Blogging was for long known to be a personal affair. It was like writing a diary, done with no intention of earning any money. The single aim was to air one’s views and opinions to a wider world on the web. But now, as careers revolving around blogging are fast emerging, all that is set to change.

While those with considerable experience in their areas of expertise are choosing to blog full-time professionally, others are seeking employment as writers, content editors and sub-editors or are looking for openings in corporate and community blogs. Industry insiders predict that careers in the field are set to see a 50 per cent rise in the coming years. “Blogging today has become a lucrative profession for tens of thousands of people. By mindset, bloggers want to be free and, therefore, one is likely to find ‘better’ bloggers outside the corporate world, even when careers in blogging take off,” says Dhruvakanth Shenoy, vice-president, marketing, MonsterIndia.

In Calcutta, Santanu Sen works as a blog editor for a multinational company. A post-graduate diploma holder in mass communication, his primary job is to go through the entries on the company’s blog, remove the abusive entries and prepare responses for the ones the company feels should be replied to. “I used to write my own blog so that experience came of use,” he says.

With Internet penetration increasing significantly and people getting wired through mobile phones, the relevance and acceptance of a social medium like blogging has gone up dramatically. “It will soon evolve as a significant medium of choice. And it is then that jobs in the sector will scale up dramatically,” predicts Naukri.com’s Kumar Apoorv, vice-president and national head — ad sales, mobility and investments. “Companies will employ bloggers on their rolls to blog about them.

Bloggers can also enhance a company’s corporate identity in the digital medium.”

It is not just corporate houses with their own blogs that need bloggers. Blog networks such as Shimla-based Instablogs.com, which employs around 40 people to manage and edit content on the site, is constantly in need of blog writers, editors, content writers and proof-readers. Bloggers on Instablogs — which claims to be one of the largest blog networks in Asia — write about news events. “Although a journalistic background is desirable, anyone with a flair for writing is welcome to work for Instablogs,” says Vikas Shekhawat, vice-president, Instablogs. “We have many freelance blog writers who post on our website and they get paid if we find them good enough to work for us.”

Some companies also employ blog editors on a freelance basis. Calcutta-based Starmark bookstore, which is launching its own website, is looking for an editor who can take care of the blogging on its site. “Our blog page would invite the views of people who visit our store. That will help us establish a long-term relationship with customers,” says Gautam Jatia, CEO of Starmark.

Sites that employ bloggers on a full-time or part-time basis offer starting salaries in the range of that earned by online content writers / journalists. While a fresher working as a copy editor for a blogging community could earn around Rs 7,000 to Rs 9,000 a month, for full-time blog writers, salary is no constraint. Blog editors for corporate firms can earn anywhere upwards of Rs 15,000. For freelancers, however, it varies from site to site and depends on the number of blogs they contribute.

But many who are working in this area feel that the field is in its nascent stage. “It is still evolving. But as more corporates and blog networks feel the need for professional blog managers, the future will be brighter,” says Sen. At the moment, however, there are employers who look for people with experience either in blogging or managing blogs as a marketing medium as part of a larger job like that of a content editor or online marketing manager.

Another pointer to the prospects of blogging professionally is the change in one’s biodata. Unlike in the past, when jobs related to blogging never found a mention on one’s CV, professional résumé developers say that they are increasingly noticing people who mention their experience in this field. “Although the percentage is low, some clearly mention that they wouldn’t mind furthering their career in the same area,” says Devashish Samanta, a résumé developer with a jobs portal.

So what qualities would increase prospects in this field? “A flair and passion for writing. The person also has to be reasonably well-informed about the topic he or she is expected to write on or edit and have a grasp over the current happenings in the sector of choice,” says Apoorv.

If you think that you have these attributes, and wish to carve a space for yourself in the cyber world, just click away. It could open the floodgates to a virtual world with a real pay package.