Pay for blogging? Is it really that lucrative, Jack?

Hey. I make about enough per month in "click" throughs to pay for the cost of hosting my blogs. And, I have to pay taxes on the income to boot. I'd say I make about $1000 per year from my blogging. Jack probably makes a bit more since he has more ads, but I have a hard time imagining anyone with a 6 figure blogging income.

This blog has not yet reached the break-even point on an ongoing basis. The volume of material requires a dedicated server, which is not a cheap proposition. Soon I expect to have it out of the red, at least.

Does increasing traffic increase blog revenue, (as eyeballs per ad, I suppose)?

Does increasing time spent per unit of traffic increase blog revenue?

Jeez, Jack, if only you saw the light, came over to the dark side -- forget any principles you may glibly think of as 'yours' but that never actually gelled and set solid enough that you are going to 'take a stand on them,' for pete's sake -- fahgeddabouddit, and simply take the word of, do the deal with, adopt the opposition or support principles that pay good from the people to whom 'principles' actually matter, hey, ya' know what I'm saying?, things could work out pretty well for you, you'd be taken care of, living would be easy and, beyond a few occasional chores they might ask, you could have all the blog fun-on-the-side that you got into this for in the first place and nobody'd care, if you get my drift.

Blog power should bring rewards for someone as important as you in it, and there are people who can make that happen for you, if ya'know what I mean .... Think about it, Jack, and, ya'know, lose that hippy-dippy good-time plastic-fantastic banana-toking longhaired stuff about 'principles,' and step up and help yourself to a piece of the world -- ain't nobody born with 'principles' and you won't miss 'em at all. Just sign here and we'll be around from time to time to make sure everything's going smooth.

Daschle, Thune and the Blog-Storming of South Dakota, By Jan Frel, 02/22/2005

The blogging efforts on behalf of Thune's Senate campaign didn't cause greater civic participation or bring in piles of small donations. Instead nine bloggers -- two of whom were PAID $35,000 by Thune's campaign -- formed an alliance that constantly attacked the election coverage of South Dakota's principal newspaper, the Sioux Falls Argus Leader. ... these bloggers was focused on getting into the heads of the three journalists at the Argus who were primarily responsible for covering the Daschle/Thune race: ....

What they did may turn out to be a "dark side of politics" model for campaign-blogger relations ... bloggers relied heavily on now-discredited Jeff Gannon/James Guckert of 'Talon News' for many of their stories.

( James Dale Guckert ... conservative columnist, and reputed prostitute who worked under the pseudonym Jeff Gannon as a White House reporter between 2003 and 2005, representing the virtual organization Talon News. ...Gannon had never had an article published, and was not associated with any kind of news organization .... However, Gannon states that he was editor of his high school student newspaper ....)

But what kind of citizen journalist takes thousands of dollars from a political campaign he is writing about without telling his readers? ... the Thune campaign paid Lauck $27,000 and Van Beek $8,000 in 2004. Neither Lauck nor van Beek had disclosed on their sites the amount of money that they earned, and they did not specify what they were being paid for.

... as with other episodes of bloggers taking money from political campaigns, Lauck and van Beek’s lucrative and secretive relationship with the Thune campaign casts a shadow over the substance of their work. The lesson for readers is unchanged — that is, to be skeptical of all media covering politics, online as well as traditional. But one hopes that political bloggers will see value in policing their own ethics, since the trust of readers is their most precious resource. However, it’s likely that political operatives ['operatives'? 'operatives'? who they calling 'operatives'? Izzat red 'ops' or Blue 'ops' messing all over with ever'body's blog? ...] will learn a different lesson from the Thune bloggers, which is that the seeming authenticity of the blogosphere can easily be turned ....

See, I'm tellin' ya' Jack, you don't need no stinkin' 'principles' to be bringing home some o' that good ol' earmarked campaign porky pie ...
... and be a family hero kinda guy. Th-that, th-that, th-that's all, blokes.

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Oh, maybe a personal comment is in order. As said, no, one does not want to blog one's life away. And it can also be said one does not want to throw one's life away for the sake of the fascist wolves in sheepish Democrats' clothing such as Blumenauer, whose one single historic action in Congress -- fearing for his own life -- is refusal to IMPEACH the war criminals in The Fright House.

And supporting Patriot Act fascism. And appropriating wasted public tax money on mass murder war crimes, in Afghanistan, Iraq, and more.

No, you can't really trust 'blog comments' as much as personal acquaintance: I spent a half-day together with a 'friend' this week, in some circumstance where we were both helping a mutual friend in difficulty.

The two of us had more 'known of' each other, than 'known' each other.

And this exchange occurred. She told me her sister's husband "went to Iraq and never came back." That is: got dead. A good young Oregon kid. Dead for no reason to invade Iraq.

I showed her The Photo -- you must admit, the plane don't fit -- which effectively explains what fascist massmurderers Bush and Blumenauer are, together, violating their oaths of office.

She said she'd remember that about Blumenauer. I said I'd remember that about her sister's husband ... "went to Iraq and never came back."

... sorta like Congress, with our tax money.

Probably good advice for you. There is something particularly ironic about you posting an article on "death by blogging" and having your next post at 2:45 AM (an hour when most folks are sleeping). The next day, you're posting at 3 and 5 a.m.

So ... are you getting enough sleep?

Well, it was 9:45, (and 10 and noon) in London.

No ... there's something in the air, something's up, bad scoobies are going down. Stuff is in my dreams, too, and near-term future (events), between now and November, is not looking rosy. The whole enchilada is balanced on a razor's edge, for all the marbles. It's more than a foodfight on Mt. Olympus.

If you know any well wishes, be wishing 'em. And kiss your loved ones when you tuck them in at night.