Blog Network to Sell For $20 Million Plus

Victor Cheng writes "Blogs are big money. The Weblogs Inc Network is apparently about to be sold for over $20 million to AOL, an individual blogger is making over $400,000 per year from his living room, a blogger writing about shoes is claiming a six figure income and blog networks are starting every second day with hopes of making it big. It looks like it might be time to dust off the old blogspot blog again."

Comments

Why TF did I go to school?

[Enigma_Man]

And pay umpteen-thousand dollars for an engineering education, just so I could make less money than a manager at McDonalds :(

Anybody else depressed that people make a lot of money doing stupid things?

-Jesse

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[Iriel]

Then again, I remember reading an article in WIRED about a year ago that mentioned that the vast majority of pro-bloggers don't make enough to even live off of at low class level. I have a vague feeling that about the only people making the real money off of this aren't the actual bloggers themselves but the owners of site like (I really don't know which ones bring in the most money) LiveJournal, Gizmodo, Wonkette and such. If you ask me, I think the webmasters controlling the blogs are raking in the real cash on this gig.

I could be wrong, so please don't correct me with a torch, but from the stats I've seen, being a blogger is no replacement for your day job.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[StuDude]

Remember that success is fleeting....

$400,000(this year)/40(working years) = $10000/yr, which is probably less than you make as an engineer.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[Average_Joe_Sixpack]

Anybody else depressed that people make a lot of money doing stupid things?

This is the sort of "fictional wealth" created in economies with fiat based currencies.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[jlarocco]

I'm not too worried about it. Once businesses realize how pointless it is for them to have blogs, their pay is going to decrease a lot.

I agree that it is a bit disconcerting, though.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[lucabrasi999]

Anybody else depressed that people make a lot of money doing stupid things?

I wouldn't get too depressed. Ever since I started my first high-school job (as a restaurant dishwasher over 20 years go), I have heard hundreds of stories about people that made alot of money doing stupid things. In spite of these stories, you just have to remind yourself that there are millions of people that lost their shirts, thinking that stupid things would make them rich, quick.

You are better off, in the long run, with an education. With a degree, if nothing else, you can always end up with a good job, when your latest get-rich-quick scheme fails.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[Enigma_Man]

Thanks for the brick of sanity this morning, I needed it.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[lukewarmfusion]

My father-in-law tells me that when I make my first million, I need to invest it all, take 10% return, and live off the $100,000/year.

Not that I think it's going to happen quite that way, but there's no reason you need to take $400k and stuff it under the mattress, either. Nor do you need to retire on that.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[tgd]

If you want to be really depressed, just think about how you'd be making just as much or more as a union carpenter or a plumber... and your job could never really be outsourced.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[dosle]

Don't let a few 'freak-success' stories get you down. These sort of things aren't as prevalent as you think, of course one person making alot of money non-traditionally will get press. And as we all know the press will blow things out of proportion giving a false sense of 'everyone but you'. How many truly rich people do you know? Keep that in perspective.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[lucabrasi999]

One Million? Not even close. If your father-in-law said five million, then I would tend to agree with him, but that depends upon your personal situation. For example, I am (two days away from being) 39 years old--sh*t, I might as well just throw in the towel, 39 is ancient. I have a wife and kid. Five million wouldn't be enough for me to quit my job.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[ThaFooz]

And pay umpteen-thousand dollars for an engineering education, just so I could make less money than a manager at McDonalds. Anybody else depressed that people make a lot of money doing stupid things?

Well if you're making McDonalds manager sallary, I suggest looking for a a new job. Entry level tech workers usualy make pretty decent money for people their age.

It doesn't bother me that a select few bloggers can make a decent living off of it, great writers are truly rare and valuble to society. Atually, what I find more depressing is that frequently bloggers are better, more honest, and more insightful that the professional US 'journalists'.

But you're right, there is a ton of money in 'stupid things'. I don't mind, and usualy applaud, people (ethically) making money off of it, though the demand for stupid junk depresses me some times. Case in point: high end fashion. It drives me nuts that there are so many rich idoits on 5th/Madison Ave in New York City demanding overpriced status symbols, but I feel better knowing that there are talented artists out there that can spot the demand and restore equillibrium by seperating fools from their money.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[PhairOh]

I have absolutely nothing to back this up, but I wouldn't be suprised if the percent of bloggers that actually make 6 figure salaries is probably similar to the percentage of "higher educated" (read college+) people who make 7 figure+ salaries.

It's just the same as always. Some people get are lucky. Some people are extraordinary. Some people are just really good at what they do and therefore people will pay them for it.

Remember, the wealthiest man in the world dropped out of college.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[VATechTigger]

If you can tell me where this investment with the guarantee of a 10% return is, I will be greatful. I think I saw one once in the late 80's.....

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[ip_freely_2000]

Like anything else, people at the top of their industry will always make a ton of money. It does not matter if you're a programmer, CEO, field goal kicker, ballerina or blogger.

I don't resent their success, I recognize that people at this level make extraordinary commitments to whatever it is they do. I only wish them well.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[lucabrasi999]

as a union carpenter or a plumber

I read somewhere (I don't recall where) that head auto mechanics at car dealerships easily clear $100,000 per year.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[sdpuppy]

And where do I go to make this 10% ?

Is the principal protected in any way?

Actually I know some who did just that, but it was a while back (like 30+ years ago...) and while he did get 10% interest, it was off of $100,000 which at the time was enough to support him. Of course with inflation and now 1 - 3% interest rates, I'm sure he had to find work - so you're right, what seems like a bonanza that you could live off of now might not be so significiant in the future.

Unless you win that $250,000,000 lotto :-)

But then things gets boring if all you're doing is sitting on your yacht surrounded by beautiful...{bye}

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[ThaFooz]

I have heard hundreds of stories about people that made alot of money doing stupid things. In spite of these stories, you just have to remind yourself that there are millions of people that lost their shirts, thinking that stupid things would make them rich, quick.

Amen to that. I'm reminded of a David Cross bit - for anybody that needs to remember that most dumb/untalented people do in fact fail, buy yourself a plane ticket to Los Angeles and just sit on a bench on Holywood Blvd. for a little while. No where else in the world can you see so many delusional people who spent everything to get there, thinking that they're going to be 'the next big thing', only to be chewed up and spit out by the city a few months later.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[halltk1983]

there are enough cars to be used as money??? I didn't think Fiat did that well...

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[halltk1983]

I used to work for a dodge dealer. Our average mechanic cleared 70k, the head made over 200k. He made as much as the general manager did. OTOH he was there at least 84hrs / week, had no family and wasn't all that happy. The mechanics there worked off of commission, and he was a *very* good mechanic.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[SamSim]

Just like writing novels, then. Very, very few people make enough money from writing e.g. fiction to live off.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[Anonymous Coward]

, a blogger writing about shoes

More importantly, Why am I straight?

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[Anonymous Coward]

No. Typically the rich today are stupid. Example? ok.. the rich idiot in the Cadillac STS yesterday tringto control a SEMI TRUCK by slowing down to 60, cutting him off, swerving around to try and force hime and traffic to do the speed limit. That man is incredibly stupid. yet he makes a shitload to afford a $54,000.00+ car. I would prefer to be one of the few with a decent IQ and common sense making less than 50K.

we are not the complete morons buying homes in the getto of New York for 300K+ and then dumping another 80K into it to make it liveable... but buying homes farther away from the idiots and morons.

rich = stupid in this country. simply sit in on a sales meeting with the sales managers... most of them are dumb as a box of rocks.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[ZachPruckowski]

You are better off, in the long run, with an education.
Really, it's sort of a "bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" thing. Sure, you can take a shot without college at the big bucks, but with college, you have a near gaurentee of starting out with a decent job. It used to be an absolute gaurantee, and probably will be again. In an increasing complex world, education is not going to hurt you in your job search.

But the real answer to "Why TF did I go to school?" is, of course, THE PARTIES!!

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[IcyNeko]

I use livejournal and demand to be payed a 10 figure salary for all that I've posted over teh years. To date, I have received not a damine for my efforts.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[Eric Giguere]

Most people don't realize how little authors make on their books. For a non-fiction, you're usually talking 10% of the net (wholesale) cover price. (For fiction, it's usually a smaller percentage of the cover price, which generally works out to about the same.) So for an average $40 tech book, the author might be getting 10% of $24, i.e. a couple bucks per book. If you only sell 5,000 books total (very common) then you can see that the numbers don't amount to much.

This is why more and more authors are starting to publish their books electronically as e-books, often becoming their own publishers. It's very similar to the way that musicians are exploring electronic distribution avenues for their work. But it's still an immature, emerging distribution model for both kinds of artists.

Eric
(who nevertheless has a conventional printed book to flog -- you can always hope!)

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[Deagol]

Five million wouldn't be enough for me to quit my job.

Then you're living a lifestyle that invites all those "fat, lazy American" comments from foreigners.

The "fat and lany" is figurative, of course.

If your statement was in context of "I love what I do so much, you couldn't pay me to quit" then I apologize.

But if you don't know how to have a decent standard of living with a million in the bank, then you are a symptom of society's larger consumer culture problems, and you have my pity.

Hell, if someone dropped just $100k in my lap, I'd never have to work again. And I have a wife and two kids. Hint #1: there are many livable houses out there for well under $100k. Hint #2: There are many fine cars out there for under $1000. Hint #3: Never pay for TV -- ever. Hint #4: Your house should be your only debt -- ever -- and only for as short a time as possible.

I sooo hope the parent poster was being sarcastic.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[networkBoy]

Add to that they usually have to buy their own tools, including specialty tools, and the up-front cost is kinda high.
My uncle works at a cadillac dealer as a mechanic, they had a break-in last month and most of the guys lost their tools. Dealership essentially shut down their service department for a week, also fronted the guys money, interest free, to buy new tools. Corp sent two sets of specialty tools for the shop to share.

(I have a feeling the owner of the dealership paid for the shop tools, not Corp, as he also fronted the interest free money). So while they're getting a break, they still have to re-buy all their tools (about 100K for a full set).
-nB

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[Overzeetop]

I make a living by buying lottery tickets. My income is in the $millions by simly investing my winnings in the Powerball. I have a 3rd grade education and can't see any reason why you "educated" people seems to be busting your asses for a few tens of thusands of dollars a year. Heck, when I started, I bought my tickets from quarters I found in public phone coin-return slots. Spending thousands on an education is wasted, in my opinion.

