If there is one thing you can say about Louis Gray; other than having an uncanny ability to start a weekend bitchmeme, is that he sure can write a post full of fact and figures that fit neatly around the points being discussed in the post. Today’s post about bloggers not deserving to earn ad revenue is one that does just that.

He admirably sets out how the vast majority of blogs don’t provide any real value beyond being either cut ‘n paste copycatters or vanity publications that fill up space on the page with useless prattle that can be read on thousands of repetitive tech oriented blogs that litter the web.

When you’re right you are right

On the surface much of what Louis says is right but that doesn’t necessarily make it the way we should be looking at this. The fact is that this is the same bullshit argument that we keep on having every so often and there are no right answers. It might make a great bitchmeme discussion to carry us through the weekend but it doesn’t reflect the our ingrained want to put a value on our thoughts and ideas which in today’s society means some sort of financial gain. The problem with this though is that this whole Web 2.0 malarkey has made that notion somehow dirty.

You shouldn’t bother because it’s pointless

In his post Louis points out the following

There are millions of bloggers out there today, screaming for their “fair” share of the advertising pie. And while Google rakes in cash from vendors by the billions, some smaller bloggers are crying foul at the perceived inequalities. But it’s more likely they are getting exactly what they deserve when it comes to ads - pennies. They would be better served to pull the ads off their site altogether and find different ways to make money, because for most, blogging will never get them what they want.

So the argument being that just because there is already a bunch of useless blogs out there doing the same thing; but maybe a little different, we shouldn’t have dreams and aspirations of making the big time. Isn’t that what the whole American dream; which has been carried over to the Internet on a larger scale, is about?

Just because people who don’t run ads on their blogs say it is pointless we should all jump on the kumbaya train and get warm and fuzzy together while we pull the ads from our blogs. Why is it that wanting a slice of the pie has become so morally wrong? Besides if so many people are running ad blockers what skin is off of the blogging purity patrol asses that those who do run ads make a few bucks.

It’s all about the decisions

Life is all about making decisions and that equally relates to starting and running a blog. When we start one we make decisions about what the blog will be about. We make decisions about the style and yes whether we will run ads or not. As with all decision making processes those original decisions can change over time. Even Louis himself has made those very type of decision based changes on his own blog as he went from a very broad and general type blog that was centered around all of his interests to concentrating on social media and RSS related matters.

Whether or not Louis would agree this was a business decision - that business being the success of his blog which he measures by readership. However not everyone measures success the same way. His decision to concentrate his blog on more specific topics could equally have been done to capitalize on that increase in readership the change could bring to make his brand more attractive to advertisers. As it is I would bet there are quite a few folks that would be willing to place ads on his blog because of his decisions.

Just because bloggers are finding niches in which their thoughts and ideas find a comfortable home does that mean that they shouldn’t be able to hope that they can capitalize on that niche? The fact is that many bloggers are creating new; and maybe fractured, demographics that notoriously slow to catch on ad networks don’t even realize exist yet. Maybe the advertising problem isn’t the fact that bloggers would like to make a few bucks but more that ad networks haven’t realized just how drastically the game has changed. As Frederic also points out

Probably part of the problem here is that there is a disconnect between what some people think their content is worth and the buck fifty CPM Google is willing to give them…

There’s nothing wrong with dreams and aspirations of success

Just because one blogger’s concept of what their metric of success is isn’t the same as another’s doesn’t make it any less right. Just because one blogger considers what they are doing as a hobby shouldn’t diminish the hopes and aspirations of those bloggers that try to build something better in their lives and think that blogging will doe that for them. Whether or not this is the right thing for them to do is not for anyone else to assume.

Mathew Ingram said today in his contribution to this weekend’s bitchmeme

Why shouldn’t they be able to defray the costs of their hosting, or their bandwidth, or their computers? That’s what micro-publishing is for. Louis says that “some bloggers act as if it’s their God-given right to write, post a few ads and start raking in cash.” I haven’t come across any of those, but he is quite right that they are mistaken. I just don’t think they’re as common as he thinks they are. And if the others can make a few dollars and advertisers are willing, then who are we to say they shouldn’t?

I can’t think of a better ending for this post than the update Mark Evans made to a related post today

Update: Louis Gray has a post suggesting that most bloggers don’t deserve any ad revenue because they don’t attract enough traffic to be valuable to advertisers. Still, you can’t blame people for trying because what’s wrong with trying to make a few bucks from all your hard work. That’s just capitalism, baby!

Now if you’ll excuse me I have some lint to get out of my navel.

Conversation Tags: bitchmeme, blogs, advertising