A dyslexic web designer turns professional photographer and author. A call-centre operative becomes a fashion designer. A single mother goes from selling make-up on Ebay to launching her own beauty range and newspaper column.

All owe their change in fortunes to their popularity on social networks such as MySpace, YouTube and Flickr. People who in previous generations would have been no more than enthusiastic amateurs are turning professional by using self-publishing tools to achieve guru status within their fields.