Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Not an alternative career

I'm not writing this as a disgruntled blogger, because I am not disgruntled. But blogging is not a career option for journalists. No matter how much you game the system and click on the adverts you won't make much money. In over two and a half years I've raked in about $200, maybe because I can have better advertising placement but mainly because there is not too much money to be made. Sure, you can make a few hundred dollars a month if you do this seriously and a few hundred dollars at the current exchange rate is bloody good, but I doubt it will keep the home fires going. Blogging, or micro-blogging are not career options. The blog networks set up by Nick Denton in the US are laying off people. A well-run blog can make money, more money than some new magazines because the cost of bandwidth and server space is miniscule compared to the cost of newsprint, but as a career option. On a badly designed blog! Sorry to burst the bubble folks, but the bubble does not exist. Read Dan Lyons experience with the FSJ blog, and this guy ran a truly popular blog and is a 'propah' journo.
PS: Only 'propah' journos can do what Dan did to a CNBC twat, though after watching a lot of CNBC US, I'm pretty sure that the kids at CNBC TV18 are far smarter than their US counterparts. Though, really that isn't saying much.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

but writing a book can be..

abhi2point0 said...

Well, every bubble needs a "dream" story to kick it off and this one was clearly the start of ours:

http://www.labnol.org/internet/blogging/adsense-and-blogging-brought-me-this-car/2953/

If Rafat Ali could sell his gig to the Guardian for a cool 30m, there's hope for all them blogwalas, methinks!

Anonymous said...

Add to that, this:-
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/making-nasty-comments-online-can-land-you-in-jail/86799-11.html

Why would Rajdeep's channel be issuing this sort of a news report?

the trick, dear Caesar, lies in how we use the words. Insinuate. Poke. Prod . . .

Anonymous said...

Love the Donald Rumsfeld blog.
Sums up the Indian media pretty well actually !

13 said...

K, I make more than a thousand on Mutiny.in from adsense alone each month. It has a lot to do with traffic and placement.

Anonymous said...

BS launching tabloid??!!: http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/t-n-ninan-needed-muckrakers/351126/

Anonymous said...

looks like you bloggers think that everything in this country should be according to your way or there should be the high way for them.just because you people dont like the indian press it doesnot mean that they should speaking writing or commenting .india is still a democracy and journalists too has freedom of speech and expression.and mr k when people are actually disgruntled then they say that they are not.

K said...

I don't know whether I should take umbrage to being described as 'you bloggers' since if you do really, really read the blog slightly carefully - just very slightly - you'll know that I am a journalist. Sorry to blow my own trumpet, but not a bad one at that!

Anonymous said...

I prefer not to reveal myself right now, but I am a journalist who switched to blogging, and making much more than most journalists with my level of seniority.

But is it possible for every blogger to make money? No.

If you take it as your job, and have a serious go at it -- learn the tricks of the trade - SEO, social media marketing, personal branding using twitter - of course you can make brilliant money! Note: A post a day is not serious. 10 posts a day is. And thats just the beginning.

abhi2point0 said...

@Anon

Well said! If K gets "Serious" about this blog as you put it, he could go the way of mediabistro:

http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/35011/