***Don't read this part***

Of course, I'm lying!

Just because some goofball gets lucky and strikes it rich on dumb luck (a popular blog) doesn't make it a rational business plan. Is it depressing that a blogger can make six figures? Of course, but no more than reading about some low-life hitting the lottery or winning a multi-million dollar court settlement. It's not the way to get your best shot in this world.

***You can start reading again***

Now, if any of you would like to learn more about how YOU can make a living by knocking back brewskies all day and choosing winning lottery numbers so you can live the life of luxury like me, just paypal me $49.95, shipping and handling included, for my can't miss methods to independent wealth by playing the lottery! Try my system for 60 days, and if you're not satified, I'll return the entire cost of the materials to you*.

*less the $45 shipping and handling fee

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[Anonymous Coward]

Webmaster? What is this, 1994?

I know that the bloggers "employed" by commercial blogs and blog communities get paid by the post. Sometimes fairly generously, and it's rarely by word-count or anything like that, so also bloggers can post several times a day... so for some blogs, three posts can make as much as your average office worker. The owners do make the money off the ad revenue, however, and I guess it'd be up to them on how they build their community and 'share the wealth.'

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[lukewarmfusion]

I had the average stock market return rate of 12% in mind. I also had mutual funds ranging from 15% aggressive (much more risk) to 7% conservative (much less risk) in mind. With these things, you can play a bit more conservative with your money and still come out with 10%. Your principal isn't protected, no.

When I was in high school, a teacher asked us if we'd like to retire on one million dollars. Of course everyone said yes. He argued that one million dollars, forty years from now (approximately when my classmates would be retiring), will not be enough to sustain us.

Meanwhile, I know enough financial folks - analysts, CPAs, and consultants - to realize that there are ways to get high returns on your money. You just have to be patient and willing to take a risk. $1,000,000 is enough that the risk is worth it.

If you're really, really conservative you could look at a high-yield money market and bring down 3-4% with more protection than stocks/funds but still not FDIC-insured. Some folks live on 40k/year.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[brother_b]

My father worked as a mechanic at a dealership working from 7:30am-5:30pm 5 days a week for around 30 years (just recently retired) and never hit $30,000 a year. Hell, he never got more than two weeks vacation a year.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[lukewarmfusion]

You couldn't afford your lifestyle on $100k/year? I know that I could live on a salary much, much lower than that simply because I already do. It's a matter of living within your means and making your money as effective as possible. Eventually you'll pay off your debts and be able to live on even less. At that point, you're just accumulating wealth.

Suppose you were offered $5 million dollars. Unless you are currently making and spending all of a $500k+ salary, that should be plenty for you to retire on.

Personally, I wouldn't quit working if I had that money. I'm not that kind of person. I'd go nuts. Instead I'd use the extra money to finance a new business. The one I've got could use a boost like that.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[operagost]

You simply can't get a low-risk 10%return. You can either invest in a diversified protfolio and realize about 4-8%, or take more risk (and invest more time) to shoot for 10%. You may fail and take losses or break even.

Inflation also must be considered. It's very low now, but it won't stay that way.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[caseydk]

Actually, with $5M and a measely 3% annual rate of return would give you $150k/year. Everything you don't spend, let it roll over.

If you can't live on $150k/year with one kid, you have bigger problems.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[operagost]

A fine car for under $1000? What is that? A totaled Mercedes?

My $1000 (blue book) car was costing me over one quarter of its value in repairs alone each year-- you have to take that into account. No, it's not because Buicks suck, because even allegedly reliable vehicles like Toyotas and Volvos wear out: Air conditioning, alernators, cooling systems-- all guaranteed to break.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[Psiolent]

The owners do make the money off the ad revenue, however, and I guess it'd be up to them on how they build their community and 'share the wealth.'

(begin shameless plug)

I just launched a site called Bloomshare that let's anybody create a web community (kind of like a public blog) free. I 'share the wealth' by letting the users give me their adsense account code and then putting ads on their post pages.

(end shameless plug)

Anyways, I think we've just begun to see the potential for revenue sharing models in blogs and in web communities.

P.S. with a little initial effort, one CAN make enough to live off of from these types of things.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[lucabrasi999]

I sooo hope the parent poster was being sarcastic.

I wasn't being sarcastic at all. I was being completely serious.

$5 Million in cash isn't much money at all. First of all, take 40% of it away in taxes (federal and, for most of us, state). Now, you have $3 Million left. That 3 Million, even if you invest it isn't enough. At 3% return, you are looking at $90,000 a year. Take 1/3 out for taxes, you are left with $60,000 per year.

Assuming you don't work, you have to pay for your own health insurance, life insurance, transportation (and related insurance), housing, property taxes and food. Could you do it for $60,000 a year? Probably yes. Would you and your three dependents be happy? Probably not. Don't forget that you still need to pay for college for two children (with $3 million in the bank, I doubt you'd get much financial aid).

If you took any of those fixed costs (housing & transportation) and spent for them out of your remaining $3 million, you'd be cutting into your annual salary. And, you need to replace your car every six or seven years. And, if you are like most couples, you need TWO vehicles.

Hell, if someone dropped just $100k in my lap, I'd never have to work again

You are dreaming. $100,000 isn't enough to buy (even a shitty) house, one car and live on forever. See my previous paragraph.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[lucabrasi999]

See my reply here.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[MayorDefacto]

Remember, the wealthiest man in the world dropped out of college.

Remember, the wealthiest man in the world (William Henry Gates III) had already-rich parents (his dad was a high-paid corporate attorney and his mom sat on the board of a number of corporations such as Berkshire Hathaway). He attended Seattle's most prestigious prep school, and the only reason he dropped out of Harvard was to pursue his softare business. The guy is neither stupid nor of humble roots.

So when you say some people get lucky, I read that as "some people are born lucky..."

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[lucabrasi999]

You couldn't afford your lifestyle on $100k/year? I know that I could live on a salary much, much lower than that simply because I already do. It's a matter of living within your means and making your money as effective as possible. Eventually you'll pay off your debts and be able to live on even less.

As your salary increases, and as the size of your family icreases, you will find that your responsibility also increases.

My wife and I live in a very nice single-family house valued at about $350K (If I lived in some areas of the country, that house would instead by a closet). We have one car (a Ford Escape). While our house is nice, the cost is not outrageous in comparison to most areas of the country and we don't go crazy on other costs. However, we also have signifcant costs beyond the mortgage: both of us have graduate school loans to repay, a home equity loan (to remove former credit card costs), life insurance (for everyone in the family), auto insurance, utilities, gasoline expenses, a healthy toddler, food expenses, a dog, a cat, and the occasional bottle of nice wine (just try to tell my wife that the dog should die rather than dropping $1,000 at the vet -- and I'll be damned if I have to give up my wine).

While I have a very nice life, I don't think we are being outrageous.

Suppose you were offered $5 million dollars

OK, here is what I think that means.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[(1 -sqrt(5))*(2**-1)]

I read that as "some people are born lucky..."

There's that classic line from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night:

[B]ut be not afraid of greatness: some
are born great, some achieve greatness, and some
have greatness thrust upon 'em.

Now, if you mean to say that Gates' fantastic genes propelled him forward, I'm with you; if, on the other hand, you're merely interested in class-based agitation, I'd urge you to rethink your position.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[DreadfulGrape]

re: "...At 3% return..."

3 percent? What are you doing with all that money, putting it in a passbook savings account? The average fixed-income corporate bond is paying 6 or 7 percent at the moment, and if you're an even-halfway decent investor you can make more than that.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[Capt James McCarthy]

You are better off, in the long run, with an education. With a degree, if nothing else, you can always end up with a good job, when your latest get-rich-quick scheme fails.

If it works it's called a solid business plan. If it fails it's called scheme? Does that sound about right to everyone?

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[Anonymous Coward]

Remember, the wealthiest man in the world dropped out of college.

Yeah, and I hate the dimwits that use the above and never got a proper IT education thinking they desserve their job! Its really a discrace how bad it got..

But you do need to get stupid sometimes. Even if these "pro-bloggers" are not at the technical end, you need to think like the idiots if you're goiing to take their undesserved money off them!!

Oh, and I doubt Bill ever stopped to consider the ramifications of promoting this idea too.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[MayorDefacto]

And why, pray, shouldn't I engage in a little good-ol' class-based agitation? Clearly, the man had plenty of advantages to start with thanks to his family's wealth (well, aside from chiseled good looks, but I digress) While I've seen many a privilleged kid fritter away all of the advantages their fortunate station in life affords them (rich kids turning into layabout stoners in college and such), I find it hard to believe that you think that being born to rich parents isn't at least in part a determinant of future success.

If mumsie and daddy can afford to send you to all the best schools and provide you with a comfortable lifestyle where your primary concerns can stretch beyond merely surviving, you have much more time to, oh, I don't know, dink around with computers. I love a good Horatio Alger, up-by-the-bootstraps story as much as the next guy, but the fact is that if you are born wealthy, you already have a head start on all the others in the race to the top.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[ShawnDoc]

Uh, median *household* income in the US is $44.5k. Something tells me the average American household has more than one car, and house, and enough money to live on. $100k is plenty for a typical family of four, and is a lot of money for a single person. Not everything in your home needs to have "LV" stenciled on it.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[Anonymous Coward]

I whole-heartedly agree... Potvin does suck!

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[Enigma_Man]

The median income might be 44k, but usually working includes benefits like medical insurance, retirement plan, etc, that add up to quite a few more thousand "worth" a year. I wonder if the 44k median takes that into account?

-Jesse

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[budgenator]

Freinds of mine would fall into your low-life hitting the lottery on and off welfare a couple of arrests then bam hit the mega-millions for $241M on a $5.00 easy-pick, lump sum got them $89M after taxes which collects $6500.00 a day! I was going to flame you but shit I figure the unvarnished truth would burn you enough.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[lukewarmfusion]

Of course you can't, but the risk you'd undertake is largely mitigated by patience in the market. With that kind of investment, you can afford to take a loss over short periods because you're not cashing out. Even if you take a loss for two or three years, you're likely to make up for it with decent gains over the course of your life. I'm young, so that's how I've approached my investing (per the advice of my advisor).

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[lucabrasi999]

On one hand, you are right. 3% is really conservative. The 3% I used came from a figure that somebody else used in this string. I should have pointed out the source of the 3%.

