Recent news in the pro blogger world hasn't been great for the rank and file writers. AOL has very publicly reduced pay for its authors. Profy has seen significant change due to pay changes. And others are worrying about getting ads, or getting click-throughs. As there are many opinions here, why not share what your opinions are on blogger compensation? - Louis Gray

(Caveat) I personally am not blogging for money, but instead for a hobby. I do have a full-time job that's not related to my blogging activity. I don't have ads, and as a consumer, I don't believe I view ads often, let alone click through. I am hoping others with very different viewpoints than mine can say what they think about how bloggers both "should" be compensated, or "are" being compensated. Looking for comments from Steven Hodson, Mark Hopkins, Duncan Riley, Cyndy Aleo-Carreira, Allen Stern and all. - Louis Gray

What is it that you do exactly, Louis? You're not Batman, are you? - Andrew Feinberg

Blogging is nothing new. In my culture, we used to have people traveling arround villages to tell stories to people and they were given some nickels and some food. They weren't rich, and didn't dream of being rich. What was important for them was the freedom to travel and speak. This tradition which is actually verry old got new tools today. That's it. If, IMHO, if you want money create products. - directeur from NoiseRiver

Andrew, my data is public on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in... - Louis Gray

@directeur, that opinion, which I've voiced before, is unpopular. One comment was that starting a blog, and then expecting ad revenue, is like mowing somebody's lawn and then knocking on the door to ask for money. But does writing and reporting have value? Do bloggers deserve to get paid? - Louis Gray

Nice question. - Mitchell Tsai

For me, blogging is a hobby, but I can't say that it hasn't helped my career at all...I think it certainly has. Ads really have nothing to do with that, though. - Eric Florenzano

Louis, you don't have ads, how do you pay yer bills? - gregory

@Louis: If information is worth paying for, than it's a product. If not, I for one really won't care and won't give a cent. People often talk about marketing as if it was only about who aqcuires who, googles, nasdaq, Yahoo... That's not marketing. THE one and very simple rule for marketing and money is: Create a product that satisfies a need. You can't create a need. You just create a product. And the way you make a product worth paying for is marketing. Do all bloggers create real products? I don't think so. - directeur from NoiseRiver

@gregory, see my note above via LinkedIn. The day job isn't free. As for bills on Web hosting or anything, in the long run it's pretty minor. - Louis Gray

HOW IN THE HELL do you do all that blogging with a non-related full-time gig? Henry Copeland at Blogads is the only one I've wanted to do business with because he's clued. I hope he can continue to grow the network. I sure don't make enough to live on, but i've paid a few months worth of car payments. As Doc Searls says, it's the 'because effect' - "6. We will make money by maximizing "because effects". "Because effects" are what happen when you make more money because of something than with it." - jeneane sessum

http://blogs.a.com/grounds... - jeneane sessum

I've been thinking about this for a long time. I don't blog for a living, it's an extension of me as a writer, director and info gathering explorer. I do believe though that as a service, if people enjoy it and want to encourage, then there should be an efficient way to monetize. Together we have the ability to create a network of services that are ad based supported to fit our needs. We no longer have to let others serve random ads to our readers. - michael sean wright

@louis, corporate marketing? is that branding services? I hear you on costs, I eat $50 a month to keep my blog and a few other friend sites alive... glad I love this stuff (as is obvious doing this on a friday) - gregory

@louis As Clint Eastwood said in Unforgiven, "deserves got nothing to do with it" but there is nothing wrong with trying to generate money from it if you can.... - Brad Collins from twhirl

There is room for hobby bloggers and for paid professional writers. The key is not to talk down to each other about what amounts to a personal choice. I am fortunate to be able to make money doing something I love so much. - Leslie Poston

gotta admit, I am amazed that you dont do this to pay the bills ,but yet, you are still an 'a-list' blogger -- amazing! - gregory

Can I just say that as an example of currently running paid ads, the Jarvis/Thong connection makes me giggle nightly? http://www.buzzmachine.com/2008... - jeneane sessum

Louis - As you and I have discussed in the past, I also do not monetize for my own reasons. Glad to see you split this thread off for discussion. I too have been chatting the past four weeks with successful and outright frustrated bloggers that are trying to monetize. I am going to bookmark this and return after (hopefully) a few of them chime in. There are, unfortunately, a few snake oil salesmen out there that make it look all too easy. - Charlie Anzman

Professional bloggers should absolutely get paid a fare wage. What's considered fair pay? How is the pay structure determined, per story, per week, flat rate? I think the only way bloggers will be able to make a career out of this, is to be under the umbrella of sites like mashable, readwriteweb, etc. The exceptions would be a handful of bloggers, who stand out on their own and can garner enough advertising revenue to make a full time career out of it. - Mike Fruchter

To a certain extent quite a bit has to do with the subject/genere of the blog. I'm at a social media site for football (soccer) and we can't find enough quality bloggers to pay - Joe

I do not pay my bills with my blog. I'm also probably a member of the Z-List, only because that's the lowest down I can go. I would have to say that the potential for income extends beyond the blog itself. Beyond ads and click-throughs. I believe that if I provide valuable content and promote it, I will create opportunities for income. - Rah-PM 2012

I detailed my experiences/pay w/ 3 different ad partners last year here - http://allied.blogspot.com/2007... - jeneane sessum

