reservocation: Briefing for a Descent into Heck
A thoughtful essay about receiving compensation for your writing on the independent web. I think about sites like littlegreenfootballs that provide a service to the community: current news about an important topic and a place to discuss it. That to me is something worth paying a few bucks for. Then I think about my site and others like it, and no matter how much I enjoy them, they don't provide enough of a service to be worth much. Fresh links? Sometimes. Well-written prose? Once in a while. Basically it comes down to this: the amount of work you put in is directly proportional to what you get out of it. If like Mark, you're constantly writing software and giving it away or publishing great little essays about new technology, you're probably worth something. If on the other hand your blog is a glorified personal journal, you'll probably get nothing.
Now, to prove me wrong, there are sites that are nothing more than diary sites that make small amounts of money. They ask for donations, a few dollars, and people give it to them. It's my opinion that you can only do this in the blogosphere. Picture going out with a few of your friends, ranting about some television show you watched the other day, and then asking everyone to give you a few bucks for it. Yeah right.
Don't get me wrong, I'd like to make a few bucks just like the next person, but you only really deserve it if you earn it. Good luck and best wishes, fellow blogarians.