However, so far this year, my 401K is averaging a 5.1% rate of return. I am being very agressive with my investments (I have about 20% invested in international stocks). Given the rises and falls of the stock and bond markets over the course of decades, I think 6% is kind of average. Take away a 2 to 3% average inflation rate, and you end up with about 3 to 4% return a year (disclaimer: IANA Financial Analyst -- take my numbers with a large grain of salt -- but I still think they are kind of reasonable).

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[lucabrasi999]

As Enigma Man pointed out in another reply, an income of $44.5 K does not include the cost of benefits. You should remember that when a company pays you $44,500, it has additional costs of approximately 30% additional to pay for things like health care, Soc Sec taxes, unemployment taxes etc. I am not sure how things like SS and unemployment taxes would impact anyone living off of the interest of their $5 Million in lottery winnings, but I can tell you that you would most definitely have to pay for health and dental insurance (you would also be crazy to not purchase life and/or auto insurance).

Not everything in your home needs to have "LV" stenciled on it.

I prefer to have "LB" on my shirts. :)

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[(1 -sqrt(5))*(2**-1)]

[T]he fact is that if you are born wealthy, you already have a head start on all the others in the race to the top.

Indubitably; successful families provide for the optimal expression of their offsprings' genes: that's the real marker of success, by the way.

Class-based ressentiment conceives of the successful passage of resources as somehow undeserved.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[tyrione]

Single family house in the Inland Northwest runs around $170k. That is in Spokane. Now depending on whether you live in the rural region outside of Spokane you could find one for arounf $150k.

I suggest you relocate and buy two economical and yet above average used cars. Invest the rest.

http://www.tb.com/index.asp

Research. More research.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[lucabrasi999]

I live in Pittsburgh, PA. For major metropolitan areas, Pittsburgh is considered to have a very low average cost for housing. But, due to various advantages that I have (such as, being lucky enough to count a land and housing developer as a relative and a friend), I decided to build a rather large house on 2 1/2 acres of land. The cost and size of the house is probably a bit more than I would normally consider given my economic situation. But, the cost was discounted and I figured a few years of "stretching" it would pay off handsomely when the value of the house increased (note that Pittsburgh is not part of the "housing bubble" talk you hear of in Florida and California -- so, given the regional average, the value of my home goes up 5 to 6% a year).

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[Anonymous Coward]

You couldn't pay me $5 million to live in Spokane.

(I grew up there, so I should know)

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[tyrione]

So you are saying you have former low-life friends who have now financially supplanted their economic status. They are now fiscally wealthy low-life friends.

Everyone has different means. The point of $5 million to live off of is clear: If you cannot manage to live off of such for the rest of your life then you are fiscally a low-life.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[zephc]

"In fact there are three freely convertible currencies in the Galaxy, but none of them count. The Altairian Dollar has recently collapsed, the Flanian Pobble bead is only exchangeable for other Flanian Pobble Beads, and the Triganic Pu has its own very special problems. Its exchange rate of eight Ningis to one Pu is simple enough, but since a Ningi is a rubber coin six thousand eight hundred miles along each side, no one has ever collected enough to own one Pu. Ningis are not negotiable currency, because the Galactibanks refuse to deal in fiddling small change. From this basic premise it is very simple to prove that the Galactibanks are also the product of a deranged imagination." - HHGG

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[Anonymous Coward]

The reason you can take that risk is either because you have other income or you don't need much income now.

When that becomes no longer true (mortgages, kids, medical bills, tired of living on ramen, lower time to live, etc.) then your risk profile will put you in the 3%-return-guy's world.

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[Anonymous Coward]

What does this mean? You saying that people's incomes can't be "out of line" in a gold-backed currency environment or a barter economy?

What if there's a fad for Og's termite sticks and they start selling for 75 yams apiece although you can get a normal termite stick for 5 yams and Og's cost of goods sold is only 2 yams apiece? Wouldn't you say that Og is making an "unreasonable" amount of money on his sticks?

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[LaCosaNostradamus]

Something is missing in your testimonial ... specifically: Where's the insurance on this alleged $100K in tools?

Re:Why TF did I go to school?

[networkBoy]

It is up to the employee to insure their tools. Most do not, as they have the (mostly deserved) feeling that anyone who breaks into a dealership is there for the cars, not the tools. Since the shop does not own the tools, the shop's insurance does not cover them. The mechanic's homeowners insurance will not cover them as they are not "personal tools", they are used for business, much like your car insurance not covering you when driving for an employer in your vehicle, only when driving for yourself. It's a hell of a catch 22, but that's where the insurance is (or isn't as the case is here).
-nB

Another Bubble

[diogenesx]

Is this just another Internet Bubble? I'd have to say that I feel these services are a bit overvalued. Are blogs really a trend or just a fad?

Re:Another Bubble

[H0p313ss]

Today they're a fad. 10 to 20 years from now we can look back and call it a trend.

When it started, Amazon.com was part of the WWW fad, they're just the 5% that stayed around long enough to be a trend.

Re:Another Bubble

[oneiros27]

Is this just another Internet Bubble? I'd have to say that I feel these services are a bit overvalued. Are blogs really a trend or just a fad?

There are plenty of good magazines out there, and there are plenty of crap. Likewise, there are plenty of good television shows, and plenty of crap. It stands to reason that there are bound to be a few sites with time ordered entries and comments about them (I refuse to use that 'b---' word), and with the low barrier to entry, there is going to be a whole lot of crap.

So, based on what I've defined that annoying word to be, let's restate your question:

Is this just another Internet Bubble? I'd have to say that I feel that Slashdot is a bit overvalued. Is Slashdot really a trend or just a fad?

(repeat for Robot Wisdom, Obscure Store, MetaFilter, Fark, News.com's editorials section, etc, etc, etc.)

Re:Another Bubble

[_14k4]

...there is a difference between trend and fad??

Re:Another Bubble

[Wah]

It's just a shifting of the ad revenue. As TV viewership falls, advertisers have to find a new way to reach their audience. As the younger audience is increasingly online, this is a natural move for advertising revenue. Becuase of the nature of the medium (open) the revenue will be more widely distributed, but it will still, ultimately, pool at the top.

There will be more people making money at blogging, but there will be less making money in TV.

Re:Another Bubble

[j-joshers]

Yes, it is. Back in the day you had the old game networks like Gamers.com, Stomped, GameSpy, GameFan Network, and even IGN which were just loose networks of gamers writing about the industry. They were big, the networks were flush with cash and sharing the goodies with the writers, and new networks were coming out all the time. Then the bottom fell out, most of the people who were making the sites got hosed, and the only way many of them survived was by ditching the network model and becoming massive monolithic catch-alls (GameSpy, IGN).

The same thing will happen here. I just hope the people who are making cash off blogging realize this and save their inflated profits for the rainy days. A few good ones will survive but blogs are mainly just the Geocities homepage of the 2000s.

Ok, got a blog...

[oZt]

...Now I just need something cynical, sarcastic and offencive to write in it..

Re:Ok, got a blog...

[easterlingman]

Why bother doing that when you have Slashdot? ;)

Re:Ok, got a blog...

[Iriel]

I think Slashdot has you beat there. Nobody's more cynical and sarcastic than us as a collective ^_^

Re:Ok, got a blog...

[Anonymous Coward]

...Now I just need something cynical, sarcastic and offencive to write in it..

Well, your spelling skills are a good start...

Re:Ok, got a blog...

[Anonymous Coward]

...Now I just need something cynical, sarcastic and offencive to write in it..

Well it looks like your spelling is of a high blog-standard.

Adsense

[TheSync]

I make enough from Google Adsense on my blogs/sites DNAhack.com and Econotarian.Org to pay for the DNS registration, and I could probably pay for nicer hosting if I wanted to as well and still come just a bit ahead in the end.

Re:Adsense

[mindpixel]

DNAhacking is cool.

Re:AdSense

[Eric Giguere]

Like I've said before in my AdSense blog, it's not that hard to make some money using AdSense and blogs, i.e. enough to pay for your Internet costs plus a small profit. Making real money takes time and effort, and don't let anyone else tell you otherwise.

Eric
Read the free sample chapter from my AdSense book for more

Re:Adsense

[Dehumanizer]

If you read Darren Rowse's (the $400k guy)'s blog, he's brutally honest about what he does. It's not just a "hobby", he works 8 hours a day or more, every day. And it's not just one blog, it's 10 or more. And he's been doing it for 3 years. In fact, he has written entries warning people not to quit their jobs, and not to create the illusion that "I can write a couple of entries a day and get rich! RICH!!".

And it's true, for every guy who makes real money with his blog (or most likely blogS), there are thousands who just make enough to pay for the domain and web hosting (and, therefore, have to keep their normal jobs), and many more who simply fail miserably. It's hard work, it takes a lot of your time, and you have to be good at it.

Shameless plug: not that I'm making any money yet, but I have a nice (ah, the modesty...) ongoing Blogging tips series in one of my own blogs. The latter parts include AdSense tips. :)

Re:Adsense

[Zoomshare]

Adsense is really the key, you can have all the crazy ideas in the world and blog til you are blue in the face. Still you have to have a way to bring in revenue which is what adsense does. At my site Zoomshare we offer free blogs and we are able to keep it free because of adsense ads. If your revenue is huge on adsense that is probably a precursor to google have an interest buying you. Why should google pay a company millions when they can buy you and put you in their network and have to pay you nothing. I know I say google and not AOL...Because its only a matter of time before Google has 50% stock in AOL.

What next?

[BigMFC]

I'm selling my deranged rantings for 1 million dollars on ebay! *does the Dr. Evil pinky finger thing*

The Bubble is Expanding

[Anonymous Coward]

Trust me when I tell you that all of these blogs and Web 2.0 websites are just a big tech bubble waiting to be burst by a reality check. They're hoping to be bought out, or hoping to live large with VCs money.

Lucky him, but...

[Spad]

an individual blogger is making over $400,000 per year from his living room

Sadly, most of that will now go towards his bandwidth costs.

Re:Lucky him, but...

[wahgnube]

That was funny, but at least in my case, it looks like (google ad) revenue from the web log is the only way I can keep my sites up. No, my needs are no where near the amounts mentioned here, it is many orders of magnitude less (some ~$20 per month will do), but eveything helps when you're an otherwise poor grad student. It makes the difference between having sites and not.

Meanwhile, mine's made about $4.50...

[tcopeland]

...apparently posts on StringBuffer.toString() and XPath engine timing aren't wildly popular. Odd, that...

Re:Meanwhile, mine's made about $4.50...