What IS new is that a guy who pumps out three gazillion blog posts per day and has been knighted to the top of the a-list has no ads and is only blogging as a hobby. And he has twins. Dude. - jeneane sessum

@Steven, this was a request by Charlie Anzman, grumpy-puss. :-) - Louis Gray

As content publishers, we constantly look to lower costs of acquisition. We all want the best content, and bloggers are historically paid pennies as compared to unionized "journalists" which is why we "employ" them. I am not saying a union is the correct direction, but the AOL issues are proof that as blogging has become so much more competitive, bloggers have taken less and less to "get the job"... should standards be set as a community? Who advocates for bloggers? - Scott Goldblatt

So you are saying you aren't Batman? - Andrew Feinberg

Your comments always amuse me Steve hahaha - Gordon Swaby

Well i feel if you think blogging was going to pay forever then you should get your own server and start blogging. that just common sense - Uway

Steven's grumpy because I promised to Skype him today and couldn't get there :) ...The 'real deal' is that people don't read the same stuff and / or visit HERE here every day. Re-runs of threads, previous conversations and even blog posts are important and sometimes the dialog can lead to solutions (or prevent disasters) - Charlie Anzman

Andrew - Louis IS Batman ... a deeply guarded secret - Charlie Anzman

I blog because I have something that I think will benefit others for the most part. I do a few text-link ads on really old posts, but any money I ever make on my blog should be used just to cover my costs. My issue is, the busier I get, the harder it gets to blog, so if I eventually get too busy I may have to supplement it with some ads to cover my cost of blogging. I don't think I'll ever turn it into a full-fledged business though. - Jesse Stay

oops, hit enter - the difference between a blog and a news service is one is a business, and one is a hobby. Both can have ads, but the for-profit one is just a news service IMO. - Jesse Stay

Why "WE" don't make money is pretty straight forward its because of the democratisation of the labour pool. Anyone and their dog can blog. Remember in the 80s when little corner video stores opened everywhere? That was because anyone could start that business and eventually it went bust for the small guy because margins were so thin. What is happening now is the same as that and the same as when newspapers were originally started as they didn't get paid well either. If you blog for $$s its a mistake - Roger Kondrat

at least right now it is as blogs are experiencing massive growth and exploding with hobby interest. Once the market settles in 5 years maybe that will be the next wave. @Louis help me there is a marketing term for this last part - second mover? Its basically what Google did no? - Roger Kondrat

Where did the money go? Check out just this strip in London and notice the sheer number of bloggers on one strip - http://londonbloggers.iamcal.com/station... - Roger Kondrat

I blog mainly because it is fun, it helps me to share stories for my business, Most of my blogs have ads, that's nice to pay some related bills. Blogging is just like reading and writing on FriendFeed and Twitter a lot of fun and meeting new people for me. - Erno Hannink

Louis, don't confuse a couple of stories with the overall picture. There are more great paying blogging jobs today than there has ever been, and I believe the market still has a lot of growth opportunities. However, it's harder today to make money out of blogging than it was 1, 2 or 3 years ago. Competition continues to increase, margins become tighter as the ad pot is split more ways. Consider as I noted yesterday, that blogs are really no different to small businesses - Duncan Riley

In terms of "fair pay" as others mention it, I've long been concerned that the economics in blog pay is messed up, and that many aren't being paid fairly. But I've also noted that as long as there's people willing to write for lower rates of pay, so shall the pay rates remain low. It's a challenge. I'm not going to pretend I pay my writers enough, but I pay them more than they'd get most other places. If the site breaks even, I'll be paying them more. - Duncan Riley

I always have this burning question: Are full-time Bloggers (those who are not under the likes of Mashable, RWW, and others) really surviving on ads alone? Their online influence would probably have extended to the real world and allowed them to get other sponsorships or endorsements that would help pay the bills right? - Winston Teo

Noticing that no one is talking terribly much about quality. What it takes to be a 'blogger' is access to a device with internet capability and fingers to type. What it takes to be a 'professional blogger' is having other people pay you to write content in blog format. Whether that pay is by direct hire or ad revenue - if you make your income that way, you're a professional. Unfortunately, the economy drives this market just like it does all others. - Lucretia Pruitt

Winston, there is always options in that direction. Some do books, endorse products, or do the paid speaking rounds - Duncan Riley

Duncan, that's a great point - if you don't do advertising, but do get consulting, book promotion, etc. from your blog is that "selling out"? In the end I think we all benefit monetarily in some way or another from our blogs. Does that make ads worse if that's the case? - Jesse Stay from twhirl

Jessy, no. It's all part of the potential mix. It's just that the way to profit isn't always via advertising - Duncan Riley

The economics of blogging remind me a bit of the economics of drug-dealers as described in the Freakonomics book, except that life expectancy is greater and likelihood of incarceration is much lower in blogging. I don't believe there's any problem with making money while blogging as long as you have a solid disclosure policy in place and adhere to a reasonable code of ethics. Thing is, being paid for blogging is not THAT different from being a freelance writer of any kind - - Mark Dykeman

cont'd - you're more likely to get published if you'll work for free or for ridiculously low wages. Having said that, although I'm no expert on the economics of the publishing industry, I believe that publishing periodicals has always been a tough way to try to make money unless you have economies of scale (e.g. low costs) or mindblowing content that allows you to command a premium price. If the enterprise can't survive, can't pay its writers/bloggers. - Mark Dykeman

Happy to see this discussion is still underway - Charlie Anzman