Is blogger a profession?

An ex-colleague phoned me this morning because he wanted to pass me an invitation card to some big boss’s dotter’s wedding. I left the company about 9 years ago and since then, I never keep in touch because there is just no reason to.

This ex-coll is 57 years old, use to be my buddy, a property developer and my gossip pal. We normally greet each other on the phone with ‘tango-tango’. So, after he had asked like five persons, he finally found me. And still, we start with ‘tango-tango’. Ahhh…what a nice way to talk, just like the nine years disappearance doesn’t matter.

So, after a lot of catching up, he asked me, “So you have been shaking legs at home all these years?” I told him yes but I am also earning an income almost three times my basic salary when I was working. The good thing is Bryan just told me I am hitting my new year resolution by end June. What reso? Heh, you have to find out yourself from my archives. So, it does give me a little confidence because you don’t want to be caught shaking legs at home doing nothing with people like my ex-coll. He goes vroom, vroom, vroom from projects to projects. Flamboyant, successful and full of respect. In fact, he was a politician before as well. Eheh. I tell you lah, when you are full time with no career or job to attach to you, you tend to feel a little freaked out.

Then, he asked me what am I working as? I said I am a blogger. And I know that word doesn’t ring a bell in him. So, I explained that it deals with advertising and internet and I get my income in USD. It is not boasting or bluffing, ok? But when you are talking about the greenbacks, people will perks up and give you a little respect.

This same thing happened to me a month ago. I went to open an FD account. The money are from my PayPal. So, I have this form to fill to open the account.

Profession : Blogger

I can get seizure if I am force to write ‘housewife’. It is true. I hate that term, especially if it comes from me.

It was a weekend and everything went ok. Then, few days later, I got a call. The chap said he is from CIMB and asked me if I open FD accounts bla bla bla etc. Then, the phone conversation ended. And the phone rang again. This time, my atm took it and Mr. CIMB staff forget to clarify my profession. He had seen the word blogger and it is not acceptable. Atm said, ‘Oh, occupation? Housewife.’ *inserts deflated music, give killer stare to atm* Tius, no one recognise blogger as a profession?

KNN, so you tell me lah. When I meet my ex-colleagues, what I am going to say I am? Housewife? No jek. My websites are more than my ex-companies. My IT skills are better than that KNNCCB LSLY System Analyst who used to bully me when I was using Wordstar. I had appeared in the papers more often than the Chairman and my article is bigger than his. So, you tell me lah, what do I say I am? Blogger? Ptui….don’t want wor. Bad reputation. How lah?

Adding this little pantun from Ahpek about me for that fuzzy feelings:

When I hear the word Mummy,
Or things about the Almighty,
The first person my mind will see,
Is this pretty gutsy lady.

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22 thoughts on “Is blogger a profession?”

  2. yeah… its’ quiet complicated to explain. but i have one terminology to describe it. if they can understand what is webmaster, so why not they called us “blogmaster”? it’s more easy to understand it right?

    what do you think?

  3. International new media online journalist.

    occupation – a person’s usual or principal work or business, esp. as a means of earning a living.

    Blogger is not accepted as an occupation but housewife is an occupation kar??

  8. Unfortunately, in this country bloggers are liars lah! Next time I’m gonna write Liar big big in that field. LoL…

  11. Dont know lah. But when I fill in forms, I write there ‘retired, billionaire’.

    Anyway, I am on my way to Subang now looking for someone named Geography, Geo-duck. Dunno lah, something Geo one lah. These SB officers kenot pronounce the *** damned name. Anyway, see you in Penang in a couple of days.

    *Heh, commenting in an unmarked SB car*

    Added: The boys at BA located the other IP in Mainland Penang, Prai 13600. When all these are done, Lilian, you owe me big time. Fried prawns with CKT.

  13. Self-employed? “home business”, that kind of thing lor…maybe in a few years, bloggers will be accepted as a profession hmm?

  18. aiyah… i told you already yesterday… the right term is internet entreprenuer….

    what is tango tango?

  19. If Blogger is a certified profession, means taxable or not?
    Tetuan/Pepuan Halaman Elektronik???
    Can or not ar?
    Anyway…
    Housewife is a lame description
    Professional Family Director sounds BETTER!!!

  20. Professional and quality bloggers will not praise themselves in front of public.

    Empty cans sing louder than hell.

    **Added by 5xmom

    Signed : Someone acting as Boss Stewie, writing from cybercafe 218.111.209.138

  21. manager/director, (serial) entrepreneur, engineer, ranter, janitor, homemaker, cook, can opener, light switcher, conmaster, lawyer buruk, lawyer cantik, etc…. (and you can add PROfessional, master, head, chief, managing etc. in front of those titles), and BLOGGER too — these can all be ‘work/job’ titles, given by others or by yourself if you’re the business owner or head of the organization.

    A profession requires accreditation by others (not necessarily thru certification):

    * Professionals like lawyers, doctors, accountants etc. respectively need a legal/medical/accounting degree and licensed to practice.

    * A journalist, writer, book author, editor etc. also need some kind formal education, and cited works before being recognized as one.

    * A lecturer, teacher, professor, as such, also needs to currently or formerly offer formal academic delivery.

    * Engineers, mechanics, architects, designers etc. also need some kind of work experience or cited work to be called by those professions.

    You get the picture.

    A blogger is just a writer/journalist cum publisher, who may or may not yet been accredited as one. A blogger can also be primarily of other professions, namely, doctor, lawyer, engineer, academician, mechanics, musician, journalist, publisher, homemaker (questionable profession!), builder etc, so it MUST not be a profession by itself. Anyone who use the internet which is like 1/6 of world’s population today can be be a instant blogger without requiring any certifiable knowledge or skills.

    A blogger can also be as young as a five-year old, who can’t possibly be called a blogger by ‘profession’!

    How else to determine a profession?

    People of professions hold dear of their profession. Rarely do we hear of bad lawyers, architects, musician, teachers etc, or they simple are not of these professions! But bad bloggers, they are like a dime a dozen — the ARE TENS of MILLIONS of bad bloggers, nuff said!

    Bloggers can be just about anyone, who simply have too much publishing/communication power at hand. They can be very useful to mankind, or they can be a pest to the society.

    So, would you be proud to call yourself a blogger, BY PROFESSION?

    I’ve been ‘blogging’ for well over 10 years, and I’ve never once called myself a professional blogger or a blogger, by profession. I’m just a self-employed worker, or an ICT-centric entrepreneur. I’m also a computer engineer by academic (not profession) — but I can call myself an ICT specialist, if I’d rather be known as a worker instead of a business owner/manager.

  22. Seems to me that if you’re making your main income from a particular activity, then that is your profession.

    Blogging is basically writing – but to make money from it requires sourcing advertisement opportunities, understanding link ranking and all that, interacting with visitors to the blog… I would stay it stands in its own right as a particular profession.

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