Careers in Blogging

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Many freelance writers are beginning to find blogging is one of the newest career opportunities available to them. Blogging is essentially a series of postings on a particular subject which are listed in reverse chronological order. These blogs may be about a variety of different subjects and may be personal, political, informative, humorous or any other category desired by the blogger. However, the key to a successful blog is a blog which pertains to a subject which appeals to a wide audience. Additionally the blog should be updated regularly and should provide useful content to the readers of the blog. This article will provide some information on finding career opportunities in blogging, will discuss the benefits of this type of career and will provide information on how writers can manage a blog successfully.

Finding Blogging Career Opportunities

Although blogging career opportunities are becoming increasingly popular, many writers are not aware of how to find these wonderful opportunities. These career opportunities may be offered as ghost writing positions or as positions offering a byline to the writer and finding these blogging opportunities is often very similar to finding any other career opportunities for writers. Companies seeking a blogger may post the job opening in the same manner in which they would post other openings with the company such as accounting positions or administrative positions. Therefore, writers interested in a position as a blogger should utilize the same job search websites they rely on to find other career opportunities.

Bloggers may also wish to visit career websites and message boards which focus exclusively on careers in blogging. The ProBlogger.net website is just one example of a website dedicated exclusively to putting bloggers in connection with those who are interested in hiring a writer for a particular blog. Interested bloggers should also consider joining message boards for those who blog for a living. This can be beneficial because here bloggers are likely to share information regarding the companies for which they work as well as any information they have about companies who are currently looking to hire bloggers.

The Benefits of a Career in Blogging

There are many benefits to pursuing a career in blogging. Perhaps one of the most alluring benefits to a career in blogging is the work can typically be done as a telecommute position. This is because as long as the blogger has access to the software necessary to write and upload a blog, there is no need for the blogger to perform the work from a specific location. This means the blogger can reside virtually anywhere in the world and can likely perform the necessary work from his own home. However, not all blogging positions are telecommute positions. Some companies may require bloggers to perform the work onsite as a matter of personal preference.

Another benefit to a career in blogging is the ability to accomplish work at a pace which his convenient to the blogger. The blogger may be required to upload a new post to the blog according to a regular schedule but the actually writing of the posts can be accomplished when it is convenient for the blogger. Many blogging software packages enable the blogger to set a specific time for a specific post to be uploaded. This allows the blogger to write several posts at a time and have them publish according to a pre-determined schedule.

Finding Time to Blog

One of the problems which many bloggers face is finding the time to blog. This is especially difficult if the blogger maintains several blogs or if the blogger maintains a current events blog in which posts must be timely in order to be relevant and of interest to the readers. Writing blog posts in batches and scheduling them to publish as needed is one way to deal with managing several blogs. However, writers of blogs related to current events must take special care to budget their time wisely to ensure they are publishing topical blog posts. One way this can be accomplished is by setting aside time daily to reading current events to derive inspiration and then scheduling time after that to write and publish the blog. For example a blogger with a current events blog might choose to review the previous day’s news the first thing in the morning to ensure they are reviewing all of the relevant news from the previous day before writing the blog post.

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The Pros and Cons of Video Blogging

Monday, May 3, 2010

Video blogging has a lot of advantages over text-based
blogging, and it is little wonder that this new
technology is catching on all over the globe. Video
blogs very effectively grab the attention of web surfers,
and people are much more likely to become excited
about the dynamic content of a video blog than they are
likely to find a written posting very thrilling. The more
enthusiastic viewers are about a site, the quicker the
word of mouth spreads, and the more traffic the site will
get.

Of course, there are plenty of disadvantages to video
blogging as well. Hosting a v-blog requires quite a bit
of server space, which can make it difficult to get
started. It takes more time to process and upload a video
file than it does to dash off a quick bit of text, which
means that running and updating a video blog can be
quite a bit of work. In addition, web surfers sometimes
grow frustrated with the slow loading times of the files
on many video blogs. Whether you opt for a video blog
or not depends on what kind of subject matter you want
to cover, and how much time you can devote to video
blogging. Before you decide to pursue a video blog,
consider if there is an easier way for you to get your message across.

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Online Radio: Another Good Way to Improve Writing Skill

Monday, July 13, 2009

When reading the headline, some of you might raise a question: what is the correlation between listening radio and writing skill?

Well, it is true that listening is one part of skills that has to develop by anyone who wants to communicate fluently in a particular language. But, what if I say, listening does have significant correlation to general English writing skill.

For me, it works. I used to listen to online radio while I am working on my project or just surfing on the net. I preferred radios that have talk-show programs or news programs. This because the main contain of the programs are talk!

Off course, in many occasions I have to concentrate to my work or focus on information I am searching for. In this kind of situation, mostly, radio programs I heard, just acted as ‘a friendly –companion’ to me. I might not catch the whole ideas of conversation, but it made me familiar to language that I am not native for, which is English.

