Whoo-ee!

The New York Times asks: Can Blogs Become a Big Source of Jobs?

Here’s the bit on b5:

At b5media, a global blog network out of Toronto with about 200 blogs on subjects ranging from sports and entertainment to news and technology, writers work on a contract basis. They are paid a fee of only $100 to $250 a month, based on their experience and the quality of their work. The real money can come from bonuses that are tied to the traffic their blogs receive.

Including bonuses, one popular entertainment writer, who is also an editor, makes in the neighborhood of six figures a year, said Jeremy Wright, chief executive of the network. The writer’s Lindsay Lohan site is consistently among the most popular, pulling in about 500,000 visitors a month.

Mr. Wright said that it was far more common for full-time bloggers on the site to make $40,000 to $60,000 a year. But even that kind of pay may be hard for other bloggers to achieve.

Now, a year ago, the answer would have been “someday, but the number of people making full-time income off blogging is probably less than 100″. Hell, even 6 months ago at 3 conferences where this was asked the consensus on the panels became “maybe, but the best source of revenue is making money because of your blog, not from it”.

While it is still true that there is more money made through new jobs, new opportunities and new partnerships through blogging than directly through blogging itself, the tide is changing.

At the b5media blog network where I’m privileged enough to be CEO (they told me a shorter title meant less responsibility… they lied), we have one blogger making 6 figures per year, and more than a dozen doing it full time.

But for me, and this didn’t make it into the article, was that the most exciting part is people who are truly passionate writing about something they love and making money doing it. Because the truth is that before networks like b5, WIN and Gawker this simply wasn’t possible.

I love empowering our bloggers. I love hearing that we “bought” them a car, house, vacation. That we’ll pay out roughly 1M$ to our bloggers in the next 1-2 years is, to me, absolutely freaking fantastic.

Here are some other folks’ thoughts…

MomGadget:

I’ve always said, celebrities and health is where the money’s at and this just kinda backs that up just a wee bit!

Emerging Earth (a b5 blog):

Yes, we’re getting a nice little slice of the world’s growing online ad revenue pie. The article also profiles other jobs and job functions related to blogging, from blog administration to CEO blogging. Check it out.

Pajama Entrepreneur:

While being paid by someone to write a blog is a way to make money from blogging, I did things differently with Muniwireless.com. I set up my own blog and in the beginning, got advertisers for the site myself. Two years ago, I partnered with Microcast Communications to take Muniwireless.com to the next level: conferences, seminars, webinars and a magazine. I went beyond just blogging and with partners, created a small media company.

Great point. In my mind, making “money that matters” from blogging 2 years ago was “weird”. 1 year ago it was “unusual”. Now it’s “doable”. There are vastly more options for bloggers now than there were 2 years ago, including the route above. It’s not like writing for someone else is the only way to go, anymore than being a journalist for someone else is the only way to make money.

Great stuff all around, and while this isn’t a “new” discussion, the realization by the mainstream media that making money blogging is doable (but still hard) is a great step forward.