Sunday afternoon, Keith and I met a prospective client at a local restaurant. One of those that isn't quite fast food, but isn't quite sit-down either. You place your order at the counter, wait for your food, and also fill up your own beverage cup at a station that is in the dining room portion of the establishment, so all customers can be responsible for their own drinks and refills.Why am I telling you all this? I'm not really sure. To set the scene, I guess. So we're talking to this small business owner about what his site needs, and I excuse myself to go over to the other side of the dining room and refill my drink. Once I'm over there, I notice a man on a laptop, typing away. As this establishment boasts free wi-fi, this isn't an unusual sight.
What is unusual, however, is that he's covered the back of his screen with a piece of paper that says, "Blogger at Work ... and available for hire." I was quite intrigued. My immediate reaction was to go up to him and ask what kind of a response he gets to this impromptu advertising. Does he just hear from other bloggers like myself, or have some freelance writing opportunities actually come about due to his unique signage?
I stopped myself from starting up that conversation, though, since I did have to get back to my meeting. But ever since then I've wondered.... what made him decide to do that, whether it's been effective .... and an even bigger question that I've been pondering for a while: Can you make a living as a blogger? Or, more aptly, can I make a living as a blogger? I know some people have done it with a huge amount of success, and other use their blogs to supplement their incomes.
I just want to write for 30 minutes every morning, on any topic that enters my head, and get paid a lavish salary for it. Is that so wrong?
3 comments:
You must still be under the weather... you actually made typos for a change ;)
I'm not sure that blogging for a living would be that great a job. I tried to improve my site to get a few more hits. I invited a couple more authors, added Google Adsense to make a few pennies here and there and revamped the design. Now I find it's totally lost it's identity. All I wanted was more hits and a bit of revenue, but I'm not sure that's such a good thing. For the first coupla weeks since the relaunch I've been totally CONSUMED by the task of managing it all. And God knows you don't need ANOTHER time consuming hobby, right?
I tend to think that people who make any sort of money out of blogging are the very tiny minority.
You can probably count them on one hands.. Dooce, Petite, Scoble, Mann.
If you change the game though, and offer something different, the world opens up. Scott Adams comes to mind (author of Dilbert)
Bren: You're right! There were a shocking amount of typos. Perhaps not the best way to convince someone my brain's ability is worth renting?;)
We sound similar in that we have a tendency to be drawn toward/sucked into time-consuming activities. And I always ask myself, "How did this happen?" And then I do it all over again. So if it's wasn't the website for you, it would probably be something else;)
Jonathan: How did you know I just found out about Dooce?!? I do keep thinking that there must be a way to make money and I just haven't thought of it. By changing the game, as you say. Still waiting for that flash of inspiration ....
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