Jeremy Wright today posted about the idea of whether the industry of professional blogging is paying bloggers enough. Jeremy follows that up with another article that explains his frustration and his idea that the answer is no, we are not paying bloggers enough. Jeremy asks a good question, “Does anyone pay bloggers enough.”

My response is absolutely not! I added to the comments on Jeremy’s post and I am going to reprint it here because this is a very important topic that should be discussed by anyone that is in the professional blog ranks, or companies that are paying bloggers.

Speaking not as a network owner or President, I think that my business too at One By One Media and Bloggers For Hire sometimes gets called out for our payment practices. We pay our bloggers top dollar and usually more than a network and more than they can earn with ads. With that said, our work is farther and fewer between than just the every day advertising earner through adsense or as a network blogger. I do see that we have similar problems with pay and it is a self correcting market at this point. As the need for bloggers increases, it will soon be a better paying position, but as long as we have 67 million of them to choose from and they all are doing it for free and would love to get a little bit for their effort, we will have the problems faced right now about “not paying enough”. If I can get a quality blogger and pay them $500 a month or if I can find the same blogger at $100 a month, which would I choose as a business owner? Bloggers often sell themselves short because they don’t understand the market. For us business owners in this market it makes it tough, so we have to add other value add items like management of the blog, web analytics and other things that bloggers perform as experts, but we cannot charge for these things because there are bloggers out there doing it for free. Sooner or later, as this becomes more of a mainstream position, the ones that stick it out now and offer what others are not offering will benefit from an industry correction, but until then, we have to hold on and do what we can to be profitable and hope it comes soon.

The market for professional bloggers will eventually change. Their will be your major league players and those that are warming up in the minors. Some bloggers will be more able to leverage their ability than others. Some bloggers will have a higher reputation in the industry and will be able to make themselves free agents to the highest bidder. It will be capitalism at its finest. This in turn will cause a ripple affect (or is it effect?) that will make a difference to everyone in the market. As the top players get better pay, the bottom tier bloggers can also ask for more as the market shifts. Are bloggers being paid enough? No. Is this a trend that will continue? No. Bloggers need to gain the confidence that their abilities are requiring top dollar. Companies wanting to have the best of the best will begin paying a premium for those bloggers. this will have the trickle down economics that will benefit everyone.

Tags: Jeremy Wright, Professional Bloggers, Blogger Salaries, Blog Networks, Business Blogging, Bloggers For Hire, One By One Media

It seems that the people at Performancing have decided to end the Performancing Partners advertising network.  I’m not sure of the reasons behind the decision to close down that operation, but with Nick Wilson leaving and Chris Garrett taking over at the helm, it could be that the ship is headed in a different direction.  I also know that with being a small operation and not having the proper funding, models like these are destined for hard times.  I can speculate that Chris is making some hard decisions based on the needs of Perfromancing and his ability to meet those needs.  Perhaps with the proper help, Performancing Partners would not have to end its run, but instead could be turned over to a company more apt to be able to handle the tough task of sales and other time consuming endeavors.  I would love to see someone come in and continue to offer the many professional bloggers at Performancing the same service.

Tags: Performancing, Nick Wilson, Chris Garrett, Ad Networks, Blogvertising

The funny thing about being new to the tech game after being involved in the legal field for over 20 years, is I have no idea what it felt like when the Internet bubble burst in the 90’s.  I am sure it could not have been a very fun time for people and I pray that it never happens again especially to me.  SFGate.com has posted the Top 10 Lies of Web 2.0 .  I chuckled until my sides hurt then I realized after I had just been to the Blog Business Summit 2006, that I had actually heard a few of these statements. History does have a way of repeating itself. 

The irony does not end there, because I was thinking about Blog Bubble or a bubble burst earlier when I read about Niiklas Zennström and Skypecasts coming soon.  If you read between the lines of that CNet article you can see the idea that perhaps Skype was riding the wave and bailed a little early not wanting to get in another bubble burst when they reference their $60M price tag and YouTube’s $1.65B price tag. 

6. The analysts are trustworthy now. Like the one who said MySpace will be worth $15 billion in a few years — or was that the one who said Amazon was worth $400 a share? Whoops, I’m mixing my bubbles.

Did they sale too early?  I am not sure, but I can assure you that I would rather have the B than the M after the dollar signs.  Of course, time will only tell, but Dan Fost’s words will echo in my mind as my head hits the pillow this evening.

