Richie Riches In The Blogosphere

I think just about every blogger has taken a hack at this today, but Mark Penn has no idea what he's talking about. The income I make on this blog, and I would assume I'm in the vast majority, pays for one dinner, in a good week. Maybe there are a hundred or so in the liberal blogosphere making a living. Penn's numbers are simply wrong.

Now, gentle readers, you can prove me wrong by donating to my blograiser. But you could be quite sure that I wouldn't be spending time blograising if the ad sales was doing the job. I think the ad to your right is the only one I've had all year. Blogads has fallen off the cliff, especially out here in the long tail. If there are 452,000 people blogging as their primary source of income, that basically equals 452,000 unemployed people.

Lane Hudson takes this a bit further. The world where there are a half a million working bloggers must be the same world where Hillary Clinton has locked up the Democratic nomination because all the states are winner-take-all.

That said, I think it's a noble goal. I'd certainly welcome a world with a bunch of paid bloggers. In fact, the only way to do that now is with low-dollar community donations. Firedoglake has a funding drive up to support Marcy Wheeler in her investigative reporting. I've found Marcy's work invaluable and well worth supporting, so I recommend the effort. Not to mention my own, of course... :)