There have been countless commentaries on blogging ever since it gained mainstream attention, since which it has mutated into the behemoth that is information on the Internet. The maximum amount of knowledge on any subject/topic that you can gain on the Internet has to be from blogs, which also dominate the search results of the top engines. Authoring a popular blog is a big thing in a niche, because it shows that you are capable of sharing information, and knowledgeable enough that others want to read what you write about.

People have seen such potential in blogging, that revenue opportunities surrounding them have popped up everywhere. People have quit their day-jobs to take up blogging as a full time profession, and the money they make (using various means) is what they live on. Unfortunately, not all these pro-bloggers are actually worth reading. Their money comes from leaching stories or posting SEO’d content (remember those infamous top 10 lists?). There are actually very few respectable writers who blog for money. There are quite a few reasons for that, which I won’t touch upon here.

What’s your focus

When we start a blog, the will is to share information with other like-minded people. Given enough time and quality content, the blog slowly gathers a following, which causes the incentive to shift towards writing to please the readers, because let’s face it, who doesn’t like to see the number of page-hits and comments increase? But even at this level, there is a certain love for what one writes, and the passion as well as emotion shows in the amount of research and effort put into every post.

When one starts to blog for money, the focus completely changes. The focus is how to maximize revenue with each post. Every post is treated like limited ammunition. If a post goes that didn’t get the number of comments or reactions that the author expected, it feels like a waste. And this is where the impetus begins to get bastardized.

Trying to find a proper definition for the term ‘blog’ or ‘weblog’, the best definition Google could throw at me was “A frequently updated journal or diary usually, often hosted by a third party”.

And blogging for money is the bastard child of journalism and traditional blogging. Journalists have a stressful job, because they need to constantly be updating themselves and their write-ups with real world facts and information. Bloggers have the freedom to speculate without it making too much of a difference. Journalists have to sensationalise and soap-opera-fy their writings, so that people pay attention, because their pay cheque depends on it. Bloggers don’t need to do that, but when money comes into play, there is not much difference left.

Disagreeing definition

The definition itself negates the commercial aspect. Hence, when money comes into the picture, it cannot be called blogging anymore. But for the sake of argument and uniformity, we’ll do that for this¹. Monetizing blogs with ads and flashing banners might generate revenue for you, but it distracts readers from your content. If you have content to speak of, wouldn’t you want your visitors to see it? If you can’t keep readers, that revenue stream will wane very quickly and be non-existent even quicker.

Writing is an art, and blogging is a discipline of writing. Every interested and interesting blogger puts time and thought into developing their own style and niche in the huge blogosphere. With the hundreds of thousands of blogs out there, one should try to become a face that stands out, and not blend in the sea of lists and advertisements. Every time I’ve gone wayward, I’ve reminded myself the reason I took up writing, and how it holds true today. Every time I’ve tried to include advertisements of any kind, I’ve felt cheap and unsophisticated, like a part of the herd. I’ve felt like I am killing the spirit of my thoughts in this journal.

It’s not about making money doing something you like. It’s about twisting something you like to make yourself money. The difference is subtle, but very real.