n America today， there are almost as many people making their living as bloggers as there are lawyers. Already more Americans are making their primary income from posting their opinions than Americans working as computer programmers or firefighters.

Blogging is now an important social and cultural movement that people care passionately about. Almost 2 million Americans are getting paid by the word， the post or the click.

The Information Age has spawned many new professions， but blogging could well be the one with the most profound effect on our culture.

What started as a discussion forum for progressive politics and new technologies has now been applied to motherhood， health care， the arts， fashion—and just about every other imaginable area of life.

Demographically， bloggers are well educated： three out of every four are college graduates. One out of three young people reports blogging， but bloggers who do it for a living successfully are 2% of bloggers overall. It takes about 100，000 unique visitors a month to generate an income of $75，000 a year. Bloggers can get $75 to $200 for a good post， and some even serve as “spokesbloggers”—paid by advertisers to blog about products. As a job with zero commuting， blogging could be one of the most environmentally friendly jobs around.

The barriers to entry couldnt be lower. Most bloggers for hire pay $80 to get started， do it for about 35 months， and make a few hundred dollars. But a subgroup of these bloggers are the true professionals who work at corporations， serve as highly paid blogging consultants or write for sites with substantial traffic.

Pros who work for companies are typically paid $45，000 to $90，000 a year. One percent make over $200，000. And they report long hours—50 to 60 hours a week.

Almost no blogging is by subscription； rather， it owes its economic model to on-line advertising. Bloggers make money if their consumers click the ads on their sites.

當(dāng)今的美國，靠寫博客為生的人幾乎跟律師一樣多。通過將自己的觀點(diǎn)貼在網(wǎng)上來獲得主要收入的美國人已經(jīng)多過電腦程序員或消防隊(duì)員了。

寫博客現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)成了一種重大的社會文化運(yùn)動，人們對之熱情高漲。將近200萬美國人通過設(shè)置關(guān)鍵詞、發(fā)帖或點(diǎn)擊量得到報(bào)酬。

信息時(shí)代催生了許多新職業(yè)，但博客寫作很可能會是對我們的文化影響最深遠(yuǎn)的。

博客最開始只是一個(gè)討論革新政見和新技術(shù)的論壇，現(xiàn)在內(nèi)容已經(jīng)廣泛涉及育兒、醫(yī)療衛(wèi)生、藝術(shù)、時(shí)尚……幾乎囊括你能想到的所有生活領(lǐng)域。

從人口統(tǒng)計(jì)學(xué)的角度看，博客作者的受教育程度高：四分之三的人為大學(xué)畢業(yè)生。三分之一的年輕人寫博客，但成功地以此謀生的博客作者僅占2%。每月絕對到訪人次有十萬左右才能實(shí)現(xiàn)年收入7.5萬美元的目標(biāo)。一篇好的博客文章報(bào)酬可能在75美元至200美元之間，有的博客作者還充當(dāng)“代言博客”寫手——廣告商付費(fèi)讓他們?yōu)楫a(chǎn)品撰寫博客文章。由于這樣的工作完全不需要上下班往返，因此寫博客沒準(zhǔn)是世界上最環(huán)保的工作了。

這份工作的門檻極低。大多數(shù)靠博客掙錢的寫手付費(fèi)80美元開個(gè)博客，從事博客寫作35個(gè)月左右，就可賺回幾百美元。有一小群博客作者是真正專門從事博客寫作的。他們在公司供職，擔(dān)任薪資豐厚的博客顧問，或是為訪問量很大的網(wǎng)站寫東西。

在公司任職的專職博客作者通常年收入4.5萬美元至9萬美元。有1%的人年收入在20萬美元以上。這些人的寫作時(shí)間很長，每周需50小時(shí)至60小時(shí)。

幾乎沒有博客是通過訂閱營利的，其經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展模式是依靠在線廣告。如果讀者點(diǎn)擊網(wǎng)站上的廣告，博客作者就能掙錢。endprint