Can blogging pay in the era of freeconomics?

As we noted in earlier posts, blogging can pay, even in a freeconomics climate.

Yummy, Freeconomics. Will I get rich quick?
Probably not, unless you start working full-time on a niche blog and studying SEO in depth.

Slate magazine's Blogging for Dollars dug into Technorati's 2008 State of the Blogosphere report and revealed that sites "with 100,000 or more unique visitors a month earn an average of $75,000 annually—though that figure is skewed by the small percentage of blogs that make more than $200,000 a year. The estimates from a 2007 Business Week article are older but juicier: The LOLcat empire rakes in $5,600 per month; Overheard in New York gets $8,100 per month; and Perez Hilton, gossip king, scoops up $111,000 per month."

Before you dash off, Gold-Rush-style, heed Slate's warning: "Once a blog hobbyist goes pro, he or she faces a daily pressure to churn out new material. In the wrong mind, that can lead to top-10 lists, recycled ideas, half-baked notions, lots of viral videos, and a general increase in information pollution."

I'm with usability expert Jakob Nielsen on this. "Avoid quickly written, shallow postings. Instead, invest your time in thorough, value-added content that attracts paying customers."

Mike and I both find affiliate programs, like Amazon Associates, to pay off quickest for "dabbling" bloggers.