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Rise of the Professional Blogger
Posted by
Zonk
on Sun Jul 17, 2005 03:26 AM
from the who-knew? dept.
from the who-knew? dept.
Victor Cheng writes "Robert Scoble today points to a blogger who is claiming he earns between $10,000 and $20,000 per month via Google Adsense." From the article: "The cheque was the biggest cheque I've ever held onto (well the biggest I've held onto that has my name on it). The amazing thing is that in the month of May I earned more than I earned in a whole year in 2003 from a 'real job' (of course at the time I was only working a 3 day week while I studied part time) and well over half as much as I earned from Adsense in the whole of 2004."
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And now he gets even more money... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:And now he gets even more money... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:And now he gets even more money... (Score:5, Insightful)
What in the world ever happened to building a web site to help people, to spread information, and to build a "community." Even more so, when did money become the primary goal of a web structure?
For example, slashdot was built for fun and information spread first. Only after it became successful did it start making lots of money. Now people do just the opposite... they design the web site for money first and if the site turns out to be useful, then it's an accident.
In college, I designed the Moan and Groan Page [google.com] (now very dead) where people could bitch about their hardware. It was the hardware/software explosion time and all the major players were pushing a ton of junk into the marketplace. People could search my site before they purchased anything. I got threatened my tons of companies... and lawyers who used the site came to my defense. The hosting was donated, etc. Then I started my real life (job, family) and had to leave it all behind.
Once I established all of that, I returned to the web to start another project. What a difference those few years made. I wanted to start a similar site helping people with computer problems and tech-recipes.com [tech-recipes.com] was born. No thrills, no fluff, no pop-ups... just helpful computer hints. We make enough money from google to pay our server costs... nothing more.
Despite the fact that we just provide raw information, we have never developed a huge community around us. Sure we receive a ton of hits from the search engines, but I miss that feeling of having tons of users helping and supporting each other.
Now I have to worry about everybody stealing my information and slapping their ads all over it...
What a difference a few years make...
AC
Parent
Re:And now he gets even more money... (Score:3, Informative)
Part of the blame lies with our beloved Google. They are actually funding a problem that they used to fight. It would be nice to see them put some effort into the problem instead of just cashing in like the do.
A
Re:And now he gets even more money... (Score:4, Interesting)
I run a site called InsideWoodland.com (in my sig). So far I've written about 70 stories. Each one takes me about 8 hours to do- with photos, interview, etc. This is a major chunk of my free time.
This is my main 'hobby', I spend a lot of time working on it, and a lot of time talking about it. Everyone I talk to wants to know why I am doing it, and most importantly, 'how much money do you make.' I haven't made a single dime. Monetary rewards were never my focus. (Although I do have an area where people can advertise, but nobody has done it yet, and I don't really push it.)
My real reward is just the knowledge that people really do read my stories, and look at my pictures. AND, I get to make other people 'famous' along the way.
The only people who have really understood this yet, were the gang-banger types that I met at low-rider car show while doing a story.
While a guy is telling me that he has devoted the last 4 years of his life, and $50,000 into his car- he has no problem understanding that I am doing something just because I enjoy it. But sadly, most 'normal' people just think I am a nut for not trying to make money.
I have looked into Adsense, but my traffic is to small since the website is tightly targeted (people in my small town). And, I don't like the way the ads look.
My only real goal is to somehow make a little bit of money to pay for my hosting fees. And if I paid for my current hosting fees, the first thing I would do is upgrade my hosting plan, to make the site perform better- even if it did end up costing me more money.
So yes, there are people out there who set up websites just for fun, and not for the money. So if this is a good thing, why do so many people tell me I am stupid for doing it?
Parent
Re:And now he gets even more money... (Score:3, Insightful)
No mystery there. Lots of people believe that you should only do things that are profitable, and by "profitable" they mean you get money. They don't understand that there are other kinds of profit.
Much of this can be understood as the "economic" model of human behavior. Some years ago, my wife was working toward a degree in econom
Re:And now he gets even more money... (Score:3, Informative)
That was until now. If we all add this to userContent.css he can go back to his previous job:
iframe[src*="googlesyndication.com"] { display: none !important; }
If you don't want to see similar stuff on Slashdot, just do enter this:
iframe[src*="googlesyndication.com"], iframe[src*="industrybrains.com"] { display: none !important; }
I think this explains why I post this as AC. Further reading: Blocking Advertisement [mozilla.org].
