1) Some bloggers are “wannabe” writers. They love writing anyway, so they figure they’ll put up some posts and at the very least, it will bring attention to them and their writing. Depending on the goals, this approach makes perfect sense. If they’re excellent writers, they could very easily stand out from the crowded field of blogging and attract interested readers, or business opportunities based on their expertise.
2) Some bloggers come to the game because they have a real passion for a subject. Some of this group will also stand out, based on the sheer amount of effort they put into their work. For them, blogging is a “labor of love.” Depending on what their field is, and how much quality info they post up, some can succeed.
3) Some people are in the blogging game because they figure it’s an easy way to make money. That’s what attracted me to blogging. And I’ve found out that it’s very easy to get paid to blog. You don’t need passion, or particular expertise to blog this way. You’ll just need the same sort of professionalism that would make you better at any job. That means you have to be self motivated, and constantly improving at your craft in order to move ahead.

Of course there are many other reasons people will get into the blogging game. For one, the barrier to entry is low. Secondly, the success of some bloggers has been touted enough that it will attract people looking to duplicate their success. The evangelists of blogging have done a good job of spreading their message and many people seem willing to join the fray.

For those looking to get paid to blog, blogging must be treated as a business. You need to calculate how much time you spend blogging and how much of a return you’re getting for your efforts. And most of all, you have to learn to maximize that return through whatever means you can implement.

Getting paid to blog is not as hard as you think. It’s one area where you’ll find traffic is easy to monetize, and you end up being compensated well for your efforts.

Websites that use the traditional blogging approach of linking to a source article and adding a “comment” after a blockquote don’t seem to be showing up as often as they used to on the results pages of search engines. It isn’t surprising, either. A clearly derivative post that adds no originality isn’t likely to add enough value to attract readers. Assuming your blog already has a readership, that type of approach might prove successful. But for a brand new blog, you’re looking at a tough road to hoe if you don’t post unique, lengthy, and factually accurate posts.

Google has gotten a lot more selective in the last few years about choosing content. If Google doesn’t rank your page, your forced to “self promote” your content pieces one by one, which is a lonely and unrewarding past-time.

If your blog is fairly well established and already has a user base, then it’s probably worth posting frequently. But for brand new bloggers it’s probably a better idea to take your time, research your topic, and put some real effort into creating a unique content piece that will grab attention. Otherwise, it will be just one more forgotten post. There’s nothing worse than being “road kill on the information superhighway!”

When you look at the most popular blogs on the Internet, you quickly realize that most of the bloggers who succeeded didn’t start out with the goals of creating huge audiences or getting rich. Instead they stuck with blogging because it gave them a platform to share their ideas. Sharing your ideas with a potentially huge audience can make you famous and rich, provided your ideas are that special to begin with.

Blogging is work

If you don’t have the passion, you can still succeed. But in that case you have to be very well disciplined. You need to adopt the attitude that blogging is a job, and whether you feel like it or not, you plan on getting up for work that day and putting in the time required to be successful.

Bloggers who are blogging for cash lately have been seeming very deflated. The global recession caught up with blogosphere, and many of the pipe dreams of instant wealth have quickly faded. That’s a good thing for long term bloggers. That means less companies will be around competing in verticals where they’re losing money. Without the investment funds, these companies won’t be able to crowd the blogosphere with content, all the while they lose money.

A leaner, meaner blogosphere is emerging. Never before has there been so much opportunity for motivated individuals to carve their place in their niches. People who bring real passion to their blogging will have no problem finding an audience.

He even complained he had one huge day with 1 million uniques and he only made $100 on AdSense. Frankly, it shouldn’t have been that surprising to him. What exactly were these 1 million visitors supposed to buy? If they aren’t in a buying mood, then burst of traffic aren’t that monetizable. This fact has been aptly demonstrated for years going back to the “slashdot effect”. Generally this visitors “belong” to another website and are visiting your website on a referral link.

Of course chances are very good they won’t hang around long, let alone purchase something from you or one of your website’s advertisers. Since they’re not buying anything, you aren’t getting paid that much. That’s just the nature of the online ad business.

Poor Dan Lyons didn’t only not get rich from blogging, he even gained 20 pounds while doing it. That’s from all the extra calories and the lack of exercise, not from the act of blogging.

In any event, Dan isn’t really all that worse for the wear from blogging. He’s a columnist at NewsWeek and he’s famous for his “Fake Steve Jobs” schtick. Other opportunities have opened up from him, so it’s tough to call his blogging unsuccessful.

More likely, he just got sick of using a fake nickname to post and wanted some attention for himself.

Boston.com said Tuesday that The New York Times Co. violated copyrights on the stories by pasting verbatim headlines and first sentences from GateHouse papers on the Globe sites.

The Boston Globe is owned by The New York Times Company. GateHouse owns 125 smaller Massachusetts papers.

The New York Times argued it was adding value to its’ own service and the Globe’s with the links. They called it merely “news aggregation.”

Gatehouse argued that the Times bypassed technology on their website to included the headlines, which is copyrighted material.

