PureBlogging

Read Write Web posted some fascinating findings from a survey it conducted recently, in which they asked 20 bloggers and social media consultants how much they make. An intrusive and personal question perhaps, but that’s why half of them agreed to give out that information on an anonymous basis.

Rather than write it all again, I’m going to use my coverage for WPN liberally:

It looks like the average rate on a per-post basis is $25, though some reported to make as little as $10 and as much as $80. “Let’s say these people are half-time pro-bloggers making $25 per post, writing 3 posts per day,” Kirkpatrick [of RRW] says. “That’s $75 per half-day, a little less than $20 per hour, about $1500 to $1750 per month for half time work. Take two of those jobs at once, do it for a year, and you’ll make about $40k.”

You could do worse, but in-house bloggers seem to be doing better. According to Kirkpatrick, respondents reported annual salaries ranging from $45k and $55k with benefits up to $70k, $80k and $90k with bonuses. “We’re tempted to say, based on the anonymously submitted but descriptive replies we got, that the closer to pure journalism our respondents were doing the lower their wages were,” he says. Now that’s interesting. Critics of blogs as news sources (like the one discussed in this article) ought to love that little nugget.

Those in-house bloggers still didn’t make as much as the participating social media consultants who make as little as $150 an hour, and most commonly about $300 an hour. That’s fascinating considering the amount of sponsored content infiltrating social networks. I have to wonder how the pay rates of these consultants reflect their practices in terms of white hat/black hat.

These numbers (while it should be kept in mind that there were only 20 anonymous participants) might make you jealous or provide you with motivation to reach that point (unless you’re already in the same range or are doing better). What do you think?

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OK, yes, this is the third post in a row about Johns Wu and his $15 million Bankaholic blog. I keep bringing it up because not only is this a wildly inspirational story for all bloggers aspiring to achieve success at the hands of their blogs, but I keep getting more info.

I talked to Wu a second time and came away with some more insight into his deal, which I wrote about in yet another follow-up piece at WebProNews.

Since we’re all about blogging here, I didn’t want this nugget to float by off the radar, so you can read that here.

From the little I’ve communicated with Wu, he seems like a pretty cool guy with some personality. He likes BBQ and making his own beer (not to mention Subway at drinking on the weekends [I wonder if he's checked out Google's latest Google Labs project - the drunken email filter aka: Mail Goggles]).

Anyhow, Wu said taht user engagement was a huge part of why his blog was bought by Bankrate.

He also noted in a comment on WPN that Shoemoney is the reason he got into web publishing. Not a bad endorsement for Shoemoney huh?

It just goes to show that you can learn a lot from other bloggers, and translate that knowledge into a ridiculous amount of money for yourself.

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You may recall my post from a week or two ago when I talked about blogs as credible news sources.  I consider  blogs and social media to be in the same ballpark, because after all, blogs are social and community driven as well.

After posting an article about CareerBuilder gaming Twitter at WebProNews, and talking about how social media legitimacy was deteriorating as a result of social sites not better policing their sites, I got into something of a debate with one of the commenters, who claims that there never has been or ever will be any legitimacy to social media as a news source. Obviously, that is a notion I disagree with.

Of course , seemingly right on cue, someone upset the “Apple” cart today on iReport.com falsely reporting Steve Jobs having a heart attack that temporarily sent Apple’s stock plummeting. I also talked about this at WebProNews.

That story would seem to favor the point of the guy I was debating with, but the community factor is what led to it being disproved, which kind of illustrates my own point.  To quote myself,

Where the legitimacy shines through is in the communities themselves. There are always others to call something out as BS in new media formats where discussion is the key to coming away with useful information.

When all is said and done, it is up to readers to use their heads and think about where they are getting their info. Just as has always been the case, (even long before social media, blogs, and citizen journalism were ever heard of) you shouldn’t believe everything you read. But damning an entire medium because some abuse it is just ridiculous.

Your thoughts?

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You all seem to like the link lists, so perhaps, I’ll just try to make one post a week one of these. It’s certainly less time consuming for me too

Here are some notable ones for today:

From 0 to 2000+ Subscribers in 90 Days – This is a post from early in the year at ProBlogger, so some of you may have read it before, but speaking of using good titles, it’s hard to beat this one when you’re addressing an audience of people wanting to increase their blog traffic.