[Anonymous Coward]

You'd be surprised. I run a site which is all posts containing code and coding related tips. Nothing massive or fancy. It makes about $10 a day from AdSense. Which, considering the sort of low-ball ads most development related terms get.. is pretty good.

The history repeats again

[felipe.ledesma]

Oh no! I see other bubble coming! The blog bubble burst! the BBB.

Shocking!

[samael]

People write about things that interest people, and then make money off of advertising!

I'm sure this has happened before, but I can't quite place it...

Re:Shocking!

[artemis67]

Guy makes money by setting up a blog telling people how to make money by setting up a blog.

Seems so circular to me.

At what point does the last guy to set up a blog about making money by telling other people to set up blogs to make money fail?

It's kind of like those real estate infomercials telling you how you can be a millionaire by buying his training system. If it's that easy? why aren't you doing it yourself? Why are you telling other people about it?

Actually, I guess this guy really is doing what he's telling others to do. But it's amazing how people will stampede towards anyone who says they know how to make a quick buck.

Re:Shocking!

[Dehumanizer]

According to the guy, he has about 10 blogs, and ProBlogger (the one about making money from blogs) only gets him $5-$10 a day. The real money is in some of the others...

Re:Shocking!

[samael]

But it's amazing how people will stampede towards anyone who says they know how to make a quick buck.

Hell, it's that or work for a living.

Re:Shocking!

[budgenator]

real estate infomercials telling you how you can be a millionaire by buying his training system
Most they're buying foreclosed or tax autioned properties and hoping your the only bidder. Makes money sure, I've thought about doing it but somehow it seemed too vampyric for my tastes; I imagine lawyers would be good at it.

Revenue Rarely Enough to Live on

[SumDog]

Somehow I doubt the figures quoted. I've been running a journal at http://sumdog.com/ since 2001 (before everyone called them blogs) and have been running google ads since January and have made $29 so far.

Ads aren't worth a whole lot. If you choose to do your own advertising and not use services like google ad words, you can probably do much better, but they're still not worth much. I suspect many of these people are selling merchandise, promoting certain businesses and have several forms of revenue.

Looking at cartoon sites, the Brothers Chap who run homestarrunner.com current make enough money off all their merchandise to fully support themselves. Hell I even own a StrongBad poster.

You can support yourself off a blog, but it's rare. It requires the type of site status as homestarrunner, the onion or maddox...or possibly Wifey's World or Heather's I Deep Throat.

Re:Revenue Rarely Enough to Live on

[Jesus IS the Devil]

That all depends on your traffic now doesn't it? Without traffic great content won't make anything.

Re:Revenue Rarely Enough to Live on

[DerekLyons]

Somehow I doubt the figures quoted. I've been running a journal at http://sumdog.com/ since 2001 (before everyone called them blogs) and have been running google ads since January and have made $29 so far.

Frankly I'm surprised it's made as much as $29. Your site is ugly, poorly designed, poorly laid out, and utterly without a reason to exist other than to masturbate your own ego. If I'd found it on a web search (unlikely as vanity sites rarely rank highly) I'd have thought to myself "heres another loser who has AdWords on his site because they lowered the barriers".

In short comparing your little site with even a semi-professionaly run site is about as accurate as comparing an Estes rocket with the Saturn V.

(And considering Blogger.com was founded in 1999... You have a little to learn about the history of blogging.)

Ads aren't worth a whole lot. If you choose to do your own advertising and not use services like google ad words, you can probably do much better, but they're still not worth much. I suspect many of these people are selling merchandise, promoting certain businesses and have several forms of revenue.

Ad revenue per blog is tiny - but across thousands or tens of thousands of blogs, those numbers add up significantly.

On the other hand - when you look at the two blogs featured in the Slashot summary, you find highly targeted sites aimed at a specific audience - and those can make significant money from targeted ads. (Thats why you find ads for fishing rods in Field and Stream and ads for Corning Ware in Good Housekeeping.) An extremely narrowly targeted website I built in 1997 brought about $10/mo from Amazon links until I took it down in 2004 - even though I never updated, changed, or even publicized the site after about the first month.

Looking at cartoon sites, the Brothers Chap who run homestarrunner.com current make enough money off all their merchandise to fully support themselves. Hell I even own a StrongBad poster.

You miss an important point - they couldn't support themselves, with ads or merchandise, if they didn't provide the content that drew the eyeballs. The same is true when you examine the two blogs in the Slashdot summary

You can support yourself off a blog, but it's rare. It requires the type of site status as homestarrunner, the onion or maddox...or possibly Wifey's World or Heather's I Deep Throat.

-5 Excessively Obvious.

Pretty much anyone whose been savvy about the web since, oh, 1995 or so knows this well. That's why many of us were not surprised when the Bubble burst - as we'd predicting it for years.

Re:Revenue Rarely Enough to Live on

[Blakey Rat]

Maybe it's because your blog sucks?

The colored background makes it impossible to read your recent posts, which is just as well considering the title of the most recent one has a huge spelling error right in the first word.

Re:Revenue Rarely Enough to Live on

[Anonymous Coward]

You got that right. I have one called http://federermagic.blogspot.com/ and it earns very small money :(

Re:Revenue Rarely Enough to Live on

[CFrankBernard]

"I, for one" implies the person is probably defending a non-mainstream position yet is not alone.

Re:Revenue Rarely Enough to Live on

[falconwolf]

Without traffic great content won't make anything.

Conversely, without at least good content that people want to see, you won't get much traffic. Well I suppose it is possible, what with as bad as some of the sites I've seen.

one grain of salt, please

[amrust]

It may just be me, but does anyone else lump these "I make huge bank with my blog" stories up there with those "get-rich quick" schemes on late-night TV, by those seedy looking guys with wet spiky hair, wearing golf shirts and khaki shorts, sitting in canvas director's chairs?

Some guy claims he makes $400k, so Hmmm.....I guess he does, case closed? /rolls eyes

Re:one grain of salt, please

[Anonymous Coward]

1. Collect underpants
2. Write blog about collecting underpants
3. Profit!

OK OK,
2a. find gullible desparate media company / ISP and sell it to them.

The thing is,

[zegebbers]

there will only be a few sites that are really popular -- I think for many people, it will be disappointing not to get in on the boom. Look at the million dollar homepage, it can only be done once.

Profit

[generic-man]

1. Person watches CNN
2. Person gets pissed off because he hates CNN
3. Person makes blog where you can get "the real news, not that CNN bullshit"
4. Person sells blog to parent company of CNN
5. Profit!
6. GOTO 2

Re:Profit

[Agret]

That's a rather interesting point you've made there.

Re:Profit

[pizzaman100]

Is the person's name Rupert Murdoch?

The real secret is...

[Kalgash]

From one of deeplinked FA:

And so the lesson the Manolo he takes away from this for the new bloggers is to be aware that the large part of the mission of the blogging it is to entertain, and so you must write well, in the lively manner.

Re:The real secret is...

[falconwolf]

And so the lesson the Manolo he takes away from this for the new bloggers is to be aware that the large part of the mission of the blogging it is to entertain, and so you must write well, in the lively manner.

An article on AListApart, How to Write a Better Weblog talks about how good writing is important as does another article, Structured Writing - An Outline, on Evolt.

Falcon

The blogging bubble begins now ...

[miller60]

Anyone who has the skills to write a marketable blog will see what AOL paid Jason Calcanis, get dollar signs in their eyes, and leap into the blog network game.

Many will fail. There was already a casualty this week, as Webby Media shut down just nine days after launching. Their business plan: give away 100% of ad revenue to bloggers. Doh!

There are now blogs emerging that do nothing but cover these blog networks, like the newly-launched Blog Network Watch or Blogebrity.

Not getting it

[Jesus IS the Devil]

To those of you who think blogs are just junk, you don't know what you're talking about.

There are junk blogs (like those countless BS myspace ones) and there are awesome ones. Slashdot is a great one. Gizmodo is another. "Blog" is just a new way of creating articles, in which anyone can now do online easily.

I remember a few years back there was this newsletter that this one guy would publish once every week. It was really great because the guy would talk about new webmaster tricks submitted to him, or other ramblings about that particular niche. I would wait in anticipation for every new issue that comes out. It's not readily evident, but that was a really early version of blogging, just done in a more manual way.

Don't just quickly dismiss the whole concept of blogs.

Re:Not getting it

[Anonymous Coward]

Remember website guestbooks from back in the day? I reckon they were the original blogs. Anyone who visits your page, could "leave a comment" in the guestbook for others to view. Classic.

Re:Not getting it

[drunkennewfiemidget]

You're absolutely right.

You can call this a 'stupid fad', or 'waste of time', or BS all you want, but the fact of the matter still remains that there is a need and a want for this service, because there are people making money off of it.

It's called capitalism. As long as someone can make money doing this, it's going to continue. If the blog makes money, then its getting views. If its getting views, then its inevitably got some sort of useful information to keep people coming back.

I read a list of about 10-15 blogs/comics/slashdot type sites each and every day -- I count on them as part of my morning routine when I get to the office.

Re:Not getting it

[Prophet of Nixon]

I don't think anyone dismisses the concept, since as you point out, its not even remotely new. Everyone just hates the absolutely asinine fake word that now accompanies it, and realize that most things which use said word to describe themselves are, in fact, junk. The good web sites don't need overhyped media buzzwords to succeed, and anyone who thinks they do needs their kneecaps removed with a screwdriver. That's all.

Re:Not getting it

[Kelson]

Everyone just hates the absolutely asinine fake word that now accompanies it, and realize that most things which use said word to describe themselves are, in fact, junk.

But enough about "websites"...

Oh I Dunno...

[Greyfox]

How much did Slashdot go for?

Re:Oh I Dunno...

[retiarius]

for those born yesterday, slashdot was sold for $10-12M
or so to andover.net, originally, according to:

http://www.salon.com/tech/log/1999/09/17/slashdot/

andover (after IPO as symbol ANDN) went to valinux (LNUX) for $800M-$900M
(in stock, mostly, when LNUX was $128), including at least $60M in real money.

now slashdot parent LNUX has a market cap of $95M, so you
too, can own a piece of your own blogging for less than 3X sales,
including the other .org/.com businesses ...

It's not always about the money...

