The "How to Make Money" Session at Bloggercon

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Dave Winer has kindly (or, well, maybe…) offered me the chance to be the discussion leader for the “How to Make Money” session at Bloggercon IV. I’m delighted and honored to be taking up this challenge with the help of the rest of the unconference attendees later this month in San Francisco. Here’s a framework for the discussion:

During every conference about Web 2.0 (oops — did I say that?) blogging, the conversation gets around, one time or another, to “how to make money.” It’s obvious there’s money all around this space. The simple proof: the venture capital world salivates at the prospect of a hot new company in this space, bidding up valuations and fueling the trend with not just their capital and attention but big-time connections and leadership. Somebody, definitely, is making money related to blogging and related technologies, or is pretty sure they will make money on it, but it’s not obvious that bloggers, in fact, stand to make much money from blogging.

If you are a blogger, how do you go about making some money from your work? One obvious answer is the classic approach of throwing BlogAds or Google ads or whathaveyou ads on your blog. That works for some people, but it generates more than beer money only for a select few at the left-hand side of that famous power law distribution. Some, like Mike Arrington at TechCrunch, have added premium sponsorships to the mix; then again, Mike’s plainly in the select few. Others contend that a blog is itself an advertisement. You don’t make money on the blog itself, but rather you make money on other things (as in the artist who gives away his or her content on a p2p service and makes money on other things to pay the rent). I trust that we’ll kick around these ideas, but also get into some new possibilities: shouldn’t really simple syndication allow for some new thinking around getting people to pay for the content you create? And are there ways for bloggers themselves to get on the bandwagon of making some of the money that the venture guys are planning to make? How could that work, exactly? Put another away: lots of people have spent lots of digital ink (sound and images too) on the general problem of “how do you monetize the long tail?”

In classic Bloggercon/unconference style, though, this is just a starting point. The beauty and the thrill is in where the conversation may go.

53 thoughts on “The "How to Make Money" Session at Bloggercon”

  3. Although again probably only lucrative or even practical for someone already established, an in-demand blogger like a band with a new album, might make use of the “ransom” model, wherein new content would only be released upon the receipt of a predetermined amount of pledges.
    There could be an intial loss-leading run, follwed by “ransomed” content, teased perhaps with ledes, excerpts or titles.

    Reply ↓

  4. […] Three bags full… By Frank Paynter John Palfrey will lead the “making money” discussion at BloggerCon. Looking at the cursed power law, there would seem to be three subsets to examine: the asymptotic risers – those few who aggregate attention in a mass media modality; the inflectioneers – people with blogs to be found around the inflection point of that cursed power curve; and the waggers – numerically huge, enormously influential for a variety of reasons, residents of what has been labelled the long tail and then largely ignored or misinterpreted. The power law presents a two dimensional view that obscures much of what is important about the last decade’s revolution in publishing. […]

    Reply ↓

  5. Sounds like a good set of information. I won’t be able to make it to the event, but I’d ask that someone brings up the question of ROI.

    I sell blog consulting, and I stress ways to provide an ROI to my customers using business blogs (that make money). I’m curious as to others thoughts on this subject.

    Could you present what you find?

    Reply ↓

  6. “How To Make Money” … Session At Bloggercon IV…

    … will be led by John Palfrey of the Harvard Berkman Center.
    It will be interesting to follow, online, what ……

    Reply ↓

  7. You do have to take into consideration those who blog not for the sake of making a financial profit, but rather a human one. In other words, what about those who share personal ideas that could literally make billions of dollars?

    The person writing the blogs is crying out to the world for some kind of response. He freely releases his vision in his blogs so that others may come to understand his struggles in life. After all, without human interaction, there’s no reason for blogs to exist.

    I wish I had the financial ability to take a trip to Cambridge and attend this conference, so that I may gain insight into the possibilities of profiting from writing blogs. But, I don’t write blogs to make money. Rather, I write blogs to inform people. And that is what shall make the difference to the people who read the blogs. If it becomes an issue of making money, blogs will start to lose the luster of human ingenuity, and begin to reek of human greed.

    Reply ↓

  9. Another example of something that might generate ‘beer money’ is Blogitive.

    I know its not the best / most honest way but its a good business idea. The payoffs are significantly larger and dont require a lot (any?) clickthroughs necessarily for the blogger to get paid.

    The downside is … you are contributing to blog spam 🙂

    Reply ↓

  12. Have you heard of this San Francisco start-up GoodStorm.com. I saw them at the YearlyKos conference in Las Vegas. I think they are a non-profit as they are giving so much of their margins to non-profits. I can’t remember the CEO’s name but he gave the most inspiring speech in the YearlyKos. I do know that one of the leading progressives Mr. Andy Rappaport is the co-founder. I’ll ping my friends who were there for his name.

    I signed up for their beta which is launching the end of the month. After I saw their demo, I left wowed and inspired to sign up. (interestingly, the sign-up process was on paper at the convention). The system looks like Google AdWords but their CEO explained that it was a new category of internet software called serving products versus ad serving. If you’re blogger their demo which they said should be available on the ‘net blew my mind. They give 50% ~ 70% of their profits to bloggers.

    It seemed a little incredible but because we know Mr. Rappaport, it may be case of 2 lucky guys being generous. I am not sure how anyone can give so much of profits to anyone without going broke. However if it is true, the company could change the economics of blogging especially for the little guys. I will report back if they call me with their beta plans.

    Coolness to all,

    Ernie

    Reply ↓

  14. LOLLLLLLLLLLL

    the letter above looks eerily like one of those “CHAIN LETTERS” or GET RICH QUICK schemes or scams*

    But he says it’s 100% LEGAL*

    ;))

    all joking aside i think there is some headway being made in this area that will actually allow Bloggers to earn a decent living for their work & efforts.

    Just have to come up with that $magic AdWidget!

    Reply ↓

  17. Thank you for committing a Federal felony on the website of a law school, Kory. Same to Wayne and Eric. Review Title 39, Sec. 3005 and the case The United States v 21 Pieces of Mail.

    Reply ↓

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  30. I don know but why i don find such informative and profitable blogs so often,I suspect blogging world is becoming so small that we cant find such lucrative blogs like this one.

    Reply ↓

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  41. I think you are right. Blogs are just online journals and many people prefer to read interesting blogs. If your blog is good and contains some valuable data then you can get traffic through your blog by giving links to your targeted keywords and you can also give blogads or Google ads in your blog. Your blog is really very interesting. People who don’t have any idea about blogging can get a brief idea from this. Thanks.

    Reply ↓

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    You’ve been trying to find a way of making money on the internet, haven’t you?
    There are many ads out there promising quick riches, and some even deliver
    on that promise, to some extent, but we all know that wealth takes strategy,
    effort, and most of all time. Nothing happens over night.

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    there’s a strategy available, that, while may not be “quick riches”, will establish
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    Reply ↓

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