Re:And now he gets even more money...HONEST Money (Score:3, Insightful)
*Cough*RolandPiquepaille*Cough* (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:*Cough*RolandPiquepaille*Cough* (Score:2)
Re:*Cough*RolandPiquepaille*Cough* (Score:2)
Re:*Cough*RolandPiquepaille*Cough* (Score:2, Interesting)
Some of us (I, for example) wouldn't mind it so much if Taco came out and said that the stories are sponsored (not by the subjects of the stories, mind you, just by the blogger). Of course, if that happened, others would infer via slippery slope that more links would be thus sponsored; they would probably get pissed and stop reading Slashdot.
So instead, management acts as though nothing's going on, and we all grumble some, but largely nothing happen
The best part... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:The best part... (Score:2)
Not a smart thing to talk about... (Score:2, Interesting)
Google's terms of service explicitly forbit Adsense members from revealing details about how much they make.
Adsense is great, and those figures are probably accurate. But if Google finds out this person broke the TOS, they might just take those payments away.
Re:Not a smart thing to talk about... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Not a smart thing to talk about... (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re:Not a smart thing to talk about... (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
This is really sad... (Score:2, Funny)
Now I'm curious (Score:3, Interesting)
On logging webs. (Score:3, Insightful)
blog = diaries! so how are they different? (Score:2)
Re:blog = diaries! so how are they different? (Score:2)
Blogs are meant to be public, and the fact that they're online gives the author the feeling that it *just might* be read by thousands of people. Yes, the diary columns you're talking about are essentially the same thing on a local level (though a true diary isn't).
Re:On logging webs. (Score:3, Funny)
I agree. What is the difference between a blog and a service like livejournal? Places where people write down their thoughts.
I don't waste time on blogs. I have never found anything that interesting to read in them. Most are ramblings by people. It is too much work going through them until a good one is found. Then, with my luck, that person shuts it down and moves on. One of my favroites was
$10,000 - 20,000? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:$10,000 - 20,000? (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/07/12/ear
But WHY? (Score:2)
Perhaps a regular reader could tell me - is it usually better than this?
Re:But WHY? (Score:5, Insightful)
The spammers who make the most are those who sell spamming tools. The people who earned the most with the web in its early days were the ones who built the tools to make websites. The bloggers who make the most are those who blog about making money. The podcasters who will make the most will be the ones who tell others how to make money podcasting.
He's a pro-blogger blogging about making money with blogging. He's right on the money and tells you to do something else, because if you started to blog about problogging, you would start to cut in on his action.
Parent
Self fullfiling prophesy? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Self fullfiling prophesy? (Score:2)
Did google ruin the internet? (Score:5, Insightful)
The strategy has changed. 10 years ago, if someone wanted to talk about tv shows, they might have started a website called TvTome, and let members contribute, and it was a real community. You would not believe how many knowlegable star trek fans are out there, same goes for quantum leap. These people wrote some great insightful episode summaries, which had great attention to the shows history, philosophical meanings, and excitement. While I did not see them all, I bet there was a nice battlestar gallactica section. Those posts are gone.
Then someone got the idea to start advertising, and nothing has been the same since.
Now websites have a plan, get members to contribute for free, and take those contributations and make money. Isn't that crooked? There is no "thanks", no respect.
In the case of TvTome, cnet came and purchased them for a cool $5 million dollars. The owner of TvTome did not care about his community anymore, he wanted the money. And all the posts, everything the community contributed was lost. How many people want to put the effort into rebuilding what they already made?
I'll give another example. AVS forums is a place where people talk high end projectors and plasma televisions and the such. The owner sells projectors, and made a new rule, only MSRP prices can be quoted. Yet, if it was not for the 100 or so very insightful members who offer great advice, his forum would be nothing, meaningless. People go to his forum because there is a smart community there that is willing to offer good advice. Meanwhile, the owner capitalizes off this and makes a profit. Seems to me, the people who should be making a profit are the ones giving their free advice and building the community.
And then there is one DVD website where the admins went bezerk. They lost their minds. They started banning people left and right, people whos posts are still there and posts that are valuable. Why were these people banned? Your guess is as good as mine, I think one admin said he banned a guy because he had a link to amazon, and did not use the forums link to amazon which generates some money for the forum.
I love the idea of a community, where people exchange their knowledge and friendship. I hate the idea of 1 person owning these communities and getting rich off the free work and contributations of the members.
Re:Did google ruin the internet? (Score:4, Insightful)
The world is neither black or white, and the sades of grey it is painted with are mostly the lighter ones.
Of course there are sites that only exist for a quick buck. There also are a lot of valuable "communities" (albeit it has come to my attention that communities tend to make a lot less ad-related income than websites with litte or no user-interaction).
