Show me the money...

Catching up on my blog reading, there is definitely a buzz about the role of bloggers on the Internet. Mark Evans had a sobering post today basically commenting on how bloggers don't make money or at least a lot of it. If you look at the limited success of success of Boing Boing as the premier site, which pulls around a cool $1 mill. a year, it is hardly the stellar results one would expect from the Technorati #1. Then there's the blur between what is really a website and what is a blog. There are instances of bloggers who have created advertising blogs that earn enough to keep the blogger doing it on a full-time basis. The answer is really about context and search.

If you're a blogger like Mark or even Techcrunch, I doubt you get a lot of click throughs to Google simply because their readers go there for insight and comment. They are not people who look to Mark for advice on how to choose their next dog or which is the best television. The similar principle applies probably to religeous, political, leadership sites etc. I generalize now, but I think you get the idea. What is the mindset of the reader when he lands on your blog. If it is to look for product information, he will likely click on a Google ad because he is already primed to buy.

So it's really back to Mark's earlier question, when you start the blog, is it to connect, to build brand or to make money. Reputation is a legitimate currency. It's different strokes for different folks. There is no doubt, blogging will become as ubiquitous as email as a broadcast voice to an audience you may never meet. No man is an island as they say, bear in mind, that's where all bloggers have to start...your own personal island.