America's Newest Profession: Blogging

I'm not one to take Mark Penn too seriously, but he does provide an interesting take on blogging as a profession, at the Wall Street Journal (via Memeorandum).

Penn cites all kinds of statistics on the numbers of bloggers making money online (an extremely small number of elite bloggers make a living at it, but apparently 1.7 million people earn some income from online publishing).

But I'll turn it over to Pat in Shreveport for an interesting perspective on "Blogging for Bucks?":

I'm rather new to blogging - this blog started in August of last year. I still have a lot to learn and I see, probably better than most, my own flaws. I don't always proofread as well as I should and I make punctuation errors. I'd prefer to be more journalistic than I often am. I've never figured out how to use "Digg" and those other sharing things. I can't figure out how to make my Technorati authority move up - I currently have "no authority." I know people have to link you, and they do, but ... still "no authority." That's a real blow to your self-esteem - "You currently have no authority." God.

Oh well. I have ads and I have a tip jar, but I suspect I will never make a living from blogging. I do it because it's fun, I enjoy it, and to be honest, I've "met" a lot of really nice people. So, I'm grateful for my readers and I'm going to keep on blogging even if I never make a dime. It's like teaching - you don't do it for the $$$.

Well, as much as I love it, I do teach for the money! I just recently monetized my blog, and I'm betting it's going to be a little while yet before blogging pays the bills!

I think Pat strikes the right note on doing it for fun, of course. If you're not enjoying your blogging, you're not likely to make any money from it.

In any case, readers might like my recent post on some of this, "How to Become a Successful Conservative Blogger."

But see Robert Stacy McCain's takedown of Mark Penn, "Don't believe the blog hype!"

More later ...