The Wall Street Journal says that I'm rich

Mark Penn of the Wall Street Journal has published the most absurd article about blogging I've ever seen. (Thanks to the Confluence for the head's up.) According to Penn, bloggers earn upwards of $75,000 a year if they can attract 100,000 visitors a month. Not only that: In Penn-vision, bloggers are constantly showered with expensive free gifts.

My response:

I must protest this ludicrous misrepresentation of the facts.

Since 2004, I have maintained a political blog called Cannonfire. My site is best known for running a series of articles on the strange bulge seen on George Bush's back during the debates. At the height of that rather silly controversy, I had 60,000 visitors a day. The number of visitors is now much smaller; nevertheless, I can bring in 100,000 visitors in a good month -- especially in the months preceding an election. This month, I'll probably do half that amount.

Yesterday, I published six posts. Two of them received mention on larger sites, including the New York Times' blog aggregator.

I won't earn $75,000 this year. I won't earn $35,000 -- at least, not from blogging.

I'm not allowed to disclose how much the Adsense ads bring in. However, you wouldn't be far off the mark if you were to visualize a nice meal at a Mexican restaurant. Once a month.

I don't blog for the money. No-one has ever offered me free consumer electronics. I used to receive the occasional offer for free movie screenings, but I turned them all down.

The only blogger I know who ekes out a living at the game frequently appears on the radio and in lecture halls. Of necessity, he engages in constant self-promotion. And he does not earn anything like the kind of money mentioned here.

Mark Penn's fanciful article will give writers hoping to enter the field a completely wrong-headed idea about what to expect. You cannot make any money from blogging unless you are whoring for a corporation -- or, conceivably, for a political candidate. I suspect that a few very well-known writers have done just that. I won't mention any names here, beKos I don't have any hard evidence of a pay-off.

Added note: myiq2xu offers a cute observation...

Blogging is much like my previous career as a male stripper.

Nobody ever offered me money to do it, but a few have offered to pay me to stop.