[grqb]

Blogs have great potential because the good ones are written by experts in their fields and the really good ones have their own contacts and generate their own stories. The blog that I contribute to (shameless plug for theWatt.com) routinely finds mistakes in news articles that the press writes, and so it's also a way of trying to keep things from going out of hand in mainstream media. A blogger's dream isn't always to get rich though, a lot of the time it's to gain some sway in the field that they blog in. There are so many great contacts that people make in the blogging world.

Re:Are people that dumb?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, but you have to write stupid shit that somebody cares about. Preferably quite a few somebodies.

Re:Summary of most of the links in this article:

[Anonymous Coward]

People get off to weird shit everyday but this... geez, buddy, get a girlfriend.

Riches vs. Reality (Power Law Distirbutions)

[G4from128k]

I'd bet that blogger revenues follow a nasty powerlaw distribution. For every blogger making $400,000 a year, there are 10 making $40,000, for every blogger making $40,000/yr, there are 10 making only $4,000, and so on. Or, for every blogger making $400k, there are 1000 making $400/year. (I don't have hard data on this. It may not be a 10:1 ratio it could be better or it could be worse)

The point: I'd bet that that only a dozen or so bloggers make a decent income, thousands make a little money and millions make nothing from their blogs. As with any fame driven industry, if a person thinks that they can be one of the top 10 blogs in the entire world, then they should go for it. If they can't be top 10, then they should NOT quit their day job.

Re:Riches vs. Reality (Power Law Distirbutions)

[garcia]

The point: I'd bet that that only a dozen or so bloggers make a decent income, thousands make a little money and millions make nothing from their blogs.

Personally, I shy away from any "blogger" that is doing it professionally. The power of "bloggers" stems from their brtual honesty and their lack of pays offs (in my mind at least). The second someone is paid to do their hobby a couple of negative things happen:

1. They feel inclined to report on something to benefit those that are paying them for fear of losing the stream of money.

2. They get bored w/the job because they are now getting paid for what was once their hobby that they loved.

3. They overdo it to make more revenue.

I write about stupid shit and post it to my website for myself and my friends. Other people do happen along and read it from time to time and I hope that they see it's just for my own personal enjoyment. There's nothing behind it except what I felt at the time. I have no financially motivated agendas to rate one opinion over another.

When you start doing that, your reputation suffers.

Re:Riches vs. Reality (Power Law Distirbutions)

[kfg]

As with any fame driven industry, if a person thinks that they can be one of the top 10 blogs in the entire world, then they should go for it.

But then I'd have to actually spellcheck, proof read and fact find, wouldn't I? Seems like a lot of work just for some money. I can see why most bloggers don't bother with these. Besides, fame gives me an allergic reaction. If one is famous as a profession it generally means, in practice, that people start viewing you as a resource to be exploited; and they generally succeed, otherwise you wouldn't be making money for being famous.

In any case, yeah, you're right. This article might just as well have been titled "Some poets actually make money."

Doesn't mean you want to encourage your kid to take up poetry as a full time profession.

KFG

Re:Riches vs. Reality (Power Law Distirbutions)

[slashkitty]

Maybe, the question is how many bloggers are making six figures per year.

My guess is that it's a lot more than you think, it's probably at least 5,000 - 10,000.

It does of course depend on what you consider a blog. Is fark.com a blog? I bet drew makes 7 figures.

The fact is, when small time operators make it big, they start shutting up about how much they make. I know a few website operators that started rolling in it.. You couldn't tell by their site.

Re:Riches vs. Reality (Power Law Distirbutions)

[Gudlyf]

I write for a few blogs and get paid to do so, but I disagree with your assumptions.

While blogging for me was initially a hobby, I found that spending time doing so was taking time away from other "more constructive" things I "should be doing." Previously, I may have sat and spent an hour writing a blog entry, and then I'd feel guilty about it because I didn't spend that time doing something else. Now that I'm getting money for blogging, I don't feel as thought I'm wasting my time anymore.

I don't blog *more* because I'm getting paid to do so, but I don't decrease how often I write now. Before, I felt like I was slacking off by writing crap on my personal blog, I'd just leave it and forget it (and currently, I do forget my own personal blog these days). Now I feel like I'm providing a service by (hopefully) entertaining people while seeing the fruits of my labor in the few bucks I get here and there.

Re:Riches vs. Reality (Power Law Distirbutions)

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, but I cannot believe what you say. Of course you're going to disagree. That, and the fact that you made me a "Foe" because you're such an ignorant fuckwad that you feel what I say has no worth.

Thanks for proving me right.

Re:Riches vs. Reality (Power Law Distirbutions)

[Gudlyf]

And he uses the 'Anonymous Coward' cover to protect his precious karma. I love your intelligent use of profanity to make your point hit home even more. Bravo.

Thanks for proving why I made you a foe... over a year ago.

And now that you're surely reading this, and had to actually check back to see that I did so, you care about what I have to say, don't you now?

Re:Riches vs. Reality (Power Law Distirbutions)

[Anonymous Coward]

Engadget alone probably has more traffic and revenue than the rest of the network combined.

Re:Are people that dumb?

[blancolioni]

I can stay home and write stupid shit that nobody cares about, so where's my six figure salary?

I think the money comes when one writes stupid shit that people do care about.

I am not sure why this is hard to understand. Your comment could also apply to novelists, and in fact the ratio of six figure salary earners to everybody else is probably much the same in that profession.

minor rant

[yEvb0]

Remember when it was cool to have a website? Now it's not. You must have a blog to be cool (or turn what used to be your site into your blog by updating it more often with pointless minutae of your life). Granted, the content of most personal webpages wasn't much more stimulating than all of these blogs, but this blog explosion has just encouraged more people to start them and develop an undeserved sense of importance. Though, I guess I should have learned by now, based on every other media (especially television) that people like crap, therefore crap will be supplied.

Honestly confused:

[grasshoppa]

What is it about blogs? I can see why people write them, it's a form of therapy much in the same vein as giving confession ( for you catholic types out there ). It's a release, a way to understand the things in your life and gain some control over them.

But who reads these things? Why are they so popular? I tried reading a few, including our resident's celebrity's, and I can't see the appeal to them for the reader ( sorry Clever ). I have enough going on in my life that I don't need to read about someone else's problems. And, quite frankly, after reading a few of those blogs, you all lead boring lives ( unless you are the blogging whore, in which case...call me ).

So why do you folks read these things? And how in gods' name are they so profitable?

Re:Honestly confused:

[William_Lee]

The type of blogging you're referring to is just one of many possibilities. Those blogs are often egotistic, tired windows into an uninteresting life. The blogosphere is a big place. There are a ton of high quality blogs written by subject matter experts that are updated on a regular basis for a wide variety of topics. Some of these are both well written and often incredibly informative. I often scan a list of ones related to technology, investing/trading, books/publishing, wine, etc. The signal to noise ratio may tend toward the low side, but there are many interesting areas to explore in blogs. The idea of a blog as a personal diary of life's travails is one tiny piece of what they actually are.

Re:Honestly confused:

[statistically dead]

Why do people read the local newspaper? Unless you're in an inner city area 51 weeks of the year its just about who won the local flower arranging contest or a new shopping centre opening. It's all about community, you may find a blog that seems completely uninteresting to more than five people but for those five people it fleshes out friendships, just like a group of kids talking bullshit in the street. Another reason for blogging is it makes it easier for the government or marketing agencies to keep tabs on you and create demographics on the cheap, which keeps taxes down and your mail full of interesting leaflets.

Re:Honestly confused:

[Pr3d4t0r]

I tried reading a few, including our resident's celebrity's, and I can't see the appeal to them for the reader ( sorry Clever ). I have enough going on in my life that I don't need to read about someone else's problems.

For the most part I'm in the same boat (and ironically I have my own). Those that read like the mundane topics they usually cover are quickly dismissed. But there are some writers that can actually make every day situations interesting and/or funny.

I have 3 blogs that fall into this category in my aggregator, one is a friend's, one is the aforementioned Mr. NickName (whose site is pretty broke this days), but the best one is Dooce. She simply has a knack for making me smile, while describing the the everday happenings in her life (not to mention she's a cutie). And recently she announced that her husband left his job and their income will be generated solely from her site.

There are thousands of other people out there talking about the same exact things on their blogs but it takes a certain amount of talent (and a williness to discuss constipation in great detail I suppose) to turn the mundane into entertainment.

Re:Honestly confused:

[po_boy]

Um, You're reading one now. You also have posted to it, and even written a couple of journal articles on it.

Re:Honestly confused:

[Kelson]

And don't forget the people who are only really blogging for their friends. Someone on LiveJournal, for instance, might have an audience of 10 people -- but that just means they have a very niche audience. Just because something is available to everyone doesn't mean it's aimed at everyone.

Of course, that class of blog isn't making any money, either. It's the equivalent of getting together with your friends and playing basketball, rather than playing for a community league, a school, or a pro team.

Re:Honestly confused:

[Kelson]

Remember, 90% of everything is crap. And 90% of what's left is aimed at a different target audience. Your challenge is to find that 1% that's both good material and on a topic you find interesting.

Blog Bubble Not To Pop

[totallygeek]

Is this just another Internet Bubble?

I don't think so. I talk to many companies and schools and they tell me that blogging traffic and personal blog websites are on the rise. Many get-together groups, a group of poker players or a travelling bunch of retirees, use blogs to share information. Community feedback in the form of a personal blog is on the rise too.

Re:Blog Bubble Not To Pop

[cowscows]

I think blogs are different in that the majority of them are not out to make money. Most of them are started by people as part of a hobby, or as a way of communication, or a journal, or whatever. Now that there's some publicity of people making big bucks off of it, sure there will be some people trying to throw something together to collect some of those dollars, but the growth of blogs has had a whole lot less to do with profit, and more with people wanting to share and express themselves. Since humans are generally social creatures, I don't see that drive going away.

Sure, a handful of people are going to try and get into the game to make money. Some companies are trying to make money providing the infrastructure for others to get in on the blogs. But I don't think that everyone is delusional and thinks that just by publishing something about anything that you'll find a market and be rolling in cash somewhere down the line. That was the false promise of the dotcom bubble, and that's why people were just throwing away money trying to put whatever they could find online. I don't think most investors are too eager to get burned again.

