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You don’t make money from blogs

Listening to a podcast in which Denise Howell was a guest this afternoon in which she referenced a wonderful line from Doc Searls:

…there’s more money being made because of blogs than with them.

Point being, assuming I am not putting words in Doc’s mouth, that you do not make money from something you do directly on your blog. You make money, if that’s one of the goals of your blog, from the enhancement of your reputation and the trust you establish by virtue of your blog.

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  • http://www.blogsmart.com/ Dave Taylor

    I believe that there’s an entire world of bloggers that Doc and his “blog cognoscenti” that are unaware of. I know of a number of bloggers that are making over $100,000/yr, and lots that are making more than $1,000/month on their blogging efforts, Kevin. Depends on how you define things, I think.
    Are all of these blogs “personal observations and commentary with open comments and date/time stamps”? No, but they’re still blogs…

  • http://doc.weblogs.com Doc Searls

    The “because effect” (making more money *because* of a thing than *with* that thing) is in fact true of most useful things. You make more money because of your cell phone, your car, your office, your necktie… than you make with any of those things.
    We have, especially in technology culture, this assumption that everything needs a “business model.” That’s a mistake. Businesses need business models, but not everything else should bear the same burden.
    If you can make money with your blog, fine. But consider the possibility that you’ll end up making more money, or doing mre good in the world (whatever floats your boat) because of your blog, *without* advertising.
    In my case, I believe my blog is more valuable to the world, and to me, without advertising than with it. But that’s me. We’re all different.

  • http://www.howtomakeitrain.com RJON ROBINS

    I’m having a real problem with a few of the assumptions upon which this post & Doc’s comments seem to be based. Specifically, that making money and doing good in the world are mutually exclusive. Has a tinge of a Socialist philosophy, if you ask me.
    The fact of the matter is that the most profitable lawyers – in the long run – are usually also the most ethical & professional. They embrace a Rainmaking Philosophy that emphasizes solving client problems. . . and being compensated for the value we create.
    Compare that to the lawyers who go around touting the importance of ethics & professionalism, and then take a client’s last dollar for doing work that took several hours but produced no measurable value, i.e no results.
    In my experience, it is often those same lawyers who look down upon their peers who know how to make it rain for their law firms whether by blogging, advertising or other more effective means of Rainmaking.
    If a lawyer makes a personal choice not to try & generate revenue from his or her blogging efforts, then that’s fine. But I have a real problem with anyone suggesting to a lawyer who has the talent and energy to attract a large-enough audience to his or her blog, that there is anything wrong with wanting to earn some money from those efforts. Afterall, if readers weren’t interested in the ads, they wouldn’t respond. And if the readers didn’t respond, there would be no advertisers willing to place ads in that space.
    Respectfully,
    RJON ROBINS
    http://www.HowToMakeItRain.com
    Helping Lawyers In Small Law Firms Make Alot More Money!