More Bloggers Turn Pro, But They Better Diversify

The Economist has a brief article up about some high bloggers that have quit their day jobs to turn pro. Before you join them consider that there is simply not enough advertising revenue to go around. There are lots of people - including start-ups - that covet the same pie.

Can you make a good side living? Heck yea. But the folks who make six figs from blogging as their sole source of income will be few and far between. This will especially become apparent when there is an advertising slowdown - and there will be.

The pro bloggers that are doing this now, like Om Malik and Michael Arrington to name two, should diversify their revenue streams. This will include courting larger, more stable advertisers. But it goes further. They have a lot of knowledge and should begin to sell premium research reports on the industries they track.

Comments

[Philipp Lenssen]

> diversify their revenue
> streams

Talk about it! It's not easy. Without a games website I'm maintaining "on the side" -- still only ads -- most months I couldn't make it to pay the rent (albeit my current ad network is far superior to AdSense already). But not for a single second did I regret quitting my day job last year... not because it was particularly bad, but because blogging (lots of money or not) is an exciting job.

[John Koetsier]

Steve, just because Yahoo! didn't grow ad revenue as fast as it wanted to doesn't mean there is or will be an ad slowdown.

In fact, advertising is increasingly coming onto the web, and there's a ton of room to grow:

Web advertising growing 10-30% annually

[Darren Rowse]

I could be misreading this (it's early here) but are they saying Om is a 'ma/pa blogger'?

[Brian Clark]

Why do you assume that advertising is the only way to make a living from blogging?

[Mike Rundle]

"They have a lot of knowledge and should begin to sell premium research reports on the industries they track."

This quote insinuates that writers like Om or Arrington aren't already doing consulting as part of their business, which they obviously are. Now what's more valuable -- research reports that people can buy/download or consulting contracts with individual companies? I can't answer that question, but I don't think anyone else can either.

[Allen]

Steve - I have to disagree with you but agree at the same time.

I was at a press conference last week from eMarketer which discussed online video ads to go to $775 million in 2007 (a 89% increase) and that more and more is shifting to online.
http://www.centernetworks.com/video-ads-surge-2007

However, I do agree that there is a HUGE divide between arrington/malik and the "rest" - and I also see the top 1% of blogs and web sites getting the majority of the increases in ad spends, not that every single blog/site will benefit.

This year, many bloggers came online in the hopes of making 6 figures from Adsense. Ain't happening folks.

[Glenn Fleishman]

I'm semi-pro, I guess: a professional freelance journalist who also has a very successful blog. Wi-Fi Networking News doesn't generate enough revenue to allow me to quit my "day job," which already gives me flexibility. In fact, the work at WNN lets me do ongoing research and have excellent regular conversations with people across the wireless industry that have led me to great print writing gigs. Including writing several articles this year for...The Economist! (Is that the snake eating its tail?)

What the blog has done is free me from having to get a full-time job, to be sure, or from hustling much more than I do now. I typically write at least one large feature (2,000 words or more) per quarter for print, and about one medium-sized feature per month. Plus columns and snippets here and there.

The revenue from the blog lets leaves me free to spend from 30 minutes to a few hours a day on the Wi-Fi blog. Sometimes, several hours can be spent just reading over other articles about wireless developments--and then not writing at all about them or much about them.

[Russell Page]

"Before you join them consider that there is simply not enough advertising revenue to go around."

Baloney.

[Mike Abundo]

Two words: babe blogging.