Wednesday 9 April 2008

Blogging Big Business, but at what price?


Lucrative blogging
As I previously have written on this blog it becomes obvious when reading PR-blogs that many of the posts aim to push for clients or business that they, the bloggers, themselves are a part of. But just blogging in itself can be good business, having many readers and becoming an e-fluential can be lucrative. Some bloggers make money through advertisement, some are paid per post, while others cash-in based on how many readers they attract.

According to a recent article in the New York Times some bloggers trying to make a career out of blogging may just end up with $1000 a month, while others who blog on bigger sites can earn between $30,000 to $70,000 a year. However, there are a few who end up with six figure earnings, and some who even manage to build ‘mini-empires’ which generate several hundred thousand dollars a month.

Health risks
For those few there seem to be a heavy prize to pay though: “Two weeks ago in North Lauderdale, Fla., funeral services were held for Russell Shaw, a prolific blogger on technology subjects who died at 60 of a heart attack. In December, another tech blogger, Marc Orchant, died at 50 of a massive coronary. A third, Om Malik, 41, survived a heart attack in December.”

That people with highly stressful jobs may succumb due to heart problems caused by their lifestyle is not something new, but I haven’t seen it being mentioned in connection with bloggers and the new internet-era information cycle before. The article goes on to say that “Other bloggers complain of weight loss or gain, sleep disorders, exhaustion and other maladies born of the nonstop strain of producing for a news and information cycle that is as always-on as the Internet.”

At the current moment I’m producing about one post a week on this blog, maybe that’s a good plan…

2 comments:

IRENE said...

HOW BLOGGERS MAKE MONEY

Well… Mattias there is a real dilemma here of whether or not we should take the health risks and become millionaires!!! Just in case you or your readers decide to take the risk, here are some of the methods bloggers are currently using to make money:
1.Advertising Programs
2.RSS Advertising
3.Affiliate Programs
4.Digital Assets
5.Blog Network Opportunities
6.Business Blog Writing Opportunities
7.Non Blogging Writing Opportunities
8.Donations
9.Flipping Blogs
10.Merchandising
11.Consulting and Speaking
For more details about the above methods, you can visit http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/12/06/how-bloggers-make-money-from-blogs/.

Good Luck!

Mattias said...

Thanks for the comment Irene, good list!
Nr 11, consulting and speaking, I think many of the top PR-tech-bloggers earn quite a bit from. Creating a good reputation and gaining ‘status’ online, can most likely open up many doors off-line to people who want to know what the social media it is all about, and if they are missing out.