Sure, algebra, chemistry and English composition are important. But the most important basic skill and task that should be a prerequisite to graduating college is that students should create their own professional websites.
In today’s changing high-tech job market, students should be developing their own professional websites and blogs while they are in college and even high school. In addition to theoretical and analytical courses, colleges should teach real-world practical skills such as constructing a website. Schools should teach students that the Internet is more than a social networking tool or a way to research papers and projects.
I teach Journalism at Temple University and Arcadia University. At the beginning of each semester, I’m surprised at the small number of students who have developed their own professional-style websites. Everyone is on Facebook or MySpace, but only five or so of the approximately 400 students that I’ve taught over the last five years had their own website, which featured their writing samples, articles, or other work. I now emphasize to all my students that developing their own professional website while in college can be an effective marketing tool and a great way to get internships, part-time jobs, full-time jobs, exposure, and extra cash.
For example, one of my former students, Leah Kauffman, the voice and co-creator of the Obama Girl videos, was a Junior at Temple University when she collaborated with others to create BarelyPolitical.com. She has been interviewed in many media outlets, including ABC News, Cosmopolitan, and MSNBC. Kauffman also created her own website, which has her bio, news articles in which she was quoted, and information about her singing career and appearances.
Walter Cherepinsky was a senior at Central High School in Philadelphia when he created WalterFootball.com, which is now recognized as one of the top NFL Draft sites in the country. Now 25 years old, he currently makes over $100,000 a year from advertising revenue from his site and his blog will be syndicated in USA Today.
Kauffman and Cherepinsky are examples of high school and college students who were able to launch successful web ventures that furthered their careers.
Bloggers and website creators are gaining increased respect and exposure in society and the mass media. Every time Jib Jab comes out with a new video, it gets played on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Ana Marie Cox cultivated a platform and an audience as the blogger “Wonkette” and is now writing regularly for Time Magazine and Radar. Bill Simmons, who writes “The Sports Guy” column for ESPN.com, started his “Boston’s Sports Guy” website when he was in his late twenties and developed into an Internet celebrity.
Unlike Facebook or MySpace, professional websites shouldn’t have pictures of you and your friends chugging beer while standing next to a keg. You can tailor your website to your interests and passions. If you love sports, create a website where you write your thoughts on the topic. If you love music, write music reviews of CDs and live performances. If you have a band, you can put your music on the site as well as where you’ll be playing. Creating a website can showcase your individual talents and skills.
I’ve attended writers’ conferences where panel members who are agents and book editors indicated that they check websites and blogs written by young people to try to discover new, unique voices.
In addition, many employers like to Google the names of their potential employees or interns. It would be much better if they discovered your professional website, as opposed to your Facebook or MySpace site, which could contain content that portrays you as being immature.
Another reason to create your own website during college is to earn money. According the collegefinancialaidguide.com, “There are legitimate ways for students to earn money for college online. One way to earn money online is to set up a website about your favorite topic and earn money by placing ads on the site with AdSense. Another way to make money online with your own website is by referring visitors to other online merchants, otherwise known as affiliate marketing.”
When creating your own website or blog, it’s usually best to focus on a specific topic that you passionately care about. You can create a static website with your resume, biography, and writing samples, or you can develop an interactive blog or website that you update frequently. To increase traffic to your site, try to trade links with other websites that deal with the same or similar topic. The more traffic and Web visits that your site gets, the more ad revenue you’ll make.
Hopefully, schools and individual teachers will require or at least strongly encourage students to create their own professional websites. The digital natives might seem restless about this at first, but they’ll warm up to the idea eventually.
Larry Atkins teaches Journalism at Temple University and Arcadia University.
About Larry Atkins
While I agree that creating a professional website is a major plus, I find the arguments in favor of it presented here to be a tad naive.
I don’t think holding up a small handful of successful bloggers paints an accurate or positive role model for journalism students. It would be akin to holding up major national broadcast journalists as examples of where you can go in the broadcast journalism field. Yes, one can rise that high, but is it likely?
The reality is that most journalism students will go to work for small market newspapers, television stations, and the like — if they are lucky. “Wonkette” et al is not an example that the majority will be able to follow, and building up students to believe that that is a realistic goal is questionable at best.
As for earning money online, I began laughing when I read that paragraph. AdSense and affiliate programs like Amazon’s are responsible for a small trickle of dimes and quarters at best. Very few — even with high traffic sites — make much from them. A student might be lucky to get part of their hosting bills paid for using such services, but that’s about as far as it goes.
Yes, it is a good idea to use the web to build a professional portfolio. Placing links to that website on every social network you belong to is also wise, as is keeping the juvenile antics on the web to a minimum. At the same time, anyone proposing to build their own professional website should be cautioned *never* to *expect* to make money, get hired, or get famous. It may happen, but if it does, he or she will be the exception, not the rule.
Rather, such a site needs to be viewed as a supplement to themselves, an online portfolio of his or her work that is available 24/7/365. It’s nearest kin are the resume, the C.V., and/or one’s clip folder.
I’d also suggest caution regarding a blog. Blogs can easily become places for conversational writing. Such writing can quickly reveal the writer’s personality. Be careful not to post items that are too personal, or that reveal aspects of your life better left private — ala the stories that go with those photos normally posted on MySpace or Facebook. Further, one should also be careful that anything one writes about can be reasonably based in fact; random rants about topics that the writer does not actually have expertise in will quickly label said writer as frothy, unserious, or unstable.
Hi from a Temple j-school grad 🙂
Great post, thanks for writing it. I recently covered this topic for Poynter’s E-Media Tidbits, but in a slightly different way.
Here’s my take: journalists and j-students should start blogging early — not just for practice or direct revenue, but because blogs can prove to be excellent media “career insurance” in a time when traditional news jobs are getting harder to find, and news orgs are less and less stable.
See: http://snurl.com/4042q [poynter_org]
Running your own blog under your own domain can, over time, help you establish your identity and expertise (independent of your employer). Since blogs are so search-engine friendly, having your own blog is also perhaps the best ways to make yourself easily findable online.
Demonstrating your unique value, plus making yourself easy to find online, can help you thrive whether or not you have a traditional newsroom job. And especially if you unexpectedly lose a job. Your blog is your professional continuity.
I agree with the earlier commenter that AdSense revenue is a pittance, and unlikely to be an effective motivator or reward. Indirect revenues (like getting work offers, or having enough leverage to insist on better pay) far outweigh direct revenues for the vast majority of professional blogs.
– Amy Gahran
I’ve seen that AdSense revenue can be significant… provided you have original content that AdWords advertisers are making buys to sponsor. I make a solid five-figure annual income on AdSense alone (supplemented by direct ad sales and other income.)
But I’ve also found that it can take years to build a site to the point where the traffic and ad revenue makes it viable as a full-time income. If you start when the layoff comes, that’s too late. You ought to start building your brands while you are in school, both to demonstrate your skills to potential employers, and to start building revenue that allows you the freedom to reject crappy, dead-end entry-level jobs that have made too many journalists’ lives miserable in the past.