Saturday, October 31, 2009

free Paid focus group Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh

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Race | Age | Education | Marital Status | Income | Employment |




Race

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Hispanic 39.0%

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25-34 27.4%

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100-150K 6%

75-100K 8%

50-75K 12%

35-50K 13%

25-35K 13%

15-25K 16%

5-15K 20%

<5K 5%

Median
Household
Income

$30,925


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Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Make Money Blogging Course for newbie

Anybody maintaining an online diary or a blog is a blogger. Bloggers have their own community, an idea, a message, and a spirit to share and initiate healthy debate. With the mouse as their muse they have gained followers all over the world, who read and respect their opinion. Although purists would scorn, some bloggers are making serious money from their blogs, and so can you.?
You've probably heard of people turning their blogs into moneymaking machines. Maybe you want to copy their success.
Well, you can make money with your blog. However, there are a few things you must know first.

Some bloggers claim to earn thousands of dollars a month. For most, blogging simply provides supplemental income. It's good to aim high, but have reasonable expectations.

Getting started

You can make money from advertisements, affiliate programs and pay-per-post programs. Before you sign up for any of these, get your blog up and going.

What you need?
A computer, an internet connection and a bit more than basic literacy is all you need to start blogging. However, among a sea of blogs on the net, only a handful are read, respected and talked about.?

Decide on a topic to write
"More than specialisation it is important to have a certain passion. Successful bloggers write on a niche topic and stick to that," says Kiruba Shankar, a professional blogger from Delhi and the founder of Business Blogging. He has his blog at www.kiruba.com. His firm advises companies on using blogs to promote their business.?

Amit Aggarwal, a computer science engineer and author of the blog Digital Inspiration (www.labnol.blogspot.com), provides value to his readers by telling them how to take maximum advantage of software tools and web technologies. Readers reward him with 1.2 million hits per month.?

Hosting your blog
You can either use a blog-hosting service like blogspot, wordpress and livejournal or buy your own domain name. "Having your own URL is the best as it shows that you are a professional and also helps in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) activities," says Shankar.?

Daksh Sharma, author of themarketingblog, says it pays to plan at the start. "There's a risk of losing your readers and Google page rank (PR) if you change your blog domain at a later stage."?

Designing your blog
"Your blog should be easy to navigate, have a clutter free interface, and no deadlinks," says Sharma. Shankar recommends taking specialised help if you are blogging seriously.?

Mumbai-based Sakshi Juneja's blog is called To Each Its Own, on which she writes about Bollywood and gender-related issues. She got Chugs Design, a design studio to lay out the blog for her when it started earning money.

When heavy Traffic is good
There are several ways of creating, sustaining and increasing a steady flow of traffic, a prerequisite when you start harbouring money-making dreams.?

Content is king
Content remains the first and the last mantra of a successful blogger. "Write good content which is unique, or provides a value-add if you are saying similar things," says Aggarwal. Aaman Lamba, publisher, desicritics.org, warns against being a doppleblogger.?

Update regularly
Blogathy or apathy to post regularly can ruin your chances as a blogger. "You do not want people to come and find out that there is no new post. Once you lose a reader it is very difficult to get her back," says Juneja, who posts every day except on weekends. Not surprisingly, the Technorati report says that the blogging elite, constituting about 4,000 blogs "post nearly twice a day".?

Subscribe to RSS
Subscribing to really simple syndication (RSS) ensures that others can read your content in their mail whenever there is a new post without having to visit your blog.?

Link to other bloggers
If you find interesting content on any other blog, you can provide a link to it, hoping that they would link back to you. Inbound links improve your Google PR. "Let other people know what you are talking about," says Gautam Ghosh, management consultant, who blogs at www.gauteg.blogspot.com. Having a Google PR of 4 or above can also help you earn some bucks through selling links, but it is not encouraged as Google does not encourage link exchange.?

Keywords
Use search-engine friendly keywords. Ensure that the titles of the posts are search engine-friendly. Try to be more specific and gauge what category of readers you are targeting and what keywords they are likely to use.?

