Jason Kottke, a Web veteran and longtime blogger whose work I’ve always respected and enjoyed, has quit his job to blog full time, and rather than go the advertising route, he’s passing a patronage hat. I kicked in a wee bit and encourage you to do so as well if you are one of Kottke’s readers, or if you become one.
Making blogging pay is not easy; making any kind of online publishing pay, when you’re hand-producing content, is hard, I can safely say, after a decade of trying. Sponsorships and advertising raise the same sorts of ethical concerns in blogs as they do anywhere else; even when you’re ethically alert, you can’t help facing tough calls pitting your duty to your readers against the demands of your advertisers. (J.D. Lasica’s recent piece in the Online Journalism Review thoroughly explores this ground.)
Some high-profile political bloggers (e.g. Sullivan, Marshall) have made a go of it as independent blogger/publishers outside of any institutional framework. But the passions of partisanship help open people’s pocketbooks; it’s brave of Kottke to try this from a perch largely outside the political fray.
Personal publishing is a grand dream. Exactly ten years ago, in February 1995, I posted the first (and only) issue of my own Web magazine (warning: ancient HTML alert! Prehistoric navigation scheme ahead!). It’s what I thought I’d end up doing, and if Salon hadn’t come along, I probably would have given it my all. Today the tools are better, and our understanding of the power of the network is stronger and subtler, and if folks like Jason Kottke can make a go of it, we’re all going to feel a little more free.
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