Blogging for Hire: Exploring the Career Potential of Writing on the Web

Villanova's Professional Research Option is an opportunity for graduate students to explore a professional field over the course of a semester and write a report to summarize their findings. This is a great opportunity for students to explore a profession that appeals to them in the process of deciding on a career.
 
Abstract:

In light of currently expanding digitized media distribution and the growing commercialization of social networking practices, this project sought to explore the career potential of professional blog writing through both self-hosted platforms and contractual blog contributing under established media outlets. After summarizing the historical progression of blogging since it began in the 1990s, this investigation also brings blogging up to speed by reporting on some of its current statistical uses and  trends. It then investigates the relationship between education and blogging, a link that is itself inherently uncertain because of the self-mediated and open-access nature of blogging (i.e. the promise that anyone can publish). The project also offers practicalguidance concerning the various approaches to commercial blogging as well as the projected income and viability of blogging professionally. In recognition of the ways that blogging has challenged journalistic domains and encroached upon traditional publishing hierarchies, the exploration herein also examines the positive and negative aspects of unmediated self-publishing in relation to its predecessor: traditional journalism. Lastly, because of the ubiquity and inevitability of social media use, this investigation looks at some of the professional benefits of maintaining an online presence regardless of one’s particular career trajectory.