When we moved this month, I had to fill out paperwork for our lease agreement. One of the required fields was occupation. I sat there for a while trying to decide on how to answer that. Simply put, I’m a blogger. But there is something about that title that isn’t taken seriously yet. I wanted a title that accurately described what I do as a blogger. As a blogger, you where many hats!
Here are some titles you can use on job applications, your LinkedIn profile, or for any other occasion that requires a job title.
Blogger – “a person who keeps a web log (blog)” Short and simple. Raise your hand if you knew blog was short for web log? I think it is totally okay to use this title. You keep a blog!
Writer – “a person engaged in writing books, articles, stories, etc., especially as an occupation or profession; an author or journalist.” Your words are the main focus of your blog, the reason people come to your site. You write on a daily basis.
Author – “A person who writes a novel, poem, essay, etc.; the composer of a literary work, as distinguished from a compiler, translator, editor, or copyist” You are the composer of the blog. I feel that this is more correct than writer (if you are the sole writer for your blog) because it gives you ownership of the blog.
Editor – “A person having managerial and sometimes policy-making responsibility for the editorial part of publishing firm or of a newspaper, magazine, or other publication” I feel that editor sheds more light on just how much you do for your blog. You are the author, but you also manage every other aspect of the job!
Curator – “A person who selects content for presentation” This is one of my personal favorite job titles for bloggers. It gives your title a little freedom but still accurate describes what you do. You pick out an article topic, design images to go a along, etc. Feel free to add to it and be a “web curator” or a “content curator”.
Copywriter – “A writer of copy, especially for advertisements or publicity releases.” I used this title on my name take at the MOZ Talk a while back. I like it. Or you could always copy the Copyblogger folks and use Copyblogger as your title
Founder – “A person who founds or establishes” Go big with this job title. You did start your own online business after all! Wear it proudly.
Content Manager – “a person who has control or direction of an institution, business, etc.” I actually like all titles for bloggers that start with content. I like this part of the definition on content “substantive information or creative material”. Ad manager to the title and you’ve got a pretty accurate description of your occupation.
Brand Ambassador – “an authorized messenger or representative” for brands. This one is really popular for Twitter profiles. If you write a lot of sponsored posts, brand ambassador is a great job title.
Do you use one of these as your title? Something else? Where do you use your title (social media, linked in, resume, etc?)
*All definitions are from dictionary.com
Thank you very much for this helpful post! You have chosen a lot of great words! I’m just starting my blog and I was not quite sure what to use on my business cards. I will be using founder. I love that:)
This is great and exactly what I googled. Never thought I would need to do an internet search to figure out what exactly to call myself! Oh the times in which we live !
So glad I came across this when updating my LinkedIn profile. Thank you very much!
Glad it was helpful. What titles did you put as your job description for LinkedIn?
How about “Originator?”
How about Publisher?
That’s a good one too!
I’ve just started up a blog and I’m trying to figure out what to call myself on LinkedIn! I like content manager + writer – I think I’ll use the combo 🙂
I think that’s a great combo.
Thanks so much for this post. This is something that I have been thinking about for a while now as I am starting my own blog. I think there is this mentality that when someone says they are a “blogger” what they mean is they spend half an hour every other week on a post then spend the rest of their time wishing they were actually important.
What many people don’t realize is how all encompassing and how time consuming running a blog can actually be. You are a computer coder, web designer, seo optimizer, researcher, writer, editor, photographer, promoter, public persona, entrepreneur, and whatever else is specific to your blog.
Don’t get me wrong, I think that there is a time and a place to stand up and be proud of the Blogger title but I also think that there are times when another title lends more credibility. I especially like the title of “curator” — both web and content.
I like curator too. I also like content manager lately. It’s unfortunate that people don’t take the title “blogger” seriously, but it really does encompass so much more than people’s first impression.
Your a social media manager photograph, communication specialist.
Bloggers have a lot of great “job” skills.
Good luck blogging!
I’ll stick with “Blogger”. Even if my mother says “So … why …. exactly … are you doing this?” 😀
I like it! I’m actually really surprised at how many homesteading type blogs I’ve seen show up lately! Good luck being a blogger.
It is nice to know I have options! Thanks for another great post!
Oooh, I like curator! What a fun post, and just as useful for everyday life as it is for applications and social media platforms! A good title to stop the eyerolls at Thanksgiving, am I right?
… just kidding, my family is more supportive than that. Sort of. 🙂