Making money from blogs
There are many moneymaking options from your blog. While you can use contextual advertising (ads relevant to your topic) from day one, other revenue streams can be implemented only after you have a substantial audience, for which you need to concentrate on content for the first one or two years. The benchmark is 10,000 readers (both direct and indirect) per day.?

Contextual advertising
Here ads relevant to your topic appear on the page and you get paid every time someone clicks on the ad, also called cost per click. Google AdSense is the leading network, but there are others like Chitika or Tyroo. "You can sign up free and then integrate a given code to the page where you want the ads to appear," says SEO expert and Internet marketing professional Saptarshi Roy Chaudhury, who blogs at www.seo-kolkata.blogspot.com.?

Manish Vij, co-founder, Tyroo, says, "Selecting the right ad network that suits you and using those words for which advertisers pay more per click will help increase your earnings. You can find which words make more money through trial and error testings."?

Direct advertising
Blog owners who write on a particular niche can approach companies selling similar products or services for ads. For example, Shankar sells ad space to corporates as a part of video podcasts on his blog. "This took about a year and happened after working really hard," he says.?

Affiliate programmes
Here companies, like amazon.com put up links for their products on your blog. Whenever a reader makes a purchase, through such a link, you get a portion of the sales revenue. "Sign up as affiliate partners with companies that sell some product or service related to your topic of discussion. You can also use sites like www.cj.com that actually allow you to review hundreds of affiliate opportunities," says Roy Chaudhury.?

Content syndication
If you are a specialist, somebody might want to use your content on their website as that brings them ads and share a part of the revenue with you.?

Pay per post
There are various companies and websites who pay bloggers to post details of their product or service on the blog and add a link to their website. "Bloggers can sign up with websites like www.payperpost.com for this purpose. It is important that your blog is focused on specific niche," says Roy Chaudhury.?

You can also get paid to review a film, a book or a gadget.?

Jobs as a blogger
Once you have become a blogebrity, a whole host of earning options arise. Mainstream media or blogs offer editorial roles. Since your contribution will increase their readership, they will pay you for it.?

When blognation, a blog about budding entrepreneurs in the technology and mobile space came to India, they were looking for a person with passion and experience. Shankar fitted the bill. At present, he is the editor-in-chief of blognation India. Juneja is a guest blogger for Channel V's show My India Report. However, she says that she takes up such "offline offers" only when it interests her.

Other sources
Paid subscription, donations, venture capital funding and selling your blog are other moneymaking options that can be worked out. But these are extremely unlikely and cannot be banked on.?

Indirect income
Management consultant Ghosh feels that the best way to monetise your blog is to use it to "get visibility". Shankar says visibility can mean good business for a company or an individual. The image he has built through his blog helps him to get more clients for his business. "CEOs can use blogs to have a two-way communication with the stakeholders; politicians too can build their brand image through blogs," he says.?

Blogging and beyond
"Blogging is not just about making money. You can draw attention to issues or if you are making money from it, you can donate it to welfare organisations," says Lamba. Delhi-based Anouradha Bakshi, 55, social activist and founder of Projectwhy, has been doing just that. "Many who read my blog connect and reach out to help in different ways," she says.

how to make real money with blogs

Could you earn thousands of pounds simply by writing an online journal? If so, consider becoming one of the 60 million bloggers who are sharing their opinions with a global audience. The art of blogging has become a publishing phenomenon.


According to Technorati, the US-based search engine, 175,000 new blogs are started every day, while those already in existence get added to at the rate of 18 updates per second.

The most popular bloggers, particularly those offering titbits about scandals in high places, now boast more readers than many national publications, and this means they are beginning to attract the attention of advertisers.

Prime examples are the British political blogs, written by the likes of Guido Fawkes (5thnovember.blogspot.com), which came to prominence during the summer months for its coverage of allegations about the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott.

A number of these blogs have now secured deals via new media company MessageSpace which enables them to sell advertising space to pressure groups, lobbyists and others who want to get their message through to decision-makers in Westminster.

One political blogger is former Tory candidate Iain Dale. Apart from a six-month break to work for party leadership candidate David Davies, he has been writing (iaindale.blogspot. com) since 2002 and estimates up to 100,000 people read his views every month.