Re:Blog Bubble Not To Pop

[budgenator]

I don't think that everyone is delusional and thinks that just by publishing something about anything that you'll find a market and be rolling in cash somewhere down the line
I do somehow, I got the feeling that this was a MLM scheme, but I was wrong. I've been in Amway, and yes I lost some money, $100.00 to be exact, and that was completely due to my poor judgement, not Amway. So I am a bit sensitive to scheming, so what the scheme;

1. Rowse is a legit blogger who finaly manage to get his blog on /.'s front page and profits,
2. Most likely the Rowse is an astroturfer for chitika and his results are best-of-breed and not typical,
3. Rowse is an amalgam of best-of-breed and represents peak one-time earnings presented as possible from a company worried about AOL and Google aquiring their revenue stream and saw a chance to get /.ed for profit,
4. Rowse is part of a click-ring of blogers who click each other's ads in a variation of a kiting scheme and saw /.ing as a means to camofludge their activites,

Take your pick.
The financial risk of trying this is fairly low, so I guess no harm, no foul. Now there are always people who will think that money will just jump into their pockets; these people are usualy disapointed; you want to make money, you have to work or sell.

So one guy makes money

[smooth wombat]

No, I haven't read the linked article but just by reading the posting I can see/hear it now: "Hey honey, why don't I start a blog so I too can make X thousands of dollars a year. That way I can quit my crappy job and we can live like royalty."

Just because one person claims that they are making X thousands of dollars does not mean you or I will. These claims remind me of those real estate scammercials where they insist that for only $200 (or whatever amount) you too can live the life you've already wanted by buying houses for no money down.

Sure, one or two people live in a market where they could flip a house and make some money but the vast, vast, VAST majority either barely break even or lose money on their deals.

Same with blogs.

Re:So one guy makes money

[SatanicPuppy]

I used to work for this guy, and he was enamored of this software application called "SCObiz" (Yea, that SCO). Had to go to training for it, where it took me about 10 seconds to realize that the point of this software was to make money to fund McBrides legal scam, and deliver an overpriced mediocre product that was guaranteed to alienate customers. The sales end of it was a three tier pyramid scheme. Ugh. It was ugly.

So I ask the guy I was working for, "Why are we doing this?"

He replies, "There's a guy in california who's doing it and making 100,000 a month!"

I just looked at him, and said, "There is always one guy."

I think we ended up making less than 10k total off it, not counting the 6k we had to pay for the privledge of selling it.

Blogging and money?

[Kranfer]

Personally, I keep a blog over at Live Journal (link here) But I will never understand how people make 400k a year off of their blogs. I write about mostly everything on my blog but advertising? Never thought of it. Now that AOHell sees it as a potential way to make money they are buying up all the blog sites! Keep LJ Free! Hehe.

Re:Blogging and money?

[OakDragon]

I remember reading (maybe in Wired) about a fellow who announced that he was creating a blog about pain medications, like Vioxx etc. This was just after the news came out that such drugs had caused serious heart problems. He was hoping to make some good money off the context-sensing ads, since trial lawyers were supposedly paying big bucks for click-thru traffic from people looking to sue. He made it quite plain that it was a most cynical ploy; he cared nothing for the subject, but just wanted the ad dollars. I can't find anything about this kind of thing now. If anyone knows much about the subject, I would be interested.

I am aware that companies but up "blogs" about their products to supposedly generate interest, but this was a case of just one guy out to cynically make some money.

The keys to his success:

[christian.elliott]

1) Make Blog 2) Right article about the amazing profits you make. 3) Get Slashdotted 4) (PROFIT) !!!

Blog cycle

[digitaldc]

1) Read other's blog 2) Get angry/motivated/happy/sad/interested 3) Create own Blog 4) Circulate Blog 5) Repeat

Internet bubble 2.0

[Anonymous Coward]

It's time to pick up some APPL, since in every gold rush, the ones who sell shovels are the ones getting profit.

Posting this...

[neelm]

Just to get users to my blog... oh wait, I don't have any ads... damn phase 2!

Blog blog blog blog.

[Council]

I'm sorry, but I just have to say:

"Blog" is a silly word, and if you repeat "blog" that many times, it starts to sound really funny.

In a few short lines, the word "Blog" is used 8 times.

Blog blog blog blog blog blog blog blog.

Which actually reflects the general media attitude of 2003 or so pretty well.

</ot>

Anyway, I was going to argue that (speaking of a blog article about blogs about blogs), blogs are just descending horribly into sarcastic navel-gazing devoid of substance. Then I thought about traditional media and remembered that I get my news from The Daily Show. Ouch.

Re:Blog blog blog blog.

[Anonymous Coward]

if you repeat "blog" that many times, it starts to sound really funny.

In a few short lines, the word "Blog" is used 8 times.
 
compared to 19 in your similar-size post.

Re:Blog blog blog blog.

[Private Taco]

You think blog sounds funny? Try saying "pickles" eight or ten times, or fish, or spoon for that matter. It doesn't take much to realize that were just a bunch of monkeys making funny sounds at each other.

Slashdot == SuperBlog

[Anonymous Coward]

A blog where other people submit the entries for free and the owners profit!

Genius.

Business Plan

[boatboy]

It looks like it might be time to dust off the old blogspot blog again.

The year 2000 called and they want their business plan back. A handful of people are currently making money at this. There is a market for ad-driven quality content, but if a person doesn't attack it with a solid business plan, they will fail.

Why TF did I go to school?-9/11, outsourcing, etc.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Anybody else depressed that people make a lot of money doing stupid things?"

"Stupid" implies that he knew that burger flipping was his future and went ahead and got the degree. But a lot of people were blindsided by the events between 2000-2004, including random acts of outsourcing. I'm looking myself to starting a home based (really an apartment) business, even though I have degrees because frankly that's the only way to have a reasonably secure future, with better benefits than just free fries.

--
"Outsourcing America: What's behind our national crisis and how can we reclaim american jobs by Ron & Anil Hira"*

*Both are Indian-American authors.

minusonetroll.blogger.com

[djdavetrouble]

just set up a script to copy all of the -1 Troll posts. You'd have the most cynical sarcastic and completely offensive blog ever.

So you could post it to your blog..

[Hyperhaplo]

..like this guy: http://ahyesmedschool.blogspot.com/

Well worth the read.

Re:Are people that dumb?

[PhantomRogue]

No, Novelists write stories. Bloggers, most of the time, just ramble on about nothing. Novelists go through drafts and TRY to write something good. Bloggers find the hot topic of the day andor week, and post a rant or opinion on it. Not much involved. Making money off that is like people paying to read Editorials. When they make money off of stuff like that, it just kind of irks the guy who actually goes to work and *earns* the living, rather than just spam out pretty much useless drivel, post on 50,000 other blogs, hoping that for the off chance someone will click onto theirs and maybe the google ad on their page.

Blogs Have Ads?

[pete-classic]

I didn't even realize that blogs have ads. Thanks Adblock!

-Peter

why so much anti-blog sentiment around here?

[Evil Grinn]

Why do so many around here act like "blogs" are some despised world totally different from the rarified circles that Slashdot users travel in? What the hell is Slashdot if not a blog shared by Taco and the other editors, that (like most blogs!) allows the general public to post comments?

The articles are dated, the newest ones appear at the top, they have permalinks, you can subscribe to it via RSS. It's a f**king blog!

If you hate Blogs the way some people seem to hate Emo*, then why are you using Slashdot?

* I don't really know what Emo is, so I neither love nor hate it.

Re:why so much anti-blog sentiment around here?

[Kelson]

As a subset of hacker culture, Slashdot has a large population of people who subscribe to the "popular=banal" meme. While there is quite a bit of stuff that is both popular and banal, it does not logically follow that either (a) all that is banal will be popular or that (b) all that is popular must be banal. But (b) is good material for elitism, so it's a (pun not intended) popular interpretation. Blogs are clearly popular, therefore by this reasoning they must be crap.

There's also the fact that, with blogging software, people who don't have coding skills have further flooded the internet. The net has long since ceased to be a nerds-only club, but those of us who remember being outcasts in high school, or are now, still like the idea of having our own place. Blogging is the latest incursion into the net by the popular crowd that has been text messaging, IMing, etc. for the last few years.

Really, though, I think it's mainly elitism.

Re:why so much anti-blog sentiment around here?

[Anonymous Coward]

Shut up n00b!!

Re:why so much anti-blog sentiment around here?

[Anonymous Coward]

Blogging is the latest incursion into the net by the popular crowd that has been text messaging, IMing, etc. for the last few years. Er, no. You're being very patronizing, and are completely ignorant of how people use the internet.

The "popular crowd" has been going to web boards like PopBitch, Fark, Slashdot and millions of special interest groups on Yahoo! Groups for years.

Re:why so much anti-blog sentiment around here?

[Kelson]

No, you're misreading. I said the popular crowd had been moving into the net for years, and blogging was just the latest demonstration that the net isn't "ours" anymore.

People who post on Slashdot generally aren't the popular crowd.

Personal experience with AdSense revenue

[RebrandSoftware]

I run a small software company, and our main customers are webmasters who want to sell their own software. A very niche market (but a lot of fun!).

About a year ago I signed up with Google AdSense to offset advertising costs from Google AdWords and to give some value to traffic that would otherwise visit the site without purchasing anything.

The traffic isn't particularly heavy since it's such a niche market. However, I still manage to make about $60-$100 per month with Adsense.

Obviously, that's not nearly enough to live on. However, I can see how a blog has qualities that would make it very profitable.

For example, a blog has constantly changing content that grows every day. Each time there is a new entry it creates an opportunity for more links in from search engines. Those entries continue to be indexed by search engines long after they're written, so each day the blog has more and more potential.

Because blogs are always changing they have the potential for daily visits from dedicated readers, and those readers have an incentive to support the blog by visiting it's advertisers.

If a blogger were to choose subjects based on high-value keywords (which they could research by signing up for Google AdWords but not actually purchasing advertising) they could expect at least a few dollars per click.

I can definitely see the potential in blogs.

Now, please excuse me, I'm off to start my blog about high quality diamonds.

6 Figure Salaries?

[Chunni Babu]

Nobody earns 6 fig salary writing blogs dude. What do you think adsense ads are enough to pull this kind of salary? I think this is a misinformation someone has spread to create a hype around blogs. BTW this is what blogsinc, the company that is being sold, paid some of the writers - http://www.blogherald.com/2005/08/26/weblogs-inc-p ay-rates-revealed-by-disgruntled-potential-recruit

Re:6 Figure Salaries?

[Anonymous Coward]

You may have noticed that he said his primary source of income was from referrals for shoes. I don't know how much versacci and prada shoes run for, but I'm guessing it's a couple hundred at least. It's a commission, just like when people have partner links to books through amazon.

