Will Blogging Ever Be Looked At As a Career Choice?

Stay at home parents are often looking to find careers that work around their schedule, and offer flexibility to help balance home child care and work. With the arrival of the Internet, home based career opportunities were everywhere. Personal blogs paved the way for a new path in communicating, as well as created an entirely new job market for home based individuals. For the first time, stay-at-home-moms could contribute by working from their computer through the blogosphere. Although it takes a lot of time, effort and perseverance, blogging is a successful career.

What is the Blogosphere?

Blogs are online personal diaries. While some focus on daily events of the blogger's life, some are purely educational. Successful blogs have an articulate writer that focuses on one theme. According to Wikipedia, the blogosphere consists of all blogs and their connections to each other. The term implies that blogs support each other together as a collaboration of communities or as a social network outlet. In short, it is a method for an everyday personal note to be published and heard without going through a traditional book publisher.

Branding a Personal Blog

A successful blog has one key ingredient; a strong brand and a consistent writer voice. Can you imagine if Starbucks stopped selling coffee and instead started selling shoes? It would disrupt their loyal followers who loved their famous trademark coffee. The same idea goes for blogging. In fact, a successful blog is just like a successful business. There is a strong voice behind it; it caters to a particular audience; it has a consistent look and feel; and it adds value or some type of service. The brand can be a simple name, but the blog must have strong content to support it.

Blog Advertising for Money

Blogging for a career takes a lot of planning, hard work, and great writing. Great writing alone will bring traffic, or readers, to a blog, but a blog must have advertising too. Direct ad space, or selling space on a blog for monthly revenue, is one way. Businesses that fit a blog's topic can be contacted to see if they would like to buy advertising, In addition, affiliate advertising is an easy way to make money. Some affiliate programs include Amazon, E-Junkie and Flexoffers. To put it simply, if a reader clicks an ad, and buy something, the blog collects a percentage of the earnings.

Blogs and Ad Networks

Google's Adsense Program puts ads next to blog articles that are relevant to the topic. Google then pays the blog for any unique clicks they receive. If a reader buys the advertised item, the blog receives a commission. While Adsense pays on a click basis (CPC), other ad networks pay by the total number of impressions (CPM). ContextWeb, AdClickMedia, and Buzzlogic are great programs with great commissions for blogs. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses; however, it is best to use them both for a bigger revenue stream.

In short, blogs can be an innovative and excellent way to make a home based career. They offer flexible hours for stay at home parents and can be more exciting than working outside the home. However, it is important to realize