"I thought there must be some potential for advertising revenue when I realised how many hits the blog was getting," he says. "I should get about £1,000 a month from these ads and this is something I wouldn't have thought possible a few months ago. I still can't earn a living from it, but it gives me an incentive to keep attracting readers."

However, it's not just high-profile bloggers who can make money, says Jamie Riddell, director of innovation at online media buyer Cheeze.com. There are a number of simple ways in which mainstream bloggers can also get in on the act. "The quickest way to generate income is by hosting adverts through signing up to something like Google AdSense," he says. "You post some code onto the page which reads the blog and displays targeted ads relevant to the content. When a visitor clicks on an advert, you get money credited to your account."

You can also sign up with dedicated websites, like adbrite.com, through which you can access specific types of adverts for your blog, says Riddell. These have the benefit of looking more professional.

"Rather than getting paid per click, you will receive a flat rate based on the overall number of visitors to your blog," he says. "It also makes sense for companies because it only takes a couple of sales for it to have been worth their while."

There are also affiliate schemes, such as Tradedoubler.com, that enable you to become a virtual re-seller for well-known global brand names and earn a commission on every sale that the company makes as a result of a customer coming to them via your site.

"There are also a number of new ideas coming onto the marketplace, such as Reviewme.com which offers the chance for bloggers to get paid for writing reviews on behalf of companies," says Riddell.

Other people use their blogs as a promotional tool. Author Jeff Scott set up a blog on his website, methanolpress.com, after publishing Showered in Shale, his book on speedway, and has quickly attracted a loyal readership.

"The idea was that people would read the blog and then be persuaded to buy the book - and it has worked," he says. "I get a lot of orders online via payment service PayPal and that's crucial to any blog wanting to encourage people to spend their money."

Scott, who also runs Platypus PR, in Brighton, even plans to publish a further book next year based on the blogs that he has written. "Blogging has definitely helped to drive fans and other interested parties to the website," he says. "Judging from the number of e-mails received and the people that come up to me at meetings, I have a lot of readers."

So how can you join this blogging revolution and start earning money?

According to Derek Gordon, Technorati's vice president of marketing, the first thing to decide is what you are planning to write about and how you would like your views to be expressed.

"There are many wonderful blog-hosting platforms, some of which are free and offer limited features and functionality, while some are fee-for-service offerings that include more extensive features," he says. Among the platforms worth a look are Blogger.com, WordPress, MySpace and MSN Spaces by Microsoft.

Other issues to consider include the commitment you will have to maintaining and updating your entries, what you're trying to achieve, and whether there are any existing blogs that you particularly admire.

IT consultant Mark Wilson used blogger.com - now owned by Google - when he began posting on technical issues a few years ago and says it's simple enough to allow even complete novices to start publishing.

As well as earning money from signing up to Google AdSense, the 34-year-old from Buckinghamshire has also put a link on his site (markwilson.co.uk) through which people can pay him via PayPal.

"As a lot of what I write on the blog is information, I decided to ask people to consider making a small donation if they found it useful," he says. "It doesn't happen all the time, but I'm always amazed by people's generosity when it does."

Although setting up a blog is relatively simply, the key to its being successful - and, hopefully, profitable in the longer term - is to attract a decent number of regular visitors.

Creating a community of readers by linking to bloggers covering similar topics can certainly help, suggests Iain Dale, as well as earning a reputation as someone who is willing to "stand up and be counted" - even if that sometimes means upsetting people.

"One of the secrets of being successful is injecting your own personality, because the worst thing a blog can be is ambivalent," he says. "You've got to have an opinion and encourage dialogue with readers."

However, while blogging can be fun and a potential source of extra income, it also has a darker side. As well as the possibility of being sued for any libellous comments that appear - and running the risk of offending family and friends - you also need to make sure that you don't upset your employer.

Even then you may get lucky. Catherine Sanderson, a secretary living in Paris, was sacked from her job after her identity was revealed as the author of the blog La Petite Anglaise. Since then, she has been offered a six-figure deal by Penguin for a book version of the blog, which covered the break-up of her relationship, a new love and life raising a young daughter.

