Now Reading
The Bloggers Overtaking The Lawyers (Insert Joke Here)

The Bloggers Overtaking The Lawyers (Insert Joke Here)

The other day, Wall Street Journal ran a story on how there are more bloggers than lawyer in the US, making for pointy headlines and quite a bit of the wow factor for “America’s Newest Profession”. At first glance, it is an interesting piece (and at second too, really), and if you haven’t read it already, you should.

Just don’t take the numbers too seriously.

They got disputed early, and even prompted a response from Mark Penn on WSJ, which is good and all.

That being said, I think the story is interesting, and it has some points about blogging as a profession, no matter how off the numbers are. The truth is, a lot of people make money, and perhaps even a living, blogging professionally, and that brings out questions.

For US probloggers, this can probably not be said enough:

While many bloggers probably support unionization in general, they have no union of their own. Most have no benefits, yet they work long hours in front of computer screens which could cause a variety of health ailments. And the owners of the big sites most often pay their bloggers as freelancers, avoiding all of those taxes and benefits that newspapers have to pay for their writers.

See Also
Apple Silicon Processor

These are things bloggers should consider. What would happen if you got sick? Who would pay if you need to see a doctor? Where’s your benefits?

Blogging probably is America’s Newest Profession, and it shows.

View Comments (4)
  • The title got my attention and I just had to read it.

    I can understand why more people are blogging, for some it’s all about the money. I would not say that the majority of bloggers are making a living.

    For others, it’s about releasing stress as they blog about their expertise or daily events. They share their knowledge and experiences and help out others.

  • The issues you raise about healthcare are particularly key for me. I am self-employed as a blogger, and have my own LLC online media company. My husband would love to join me working full-time self-employed. But there’s one problem – health insurance. I have lupus and other problems which mean I cannot get health insurance unless I am part of a mandatory enrollment employer group that forces an insurance company to take me. Which means that until something changes in the world of health insurance, my husband will have to stay employed full-time for someone else, at a company that offers him health benefits, or we will be in a lot of trouble.

    I’m really hoping President Obama delivers on these promises he’s been making about health care so that my family will have the freedom to be self-determining, instead of having to just do whatever we have to employment-wise to keep me insured.

Scroll To Top