美国新职业

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.

当今的美国，靠写博客为生的人几乎跟律师一样多。通过将自己的观点贴在网上来获得主要收入的美国人已经多过电脑程序员或消防队员了。

写博客现在已经成了一种重大的社会文化运动，人们对之热情高涨。将近200万美国人通过设置关键词、发帖或点击量得到报酬。

信息时代催生了许多新职业，但博客写作很可能会是对我们的文化影响最深远的。

博客最开始只是一个讨论革新政见和新技术的论坛，现在内容已经广泛涉及育儿、医疗卫生、艺术、时尚……几乎囊括你能想到的所有生活领域。

从人口统计学的角度看，博客作者的受教育程度高：四分之三的人为大学毕业生。三分之一的年轻人写博客，但成功地以此谋生的博客作者仅占2%。每月绝对到访人次有十万左右才能实现年收入7.5万美元的目标。一篇好的博客文章报酬可能在75美元至200美元之间，有的博客作者还充当“代言博客”写手——广告商付费让他们为产品撰写博客文章。由于这样的工作完全不需要上下班往返，因此写博客没准是世界上最环保的工作了。

这份工作的门槛极低。大多数靠博客挣钱的写手付费80美元开个博客，从事博客写作35个月左右，就可赚回几百美元。有一小群博客作者是真正专门从事博客写作的。他们在公司供职，担任薪资丰厚的博客顾问，或是为访问量很大的网站写东西。

在公司任职的专职博客作者通常年收入4.5万美元至9万美元。有1%的人年收入在20万美元以上。这些人的写作时间很长，每周需50小时至60小时。

几乎没有博客是通过订阅营利的，其经济发展模式是依靠在线广告。如果读者点击网站上的广告，博客作者就能挣钱。endprint