Similarly, former Delta Air Lines stewardess Ellen Simonetti had her contract terminated after photographs of herself wearing company uniform were published on her blog, Queen of Sky.

Although Ellen has managed to turn the situation to her advantage by writing a book based on her experiences,Diary of a Dysfunctional Flight Attendant: the Queen of Sky Blog, she recommends everyone checks whether their company has a blogging policy.

"If your company is very blogophobic, you should either not start a blog or go to great lengths to remain anonymous," she says. "But even some people who have remained anonymous have been fired."

'You could be looking at £2,000 a month'

Craig Munro is one of the new breed of internet entrepreneurs who appreciate the profit potential of blogging.

The 23-year-old web developer from Brightonstarted a blog on his site www.sober-productions.co.uk to record his opinions on films.

Now he has turned a labour of love into a money-spinning venture by not only allowing advertising on his blog, but also by writing reviews for companies.

"I found a site called PayPerPost.com which pays you for blogging about products and services," he explains. "So far I have written about 100 posts for them and have around US$1,500 (£784) in an account."

Craig has made a further US$2,200 (£1,150) by signing up to Google AdSense and posting regularly about hot new computer game Line Rider. "I'm amazed at the growth of the site over the past month - it's just been crazy," says Craig.

Even if you spend money on a website and domain name to help promote your blog, he says, you can still make a handsome return.

"You could be looking at earning a couple of thousand pounds every month," he says. "However, I'd be worried about packing in the day job - there's no guarantee that it would last."

can blog make money so you can quit your job

The vast majority of people who plan to blog for money probably should keep their day jobs.
Before you quit your day job in pursuit of online fame and fortune, know a few facts about what it takes to run a blog.

Don’t expect to make any quick money. Blogging takes a considerable amount of time and resources. In addition, you will need to keep the content fresh and constantly market the site. In other words, it is just like starting any other business.

Just 8% of bloggers in a recent survey reported any income from blogging—the practice of keeping an online journal, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. However, just 15% of Americans who blog say they do so for money, according to the study. For most, bogging is simply a hobby. Bloggers whose sites attract more than 100,000 unique visitors a month earn $75,000 a year on average, according to Technorati Inc., a San Francisco company that collects data on blogs.

The average U.S. blogger, however, pulls in just $5,060 a year. Many new bloggers count on their savings or their spouse’s job to pay the bills.

But low pay has not stopped folks from entering the blogosphere. There are 452,000 bloggers in the U.S, according to the Department of Labor. That is 58,000 more than the number of computer programmers.
“Even as a subset of bloggers gains prominence in the media and as traffic to blogs grows, blogging is not the most lucrative of hobbies, let alone professions,” said the study, which was released Wednesday.

Seven out of 10 bloggers who earn money do so by selling things either on their sites or through affiliates, making direct sales the most popular way bloggers get revenue, the study said.

Advertising is the second most popular way bloggers earn money, according to the Pew Internet Project. About half of Internet bloggers who make money do so through ads and about a third of money-earning bloggers do so through “tip jars” where readers can leave donations, the study said.

One in five money-earning bloggers do so through premium content that people must pay to see or read, according to the Pew Internet Project.

Also, bloggers who make money are mostly older than 50, the study said.

Of the 147 million people in the U.S. who use the Internet, about 12 million maintain blogs and 57 million read them, according to the Pew Internet Project. Not surprisingly, bloggers are more educated than the population as a whole. Thirty seven percent of bloggers in the U.S. have college degrees, compared to 27% of the population overall, and 38% of bloggers are students compared to 16% of the U.S. population overall, according to the Pew Internet Project.

Also according to the study, while the most popular blogs are updated daily, most bloggers post less frequently. Twenty five percent of those surveyed said they post every day or two; 15% said they post three to five days a week; 28% said they post every few weeks, and 19% said they post every few weeks or less, according to the Pew Internet Project.

Typical bloggers spend about two hours a week on their blogs, the study said.

ways you can earn money while blogging

Blogging is turning out to an addictive past-time for a lot of people around the world. Apart from being a great medium to express your feelingsand experiences, blogs can turn into alternate means to earn some quick bucks.It's an appealing fantasy: Start a blog. Watch it take off. Then, quit the office life, sit at home, and live off the advertising revenue.

