There is a myth being perpetrated in the tech blogosphere that it isn’t about the money; that the real bloggers do it for the love it. Well they might be doing it for the love of it but the money they are making isn’t hurting matters at all; after all when was the last time you saw a blogger needing to hire a CEO. However every time money and A-List is brought up in a post somewhere the disclaimers start flying.
So I decided to do some checking and I popped up the Technorati Top 100 Blogs listing and did some checking. Here is the resulting list of tech related blogs as of March 18 2007 (3:45AM) plus their current rankings:
1 Engadget Ads: Yes
2 Boing Boing Ads: Yes
3 TechCrunch Ads: Yes
4 Gizmodo Ads: Yes
7. Lifehacker Ads: Yes
10 Ars Technica Ads: Yes
18 Official Google Blog Ads: No
21 Seth’s Blog Ads: Yes (His books)
24 Kotaku, the Gamer’s Guide Ads: Yes
25 Gigazine.net Ads: No (foreign)
33 Topix.net Blog Ads: No
34 Problogger Ads: Yes
35 Joystiq Ads: Yes
36 GigaOM Ads: Yes
40 How to change the work Ads: Yes
41 Read/WriteWeb Ads: Yes
43 iLemoned Ads: No
45 Shoemoney Ads: Yes
47 A List Apart Ads: Yes
48 Joel on Software Ads: No
50 ze’s page Ads: No
57 Google Blogoscoped Ads: Yes
60 Metafilter Ads: No
61 Creating Passionate Users Ads: No
64 Micro Persuasion Ads: No
68 Scobleizer Ads: No
69 The Unofficial Apple Blog Ads: Yes
74 Techdirt Ads: Yes
75 Mashable! Ads: Yes
76 Apple Hot News Ads: No
81 Valleywag Ads: Yes
82 O’Reilly Radar Ads: No
83 Matt Cutts Ads: No
88 TechEBlog Ads: Yes
Now granted this is only the tech related blogs of the Technorati Top 100 which is derived from the popularly named A-List of bloggers which can; by Technorati’s own estimate, be in the 4,000 blog range world wide.
Out of the 34 tech related blogs of the Top 100 I found that 21 of them are monetized in one fashion or another so I think it would be safe to assume that the remaining 3,900 blogs of the A-List are proportionately monetized as well. I think it would also be safe to assume that while they may not be in the TechCrunch league of needing a CEO they are earning a little more than beer money.
Don’t get me wrong I don’t begrudge them a single earned dime – blogging is hard work regardless what people may think and as such they should get paid for it. The problem I have is when because of their stature and link power they appear to close ranks and feed among themselves.
Some of the A-List bloggers will say that just keep posting good content and you’ll make it. That’s is just a bunch of pure bullshit – plain and simple. The success of any professional blogger is gauged by his work but also by his or her’s link record. Simply put the more links you have in and out the more popular you are – the more widely read you are and for those that want to earn a living blogging professionally that means better advertising dollars coming in.
But when you have the upper echelon effectively doling out admittance to the bank vault then it doesn’t matter how good you write. When these self same prefects of linkage decide that they don’t want to honor your links then you find yourself stalled.
It is human nature for us to see a return for effort and it is no different with blogging; unless of course you are a Web 2.0 millionaire and have the luxury of passing on your wisdom for free. The rest of us mortals appreciate the rewards for our work. I just find the high on a horse self-righteous blogging purity attitude of some of the A-List a tad hypocritical and like many bloggers; and a growing number of readers, find the closed circle keep everyone else out mentality wrong.
I don’t really expect this to change anytime soon but in the meantime I’ll follow webomatica’s excellent list of blogger tips and work my way to the B-List. I might not like the hypocrisy but I love what I am doing and will keep on writing and I hope my readers will keep on appreciating my opinion; right or wrong 
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Advertising and Blogging Newbies
Well done, Steven.
When you’re a millionaire (or elected official… which is usually a millionaire), it’s easy to criticize isn’t it?
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I have a correction… my blog does not–and never has–taken any type of paid ad. Any book that shows up in the top right corner is one of my own… from my Head First series. The publisher has never paid me a dime for these, and I deliberately do not even use Amazon affiliate links, so if someone DOES click on one of the books… I don’t make anything beyond my publisher royalty (if they happen to buy the book).
Most of my readers aren’t in the target audience for the books, but I do hope they reccomend them to others they know.
I don’t judge those who take ads. If I found the right sponsor, I would consider it, because I would like so have more time to concenrate on it.
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This is the kind of content I like to read.
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[...] The A-List dirty little secret | WinExtra There is a myth being perpetrated in the tech blogosphere that it isn’t about the money; that the real bloggers do it for the love it. (tags: blogging money) [...]
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Another thing to remember about the A-list is a lot of them enter blogging as well-connected, highly successful people, especially in the land of tech blogs. They already have an established “personal brand” and extend their following to the blog world. Thus, it’s relatively easy for them to get those first few hundred subscribers that give them the leverage to make link exchanges and take advantage of other common blog promotion techniques.
