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I've been blogging since 2004 with no real ads or affiliate revenue to speak of, and it's news to me that it's "unsustainable." But then, I guess it depends upo

I've been blogging since 2004 with no real ads or affiliate revenue to speak of, and it's news to me that it's "unsustainable." But then, I guess it depends upon whether we mean "sustainable as in keeping me motivated to write," or if we mean, "financially sustainable as in keeping me in fresh sock garters and Camambert risotto." I get maybe $500 a month from people buying my books, and another $20 a month in amazon affiliate revenues from links to other people's books. If I tried to live on this, I'd starve. But this is not unusual, and I suspect that I am making more money than most people who blog. Let's be clear: It's very rare for someone to make their primary living from blogging. But that's true of most creative things, be it writing, music, art, custom bicycle frames. These are, by and large, terrible businesses from a venal point of view. Most people are in it for the love, because writing scratches their own itch. It's an awful business to be in: Like pop music, it's mostly a few big winners scooping the lion's share of the revenues, with everyone else scraping by or having a day job to pay the rent. I am ok with people paying me zero dollars, because I write for myself. If I tried to live off it, I'd have to make insane compromises, like putting out a new book every time a new language looked to become popular, or writing clickbait blog posts on a schedule. And even then, the odds are that I would just get by, and need to supplement that income with speaker's fees and consulting. Writing for money is a questionable model for a vocation, and a terrible model for an avocation. Writing for yourself is an excellent model for an avocation, but unsustainable as a vocation.

JumpCrisscross 9y ago
> It's very rare for someone to make their primary living from blogging. But that's true of most creative things, be it writing, music, art, custom bicycle frames Some kinds of blogging/newsletter-writing is cheap. Other kinds, particularly the investigative kinds, are not.
- braythwayt 9y ago
  That's true, and what we are witnessing in real time is those forms of journalism evaporate, as the web destroys their business models. I think that blogging is not the same thing as journalism, in many, many ways.
  - JumpCrisscross 9y ago
    > what we are witnessing in real time is those forms of journalism evaporate, as the web destroys their business models The Wall Street Journal and New York Times are doing fine. Smaller publications, too, like The Information seem to do okay. Paywalls work because (a) online ads are crap and (b) most readers are too cheap to pay unless forced to. > I think that blogging is not the same thing as journalism I agree. I also think this blurring of the line has caused people to expect both for free, which is clearly untenable. That said, newspapers include op-ed sections and some "thinker" newsletters I subscribe to (e.g. Mike Allen's political daily) have broken legitimate news.

JumpCrisscross 9y ago

> It's very rare for someone to make their primary living from blogging. But that's true of most creative things, be it writing, music, art, custom bicycle frames Some kinds of blogging/newsletter-writing is cheap. Other kinds, particularly the investigative kinds, are not.

braythwayt 9y ago
That's true, and what we are witnessing in real time is those forms of journalism evaporate, as the web destroys their business models. I think that blogging is not the same thing as journalism, in many, many ways.
- JumpCrisscross 9y ago
  > what we are witnessing in real time is those forms of journalism evaporate, as the web destroys their business models The Wall Street Journal and New York Times are doing fine. Smaller publications, too, like The Information seem to do okay. Paywalls work because (a) online ads are crap and (b) most readers are too cheap to pay unless forced to. > I think that blogging is not the same thing as journalism I agree. I also think this blurring of the line has caused people to expect both for free, which is clearly untenable. That said, newspapers include op-ed sections and some "thinker" newsletters I subscribe to (e.g. Mike Allen's political daily) have broken legitimate news.