Re:6 Figure Salaries?

[Anonymous Coward]

Chunni, your arrogance and unintelligence blew me right off the chair.

People can earn six figures doing absolutely anything in the entire world if they're good enough at it. I could go door-to-door and sell uber-padded toilet paper for $10/roll if I was an amazing salesmen. Why do you think that writing on a website and then selling advertising on the tens of thousands of people who read what you have to say won't make six figures? The guy mentioned in the article, Darren Rowse, is a friend of mine and I can absolutely vouch for him making crazy bank from his weblog. Hell, my business partner Paul has sold off a few of his weblogs for enough dough each time to buy a BMW coupe.

If anyone is good at what they do, it's easy for them to make six figures a year. I mean damn, George Bush is awful at what he does and he still makes over $200k, so if he can do it, why can't brilliant bloggers?

Re:6 Figure Salaries?

[Chunni Babu]

I agree. The point I was trying to make is that earning 6 fig salary through a blog is not a norm as it is made out to be.

here is the link

[Chunni Babu]

I should have known that blogsinc should have removed the link before selling - here is the google cache: http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:joSMWuOral0J:w ww.blogherald.com/2005/08/26/weblogs-inc-pay-rates -revealed-by-disgruntled-potential-recruit+weblogs -inc-pay-rates-revealed-by-disgruntled-potential-r ecruit&hl=en

Re:here is the link

[falconwolf]

I should have known that blogsinc should have removed the link before selling - here is the google cache

The original link works for me fine. I like google's cache version though because of the highlights. Occasionally I'll be looking for something but can't find it on a page, there are some long pages and reading too much online gives me eye and headaches, so I'll use Google's cache to find it.

Falcon

There's one good function of a blog

[Rodong]

I'm a hobby politician, i use it to keep in touch with people on a everyday basis. It's sorta "i throw an idea out on the blog, get feedback, adjust idea to be more in line with what people wants (within ideological constraints). Not that i dont meet people everyday, i do, but it's an great way to round off a hard day of whatever with some reflections, to get some suggestions. If it wasn't called blog, i'd prolly just call it a homepage and thats that.

I'll cash in my chinchilla ranch and buy a blog

[museumpeace]

Blogs are for otherwise unemployed people...it takes a LOT of reading and digging to [a] have something worth posting every day and [b] having something noone else has or can copy easily so that YOU get and keep the traffic and eventually the ad revenue....this land rush attitude in TFA just does not square with the realities. If it did, My 6 blogs would have made me a millionaire by now.

Why TF did I go to school?-The Union Label.

[Anonymous Coward]

Think of what happens to that union carpenter, or plumber in the face of these three forces. Decreased demand for their services resulting from less Americans who can afford them because they themselves are unemployed, and immigrant labour that's non-union and willing to work cheaper than the union guy. Let alone the Do-It-Yourself trend.*

*Note as well that I haven't even begun to list all the rising costs that beset both consumers, and businesses. e.g. rising fuel costs. Plus the "Plumbing for dummies" effect were the market gets saturated with plumbers and carpenters reading your post, and thinking it's the easy way out. Kind of like the present IT market. Then we all get to listen to plumbers and carpenters complain about all the new guys and how they're not as qualified, and they should "go into some other profession" (just like the IT industry). Or listen to trite phrases like "do it for the love of plumbing and carpentry, not the money" (exactly like the IT industry). Hey! Here's one for the memory books when the carpentry and plumbing business go downhill from all the aformentioned stuff. "They deserved to lose their jobs, because, Ba-ching!, they're modern day buggy-whip makers", "Evolve or Die, I say!"

Congrats to Jason Calacanis

[Sundroid]

Jason Calacanis is the owner of Weblog Inc. The man is $25 million richer today than yesterday, so give him some credit. Weblog Inc. network has 80 blogs, and it is sold for $25 million, so one blog is worth, roughly, $300,000. I'm happy to sell my blog (http://sunandfun.blogspot.com/) for a lot less. Nevertheless, congrats to Jason, because he got into the game earlier and smarter than everybody else.

Relative incomes

[SeanDuggan]

Similarly, very few actors make enough money to live off. Very few professional athletes make enough money to live off. *shrug* It's the exceptions that people remember. Heck, in his book, If Chins Could Kill, Bruce Campbell admits that his average annual income from acting is less than $40,000, which many people consider to be standard wage slave income. And he's a fairly well known actor, too...

Och, and don't even get me on the subject of people who think primary school teachers are overpaid...

Re:Relative incomes

[budgenator]

Wow an actor getting paid what he's worth, seriously Cambell is a fair actor, but he gets stuck with the lamest scripts on low budget movies; I guess he most really love acting else he'd be off selling tractors or used cars or something for more money.

Re:Relative incomes

[StikyPad]

Very few professional athletes make enough money to live off.

No kidding...

Years in NBA - 0
Minimum salary - $349,458
Maximum salary - $10,067,750
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/nba/2002 -2003-nba-salaries-numbers.htm

It's amazing they can even afford Cristal on that sort of pittance.

Re:Relative incomes

[logicpaw]

> Very few professional athletes make enough money to live off.

No kidding...
Years in NBA - 0
Minimum salary - $349,458

And home many players does AA baseball employ? Average those salaries in please.

Re:Relative incomes

[Anonymous Coward]

Even the worst professional athletes make a fair amount of money. I think you mean that very few people ever make it to the professional level.

Re:Relative incomes

[StikyPad]

You tell me, it's your absurd claim.

$400,000

[br00tus]

Accepting that he does make $400,000, what does that dollar sign in front of the number 400,000 mean? The fellow is in Australia and not the US, so he probably means Australian dollars, not American dollars. Thus, he is making less money than most people reading the initial blurb would assume. Of course, Slashdot stories so many times assume that everyone reading them lives in the States, so it's only fair that this is reversed now and then.

Re:$400,000

[Randski]

I asked him. It's in USD

I never thought I'd see the day...

[KillerDeathRobot]

...when someone would steal Slashdot's ugly design.

Another Shadow Bubble

[Anonymous Coward]

"Is this just another Internet Bubble?"

Is your post an example of the "post-war Vietnam effect"? What's that you ask? The one after Vietnam were every skirmish was compared to Vietnam. Grenada, Mogadishu, Panama. "Is this another Vietnam?", was often heard. Apparently the bubble scared so many people. They're seeing them even were they're not.*

*Note well it's sister, 1984. "Can you all help me find 1984? I lost it around here somewere." Much like Elvis, 1984 has been spotted in the darndest of places.

In other words...

[Anonymous Coward]

Blogging for money...is it good, or is it whack?

(BTW, nice karma whoring.)

If traffic pays...

[Anonymous Coward]

Then here is a good way to get traffic to your websit and hence more revenues (fingers crossed, that's what I'm trying !!!)
http://www.bloglinker.com/
I signed up a while ago andit seems to be ok and I have heard from good sources that they will be relaunching the site very soon...
Bring on the $$$ !!

wow....

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm on the fence whether or not I believe that bogger made $15,000 from AdSense last month on a blog. That's insane. If true, then I guess I need to spend a lot more time on my blog http://devrock.blogspot.com/ and start promoting the hell out of it. I make good cash on the pr0n links, but less than $100/mo.

go cut your wrists dumbass

[Anonymous Coward]

kill myself kill myself only way to live LOL LIVEJOURNAL

Zonk and blogging stories

[The Hobo]

YAZBS (Yet Another Zonk Blogging Story)

Look for the magic word in the title/summary/links:
One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Eleven Twelve Thirteen Fourteen Fifteen

There's probably more, but there's definitely a trend: If you want a story posted on Slashdot, find (or in some cases, make up) blog-related "news" while Zonk is on duty

Re:Zonk and blogging stories

[Anonymous Coward]

Slashdot: where even the comments are dupes.

Re:Zonk and blogging stories

[The Hobo]

That's the idea
Every new Zonk blogging story gets the same comment, only updated to reflect the growing list of 'stories'

Re: I'll cash in my chinchilla ranch and buy a blo

[Anonymous Coward]

So, I guess you are unemployed!

You are posting a reply to an article in a blog (slashdot).

Some people just don't get it. "Blogs" arn't just whiny teenage girls talking about their last boyfriend. Some are very creative and informative, and some (slashdot) have large audiences [sometimes not even at the same time :]

Re:Are people that dumb?

[blancolioni]

Bloggers, most of the time, just ramble on about nothing.

Most novels are crap as well. The good ones are worth reading, just as the good blogs are worth reading.

Bloggers find the hot topic of the day andor week, and post a rant or opinion on it.

Many blogs are like that. Some aren't. Some blogs which are high-quality (and which have a lot of work put into them) make money. Again, why is this hard to understand?

In particular, why do blogs offend you so much? Do you believe that there are no blogs anywhere ever which are the product of hard work?

bullshit

[ruiner5000]

Blogs are the same as all the other sites started years before them. The difference? Bloggers don't have the skills to set up a website themselves. They have to rely on a blog service. I consider the term blog to be a deragatory one. Also the idiot claiming 400,000 a year. That is from several sites. They guy also seems unable to realize this great chitika service is actually just shopping.com with xml showing data on products. We have been using click on product as revenue for over 5 years. Hardly anything new, and before Adsense was around. I'm glad this crap gets posted, but things like our 64 bit Unreal Tournament benchmarks don't. It really makes for misleading and uninteresting content.

Re:bullshit

[Kelson]

Some bloggers have the skills to put up a website, but it's just more convenient to use a CMS. If you build your site by hand, you have to not only copy your page template over each time you create a new page, you have to update any navigation links you have, add the page to your "What's new" blurb, update your search index (you do have a search index, don't you?), etc.

Or you can let your content management system -- or blogging tool if you prefer -- take care of that for you, and just focus on the writing.

(While we're at it, writing skills and coding skills don't necessarily go together. Some people have both, and some people have only one. And some people have neither. There are blogs by all three classes of people.)

Re:bullshit

[elemental23]

Blogs are the same as all the other sites started years before them. The difference? Bloggers don't have the skills to set up a website themselves. They have to rely on a blog service.

On the other hand, why reinvent the wheel? Sure, I could write my own CMS, photo gallery, wiki, etc, but unless I need features that aren't commonly available, why not use one that's already written and polished with an active developer community around it (eg, Wordpress, Gallery, MediaWiki, and so on). By using an existing application I can get my site up now instead of spending my time coding a new application from the ground up when I have my life to live.