But successful, moneymaking blogs elude most people who try to start them. The vast majority of blogs, written primarily for family and friends, attract fewer than 50 page views a day and earn pennies per month, if anything. According to a Problogger survey, most bloggers earn less than $100 per month, and 3 in 10 earn less than$10 per month. Only 16 percent of the 4,000 respondents say they make more than $2,500 a month.

With recession rocking the boat and intermittent lay-offs and salary cuts - why not make some extra money through blogging. You need no special technical knowledge or literary abilities to start a blog. Here are ways in which you can earn money while blogging:

BE THE MIDDLEMAN. Many companies run "affiliate" programs: Post an ad provided by Amazon.com or Lands' End, for example, and receive a small commission every time your readers click that ad, go to the company's Web site and end up buying a book or splurging on a down parka. Referral fees -- the cash you get from these transactions -- vary (you can earn as much as 10 percent per sale from Amazon). LinkShare (www.linkshare.com) claims to run the Internet's biggest "affiliate marketing network," with more than 600 companies on its roster of advertisers. Another service, Commission Junction (www.cj.com), runs programs for eBay and Expedia.com, among others.
Selling ad space might be the oldest way to make a buck, and with Google's free AdSense service (www.google.com/adsense), it's way too easy. AdSense allows bloggers to display up to three content-specific "ad units" (boxes that can hold up to four ads each) per page. "If you're writing about sports cars, they'll be ads about sports cars," says Biz Stone, Blogger senior specialist at Google. Each time a visitor clicks these ads, you get paid. Google doesn't disclose its exact share of the revenue, but a personalized report page lets you track your own earnings. Earn at least $100 and Google sends you a check.



No need to play the starving-artist writer-type when there are plenty of ways to blog for bucks. (Nate Lankford For The Washington Post)


The Post's new section offers entertainment listings, advice, local travel guides, home, food and shopping news and other practical information.
PLAY AD-SALES EXEC. If you want more control over the ads on your blog, hit www.blogads.com. BlogAds lets you join its database free and set your own ad prices. Companies (including media bigs such as Paramount Pictures and Random House) then search for suitable blogs and purchase ad space for a set period -- say, one month. In contrast to the way AdSense works, your earnings don't depend on whether a reader clicks the ad. All you have to do is give 20 percent of your net revenue to Mr. BlogAd, and you keep the rest. Perhaps best of all, you can indulge your megalomaniacal tendencies by approving or declining potential ads at will.



PASS THE CUP. If you're toiling away to maintain a blog that people enjoy, why not ask your guests to show a little monetary appreciation? The online payment service PayPal (www.paypal.com) lets you add a donation button to your blog. You can opt to receive money in U.S. dollars, Canadian dollars, Japanese yen, pounds sterling or euros. When visitors give money, PayPal sends you an e-mail to let you know. Amazon's Honor System (www.amazon.com/honorsystem) and BitPass (www.bitpass.com) offer similar donation options.

SELL SCHWAG. Don't dig ads? Uncomfortable asking for handouts? Then create your own blog-branded gear at CafePress.com, which offers more than 50 products begging for your unique logo. Choose from standard fare such as T-shirts and coffee cups, or, if Grandma doesn't read your blog, opt for sexy thong underwear (ooh la la). You get to sell each product at whatever price your entrepreneurial heart desires. CafePress gets back the original base price ($13.99 for T-shirts, $10.99 for mugs); you keep the markup. Just add your online store's link to your blog, and all that's left to do is wait for CafePress to send you a monthly check. See? It's practically like your real job.

contextual advertising earn money blogging

A penny for your thoughts? Kevin Vahey has done a good deal better, turning a personal gripe into $1,000 a year of supplemental income.

Mr. Vahey started a blog called " Charlie on the MBTA" that has become a sounding board for Bostonians frustrated with the city's public-transit system.

After two months, he's gained 1,200 readers a day, the attention of officials, and – like thousands of others putting their interests online – a small revenue stream from advertising. "Yesterday I got the check from [Google], and I said, 'Hmm, that's cool.' I don't feel like I did anything," he says. He's not quitting his day job, but now he commutes to it free of charge: "[The blog] pays my monthly pass."