Too – Google Co-founder Sergey Brin started a personal blog a couple weeks ago called Too, which I talked about here. He’s only made one significant post so far, but it’s a blog worth watching, based on the fact that he is one of the brains behind one of the most important technology companies in the world.

Anatomy of a Social Networking Friendly Blog (video) – Again, the title pretty much says it all, but it’s an interesting and increasingly important concept.

Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda Talks with WebProNews – This is an interview from the BlogWorld Expo. While I’m definitely not a fan of Linkin Park’s music, Shinoda’s take on blogging is somewhat interesting, if only to get the perspective of a celebrity.

Top 5 corporate blogging mistakes and how to avoid them – Lists are always interesting, and there is not question that corporate blogs are always making mistakes. This is an interesting look at the issue from David Meerman Scott.

Enjoy!

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Here’s the second in the series of “Blogs on…” I talked about here. I got some good responses on the one about blogging, with some good suggestions.  Now as promised, I will switch it up to a different category.

Also, just so this post doesn’t seem totally off topic, I should mention that blogs in all industries can often provide insight into good blogging strategies, whether it be in the are of design, marketing, or writing. Even if you have a blog about making money online, you can learn things from blogs about movies, football, or pottery. I think you get my point.

Since it’s Friday and the weekend is approaching, let’s talk about movies. I know many of you are probably going to the theater tonight or sometime before Monday, and if you are like me, you like to know about movies before they come out. Not necessarily anything to spoil the movies, but you just want to get a general sense about them. Anyhow, today, I’ll share three of my favorite movie-related blogs.

1. Bloody-Disgusting.com – First off, you should know that I am a huge horror movie buff first and foremost. Though there haven’t been many good entries in this genre to hit mainstream theatrical rotation this year, I still read Bloody-Disgusting, because they always have the latest news on just about everything horror-movie related. I don’t always agree with their opinions and reviews, but when it comes to reporting the news, they are second to none. If you are not a fan of horror films, don’t bother with this one. If you are a fan, there’s a good chance you’re already familiar with it. I don’t know if you would technically call it a blog, but for all intents and purposes, I read it like one (through RSS feeds) and the news section is laid out pretty much like one.

2. The MTV Movies Blog – It is safe to say that I find a lot of MTV’s online content much more useful than the content on their television stations. When it comes to getting news on bands and in this case movies, they do pretty well, and it is not limited to one genre, so if you don’t like horror, you might still dig this one.

3. Roger Ebert – I’m talking about what is technically his movie review site at the Chicago Sun Times, although it does provide a section where the posts from Roger Ebert’s Journal – his actual blog, are displayed. Again, I do not always agree with Ebert’s reviews, but he’s been doing it a long time, and there is no question he knows what he’s doing. His reviews are often thought provoking and sometimes humorous, and I respect his opinion, although I sometimes disagree. He really won me over by defending “Predator” when Siskel was tearing it apart.

So what blogs do you like to read when it comes to movie news? Are you even interested in movies? Tell me what you like.

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Google has yet another tool in the works that could potentially benefit bloggers greatly. Currently in Google Labs (aka: the experimental stage), Google In Quotes is a feature that lets you search for quotes taken from stories that are linked to in Google News.

Currently, there is only a limited number of people whose quotes you can peruse, and they’re all politicians. In fact, the site at this point defaults to an Obama vs. McCain format, allowing you to compare quotes from both guys on the same issues. You choose the topic, and Google In Quotes finds quotes from both.

What the tool does is separates actual quotes from articles, removing opinions and bias from the articles. While it is in such an early development stage, there are plenty of flaws so far, such as misquotes and paraphrased quotes, but maybe these problems will get worked out at least to some extent as the project moves further along.

What I’m thinking though, as this tool eventually (hopefully) turns into a regular Google News feature, is that you will be able to search for both the quote and the person, which will be great for those blogging (particularly on newsy items) and want to quotes from people they are writing about.

Combine a feature like this with Google’s proposed indexing of newspaper archives, and Google News will be an even more important tool for bloggers than it already is.

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