Blogging can be a useful tool for either personal or professional purposes. Take for instance my website which is a personal blog; compared with the BBC’s Business Editor Robert Peston’s, which is a professional outlook on world business developments. Whichever preference you choose, all of your information is accessible via the public domain.

So, this leads onto the question as to whether blogging can start a career. In the case of Heather Armstrong it’s quite simply the opposite. She lost her job as a web designer because of writing offensive comments about her boss on her blog. In fact, she has now invented the term of being fired because of a bad digital footprint; becoming ‘Dooced’ with immediate effect; or as the Urban Dictionary describes it ‘to lose one’s job because of one’s website.’ However, she has learnt her lesson and now runs Dooce as a successful business in partnership with her husband, with a daily average of 55,000 readers.

Another good example is Salam Pax, an Iraqi, who blogged about the Iraq war during its initiation in 2003. He provided regular news and updates from a civilian’s perspective, subsequently gaining media attention. Some of the posts he wrote were extremely descriptive, painting a very clear image. The blog was later published as a book in association with The Guardian. This is another strong example of how the internet can quickly propel a future career.

"There were days when the Red Crescent was begging for volunteers to help in taking the bodies of dead people off the city street and bury them properly. The hospital grounds have been turned to burial grounds."
Salam Pax

In conclusion, you could suggest that a blog can either ruin or start a career. However, this is only based on the content you write, and as Heather Armstrong described “my advice to you is be ye not so stupid.”