And as I am getting used and comfort listen to the talk-show or news, I slowly begin to learn many new phrases and words. And amazingly, in about a week, I can understand what the speakers talking about on their talk-show. Off course not every part of the conversation, but at least the core ideas of the whole conversation.

At this point, I am pretty sure; you have improved your writing skill. Well, everybody has their on way. I just try sharing everything that works on me. It’s your choice to give a shoot or to leave it. But if willing to try, I would love to hear your comment.

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Short is Beautiful

Saturday, May 2, 2009

A good posting is not judged by its length. For me, a posting is considered as a good one if the writer succeeds to deliver his ideas and make the ideas easy to understand by its readers.

You can convey comprehensive information in a long posting. Also, you can use different approaches, including persuasive, informative, narrative or what so ever. A long comprehensive posting indeed is art of writing. It needs advance writing skill with kind of sharp observer inside.

But sometimes comprehensive information is not the essential in a posting or frankly speaking, in delivering particular information through writing. There are many cases where a posting just tells a core information, introduction, or just entice the reader to continue digging information from other sources.

It helps reader to get the idea directly within seconds, and decides whether the information is useful or not. And indeed, it needs a certain level of writing skill too. You have to think hard and choose your words carefully, linking them in efficient manner to get such an informative yet stylish posting. And that is not an easy job, especially for newbie like me.

For those who want to learn more about writing a good short posting, Seth Godin is really one of the masters. Sharp, concise, direct, and easy to understand are the primary points you will easily meet as you read through of his piece of writings.

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Boost Your Writing Skill by Reading Good Books

Monday, April 27, 2009

Another investment that benefits in boosting up your writing ability fast is reading. No matter what books you read, reading is certainly a good way to improve your writing skill.

If could be hard to start, especially for a non-native English speaker like me. You have to read slowly to understand each line in the papers. Obviously, it needs passion, perseverance, along with enough motivation to go through this.

For a small step, perhaps you can start by reading books that interest you. It can be fiction or non-fiction category. If you can afford it, buy it. If you can’t, just visit public libraries spreading out in your town. This is the best alternative for this situation.

Remember, whatever book you choose, make sure you read it carefully. Try to understand general meaning of each sentence, and try to catch the core idea while you read. Don’t get stuck and confused by some words you don’t understand. Try to catch the general meaning first, and then do the rest; find out the meaning of new words in a dictionary.

Reading is one of phases in mastering a foreign language (other phases are speaking and writing) and it can be pain-in-the neck for while to learn. But, as time goes, you will be able to read clearly, and enjoy the reading. And when you come to that point, I think you already have done a primary investment on your writing ability.

How much time do I spend for reading?
Read as much as you can. Off course, the condition is not same for everyone and every situation. At least, try to read few pages a day. It is better to read few pages a day regularly, than read many pages in a day, and then read nothing for a week. I am sure you get my point.

Get a pen and sticky-notes
Jot down all new word you don’t know. Mark pages that contain new word using sticky-notes. Soon after you finish a chapter or an article, take a look the note you’ve made, and start finding the meaning of new words.

Don’t be too Picky
Read all kind of book, magazines, articles, even comics with various topics and or stories. Read those that interest you and those that don’t. Don’t be too picky. By accustomed reading a wide range of topic, you’ll learn many styles of writing, phrases and words that you never heard before.

Summarize What You Have Read
You can rewrite books or articles you’ve just read in your way. It can be a short note, opinion, thought or just review. Don’t take it so hard. Just consider it as a simple exercise of writing. You will get amazed to see how fast you make improvement in your writing skill. In fact, this exercise also benefits in increasing your memorizing ability right?

Well, that’s all my tips. This way still works for me up till now. What about you?

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Learn to Write in English? Just Start Blogging Today

Monday, April 20, 2009

English, as a global language of the world, is becoming the need of everyone who wants to be able to communicate globally. To achieve that objective, there are many literatures written and published to help you easily mastering this language effectively. Some of them are designed for self study. Some are formal books that need a lot of time and effort to take you to the advance level.

For those who have enough time and patient, learning some rules, guides and those complex theories of English writing (for me) are lucky persons. Contrary, for those who always get tired reading theories, most of the times get confused memorizing basic rules of writing, and easily get bored with all that stuff, books and publication do not help. And petty of me, as I am being part on that group.

But I believe, we’re all born unique with each of our own specialties. Just like the old proverb: there are many ways to reach Rome; so there are many ways to reach your goals, as long you have enough faith and tireless effort.

This fact makes me realize that there are many ways for people like me to improve writing English ability. People who are easier learning language by trial and error method; having mistakes before finding out the best possible approach that suit best.

And for that reason, for me, blogging is one way out. I can freely make any mistakes as this is my personal room. Mistakes will improve and take me to the next level naturally. Mistakes make me realize that I am human. And mistakes do have some miracles on getting new friends.

Beside, writing (in a blog) is a fun activity though. It does not only improve your language skill, but also the way of skill of thinking structurally. So, if you are tired of learning some theories, why don’t just start blogging today.

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