At the beginning of the month, Michael Aggers, the writer behind Slate tech column The Browser, asked, “How do bloggers make money?”
While this question might not pertain to the Sadie Lou Blog itself, it certainly is fascinating for anyone who reads blogs and has thought to him or herself, “Wow, I wish that could be my full-time job!” From the aptly-titled Blogging For Dollars:
Once a blog hobbyist goes pro, he or she faces a daily pressure to churn out new material. In the wrong mind, that can lead to top-10 lists, recycled ideas, half-baked notions, lots of viral videos, and a general increase in information pollution. Is there any way out of this scenario? In 2005, Jason Kottke announced that he had quit his job to blog full-time and asked his readers to become “micropatrons” at a suggested rate of $30. He received $39,900 from 1,450 people but abandoned the experiment after a year. Kottke is vague about the reasons why he swore off micropatronage, but he suggests that he was worried that people wouldn’t donate year after year. In order to build a bigger audience and potential new donors, he would have had to do some of the cheesy things to drive traffic (i.e., “Top Five Best” posts) and/or become a cult of personality (overshare, start flame wars, social network relentlessly). These days, he accepts ads as part of the Deck network.