Before the internet came along, opportunities to work in journalism were limited. The only way to find an audience for your words was via mainstream media. The online arena has opened up a whole new world for would-be journalists with myriad opportunities. One such opportunity is being exploited by Tennessee-based Thomas Scott, whose company Brand Journalists provides online blogs and content for local companies.

Brand Journalists offers blog and web content, ghostwriting services and reporting on the human stories that make companies interesting to their customers. For example, for an insurance broker, Scott’s team blogs about issues related to city life, such as what to do if the bath in the apartment upstairs overflows through your ceiling. “If you try to sell renter’s insurance as an agent, people tune out,” he says. “But when you talk about the coffee they drink and neighbourhoods they like, and how important it is to have renter’s insurance as part of that story, it connects with people.”

Every company, these days, has a website; many have blogs and social media interaction with their customers. The majority are boring. Is this an area you could specialise in – providing interesting content for companies in your area, who have neither the time nor inclination to do it themselves?