You're right that most bloggers don't have the skills necessary to code their own web applications. Most people don't and why should they? I don't work on my own car, make my own clothing, or give medical care to my cats. I let the professionals take care of it.

Am I the last?

[jswalter9]

Am I the one remaining person who has yet to even read a blog?

Re:Am I the last?

[Anonymous Coward]

You read Slashdot, don't you?

Topic makes big difference on Revenue

[samnash]

The topic of the website makes an enormous difference on Ad Revenue. One of our websites http://www.builtonline.com/ makes $20-$30/day in revenue--it's a site about building a house. Another website, http://www.gadgetguys.com/ makes $1/day if we're lucky. Yeah I know GadgetGuys hasn't been updated in a while...just ran out of gadgets that I wanted to write about. The difference isn't the number of clicks on the ads-that's about the same. The difference is BuiltOnline ads pay 10 times as much for a click.

I hate these damn stories!

[SnappingTurtle]

I hate gold rush stories! They make me feel like I'm a total screw up because I haven't found some way to turn my love for computers and the net into gobs of money.

Y'know, I just got a new job, and it's pretty good. Good money (for me anyway), good benefits, the work's not too hard, and the boss is nice. It's a great opportunity for my wife and me to finally have the life we've wanted for so long.

Then I read about some joker making a fortune in his living room and I feel like I'm a failure. I can just see what I'd do with $400,000. I feel like I oughta rush out and start blogging something...

... hey, there ya go! I could do a blog about how gold rush blogger stories drive me crazy. I'll be rich!

Re:I hate these damn stories!

[blogeasy]

I feel like I oughta rush out and start blogging something...

Perhaps this is the real intent of the story.

blogs

[ra3or]

can someone give me 1 million dollars so i don't have to participate in this conversation

Shoulda learned to play the guitar

[Kelson]

I shoulda learned to play them drums...

These are news sites, not blogs.

[Dzimas]

There's nothing really new here. Weblogs Inc. properties such as Engadget are modelled after WIRED magazine's Fetish page, which presents nifty gadgets every month. The key difference is that Engadget provides a steady stream of content throughout the day. The topics tend to be slightly random, so you never know quite what you're going to see next. In psychological terms, it's variable reinforcement applied to web content (with the chance to add your own comments to the hot stories) -- quite addictive stuff. It's also a lucrative market. These sites may run on blog software, but they're a world away from the "my boyfriend cheated with Kimberlee" sites that Blogger and Livejournal are famous for -- They're becoming mainstream electronic media properties, with significant daily reach. In some cases, they're more influential than traditional newsmedia sites.

HA HA!!

[absolute_borg]

HA!! I love the term 'mastrubate your own ego' . Bravo.

Problogger

[Namronorman]

Is anyone else having trouble going to problogger? Ever since that whole Cogent/Level 3 article, I've noticed quite a lot of sites I visit haven't been working. Doing a third party trace route on them shows that a lot of them are on cogent... This sucks ]:

OSDir started a blog network for Tech.

[comforteagle]

OSDir started a blog network like this today, but for tech.

Sigged!

[Kurisuteru]

blogs are mainly just the Geocities homepage of the 2000s.

Ha! Instant sig.

$400,000(this year)

[falconwolf]

$400,000(this year)/40(working years) = $10000/yr, which is probably less than you make as an engineer.

Ah but you can take that $400K, invest it and still keep working.

Falcon

investing

[falconwolf]

Hint #4: Your house should be your only debt -- ever -- and only for as short a time as possible.

If you can make more off of investments than you pay in interest then making the investment is the wise choice. And with interest on mortgages for your primary residence being tax deductable there's not much of an advantage in short term mortgages, say 15 years versus 25 or 30 years. Instead of paying more to pay off the loan sooner you can take the "extra" you would be paid monthly and invest it. Basically the rule is if the interest you'd pay for a loan is lower than the interest you'd make by investing the money you're better off getting the loan.

Falcon

I make good money off my blog ;)

[Refrozen]

I run a technology news blog, which makes a lot of money for very little work... I can't tell you exactly how much however it is in the range of $100 / day..

The only thing I can suggest, is get indexed by as many sites as you can (Google News is a good one) and keep the ads as targetted as you can. I run some ads through AdSense and some through Azoogleads, and have worked directly with many contributors as they come up.

It's a fun ride, good luck.

I think maddox said it best

[den1188]

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=ba nish And no... I have never read a blog before, and don't intend to either.

Re:I think maddox said it best

[cybertears]

what exactly do you think slashdot is?

Re:I think maddox said it best

[den1188]

The Blogging community is an unmonitored, uncensored set of mostly inexperienced inernet users, who utilize the board for a poor excuse of making themselves come off as internet literate and important, while in reality posting exxagurations of edgy an mostly unbased opinion in a quest for cheap attention. Slashdot, or as far as I use it (I just have this on my bookmarks to check on the headlines) is a closely monitored, censored network of experienced internet users, meant to pool together a large information base. The people who post here, while possibly looking for attention, still do so objectively with offering factual information, and providing links to stories in the advancements of the technological world, and have *for the most part* intelligent discussions on the topics... so they are substantially different... now for all I know the forums could fe full of "OMG lookok it like... I fond dis and I think is it teh suck!" threads, but at leas the part that I look at seems to lack the adherent sense of ignorance.

quitting work?

[falconwolf]

Personally, I wouldn't quit working if I had that money. I'm not that kind of person. I'd go nuts.

Know what you mean, I'm on disability and haven't worked for some years. The only reason I haven't gone nuts since I last worked is because at first I was in therapy and then I was taking classes working on a degree. If I can't at least starting working parttime soon I don't know what will keep me going but I'm hoping to get a coop or an internship early next year.

Falcon

construction work

[falconwolf]

the "Plumbing for dummies" effect were the market gets saturated with plumbers and carpenters reading your post, and thinking it's the easy way out.

Then one day they just lay one day when the alarm goes off and decide the work they thought was so easy isn't.

Falcon

Because you're stupid...that's why....

[Anonymous Coward]

Like most geeks, you think because you like programming and computers that you are somehow smarter than other people. The reality is that you are probably just a geek. The vast majority of geeks end up working for C average business students. Any business person knows this. There are geeks developing technology and companies making millions off of it. The geek is too stupid to get a share, bitches about the management types and tries to consult on his own and fails. I see you all the time. Jessica Simpson, Snoop Dogg, Marky Mark, Chris Rock, Diddy....do you consider yourself smarter than them? I'm sure they are richer than you. Broke != smart

Professional has levels

[SeanDuggan]

I think where you're getting confused is that when you think "professional," you think "major league." The minor leagues employ a very sizeable amount of people too. *shrug* And similarly, you talk about actors and people think about the headliners. You talk about politicians and they think Senators. Talk about bloggers and people think about these people who're pulling down 6 digits in advertising. It's a common mistake in people, seeing the most prominent.

"God must have loved the common people, for He made so many of them." -Abraham Lincoln

Oh Baby...

[xactuary]

This could be bigger than CB Radios!

cost of bandwidth

[falconwolf]

Sadly, most of that will now go towards his bandwidth costs.

Yea, I read a few months back about how this lady who's an amateur photographer had uploaded some photos onto her personal website her isp, Earthlink, provides and some porn site linked to some of the photos. The next month when she got her bill there was a charge of several thousand dollars on it for the bandwidth used. As an amateur photographer I was thinking of up loading some photos myself and posting a link to them on Photonet myself, but as I'm an Earthlink subscriber myself I've had to reevaluate that idea.

Falcon

comparing an Estes rocket with the Saturn V.

[falconwolf]

Hey, Estes does make Saturn V model rockets. It was the second or third rocket I built when I was in the model rocketry club in high school.

Falcon

Tips for creating a succesful blog

[ravee]

I have been an avid blogger for the past one year. And I started it as a hobby, something I enjoy doing as well as some place to keep track of my notes and the likes. And the biggest satisfaction that a blogger can get is for others who visit his blog to leave honest and useful comments related to what he has written.

Ofcourse, generating some income from the blogs also helps - atleast to pay the internet bills. But for a blog to succeed, three things have to be there -

1) Genuine interest in what you are writing about.
2) A desire to share your thoughts and honest opinion about the topic you write.
3) Knowledge about your subject.

If these three qualities gel, then you have a popular blog repeatedly visited by users because they like what they read.

Minor league salaries

[SeanDuggan]

This is the closest I can find on short notice:
From the Minor League site FAQ
4) What do Minor League players earn?

Minor League Baseball player contracts are handled by the Major League Baseball office. Here are the salary ranges:
First contract season: $850/month maximum. After that, open to negotiation
Alien Salary Rates: Different for aliens on visas--mandated by INS (Immigration).
Triple-A--First year: $2,150/month, after first year no less than $2,150/month
Class AA-First year: $1,500/month, after first year no less than $1,500/month
Class A (full season)--First year: $1,050/month, after first year no less than $1,050/month
Class A (short-season)--First year: $850/month, after first year no less than $850/month
Dominican & Venezuelan Summer Leagues--no lower than $300/month
Meal Money: $20 per day at all levels, while on the road

*wry grin* I don't really see many million-dollar players here. As for the number of players involved, well, you can see a list of teams here, more than a hundred by me eyeballing it.

exactly WHAT assets is AOL getting?

[museumpeace]

This selling of blogs...I'd like to know what exactly is being sold: 1 the name and rights to exclusive use of the URL 2. current and archived content 3. a promise of some durability and enforcement that the blogger will continue to generate near daily postings of a sustained quality and on the topics that have gained the blog its traffic. this seems like a contract to work, a lot to ask of a whole crowd of random writers and yet, without promise of continuing content, 80 or 800 blogs are worthless as a bag of poop. [or maybe not even that: I pay for fertilizer.] 4. for what period of time does the purchaser aquire any of these things? #3 amounts to putting a fixed price on an unknown amount of my labor, an idiots career move if I ever saw one.

Blog Creation

[Anonymous Coward]

Everyone is creating a blog. 1M new blogs are created per day. Blah blah blah....Where's the rub here....all these new blogs are being created, yet the top network of blogs sells for pennies (do you really think 15-25M is a big price for all the highest read blogs? The fact is, and I urge anyone to comment, blog creation is being done mostly by computers who are grabbing content that reflects high value keywords and slapping up Ad Sense. Can anyone estimate what fraction of the blog creation is actually done by people? Is there a way to measure unique people creating blogs?