However, running a popular web project is not for free - there are hosting costs, and there may be a point when you need technical assistance from a professional (geeks as we are, we know how much we are billing). And after all the work the site maintainer has put into a successful site, I really think it is legitimate if he wants to get something back.
I am running a fairly popular german-language download site. Adsense does pay for the bills of hosting and for my work. It even allows me my rather costly taste for good coffee. I am not feeling like a criminal - after all, I've had and have most of the work with this project.
Parent
Re:Did google ruin the internet? (Score:5, Insightful)
But seriously, you exaggerate. Only few would make any money from their blogging or sites yet many sites appear. For most of the bloggers I know putting an ad link is something extra, something that you do just for the heck of it. You can easily tell those who blog for money (or try to) from those who blog to express themselves - the former usually don't have anything to say. And if someone has something to say that is so interesting to people that he is able to get real readership and thus ad revenue then what's wrong with that?
Same goes for forums etc. - no one forces you to post on a form whose policies you don't accept. And if there is no forum/community that would suit you start one with the policies exactly the way you want them to be.
Parent
Live and learn ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, I think we earned about $600 last year from that one :-(
It's not helped by the abysmal state of the dollar-pound, nor by the fact that Google pays with dollar checks and the bank takes a huge cut along the way.
Adsense gives us hardly any guidance as to what fees we get. It seems like Google takes a large cut. We're looking at replacing it with a commission junction advert slot [cj.com].
Rich.
Re:Live and learn ... (Score:2)
Re:Live and learn ... (Score:2)
Well, of course Google takes a large cut. That's their business model, and that is what makes them survive.
If your site made $50 per month, you are doing something wrong, and quite possibly you just have too few visitors. It also seems you only show one ad per page, when you can show up to 4. Why is this? What if the second, third or forth would have made a click? Use a larger banner format (skyscraper?) and try again.
He's gonna be even richer... (Score:2)
when did google adsense allow blogs? (Score:2)
Numbers Game (Score:5, Interesting)
WTF?
Technorati has 16 links in the last three days [technorati.com] (many of them this current story), which is nice, but not exactly Boingboing, is it? Alexa has it at a nice, but not spectacular, rank of 32,764 (compare to TalkingPointsMemo's rank of 19,893 or Juan Cole's 19,776), and it barely shows up on Daypop [daypop.com]. I don't see where the money comes from with those types of numbers.
Re:Numbers Game (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Numbers Game (Score:4, Insightful)
Read. He says that he has around twenty blogger web sites; he just doesn't tell which one is generating most of the revenue. For example his digital camera site has 20k views per day.
Apart from that, Adsense revenue depends a lot on the type of advertisements. Advertisers only pay $0.05 for clicks on ads for small niche products with little competition. It can be over $10 for a single click on high-competition, high-profit products. See all the bogus web sites that are stuffed with "information" about debt consolidation, loans, online poker, etc.
Parent
Re:Numbers Game (Score:5, Insightful)
Now why would a guy running a blog named "Professional blogger - Helping bloggers earn money" possibly want to exaggerate the amount of money he makes off his blogging?
Parent
Sickening. (Score:2, Insightful)
Well condsidering (Score:2)
Has anyone here ever clicked an adsense ad? (Score:3, Interesting)
For example, I have quite a few friends who never used a computer in their lives until the late 90's. I'd see them confused by webpage layouts, clicking ok and cancel on boxes which obviously are ads, but they'd see it as a functional part of the page. In not too short a time, they were surfing 'like pros' in that they'd never click any ads and I could tell they had just learned to mentally ignore them. Now these guys are still highly ignorant on computers in general (in dealing with software/hardware issues, spyware, adware etc). I've helped them with that with ff, and all the other tools etc. But with browsing with ads they just picked that up on their own. I didn't have to teach them how to filter out ads. It seems pretty much anyone, computer literate or not, will soon enough learn to filter ads all on their own.
So who's joe sixpack these days? Our moms and dads? If so, I wonder as this generation gets older and the previous generation passes on, and an even more tech savvy generation comes online, how will any of these ad models sustain themselves.
Yes, and I've bought from the advertiser (Score:3, Interesting)
AdWords can even be _more_ relevant than the main search results if you are in a small European country; the main search results can tend to be from USA sellers that won't sell to you anyway, while the AdWords are targetted, from local sellers who will...
Re:Advertisements (Score:2, Funny)
Re:The REAL tragady of P2P (Score:3, Funny)
Re:so did he buy ad space on slashdot? (Score:2)
I for one found it rather alarming and interesting and rather read about it than another story about Firefox or Windows updates.
Re:profit (Score:2)