Another Reason Not To Quit Your "Day Job"

More sobering news (this time from ZD Net on the economic weight of blogs:

For example, Darren Rowse, the guy behind ProBlogger — and 20 other blogs — conducted an informal survey in November 2005. Of the 1,205 people who answered — honestly or not — 45 bloggers reported an income in excess of $10,000 per month, while the vast majority was earning about $10 per month. If we assume that one million bloggers are making $120 per year, this is an annual market of $120 million. If we add similar programs — and the money made by Google and others — the global ad money generated by the blogosphere almost certainly doesn't exceed one billion dollars in one year

And y'all can probably bet that the 45 who make the Big Bucks are, more than likely, part of a blogging network. When I took a close look at the NYMag article, the majority of Big Bucks Bloggers were indeed part of a network. Career Counsellors always talk about the power of "networking" and, apparently, in the blogosphere, there's some economic power in it--group blogs create income for the individuals as well as allow those who blog for them ample time to persue other money-making endeavors.

Unless you're willing to lock yourself away and spend 80 hours a week just blogging--like Jossip's founder (see the NYMag article for his name--I'm too lazy to get it)....

There was a time when I was willing to dedicate 80 hours of my life to something. But that was 20 years ago when I could get by on 4 hours sleep.

So, if there's no money-making incentive to blog, why do it? Do it for the people you could meet--or even for the possible influence you might create. And if you have that desire to influence, you have to have focus and *network*--get to know people--in a genuine and honest way. Genuinely enjoy meeting and talking with all kinds of people, even if they're Really Big Shots and they seem kind of intimidating. Enjoy all those people who are smart and doing cool things--the ones who are where you're at and the ones who are somewhere else--because you never know when things may begin to shift....

Further Reading: Jay Small's got more thoughts on the whole blogs-ads-revenue thing.

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