Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Blogging: The next pipe dream or entrepreneurial genius?

I have always wondered just how bloggers make their money and how much of it they actually make. The State of the Blogosphere 2009 published by Technorati reported that 28% of folks are making money by blogging, either through ad revenues or traditional media assignments. According to blogpulse.com, there are currently ~143,100,221 individual blogs out there and according to Technorati, the average person has 3-4 blogs. Therefore, we can do the math to conservatively estimate that approximately over 10 million people are earning some type of money just by posting “musings” for all to see. The numbers go on to astound. A little more than half are actually earning a salary and those who do it part time are making a mean income of just over $14,000 on ad revenues alone.


By now, I’m sure you are asking yourself; where do I sign up? How can I make this profitable for me? Why doesn’t everyone do it? No doubt there is a blog out there to describe the entrepreneurial feats involved. After searching “How to profit from blogging” on Google, I was brought to one such site (fittingly enough, a blog), Blogging for Profit, A Beginner's Guide.

Now, I’m not actually interested in blogging for profit-I don’t have nearly enough of the self-discipline it would take and frankly, I don’t think my life is nearly interesting enough but realizing that people do it and make part of their livelihood from it, or for some, even all, makes me wonder if blogging is the next pipe-dream career. You know the type, career titles like “actor” and “musician” that make your parents shake their heads and wish they hadn’t sent you to that expensive private school. Is blogging the next form of expression where those who venture into it are either successful or becomes the “starving blogger”?

Herein lies the beauty of the blog. A person can start a blog any time of day, update it anytime of day, and reach an audience any time of day, so potentially, they can be making money any time of day. Even more wonderful is that if they decide it’s just not for them, they can stop, and usually there is no harm done. Of course there are dangers to blogging, a discussion of which could be another entry all by itself, but in reality the average blogger could be the entrepreneur they always wanted to be, take the risk, without actually risking anything. Of course, opening your thoughts and opinions up to the masses can be a huge risk in itself, but that is also another discussion.

4 comments:

  1. Alex,
    Your post was really interesting. I've also often wondered how so many people are able to make a living off blogging. The great thing about it though, as you point out, is that unlike other jobs in the arts, a blog consumes very little of your time so having one for a while doesn't require you to take a huge leap of faith.

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  2. Alex,

    Your comparison about a title of "blogger" being like actor or musician make me think of the many direct marketing "consultants" I have known, many of whom became consultants after losing a job (myself included). Several people have suggested that I start a blog as a way to build business. Maybe by the end of this class I will be able to do that.

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  3. Alex,

    Interesting post, I like the fact there is an entrepreneurial spirit to blogging. Blogging gives people the freedom to work on their own and the wit to come up with their own ideas and wisdom to share with others. I had a blog from my last class and someone found my blog and left me a comment and I didn't know them at all they found my blog and told me I should do this as a job. It made me feel great and gave me the spirit to continue blogging for that class.
    Thanks!

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  4. I worry about this with products sometimes. I got a cologne over the internet that I found through a blog. All the posts werre very positive but it was suspicious because it was one blog line dedicated to just this cologne and there was only one dissenting opinion. Though I am happy with the cologne, I wonder if the company was paying these bloggers to put out positive information. I do bot like the idea of companies paying bloggers to put out biased, if not false, information, but I guess it is no different than paying an actor. It should be interesting to see how these ads are going to be regulated by the government in the future.

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