging and my websites will lead me to a great RE referral business so I can do what I'm passionate about… blogging and tweeting, and I want to do it from an Airstream.
I am sure you will achieve your dreams Susie, good luck!
What you have said is absolutely right? I started my first blog in April 2006 and it took me about 10 months to start earning something worthy of mention from it. When I started I had added a few other blogs to my favorites in various community websites like MyBlogLog and such other. After 2 years I find only a couple of them still alive and running. The rest have faded away. Nobody is patient when it comes to earning money and people want to do it overnight. Blogging is not for such people because it takes perseverance to succeed in blogging.
Definitely, patience is essential…
There is no other way to success except patience, consistency, commitment and hardworking in the world of blogging. Leaving money behind is a good practice for newbies. Money will follow when we pass the line to be called 'blogger'.
Do you know any idea about how much is the income of that 2% who earns their living from blogging.
I really don\\'t know, but we can guesstimate. It might be more than the average income in USA.
Absolutely Roha!
Wow, nice blog design. It's been some time since I comment here.
Talking about blogging as a profession, clearly I am one of those bloggers who are earning peanuts from blogging. I am still learning of course.
However, believe it or not, people living in Malaysia can obtain a degree in blogging. I wonder if the blogging gurus behind those universities learn about blogging from Yaro himself through the Blog Mastermind course but I doubt that they know.
Thanks for your kind words about my blog Sarah. Blog Mastermind fastens the learning process for sure. But it is not mandatory.