Through systems like Google's AdSense, advertising now can be added with the click of a mouse to the smallest of websites. The model will soon be expanded to online videos with the announcement last month that YouTube will share ad revenue with content creators.

The rise of what's known as contextual advertising has created a 21st-century version of royalties that's reaching deep into the ranks of amateurs and hobbyists. It points to a future where many people will moonlight online as small-time creators for a little extra income, with a few finding fame and fortune along the way.

"A lot of people say it's sort of like a little investment. They write something every night before they go to bed, and another page on their website gets added. And the more pages they've got, the more chance they've got of earning a little bit of money," says Darren Rowse, the webmaster of problogger.net, a site that helps bloggers improve their income.

He says he makes six figures a year blogging, when factoring in all his sites and the consulting gigs they generate. "You put something out there," he adds, "and it has the potential to earn money forever. And in that way it sort of is like a royalty."

A little more than $1 billion, or one-fourth of all advertising online, went to Google's AdSense program in the third quarter of 2006. Of that, Google shared $780 million with those running AdSense. Approximately 3 million blogs now use AdSense, according to the blog-tracking site Technorati.

What isn't known is how that $780 million was distributed over those roughly 3 million blogs. But anecdotal evidence suggests that there's a majority making nothing, a sizable minority bringing in at least $100 a month, and a few making serious money.

This past November, a survey by problogger.net of 732 self-selected respondents found that of the 625 bloggers using AdSense, 45 percent were making at least $100 a month. Another survey of 104 bloggers at a blogger summit last week in New York found roughly a third making that money, not necessarily with AdSense.

Nearly one-sixth in both surveys made at least $1,000 a month. These samples, of course, skew heavily toward the more committed and successful bloggers.

"The vast majority of people are being read by the writer and his mother, or in some cases not even by his mother," quips Sree Sreenivasan, who runs the new-media program at Columbia University.But for some, he says, new opportunities are emerging that are different from the original Web bubble.

The anecdotal numbers suggest an economic shift based on what Don Tapscott, co-author of "Wikinomics," calls the democratization of the creation of content.

"People can participate in the economy in ways that were once unimaginable. Not just moonlighting, but serious money," says Mr. Tapscott. In the past, writers, musicians, and videomakers needed to prove themselves as "home-run hitters" in order to get distributed and earn significant money. "Now, bunters and single-hitters have a chance to make a living," he says.

The AdSense system allows advertisers to bid on how much they'll pay – in cents per click – to appear on sites with certain keywords. In the case of "Charlie on the MBTA," Vahey has seen ads show up from bus companies – not surprising since he mentions buses frequently. He makes money each time someone clicks on the ads.

With the cost of publishing online close to zero, even small ad money can buoy creative output.

"The definition of 'big enough' has changed. In the old days, [an endeavor] ... had to get an audience of billions to pay for that scarce airtime," says Jeff Jarvis, a new-media expert who makes about $1,000 a month from blogging. "Now, the definition of big enough can be that it covered my costs, [or] it bought me a camera."

He notes with amusement that his son now makes more money from AdSense than from his allowance.

Yet many bloggers and video bloggers are not driven by a desire to get rich. Vahey did not start his blog to make money. And Steve Garfield, one of Boston's earliest video bloggers, doesn't see a YouTube ad model working for him, since he's more interested in forming personal connections.

"I've gotten so much from giving and sharing my videos for free," says Mr. Garfield, whose vblog is at SteveGarfield.com. "I've made so many friends from all over the world."

Still, his approach has yielded some financial benefits, such as free computer equipment, and freelance and consulting work.

It's not uncommon for successful bloggers to parlay their success into consulting. And the top Web entrepreneurs often move away from AdSense to direct relationships with advertisers, says Jeremy Schoemaker, who has a photo of himself holding a check for more than $130,000 from Google. He runs a number of sites, including a ringtones sharing site.
AdSense, which he describes as "a great product," does have its limitations. The revenue can be unpredictable, the system encourages visitors to leave a site, and owners do not have enough control over ad content, he says.