Tags: SFGate.com, Blog Bubble, Web Bubble, Web 2.0, BBS, Blog Business Summit, Niiklas Zennstrom, Skype, Dan Fost, CNet

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I attended a session lead by Chris Pirillo and Andru Edwards, although Jason Calacanis, Robert Scoble, Dave Taylor and others seemed to capture the discussion. This stands to reason because these bloggers are the leaders in Entreprenurial Blogging and Maximizing Ad Revenues on blogs, and in fact the name of the session. There was passionate discussion about monetizing blogs, as it always seems to be when discussing money, but one of the things became clear to me as I filtered what was being said versus what was being answered versus what has been tried versus what has worked in the realm of making money blogging. Those bloggers that have already made their riches are those that are now about to get richer. I don’t mean this as a derogatory statement, but it was clear that statements such as "the new medium is podcasting, videocasting and RSS" for the next money making battleground, but the early adopter bloggers that were the first to ride the wave, are now the early adopters about to ride the wave of the new medium online. The blogosphere is now clogged and jammed with bloggers and content and that leverage has been used up and exhausted. Those that are now beginning to blog must work twice as hard or worse, than the ones that were visionaries. As they looked back on old times, there was a hint to the crowd that, "Sorry, you are too late, but thanks for stopping by and listening to our success. This may be a cynical look, and of course it does reek of some sour grapes on my part, but those of us that are willing to work hard and to be focused in our vision, there is still a chance for us to reach for some of the table scraps of the aristocracy of the blog kings and queens. UPDATE:  I wanted clarify about the session and the panel that was directing the dicussion.  Chris and Andru were the leaders of the discussion, but Jason, Dave Taylor and Jason Weisberger of FM were attendees to the session that had a passionate voice about earning money from blogs and they are certainly leaders in the industry.  This is a session that should be a whole day of discussion and ideas and workings of blogs and how to monetize blogs, make money and the entreprenurial spirit of these  leaders.

Tags: Chris Pirrillo, Andru Edwards, Jason Calacanis, Robert Scoble, Dave Taylor, Entreprenurial Blogging, Ad Revenues, podcasting, videocasting, RSS, Jason Weisberger, FM Media

There has been a lot of buzz lately about the sale of two major Blog Networks - Gawker Media and Weblogs Inc., and the talk is justified with the dollar signs that were passed their way. Bloggers heads are spinning with the possibilities that they are now presented with, but I am cautiously optimistic. Why is this? Possibly because my own site The Parental Olympian only gets 200 unique visitors daily. Not nearly the traffic needed to make it worthy of a sale, but my blog holds value.

There is this small glimmer of hope in the back of my mind that Professional Blogging may one day make windfall in my direction. I feel that it is a worthy goal, though often scoffed at, and not one that shall arrive easily. Selling your blog is the epitome of a long arduous journey for many. It can take months, if not years, to build the foundation and the success required to make this "sale" a reality.

Even with the high improbability of a blog sale, I know that if this is a goal of mine, that I need to work at it now and cover my bases. Darren Rowse talks about the "three ways to check your blog’s worth", but how can you calculate such a number when you just are starting out? Of course you can have high hopes for your blog and your writing, but in reality Gawker Media and Weblogs, Inc’s sales were a long time in the making.

Many large corporations are beginning to see the value in the blog, and thus blogs are garnering more and more attention. But with so many blogs in exsistence, how do you differentiate your blog from the bad? In one word - content, but content takes time and effort.

Jim Turner discussed that

Is it possible for a blog to be an overnight success? Generally speaking unless you take the world by storm, or perhaps your name is Britney Spears and you start a blog, the answer is a resounding “No”. Blogging is a long term commitment. How long of a commitment does it take to get results? My thoughts are a minimum of 8-12 months. This may seem like a long term commitment before realizing a return on investment. There are certainly situations where a blog is more successful in a short amount of time, but for the average blog for the average business, the investment has to be long term.

I agree, it is a long term deal, but much like the NFL, your contract is not guaranteed. Write well, think out your blog-plan, and take the journey of blogging one step at a time. One day, you too, may become a blogionaire.

Written by Scott Goldblatt AKA: "The Parental Olympian"

Technorati Tags: Blog For Profit