News for Professional Bloggers

Seven out of 10 bloggers earn less than $500 per month, belieying the acquisitions surrounding this newest media property. Although unscientific, a survey found 29 percent of participants reported making less than $10 per month, up from 26 percent in 2007.

The survey, by Australian blogger <a href=”http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/01/02/how-much-money-do-bloggers-make-blogging/”>Darren Rowse</a>, in October asked readers of the ProBlogger.net to indicate how much money they made from the activity.

“I’m certain that there are inaccuracies in it,” Rowse wrote Wednesday. Although some participants “for fun” likely said they were making large amounts of money from blogging, this year’s results were similar to past surveys.
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Rowse removed 37 percent of the responses that indicated they made no money from blogging, a move he said was to “concentrate just on those who make at least some money from their blog.” Rowse writes about how bloggers can make money from blogging and is often referred to as the ’seven-figure blogger’ for his income from the pursuit.

Among the more interesting results from the survey:

<li>29% (or 1,162 participants) said they made less than $10 per month. That is 3% more than in 2007.</li>
<li>9 percent (or 373 participants) made $20,000 or more per month.</li>
<li>4 percent (or 150 participants) made $1,000 to $1,499 per month.</li>

Rowse said the number of people claiming to make $20,000 or more per month may have been “skewed.” Although the percentage is the same as was found in 2007, this year’s upper figure ($20,000+) is higher than in 2007. ($15,000+).

This is the third year Rowse has asked readers about their blogging income. The results appear to run counter to the flurry of blog closures and warnings about drastically lower online advertising budgets in 2009.

(This story originally appeared in The Blog Journal.)

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The staid Consumers Union has acquired the snarky Consumerist.com from Nick Denton’s Gawker Media. The acquisition is designed to help CU attract younger readers to its advertising-free magazine Consumers Reports and Web site, the <a href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/31/business/31consumer.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print”>New York Times </a>reported Tuesday.

In November, Denton put the Consumerist up for sale and closed Valleywag. The blog network owner told the newspaper he also plans to sell Defamer. Denton has warned of a precipitous drop in online advertising.

Although financial terms were undisclosed, Consumerist editor Ben Popken and senior editor Meghann Marco will become co-executive editors. Two writers laid-off - Chris Walters and Carey Greenberg-Berger will return to the payroll starting Jan. 1.
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“When Consumers Union was formed, it was a pretty snarky, aggressive organization that took on big organizations just like Consumerist is doing today,” Consumers Union executive vice president John Sateja told the Times.

The average age of a reader of the print edition of Consumers Reports is 60 with visitors to ConsumersReports.org is 50. That compares to the Consumerist.com’s readers which are mostly between 18 and 49.

No matter how difficult the online advertising climate becomes, Consumerist will likely benefit from steadier revenue. Along with dropping advertising from the new Web site, Consumers Reports saw revenue jump 10 percent to $229 million - during a period when print is declining.

(Originally published at Blog Journal.)

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We plan to make some changes in our network of professional blogging sites, starting January 5 of 2009. Our new site, Blogging Journal (now in soft launch) will become the hub of all activity. Pro Blogging News will become the newswire for everything blogging-related. PBN will also feed the following sites, which eventually will become subdomains of Blogging Journal:

• Associated Blogging - Becomes the premiere site for blogging tools and content. If you need a theme (free or premium) you’ll find download or purchase links, along with user reviews to help you decide. We’ll also be offering a one-stop site for plugins and add-ons. What’s a site without content? We’ll offer the best blog post services, video and photos for your project.

• Pro Twitter News - We’ll cover Twitter’s race for revenues and the growing number of companies springing up to serve (or more accurately, monetize) the users of this micro-blogging phenom.

Along with the three core sites, Blog Media Group is the blog for my main content and blog-services company. You’ll be able to check up on the state-of-the-art in blogging, track the trends and take advantage of our money-saving offerings.

Let me know your opinion.

Ed

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The Toronto-based blog network b5media earned $1.3 million in 2007, a more than 1,000-percent increase over its first year in 2005, according to a hometown profile. Read more about how the network has grown at our new site, Blog Journal.

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In a page possibly taken from Microsoft’s crushing of Netscape, Automattic is using its WordPress theme directory to penalize the sale of customized blog designs.

“Themes for sites that support “premium” (non-GPL or compatible) themes will not be approved,” the WordPress.org theme directory now warns.

The removal affected about 35 percent of 700 free themes available from WordPress.org’s theme directory.

