Blogging for $$$

Darren @ Problogger posted a blog about how much money he was making through Google's adsense program. It got slashdotted (linked by a news site and then it was overwhelmed by thousands of instant viewers. See also flashcrowd : a theory from one of my favorite authors).

His most recent post reveals the amount of the cheque (Aussie Dollars?) that he alluded to in the first post :

You’ll see from the following that from 1 May - 31 May 2005 I earned $14,436.45. I know some will accuse me of doctoring this but this is all I’m giving you. I can’t think of any other way to prove what I earn and feel like I’ve stooped a little in doing it anyway. Hopefully in doing this I answer a few questions and dispell a few myths.

Of course, I don't advocate you attempt to make a living at this blogging thing. I can't imagine the amount of daily posting of 'interesting' facts, figures or news that one would have to endure. Not to mention that the blog would pretty much have to follow one subject matter so that it can become enamored by it's readership...

But then, even slashot.org is a geek's blog now isn't it? And while I do try to not surf the blogs that are obviously made to be commercial, I do enjoy reading one that has my interests in mind.

And now hackaday appears to be one of those lovable sites that I found one day and then all of a sudden, everybody is linking to it until it will become so popular that it will be bought out by some large corporation. I'm suddenly reminded of how I used to listen to U2 a lot before the Joshua Tree album (but I digress as usual).

I was just reading one blogger's take on why blogs are becoming so popular. Spam is ruining email, and reviews and product information on sites like cnet.com (an ex-favorite of mine) are too formal and take too long get through :

Web logs hit the sweet-spot: They give a personal voice to these issues, they are so easy to use that things are blogged that might not otherwise be recorded anywhere, and they are archived forever for anyone to find.

Bloggers are taking back the internet (see also the days of usenet in days of yore) !!?