April 19, 2006
abusive editors and meagre paychecks
Oh Jeez, here we go.
“Can Blogs Make Money?” in The Wall Street Journal.
Blogs have a lot of buzz, but there’s still considerable debate about whether that can translate into profits.
While many blogs remain little more than amateur diaries, several bloggers have tried to parlay their online ramblings into branded businesses. One, Jason Calacanis, co-founded Weblogs Inc., a network of blogging sites that was acquired last year by AOL. Mr. Calacanis has been an outspoken proponent of blogs as business vehicles, arguing that quality content can drive enough traffic to attract advertisers.
But longtime Internet entrepreneur Alan Meckler is skeptical. Mr. Meckler, who is chief executive of Jupitermedia Inc., believes that some blogs may achieve a measure of success, but doubts most blogs will be able to generate meaningful profits.
Sure, it’s lovely to see Jason making all that money from Weblogs Inc [Full disclosure: I’m a big Jason Calacanis fanboy], but Mssrs. Calacanis and Meckler’s debate just revolves around the argument that the only way to make money via blogs is through advertising, and only for a lucky few.
The other major way to make money with the blogging platform is to use it to market your Global Microbrand, like Thomas did with English Cut. That to me is far more useful to far more people, yet it gets no mention in the Journal article.
As I’m fond of saying, blogs are good for making things happen indirectly etc.
But journalists seem to have a problem getting their head around it. “Indirectly” is too foreign to them. They’re too used to living in the “directly” universe:
Wake up. Commute to office. Write stuff. Take abuse from Editor. Collect meagre paycheck. Go home. Complain to long-suffering spouse about abusive Editor and meagre paycheck. Go to bed, sleep, wake up and repeat etc.
That’s not what blogging is about, Guys. Blogging, at its best, is about freeing yourself from that crap.
[Bonus link:] The neuroscience behind Robert Scoble’s new blogging policy.
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Whilst people measure success by the amount of money in their bank account, I think you will be spending a lot of time explaining how using a blog can create much more ‘value’ for an individual.
I think the bloggers at Weblogs Inc. probably see the value of their work both in the money they earn, but more importantly in the freedom they enjoy.
Who wants to be stuck in traffic for three hours a day, to sit in an office you can’t wait to get out of?
Yes Craig, words like “freedom” and “personal sovereignty” come into it.
Maybe the confusion really stems from the desire to get something for nothing
After passing the last 7 months hoping to make my first million off Adsense, I’ve realised you’re right. The way to go isn’t to suck up through advertising, the way to go is to build my own global microbrand.
Thanks for the inspiration and insights! I’ll keep working on the Alvin Soon Global Microbrand
Wait, it’s not abusive editors and meager paychecks? Denton, can we have a word?
The people most poised to take advantage of advertising money have already been blogging for a while now. I say this not to discourage anybody, but if you do a job primarialy for the money, it’s not likely to satisfy. I hope most bloggers continue to blog because they love writing and have something to say. When the blogspace fills with folks hoping to make money, we’ll have a lot of crappy blogs filled with ads talking about things to buy. At that will be bad for blogs in general. I read blogs because I want to read the average joe’s thoughts, not shill for a corporation.
very good point that blogs can be an amazing marketing/selling tool for an offline revenue stream.… we should have included that in the debate!
Hugh, I think you hit this real well in your Gillmore Gang conversation.
I blog for Winc. not for the money but the exposure is awesome. (http://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com is my gig with them)
Hi Hugh…was poking around the blogosphere and came across this entry. Was going to write on it myself this afternoon, but you pretty much summed up everything I was going to say.
I really can’t complain – blogging’s been pretty good to me (I got to be on a panel at SXSW this year, editor of the Media Hub for Corante, made it to a bunch of conferences, met a lot of great people, chairing at another upcoming conference.) The money I make blogging, along with other freelance writing gigs, is enough for me to qualify for foodstamps and state-sponsored health care. How glamourous and exciting!
So you’re right – blogging’s an interesting way to get *somewhere*. For most of us, at this point, it’s a vehicle, not an end destination.
I listened to the Gillmore Gang thing as well. In the US, they are still very much rooted in the volume of eyeballs= value of ads on your site thing. But the indirect model does work — often for others as well — including the little guys who are trying to do new things: see: http://www.accmanpro.com/?p=713
If Dennis hadn’t shown up here, I would have pointed to him — check out his link if you haven’t already — Dennis’ blog is a commercial endeavour, but only because he is a thoughtful commentator on things that are important to him professionally, and the revenue-enhancing is mostly indirect.
It amazes me how slowly the paradigm is shifting. The Internet has given us a forum like none other in history. And here’s how most people interpret it:
“Blogs? That’s like magazines that you read on a computer screen? Do they charge for subscribers? No???? Well I don’t know if they’ll survive on advertising alone!“
Nobody realises that people are just contributing to the commons for the sake of getting information out there, improving the world, etc. People who do this will be recognized for their expertise and be rewarded appropriately. Those who are just in it for the money are doomed in the first place.
Slow is good — gives everyone time to figure out this stuff — anyone who says they’ve got it bottomed is telling porkie pies. I don’t think we’ve even begun to figure out the business models. Not by a country mile. Bonus: Go see Winer’s interview with amanda Congdon at Rocketboom — I don’t usually have time for him but on this occasion, he’s bang on the money. IM (not very)HO