With many self-hosted blogs using the open-source WordPress platform created by Automattic founder Matt Mullenweg, removal from the WordPress.org theme directory is akin to an iPhone developer being striken from Apple’s Apps Store.

Like the App Store, which is linked to from every iPhone purchased, each copy of the WordPress software includes a link to the theme directory.

“Since Monday we’ve been clearing stuff out en masse,” Mullenweg told the Blog Herald Friday.
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The BlogHer network told writers it will reduce by 10 percent their share of advertising revenue starting Jan. 1, according to a Friday report.

The women’s network said revenue sharing will be based on 90 percent of gross ad income, down from 100 percent. The change was outlined in a memo by BlogHer founders Elisa Camahoty Pagem, Jory Des Jardind and Lisa Stone and obtained by AllThingsD.

The trio blamed rising administrative costs due to the network’s success for the new deal. PaidContent reported the 90 percent arrangement covers the following:

“Sales commissions, costs associated with serving the advertisements, administrative third party fees, campaign referral fees and other miscellaneous administrative expenses.”

BlogHer operates 2,500 blogs and received $5 million in second-round funding earlier this year.

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Mix two trade shows with similar names and audiences, the same venue and back-to-back dates and you get the makings of the stronger lunching on the carcass of the weaker. So is the case with Blog World Expo acquiring New Media Expo.

The new BlogWorld Expo & New Media Expo runs Oct. 15-17 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The new show will promote both blogging and podcasting.

Selling to BlogWorld will give New Media Expo creator Tim Bourquin “even more time to develop several podcasting sites I’ve been working on for a while,” according to a statement.

Without meaning to, serial trade show promoter Rick Calvert summed up the relationship between his BlogWorld Expo and Tim Bourquin’s New Media Expo:

“It was a little uncomfortable for both of us,” he mentioned in a blog post announcing the acquisition - terms of which were not disclosed.

In 2006, Calvert discovered he’d be competing with Bourquin for the attention of the increasingly lucrative new media audience. Prior to BlogWorld, Bourquin created Podcast Expo (a year later renamed Podcast and Portable Media Expo, attracting the likes of Sony, Microsoft as well as Mashable, Blogger & Podcaster magazine and Giga Omni’s New Teevee.

All is fine until BlogWorld wants to debut in Las Vegas with the name “BlogWorld & New Media Expo.”

This year, both BlogWorld and New Media Expo both used the Las Vegas Convention Center. Bourquin’s New Media Expo was set for August and BlogWorld would follow in September, opening the possibility of new media overdose.

The deal announced earlier this week had its beginnings two months ago, when Bourquin phoned Calvert to congratulate him on the success of BlogWorld. BlogWorld & New Media Expo 2009 is billed as “The first and only industry-wide conference, tradeshow and media event for all new media.”

Faced with a tough economy, larger tradeshows have been hit by loss of some exhibitors. Macworld Expo 2009, set for January, has seen Adobe scale back its participation while other companies have announced plans to bypass the Apple gadget gathering. Calvert did not respond to requests for comment on how the economy will impact his blogging tradeshow.

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In one of those ‘why hasn’t someone thought of this before moments,’ a blog has launched to cover the tech startup scene of So. California and along the West coast.

Sean Percival, who worked for Mahalo before it laid-off 10 percent of its workers in November, says the news and gossip site Lalawag will borrow heavily from the snarky remains of Valleywag while also focusing on the LA tech scene.

“The space here is unique to say the least,” Percival explained on his personal blog.

Monday, the site featured photos of a Sonoma wine trp with birthday boy LA marketer Brian Solis and a Twitter interview with Calley Nye, described as the “nubile tech diva-rette that hit the big time writing for TechCrunch then created TechNews.LA.

Along with Percival, the LaLaWag writing staff is rounded out with ex-Valleywag intern Alaska Miller.

(Hat-tip to Duncan@Inquisitr)

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Don’t expect any new snarky blogs from Nick Denton’s Gawker Media, the Brit tells MarketWatch’s Jon Friedman.

In a rambling interview, Denton said pageviews for Gawker sites in November jumped 68 percent to 253 million over 2007. Despite the climb in audience, Denton told Friedman its “better to err on the side of pessimism.”

Denton has closed six of his 18 sites, including Valleywag, Wonkette, Idolator and Gridskipper.

Denton, who has said he expects a 40 percent dive in the advertising market, chastised Viacom for cutting only 7 percent of its employees.

“We’re more ruthless,” he said.

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