For some, it is purely a need to communicate, but blogs can be so much more: the daily newspaper or specialist magazine of our time, expert and insider news, directly accessible to everyone. The barriers to entry have fallen, blogs are published all the time. Digital natives feel at home on the Internet and can easily manage blog platforms such as WordPress or Blogger. Today, over 30 million new blogs are created every month, but only a few of them are successful. „Anyone can be a journalist“ can be considered the motto of the 21st century. Analogous to Andy Warhol’s famous statement in the 1960s, „Anyone can be an artist“, we are now experiencing an opening up of the profession of journalism.
That can be both good and bad, because it also means that anyone can spread their own nonsense. The anarchy of information on the Internet has given us, among other things, a horde of anti-vaxxers and food fanatics and triggered our fear of the fake. Is it true or fake, is it a photo or Photoshop, is it science or pseudoscience? We can no longer be sure.
Anyone who has some idea of design or has their blog professionally designed has a powerful tool in their hands. I still say it’s good that everyone can publish their blog, because we wouldn’t have a lot of insider information and niche articles without this option. In addition, the role of opposition to traditional journalism without political and economic obligations is important. Social media and blogs bring us information that would not have reached us with traditional media apparatus.
Blogs give young, ambitious journalists the opportunity to take their careers into their own hands and become popular with good articles. Bloggers are respected, they receive freebies and awards, such as the Madonna Blogger Award, for their achievements. Advertising and paid positioning on their own blogs are already good sources of income for some. Ewdison Then’s ‚Slash Gear‘ and Matt Marshall’s ‚VentureBeat‘ now record between $50,000 and $100,000 per month. Michael Arrington from TechCrunch is probably the most financially successful blogger of the moment, with monthly earnings of over $500,000.
special form of corporate blog
More and more companies are also recognizing the opportunity to use corporate blogs to pass on their expert knowledge and improve their Google rankings with up-to-date and valuable content. A good blog also encourages users to return and strengthens trust in the brand. Collaborations and paid advertising offer an additional source of income.
In this sense, everyone has their own opinion and everyone has their own blog. …and now, are you still reading or are you already blogging? 😉