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As mentioned, many of these bloggers were already known or successful to begin with, but I think you’re missing a larger distinction.
“There is a myth being perpetrated in the tech blogosphere that it isn’t about the money; that the real bloggers do it for the love it.”
Steven, I think that “myth” only applies to the B-List to Z-List bloggers. And even those of us in that category do it notoriety, exhibitionism, ego building etc – if that’s what we mean by “doing it for the love of it”.
The many blogs you’ve listed like Engadget, LifeHacker, Gizmodo, Kotaku et al are part of the two huge blog publishing networks: Gawker Media and Weblogs Inc (Now part of AOL). While I contend that these guys do create great content with a writing style that is more honest and raw than traditional media, they are in it for profit. But that’s transparent and has been part of these websites since practically their inception. No “Dirty Secret” here.
BoingBoing, I think is the sole exception of a large blog really embodying the “real bloggers do it for the love it”. While they to have ads, they have been known to turn down ads for products and services they feel are contrary to their ethics and philosophy, like ads supporting DRM.
Other sites like ValleyWag while technically blogs, are not blogs in the traditional sense: no open commenting, no trackbacks etc. They are more like a traditional newsrags that have liberal writing style and enables commenting for a select few readers.
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[...] The A-List dirty little secret [...]
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FYI, Gigazine, the #25 blog, is serving Google ads.
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Congrats, you got a link from Steve Rubel – you’re going to be A list before you know it
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Yep, my blog is in the Technorati 100 and yes, I accept advertising.
And yes also, when I was in high school I got to date all the good looking girls. Life is unfair.
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[...] A-List dirty little secret 14 hugh macleod, Steven Hodson, Steven Hodson, Webomatica, Gen Kanai [...]
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[...] within the Technorati Top 100 and whether or not the blogs run advertising. Steven’s title, The A-List dirty little secret, is a bit misleading but his overview brings up a simple [...]
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Some of the ones you say have no ads, have ads. Maybe not much ads, but they have ads.
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Most A-list Bloggers deserve their top spot because they are extremely talented. Very few get by simply scraping or getting linked by A-list friends.
Talent always finds its way to the top and that is holding true in the blogosphere.
Nice subject by the way!
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[...] Loren Baker bin ich auf einen Artikel von Steven Hodson aufmerksam geworden. Steven hat die These formuliert, dass Werbung (speziell in Fachblogs) [...]
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[...] The A-List dirty little secret 17 Mike, Peter Davis, Steven Hodson, hugh macleod, Steven Hodson [...] [...]
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[...] are so popular is the money that can be made by placing ads on them. Steven Hodson has posted a list he made on his blog of the top 100 ranked blogs in technorati and whether or not they use [...]
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[...] The A-List dirty little secret [...]
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[...] [BLOGS] The A-List dirty little secret (winextra.com, 11 saves) [...]
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[...] Steven Hodson in WinExtra writes, “Some of the A-List bloggers will say that just keep posting good content and you’ll make it. That’s is just a bunch of pure bullshit – plain and simple. The success of any professional blogger is gauged by his work but also by his or her’s link record. Simply put the more links you have in and out the more popular you are – the more widely read you are and for those that want to earn a living blogging professionally that means better advertising dollars coming in.” [...]
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I don’t really get the point, and I’m really wondering: what is it, let’s use my example Google Blogoscoped, that you object to that I do? Specifically and precisely, using concrete examples?
On a side-note, I believe there’s a fundamental difference between blogging to make money, and making money to blog. If you understand this difference you’ll understand the passion driving some of us — you’ll understand why some of us decided it’s worth it to quit their day jobs to peruse their blog full-time even when their blog makes much less money than their day job.
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[...] A-List dirty little secret 21 Steven Hodson, Philipp Lenssen, Steven Hodson, Philipp Lenssen, Mike [...]
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[...] The A-List dirty little secret [...]
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Kathy:
My apologies for the error and I have fixed it as of my first cup of coffee this morning
Thanks
I like writing stuff like this as well.
Very true
Mike Arrington – Successful Lawyer
Om Malik – Business 2.0 writer
The problem I have Daniel; and you could be right, is that this myth is flown higest by those in the A-List everytime the topic of advertising and blogging comes up.
The blogging purity cops denounce any kind of monetization and those that are monetizing successfully hold the reins of of the horses in the race; occaisionally acknowledging the lesser beings
ROFLMAO – thanks Jason … that might be true if the unique hits I’ve been getting in the last 12hrs turn to links
but wait .. does that mean I get to be a self-rightous misleader like him?
if so I think I’d be happy to nestle in with the B-Crowd
I realize that but just because a site serves up Google AdSense doesn’t change the fact that it is advertising supported or not.
Hugh:
that is what I like about you – consise and to the point
and the humor is great as well. I also thank you for dropping by as your visits and comments mean more than being #1 of a 100
Philipp,
I don’t have a single problem with with what you do .. not one. My problem is with those that say true blogging and / or citizen journalism should not be sullied by advertising. I used the Technorati Top 100 as an example only because it was the easiest way to provide a verifiable source for my point that you can still be an important blogger/online journalist and be supported by advertsing.
