How Much Can Bloggers Make?

Posted on September 26, 2005

Wired has an article about blogging for money that focuses on the blog networks like Gawker Media and Weblogs, Inc. Wired says that Weblogs, Inc., which runs over 90 weblogs, pays bloggers $200 to $3,000. Weblogs, Inc. co-founder Jason Calacanis said a bonus is that bloggers get to write about a subject that interests them.

Calacanis employs 120 bloggers and publishes 90 blogs -- including Engadget (which covers consumer electronics) and Blog Maverick, typed by billionaire entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks' owner Mark Cuban -- with his writers making anywhere from $200 to $3,000 a month. (One presumes Cuban doesn't do it for the money.) On average, Weblog salaries are about a quarter to half what a mid-level editorial job would pay, without the daily office commute.
"Not to mention (bloggers) get to write about the topic they are most passionate about," said Calacanis, who claims to be on track to collect more than $1 million in Google AdSense payments over the next year. "So, for our folks, it is like they are making money off their hobby. Think a scuba diver or video-game player making $500 to $1,500 a month writing about scuba diving or video games."

Gawker's CEO Nick Denton won't say how much he is paying his bloggers. There have been reports that Gawker pays $2,500 a month plus bonuses for traffic jumps based on an IWantMedia.com interview. Nick Denton says this figure is wrong. Adam L. Penenberg, the author of the Wired article, guessed pay ranges of $5,000 to $10,000 per month for some of Gawker Media's top blogs like Gizmodo and Defamer but Denton says these numbers are wrong as well.

The article left out discussion of what an individual blogger could make. Darren Rowse at ProBlogger recently said he is a six figure blogger. Rowse has a good post here that explains several of the third-party advertising services bloggers can try. Syndicated columnist Kim Komando also recently discussed some of these services in a recent USA Today article.

Keep in mind that it will take lots of traffic to increase blog revenues. Jossip and Queerty founder David Hauslaib told Wired that traffic is the key:

Whether you are Calacanis, Denton or Hauslaib, to create a profitable blog requires much more than a keyboard, an internet connection and too much caffeine. You need a talented writer entertaining enough to hold an audience, a consistent publishing schedule, content worth linking to by other bloggers and worthy of press coverage, marketing savvy to sell advertising or enlist third-party networks and, as a culmination of all of this, plenty of traffic.
Says Hauslaib: "If a blog debuted with virtually zero startup costs, then it takes little to earn a profit. One ad will do it. But at the bare minimum, a lone blogger will likely need to attract high four- to five-figure daily visitor figures to even attempt a blog-based livable wage."

A very tiny bit of information about blogger salaries was revealed in a recent New York Magazine salary guide. The article listed the salary for two bloggers: Jim Romenesko at $169,187 and Jessica Coen (Gawker.com) at $30,000. A Page Six article from earlier this year said that Matt Drudge makes close to seven figures.