11.24.06
Money Train
It’s the Holy Grail of blogging: making money and turning blogging into a profession. While millions of people start blogs without any intention of making money off of their “hobby,” I’m positive nobody would turn down the opportunity to make a few bucks. It’s like making music. You can do it for fun in your garage, but if the opportunity comes along and a neighbor just happens to know an A&R guy and he likes your stuff, suddenly you are starry-eyed and dreaming of cash.
When I was on television — I like to say that, just to add an extra oomph to what I have in life — one of the questions presented to me in the brief five minute interview was “Can people make money doing this?” I’m sure I gave an eloquent, well-composed, coolly delivered answer that compared the blogger-conomy with Princetonian principles of supply and demand. Or maybe I said, “Yes it is possible to make money blogging, but it’s certainly not easy.”
The truth is that there are a lot of people making money blogging (and the media is pushing that angle) — but you probably won’t be one of them. It takes a combination of hard work, a large audience, and maybe a pinch of luck to take your blog from the late night past time to back breaking day job.
Bloggers have quit their jobs, been fired, and started entire new companies just in the name of blogging. Some have succeeded, some haven’t. Check out some of their stories, and if you still want to have a go of it, then figure out some way to crack the barrier between amateur and professional blogging. The odds are pretty steep, but the rewards are getting increasingly large also.