I also get irritated by A-List members who play with semantics about the existence of such a list and suggest that the only reason that bloggers such as myself aren’t their equals is because we don’t work hard enough. I find that attitude insulting and demeaning.
As I said in the post
As for your side-note I do understand the difference – very well in fact. I definitely do not sit in front of my computer reading feeds and writing my thoughts for the money – 10cents a day from AdSense doesn’t go far in a monthly grocery budget.
Would I like this blog; and my others, to generate enough money per month so that my survival stress load is reduced – you betcha I do. But because it doesn’t do that currently does not stop me from writing – because like you I love what I am doing. I love the fact that I am learning something new every day – not to mention that I am vicariously meeting some incredibly smart people – even if it is only through their words – much like when I read your blog everyday Philipp.
And much like I feel right now after trying to answer your questions – Thank you for that.
Thanks for the reply… do you have specific examples, perhaps again from my blog, where there is a closed rank? Because what happens is that I get many emails every day with pointers to stories and there’s never the issue of “this is not a top blogger, I won’t link to this.” In fact, if anything the opposite is true: I am much more unlikely to link to something fun if it’s on, say, #1 blog Boing Boing, simply because the chances are high that readers already came across it (hence my post adds less value than it would add if the post would be on a new, much less known blog).
Of course, if you’re saying “popular bloggers get more links”, yes, everyone would agree, I mean that’s how we define “popular blog”, right? By the size of the readership, the number of links to it, and so on? Popularity doesn’t automatically equal quality, of course. But this popularity is incredibly dynamic. For instance I have seen the great Google Operating System blog jump up certain popularity rankings, deservedly so due to the quality of his postings, and I don’t see any closed ranks at play here in terms of a-lists.
Yes, I have seen the “backrub” phenomonen too (you didn’t link to me, I won’t link to you), but I saw it play an incredibly weak factor. The main reason, IMO, is that bloggers are devoted to serving their audience, not other bloggers… and a link that stinks will still stink if it’s pointing to an a-list blog.
I think there are many interesting issues in the blogosphere, especially when money comes into play. I have yet to see a great description of these issues. As a starting point: good publications shield their journalists from the advertising office that handles the ad. Yet, many to most bloggers handle the ads on their own, and often blog about products that have been or will be covered in ads. Why is this a taboo in traditional journalism, and what risks are there for bloggers? An in-depth analysis of this issue, much more than “carries ads [yes|no]“, might add some new insights.
Another issue: are there closed “topic” ranks? Can you be as successful blogging about, say, Noam Chomsky, than you can be about tech companies? I’d say no, a blog’s popularity depends a lot on the chosen topic, and this might even mean that certain highly relevant topics may be ignored.
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This is the stuff that conversations are made of aren’t they? Something I sometimes find so lacking in the ego massaging of a lot of comment trains.
Philipp – I am admittedly a generalist sometimes to my determent I believe; but I think that stems from my love of technology as a whole which in turn makes it hard for me to niche-ify myself. For me the blogosphere is in the words of Dave Winer a river of information in which I tend to get gut reaction impressions. As far as your blog (Google Blogoscoped)is concerned I have never perceived any A-List clubbing.
That said I have seen a tendency for blogs in the Top 100 to exhibit a preference to fellow Top 100 members over smaller blogs. Are there exceptions to this? Sure there are but sites like TechCrunch, Scripting News, Jason Calcanis and Read/WriteWeb are going to link to a fellow Top 100 blog long before they would link to a blog like mine; or any of the many other excellent blogs who aren’t a part of the upper tier. It is pure economics of traffic that drives this linking model – not content (with the exception of Scripting News perhaps).
Is this wrong? .. No not really especially if you look at it from the economics point of view. As you point out bloggers are driven by their readers. However I would suggest that when a blog reaches a certain level of popularity and is being rewarded (handsomely in some cases) economically then self-interest and self-preservation attitudes can kick in. They are at this point also driven to maintain at the minimum their popularity and traffic in order to maintain their economic viability. To do this they have to give preference to links that will either help their traffic grow or at least maintain it. The 400 or 500 visitors that a link on WinExtra might send their way does not even come close to the thousands that will come from a fellow Top 100 site.
There is no right or wrong here in the way things are working – it’s a natural economic model and by its very nature will create a closed ranks mentality. This does make it very hard for blogs like WinExtra to break a story or get an original thought out there for discussion because there is no economic incentive for the big boys to do so.
This is not to say it doesn’t happen – hell I’ve had it happen here and have seen my readership spike as a result. However I have lately been thinking also that sometimes the value of a back link doesn’t always relate to who is providing the backlink. This is something that I will be writing on later today.
I agree with you though that a serious discussion of – much more than “carries ads [yes|no]” – needs to be done but done without being overshadowed by the disingenuous “blogging purity” argument. After all we would never expect a journalist not to get paid for their work nor would we expect any book author to not be paid for their work. So why is blogging; especially those trying to be professional, any different.
Thank you very much for this conversation Philipp – I am enjoying it immensely.