Of course this calls into question the legality of many types of websites that link. This includes Google, who displays search snippets, bloggers who link to news articles and copy snippets, and popular websites like NewsVine that aggregate news by linking to the original articles.

Further making this a test case, Gatehouse is objecting to the use of deep links as part of their suit.

If GateHouse were to have its way with its deep link argument, it would create a legal precedent that makes the act of linking to a copyrighted article illegal. It could mean a crippling of sites such as Romenesko and the Drudge Report, which can bring in enormous amounts of readers while being primarily built upon links to someone else’s expensive-to-create content. But, if enforced, it would also cut off the voluminous flow of readers who arrive to news sites via search engines and aggregators. That, too, has an effect on the bottom line.

A change in this direction would be unprecedented on the web. Every day it seems as more freedoms that are considered part of internet culture are being challenged in law. As company’s face dwindling revenue streams and increased competition, it’s likely we’ll be seeing many more such cases as publishers look to vacuum up pennies from the web.

Twitter has an easy-to-use API, which helps automate many of the routine tasks of using Twitter. With such automated help, it’s easy to stay in touch with your readers. If people sign up to “follow” you on Twitter, they’re the equivalent of readers of RSS, but probably a bit better.

Twitter has a technologically savvy user base. If you’re looking to reach out to people who know their stuff, then by all means join Twitter.

Twitter and Google Friend Connect now join forces

Google Friend Connect is another “killer app” IMHO, and on 12/15 they announced support for your Twitter login. Now if you have a Google Friend Connect-enable website and someone joins with a Twitter account, they can login with their Twitter identity and notify all their followers about your website. It’s not hard to see the viral capabilities of that.

I can envision a world where people use their Google Friend Connect account as “universal login.” They’ll have their choices of millions of blogs that have the service enabled. As they join one site and another, they create viral and organic connections that help move people through the “friendsphere” at a rapid pace. Plus, since they use a unified system for logging in, the credibility of their transactions will increase and so will the ease of communication.

2009 promised to be a banner year for bloggers, as always. With new features coming down the pike and being adapted to the blogosphere, you can expect even more people to consider blogs as trusted brands.

This version of Wordpress seems to run a bit faster than previous ones. That also could be the result of me disabling most of the plugins I’ve been using. It seems like the plugins break in between most WP upgrades.

Better design and faster execution. Those are benefits I could live with for any software program.

Pound for pound and for the long term, Wordpress is the best free software I’ve ever used. The platform is so robust and the development community so large it’s doubtful that will change anytime soon.

I have to give this newest Wordpress 2.7 a big thumbs up.

I removed my Kontera code from my websites to test the effect such a removal would have on overall earnings. Frankly, I was pleased with the increase in Google Adsense revenue and forgot all about Kontera.

A month or so later, I receive an email from my “rep” at the company. In extremely poor English, he threatens me. “Removing the code without notifying Kontera” is a violation of their TOS.

Worse, Kontera keeps any money you’ve earned!

Uh, that seems a bit unfair, to say the least. My first reaction was quite simple, “Fuck you, Kontera,” I thought. “Fuck you to death and may you roast in Hell for attempting to strong-arm me, you ghetto-ass third rate, third tier ad company.”

So, Kontera has “stolen” my money. I earned it. They kept it. Luckily it was only $77, but I’m sure they ripped off others for much worse.

So, before you sign up for Kontera, keep in mind there’s plenty of evidence of them being lying, cheating scumbags. I’m happy to pay $77 to be rid of them.

Many fields in blogging are well covered now. If you plan on starting a derivative blog in a competitive field, you face an uphill battle in gaining a readership. Since you’re blog is new, you’ll be competing with tons of established blogs. It will be tough to get people to switch over to you, or to even add you to their list of resources. This conundrum can be solved, but it means you need to shift your focus to what really matters at a blog.

Yes, I’m referring to content. The knowledge that blogs need great content is well established. But new bloggers really need to let that nugget sink in. You can’t make it with slapped together content, and you won’t succeed by following the exact trends that everyone else is reporting on. Your content needs to be somewhat special when you’re first working on your blog. If not, people will quickly pass and move on to a better blog.

The exact type of content you produce doesn’t matter. It’s more important than you try for the following:

1. Content that’s well written and well researched if technical in nature
2. Content that is tightly focused on your chosen niche
3. Concise content that has a chance to go viral in the sense of attracting links that bring traffic

Once you write such content, you will be forced to do it again and again. Blogging doesn’t get that much easier, despite having an established archive. You will always have to bring something unique to the table, or your competitors will eat your breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Of course, the blogosphere got wind of this move and was all it over with negative criticism, prompting the A.P. to effectively say they’ll settle down and think of an alternative. In essence, they don’t want any bloggers even quoting their stories, so the battle promises to be an interesting one. The very basis of the blogosphere has been built on “fair use” and quotes so the A.P. will really have to fight everyone to expect changes.

They said they’ll be issuing “clear standards” about what can be re-quoted, but personally I wouldn’t trust much of what they’re saying. They’ve fired an opening round in a new phase of the war between old media and new, and you can’t put this genie back in the bottle.

What do you think of the war between the A.P. and bloggers?