I couldn't even begin to count how many times people have given me a disapproving look or made some sort of comment at even the brief mention of my interest in journalism. "My son's just joined the army" they say, well I've never really had much upper body strength, it's probably for the good of Australia that I chose such an unpromising career path.
This week my lovely tutor, Graham Cairns gave a room full of cash-strapped students the lecture of their dreams, how to make it pay. And by it, I mean journalism and by pay I mean for my crippling student debt. Although Graham covered other money-making areas of journalism, I though it was more fitting to focus on how an individual could benefit.
Firstly, blogging. Blogging is generally the first thing that comes to mind when I think of making money outside of the traditional journalist role. It's easy enough to do it on your own and plenty of success stories have come from it. Successes such as that of Nikki Parkinson which I wrote about in a previous post, which you can find
here.
It's definitely possible to be your own boss and make money through your own website or social media accounts. A recent successful YouTuber/blogger that I've enjoyed following is former QUT student
Essena O'Neill. Essena has become so successful with her online career that she dropped out of university earlier this year and is now travelling overseas. It's the ideal job for anyone wanting to make their mark in the online world regardless if they're a struggling journalist or not.
However despite success stories, Graham highlighted that 60% of bloggers make less than $99 a month. I personally have four different blogs all covering different topics and the most I've ever made was $2.50 on Google ads so it's definitely a realistic statistic.
Blogging is definitely a long-term commitment way to make money and very few people are consistent and persistent enough to be successful. It's all good and well to blog full-time but those working full-time or part-time and studying might be a bit more strapped for time. This brings me to the next way to potentially make some extra cash, self-publishing.
Honestly I never really understood the different ways you can publish your own content outside of a blog or self-made website. The most interesting way to self-publish I found was through Ebook singles.
So Ebook singles are basically shorter than a novel but longer than an essay and generally non-fiction. Each sell for around $1-2 dollars and can be on pretty much any topic. Although sellers of these mini Ebooks might keep a portion of the profit, there's potential to earn more money through quantities purchased.
In general the idea of making money with my degree in anyway is great but you don't really get into journalism for the money and if you are then maybe you should just stick to blogging.
I'll leave you with a quick quote.
