The world of blogging, vlogging and influencer marketing has become a mainstream career rather than a hobby, says Aparna Mudi

With an ever-increasing size and influence of the World Wide Web, the domain of professional blogging has become a mainstream career rather than the hobby that it was merely a decade and a half ago. The world of blogging, vlogging (video blog) and influencer marketing has become massive and more and more people have jumped into it in India.

However, we have seen that people with no technical ability or knowhow and absolutely no experience in the online space jump into this sea and then get lost soon enough. It is so easy to be lured into the online blogging space, without really understanding it and most people end up without any real ideas after a few months. Even though bloggers have a fan following, they soon fade away from public memory.

Communicating through the written word is a learnt skill and in today’s sphere of content creation, there are many players without apt knowledge for the same. It is essential, just like for any other career, to learn and educate yourself about the nitty-gritty of blogging. The game plan is changing with every new technological advancement, every new phone that gets launched.

Not being equipped to face the challenges that the digital world is throwing at the content creators is the reason that people are not able to share their value online. Whether you are a newbie or an experienced content creator facing a creative block, a well-designed course can guide you to enhance your skill set and therefore your strategies to further the blog, vlog or your social media strategies.

Since the world of blogging is unlimited, so are the avenues of earning through them. Many creative people often struggle to make strategic financial decisions about their content. It becomes the stumbling block for so many pre-bloggers and many just do it with their eyes wide shut.

Social media too plays a huge role in all of this. The role of influencer marketers has increased in the past few years by leaps and bounds. Today brands are moving towards social media to promote their products and services. Collaborations with established bloggers seem to be a better investment for many brands and more importantly many startups that cannot afford traditional advertising on a large scale. The internet, on the other hand, has a universal reach.

For example, a small luxury resort at the foothills of the Himalayas would much rather collaborate with a travel blogger who already has a set demographic that follows her, who already has a psychographic profile that they want to target their services to. If the service provider were to give her a good experience at the resort, with just a little investment, that resort is being marketed to the most likely traveller.

They can generate real interest. But one thing should be very clear, the blogger that they choose must have the reliability and trust of her followers. It can’t be someone who looks to only gain freebies, because the audience understands over time who is fooling them and who isn’t and quickly moves on to the next quality content provider.

Whether it is the field of fashion blogging, travel blogging, beauty blogging, education blogging, technology blogging or any other kind, the only thing that works over a long period of time is useful quality content.

And quality content in the digital world is different and exploratory and ever-metamorphosing into new and different styles. If you step into this maze, then the roads to success are not as easy as before. But the learning curve does go high in this career.

No matter what career you are in, if you are passionate about blogging, nothing should come in your way.

There are many short-term weekend course in blogging offered by the institutes. With this course, one can learn not only the tips of creating unique content in order to become a successful blogger but also photography as it makes blogging more powerful. Technology has revolutionised the way we communicate and social media is a byproduct of technical innovation. It is important for a blogger to understand these technological advancements in the rapidly changing ecosystem.

The writer is assistant professor, School of Media iat Pearl Academy