Newsweek has an interesting article this week on the Alpha Bloggers (A list bloggers) – There is nothing too new in it although I was interested in this last paragraph – complete with a typical Doc Searls back hander swipe at a Probloggers.
‘And what do the alpha bloggers get in return? Certainly not riches. Though it’s possible to pick up a few hundred dollars if you enlist in the program that carries Google’s ad on your site, many A-listers don’t bother. “If you’re into blogs to make money, you’re into it for the wrong reasons,” says Searls. “Do you ask your back porch what its business plan is?” On the other hand, some alpha bloggers report better jobs, more lucrative consulting, speaking gigs and—if not groupies—a certain bit of glamour that comes from having people hang on your every word at the end-of-day reception at a tech conference.’
Call me stupid – but this is the second or third time I’ve heard the ‘back porch’ comment – and I’m still trying to work out what its Doc is on about.
Whilst I agree that blogging is so much more than making money – I don’t have an issue with people commercializing their blogs or even having making money as a motivating force for blogging. To me I look at it similarly to the way I see news papers, magazine and other traditional forms of media – most of which these days must have some way of sustaining themselves. Of course there are other motivations for starting newspapers and magazines – but we don’t complain that they are commercial also. Anyway – I think the debate about problogging is getting a bit old. Each to their own I say – lets just get on with blogging.
Read more of this article at MSNBC – The Alpha Bloggers
