Written on February 23rd, 2005 at 03:02 am by Darren Rowse
Jason Kottke Turns Professional Blogger
Well known blogger Jason Kottke has bitten the bullet and has decided to go Prowith his blogging. He’s quit his web design job and has decided to go the route of trying to raise money for his blogging from donations from readership.
‘I’m asking the regular readers of kottke.org (that’s you!) to become micropatrons of kottke.org by contributing a moderate sum of money to help enable me to edit/write/design/code the site for one year on a full-time basis. If you find kottke.org valuable in any way, please consider giving whatever you feel is appropriate.’
Jason is resisting the advertising route but is offering those who become micropatrons of Kottke the chance of winning gifts to the value of $4800 (I guess that is a form of indirect advertising - he does link to those who have given the gifts).
The donation method of funding a blog is not an easy road to go down - but with traffic like he gets he might just pull it off.
4 Responses to “Jason Kottke Turns Professional Blogger”
Neuvo
February 23rd, 2005 7:06 pm
My job? Blogging! (Now there is an idea)
Imagine this …
(hazy mist rolls in as the scene changes)
Weary of many long hours maintaining a full-time job and still remaining faithful to your blog, you make a momentous decision one day …
To blog full-time!
Andrew Hume
February 23rd, 2005 10:19 pm
I can see Jason pulling this off for a while, but I can’t see it being more than maybe two or three years at most.
It’s going to be tough to keep kottke.org really profitable, as the fuss dies down over the scheme and people forget/decide not to renew their ’subscriptions’, which is effectively what Jason is asking for.
mahalie
February 24th, 2005 4:44 am
What does Kottke.org offer that countless others do not? Aside from the fact that he has been blogging since the “early days” and because of this is very well known, his site and “insight” doesn’t really offer anything I think people will pay for. He’s basically asking for handouts so he doesn’t have to work. If his site offered valuable information, like A List Apart or maybe more entertaining information like the Onion, perhaps he could justify expecting money for it.
Tim
February 24th, 2005 6:11 pm
Yes, begging for money is kind of sad. If he gets the traffic everyone says he does, than even a few simple text ads clearly labelled as “sponsors” or “advertisements” will do him alot better.
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