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What are the Different Types of New Media Jobs?

G. Melanson
G. Melanson

As new media technologies continue to experience rapid growth, the number of new media jobs on both the development side and the user side is increasing to meet the demand. New media jobs include both employment opportunities within a new media company, as well as self-employment opportunities for individuals who conduct their businesses using new media platforms and revenue sharing models.

One of the major types of new media companies are social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, which need to fill a wide variety of new media jobs to keep their sites operational. For the technology itself, these companies require programmers, application developers, web designers, systems administrators, and other high-tech positions to maintain optimal functionality. As well, social networking sites employ customer service representatives to answer user queries, salespeople to sell ad space, tech writers to write site copy, and executives to oversee all operations of the site.

Many companies require programmers, application developers, web designers, systems administrators, and other high-tech positions to maintain optimal functionality of an online presence.
Many companies require programmers, application developers, web designers, systems administrators, and other high-tech positions to maintain optimal functionality of an online presence.

Individuals who use new media technologies can also create their own new media jobs and self-employment opportunities. For example, a blogger who generates a high volume of web traffic can set up advertising opportunities with targeted advertisers who wish to expose their ads to the same demographic that reaches the blog. The blogger can then generate revenue from the advertiser through either a cost-per-click arrangement or cost-per-page view. YouTube allows its members a similar opportunity to earn money from advertisers via a revenue-sharing Partnership program. If a YouTube user is accepted into the Partnership program after submitting an application via the site, the user’s videos will begin featuring targeted ads from which the user can earn revenue.

New media jobs include self-employment opportunities.
New media jobs include self-employment opportunities.

Another example of entrepreneurial new media jobs is to become a vendor on buy and sell sites such as eBay and Etsy. Of the new media services which allow members to buy and sell items, eBay and Etsy are the ones most commonly used as a means of ongoing self-employment, allowing their members to set up online “shops” and sell products on a regular basis. Free classified sites such as Craigslist and Kijiji also allow users the opportunity to post ads for the purpose of selling items; however, they don’t offer the same assistance in terms of shipping and e-commerce.

Discussion Comments

croydon

@browncoat - I guess that's not all that different from the real world though. There are always people willing to go the scam route in order to drum up business. And business always depends on how much traffic you can get through the door.

Internet jobs might all be done virtually, but they are essentially the same jobs that people have done for a long time.

browncoat

@Mor - I actually find it quite scary how much my business depends on the search engines and SEO. I sell e-books and art through various sites and it really all does seem to come down to how many people I can get through the front door as to how much money gets made. No matter how great a piece of art is, it doesn't sell until it gets traffic.

The difficult thing is it often needs to sell in order to get traffic. There's a reason one of the more resilient web jobs are those people who create fake social media accounts and provide hits or reviews for cash.

Mor

I know it can be easy to become excited over the new opportunities involved in new media. But don't make the mistake of quitting your day job unless you've got somewhere solid to stand. Even over the last decade there have been so many companies coming and going that it's difficult to keep track of them. I've had friends who went from earning a thousand dollars a week from articles, to only getting pennies as companies went broke or search engines shifted their priorities.

There are definitely digital jobs that have some security, but there are just as many that could dissolve at any moment and it's important not to base your entire livelihood around them, just in case that happens.

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    • Many companies require programmers, application developers, web designers, systems administrators, and other high-tech positions to maintain optimal functionality of an online presence.
      By: corepics
      Many companies require programmers, application developers, web designers, systems administrators, and other high-tech positions to maintain optimal functionality of an online presence.
    • New media jobs include self-employment opportunities.
      By: Ana Blazic Pavlovic
      New media jobs include self-employment opportunities.
    • Craigslist allows users the opportunity to post ads for the purpose of selling items, like cars.
      By: oliman1st
      Craigslist allows users the opportunity to post ads for the purpose of selling items, like cars.