It's easy for him to say "just write passionately and the money will come" because that was more true 4 or 5 years ago when he first launched Daring Fireball an

It's easy for him to say "just write passionately and the money will come" because that was more true 4 or 5 years ago when he first launched Daring Fireball and Merlin launched 43Folders. Since then the market has become overcrowded. People starting out today don't have the same early mover advantage. Even a passionate and well written blog has to fight for attention against thousands of more established competitors. Bloggers have also gotten more competition conscious and stopped linking as freely as they used to. Twitter, Facebook, et al are sucking up a lot of the attention that used to go to blogs. The reason you see so many Digg-bait type articles isn't necessarily because these bloggers lack passion, but because sensationalism and social media channels are one of the few remaining ways to gain a foothold. I find it a bit ridiculous when successful people say "just do what I did and you'll be just fine". It's just not true. Today is a different market and the strategies that worked a few years ago won't work today. That being said, I do agree with the overall premise that success comes from passion and differentiation. Your best bet is to own a specific niche, even if it's small, and write with a strong editorial voice.