CAN ONE MAKE A LIVING FROM BLOGGING ALONE?

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Department of the Salt Mines, Talented Slaves Division

Clearly one can make a living from blogging though whether more than few make a good living – something of a personal matter – is an open question which I won’t attempt to answer. Currently, we’re going through a phase during which too many blog writers are chasing too few markets, so the fees paid to many writers are derisory; but that may change as the market mature and more attention is given to the quality of the writing. So far my impression is that a great many blogs are impressively mediocre, but  that some terrific talent is emerging In short, this new genre is going places.

I have been particularly impressed by some of the financial bloggers, and will shortly be posting a list on my TITANIC NATION blog (where I talk about the future of this country) but I am becoming increasingly aware of some marvelous writers who blog about writing and much more besides. One notable example is Carol Tice  who has just sent out a high content blog which lays out the details of how she earned $5,100 in a month. Her golden rule is “Never run out of story ideas” and she certainly seems to follow it because she wrote no less than 58 posts to earn her money. Frankly, she shouldn’t have to because she is damn good, but I suspect that reflects the current state of the market.

A feature of writers like Carol is that they are generous with their information and helpful to aspiring writers.  In that spirit, she is involved with The WM Freelance Writers Connection, a truly invaluable site that is updated every day. There is no doubt about it: If they don’t already, women are going to rule the world. If they are as talented as Carol, and work as hard, they may well deserve to.

But Men Write Too Department

We do indeed and here let me draw your attention to a highly entertaining writer called Brett Kelly who not only wrote the definitive guide to Evernote, Evernote Essentials but publishes a high content blog which helps computer illiterates like myself get the most out of our software. His extremely helpful blog is appropriately called Bridging the Nerd Gap – or chasm in my case. He’s just excellent.

Department of Sad News

About a year ago I did an assignment for the Piasecki Aircraft Corporation and was agreeably surprised to find that their director of administration, Vicky Myers, bore a striking resemblance to actress Jill Clayburg, a real favorite of mine since I saw her in that marvelous movie, An Unmarried Woman.  Today, we learned that Jill Clayburg had died – way too young – of cancer at the age of 66. I’m normally not much of a celebrity follower, but this news has touched me.