UK mainstream media look at “blogging for dosh”
Now that the mainstream media is at least used to — if not either in love with or hostile to — the concept of blogging as more than simply personal diaries by sad geeks or teenagers, a number are also tuning into the possibility that they can be used to make money.
The Times newspaper has an interesting article on “Blogging for Dosh” which examines the possibility that some people are creating and writing blogs with the primary intention of making money.
Jim Furtado is one of those hoping for cyber success of his own. Furtado started his blog, Baseball Think Factory, nearly six years ago when he was working as a fireman in Massachusetts and had lots of free time. “Every firefighter has two jobs,” he explains. But what began as a hobby has slowly become more like a business, and now the Boston Red Sox fan says he spends about 40 hours a week working on the site – in addition to his regular job. Furtado is a bit frustrated, his time for writing about baseball crowded out by the demands of keeping the technology working and chasing down ads. “It’s not as much fun as when I first started it,” he says.
The site has well over a million visits a month and brings in a little more than $1,000 a month from ads, but Furtado is trying hard to boost that. “As you start spending tremendous amounts of time, your wife says, ‘You better start making money on this’. ” But he knows it won’t be easy. “I’m going to have to put in even more time.”
It cites a poll last year suggesting that 7% of US bloggers do it primarily for the money. They also look at the growing market for advertising spend on blogs, a figure that a Connecticut consultancy, PQ Media, put at $36 million last year. That could grow to $300 million in 2010.
The keys to success, according to Henry Copeland, founder of Blogads, is working long, determined, committed hours, and develop a unique voice – “even if it means uprooting their lives.”
There are also some wise words from Darren Rowse (he pops up everywhere, eh? ;)
Maybe nothing startlingly new for those with a bit of blogging knowledge, but good to see the British press starting to take “blogging as a business” seriously.
A million visits a month and it only nets him a grand??
I’m gonna go fall on my sword now.