While bloggers–and journalists–discuss blogging as a new form–pragmatic business types wonder where the money is. At BloggerCon, consensus was that the dollars lay in selling software and hosting, and in paid aids, not in premium or subscription-driven blogging. Online news consultant Vin Crosbie takes a look at the current scene–and concludes–the dollars, they just ain’t there yet.
Some highlights of his roundup:
Patrick Phillips, I Want Media: “I’m skeptical of the viability of paid subscription blogs, and of paid subscriptions for most online news providers. Much of the news on the Internet is still available for free, so I am doubtful that a significant number of people would be willing to pay, no matter the niche, at this point.”
Rafat Ali, PaidContent: “It is a difficult game. Anyone who said it would be easy to get revenues off blogs has neither done full-time blogging nor made any revenues in their life…. The problem is you’re feeding off other media sites for your material, which, by definition, isn’t unique. “Within trade blogs, people may pay for a hybrid site like mine: a mix of blog and original reporting, with lots of context thrown in, and multiple (seven for my site) ways to access the content.”
Rick Bruner, Marketing Wonk: “When Clay Shirky wrote his piece a couple of weeks ago condemning micropayments, I planned a response essay that was going to cite Elizabeth Spiers [of Gawker.com]. She obviously has a passionate following. Were she to charge 20 cents for access to longer pieces once a week, she could make significant money.”
The full piece is here.
While bloggers–and journalists–discuss blogging as a new form–pragmatic business types wonder where the money is. At BloggerCon, consensus was that the dollars lay in selling software and hosting, and in paid aids, not in premium or subscription-driven blogging. Online news consultant Vin Crosbie takes a look at the current scene–and concludes–the dollars, they just ain’t there yet.
Some highlights of his roundup:
Patrick Phillips, I Want Media: “I’m skeptical of the viability of paid subscription blogs, and of paid subscriptions for most online news providers. Much of the news on the Internet is still available for free, so I am doubtful that a significant number of people would be willing to pay, no matter the niche, at this point.”
Rafat Ali, PaidContent: “It is a difficult game. Anyone who said it would be easy to get revenues off blogs has neither done full-time blogging nor made any revenues in their life…. The problem is you’re feeding off other media sites for your material, which, by definition, isn’t unique. “Within trade blogs, people may pay for a hybrid site like mine: a mix of blog and original reporting, with lots of context thrown in, and multiple (seven for my site) ways to access the content.”
Rick Bruner, Marketing Wonk: “When Clay Shirky wrote his piece a couple of weeks ago condemning micropayments, I planned a response essay that was going to cite Elizabeth Spiers [of Gawker.com]. She obviously has a passionate following. Were she to charge 20 cents for access to longer pieces once a week, she could make significant money.”
The full piece is here.