A while ago I was approached to be interviewed for an online publication for High School students planning careers.  Thanks to Jim for letting me know that the article has come out.  I'm blogging about this not only because there is really good advice in there, but also that Qumana's own Arieanna Foley is featured in the article as well.  So, can problogging be a career?  Time will tell.  Will the skills required for professional blogging be required in the business world of the present and future?  Certainly.  This is how I put it:

Hussey describes blogging skill this way: "Okay, the bottom line is that you have to able to read a lot, quickly, follow memes [units of cultural information] and threads of patterns, condense them (I call it gisting -- from the novel Digital Fortress) and write them. Writing is key."

Bottom line for students.  That's right here ...

Advice for Students

At this moment, it is impossible to say whether there is or will be a career as a professional blogger.

"A high school student should go to college, study what he or she wants to study, learn to write very well, learn computers and then see what happens," advises Halvorson.

"I think you'll see blogging evolve as a career to some degree," says Chaney, "though I'd be reluctant to say it's something a high school student ought to set their sights on per se. However, I do think that having experience in blogging is an asset and something that students should be involving themselves with."

How do you get this blogging experience? By blogging, reading blogs and working with blogging software. Start your own blog; you don't have to make it public. Then pitch an idea to a blog network and see what paid blogging is like.

"Some topics are really easy for high school students to get into -- fashion, studying, clubbing, nightlife, celebrities," says Foley. "Lots of blog networks would be open to pitches in these areas."

As for a career in blogging, the best advice for now is to follow a career path that's a little more clear-cut, and develop some expertise in subjects you're passionate about. In the meantime, hone your blogging skills and keep looking for those "ins" that could lead you down the pro-blogger path. Complete article