and to be honest with you, i hope it happens sooner than later.
and to be completely frank, ive been trying to sell out seriously for the better portion of this year.
this morning i woke up and read a good article on ClickZ Today called “Paid Subscription Blogging” where the idea of making money from ones blog was discussed.
At the very bottom of the article an industry insider said that charging people to read a blog will probably only be successful on a few blogs. He mentions Drudge, the Instapundit, Andrew Sullivan, Fark… and dumbass me.
Although the flattery of being part of that amazing short list is priceless, let me say here and now that you, precious reader, will never be charged a premium to read the busblog.
If someone wants to pay me money to write for their blog, newspaper, or magazine, I will gladly consider their terms. If someone wants me to tone down the busblog by not saying things like fuck the fucking president, or by not showing scantily clad women, or not calling bullshit on the bullshitters, and if they pay me the proper price, then i will tone down the busblog.
But under no terms will you ever be charged to read this brilliance that me and my hundred monkeys present to you each day.
That will never be part of the sellout.
One of my all-time heroes is Mr. Harry Caray, God rest his soul. The way the Cubs got Harry to be their announcer is that Harry was broadcasting for the White Sox and the White Sox decided in the early 80s to show most of their games on the now-defunct SportsVision, which was a premium addition to ones cable bill, similar to HBO.
Harry quit the Sox immediately saying that baseball is meant for the working person and it should be on free television. And he went across town to the Cubs where 90 per cent of the games were being broadcast on channel 9, WGN, for free.
I believe that it’s not only tacky, but ridiculous to think that readers should pay for the content when there are companies and advertisers who are more than willing to align themselves to personalities, writers, and now bloggers.
The Internet has always been about shit being free and we should continue to embrace that. I can tell you right now that I totally love and respect the Instapundit, but there is no way that i would go and pay for his content at Any price. on principle.
now macropayments are a whole nother thing. i would pay a nickle or even a dime for each web page that i went to in a day, even if ended up costing me 3 bucks a day. in fact it would be my pleasure because youve got to go to a hell of a lot of blogs that cost a dime a day to rack up 3 bucks a day.
im a gigantic fan of micropayments, but the only way that i would implement them on this blog would be by a volunteer basis only.
if i had the 1,000 people a day who visit this fork over a dime a day, i’d make $500 a week.
that car that im trying to get would be mine in a matter of 4 months. so yes, im a fan of micropayments and the man or woman who figures out how to bill people a dime for each blog that they visit will be a rich person. especially if they figure out a way to shave a penny or two for themselves.
until that day i will continue to try to develop working relationships with companies who i admire whose beliefs and business practices i agree with.
therefore if you ever see me pimping sweatshops like nike, know that they gave me at least two million dollars. and know that i gave a million of that to charity. i dont like nike. but i will take their money and give it to causes that they should be giving it to. especially since theyre making their zillions on the backs of the planet’s exploited. and whats worse about nike is that they dont need to be doing it since they already charge more for their shoes than any of their competitors.
but you know all this.
currently i have one ad. amazon. i like amazon. i like who they were when they were just starting out, i like how theyve grown, i like their service, i like their commission plan, i like that theyre still very much a dot com gone bigtime.
i dont make hardly anything off of them, but if i can get a book or two for free a year by having their link up on my page, then fine.
one day i will really sell out. i will blog for someone other than you. i will blog for a company. and when that day comes i will hopefully be able to keep the busblog as it is. but if i have to tone it down, i will still update daily, which isnt that hard because as long as this blog has been around ive had a full time job and ive still been able to make this page and all the photo essays and all the pictures and everything.
having a gig where i write for a living should make it easier to maintain this thing too, not hurt it. so fear not.
and how great is it that drudge is being called a blogger.
happy birthday nicky, the not-so-slutty, quieter, brainier libra hilton sister.
instapundit + the chicago tribune discovered blogs today + bruner blog