Several highly successful bloggers also caution that there's no free lunch. "I worked anything from eight- to 16-hour days over the last three or four years just trying to do this," says Mr. Rowse. "And a lot of people don't see that."

can food blog make money

A few years ago, specialty food magazines, celebrity cooking shows and coffee-table cookbooks began to proliferate. But it wasn't enough.

Internet-savvy food enthusiasts sought something more quirky or writerly or lavish or esoteric or weeknight-friendly or fill-in-the-blank.

There is the Movable Feast (www.movable-feast.com), a chronicle that captures seconds in the life of an aspiring chef, from deveining shrimp at 8:20 a.m. to typing in an apartment-door code at 11:50 at night.

The Grocery List Collection (www.grocerylists.com) showcases images of 700 discarded grocery lists and related stories about . . . grocery lists. Arthur Hungry is the Web log name of a 20-year-old international relations student at Boston University who posts pictures of everything he eats (www.arthurhungry.com). Pinoy Cook (pinoycook.net) is a Filipino mom's collection of updated traditional recipes. And Dead Man Eating (deadmaneating. blogspot.com)records the last meals requested by prisoners on death row. (Fried chicken and steak predominate.)

The Food Section blog (www.thefoodsection.com) aspires to post "all the news that's fit to eat." Late February brought a riff on "Tangerine Dream," questioning the color ascribed to the fabric in the recent Central Park exhibit of "The Gates." Was saffron, selected by artists Christo and Jean Claude, more accurate than, say, clementine? Or persimmon?

A few days later, Vittles Vamp (www.vittlesvamp.com) featured "Art Lover Alert," depicting a close-up of cheddar cheese sandwich crackers balanced on end in Central Park with the "Gates" in the background.

There are even food blogs that essentially list others, such as Kiplog's FoodBlog (www.kiplog.com/food) and Food Porn Watch (foodpornwatch.arrr.net).

Blogs now cover a miscellany of culinary topics, sometimes only tangentially related to food. The only constant among the sites seems to be that they are increasing dramatically.

And people are reading. "Every single genre of blogs has increased at an almost alarming rate over the past several years," said Biz Stone, Blogger senior specialist at Google.

That includes food. Type "food" and "blog" into Google, and the hits exceed 8 million. The number of actual English-language food blogs is far lower. Paul McCann of Kiplog puts the estimate at about 600, but says it's increasing daily.

According to a Pew Internet & American Life Project published in 2004, 27 percent of American Internet users say they read blogs, an increase of 58 percent from the previous year. In the past year, several food bloggers have seen the number of daily visitors to their sites double or triple.

Along with the proliferation of food blogs comes a proliferation of food blog awards. This year the Bloggies -- an annual award given to publicly chosen Web logs -- introduced a food category. Bloggies categories are updated annually to reflect "how trends change in the blogging universe," says Nikolai Nolan, the University of Michigan senior who launched the awards in 2001.

In addition to their own category, food blogs number as nominees in several other Bloggies categories as well. The winners will be announced next week (2005.bloggies.com).

Last year, food blogger Kate Hudson of the Accidental Hedonist had initiated the aptly named first Food Blog Awards to recognize the "wealth of food reporting and writing" taking place on blogs. She created 16 categories ranging from best recipes to best photography, solicited nominations from her fellow bloggers and tallied the votes. Winners were announced in early January (www.accidentalhedonist.com/index.php?cat=250).

Because blogs often take the form of journal entries -- ranging from the inane to the relatively profound, from stream of consciousness to carefully worded prose -- the biggest draw for repeat visitors to a particular Web site is something intangible: a sense of resonance, if not a shared vision of the world -- even if that means knowing where to get the best cream puff in Paris.

Whether bloggers aspire to be the next Jeffrey Steingarten, the sharp-tongued food writer for Vogue, or M.F.K. Fisher, one of the country's early food writers, they provide readers with their own personal food section, updated weekly and, in some instances, daily. The authors of these sites cover what mainstream media overlook or ignore, but in a casual, interactive manner. And, while most newspapers and magazines require payment for online access to articles published in the not-so-distant past, blogging archives are free.

Taking home four of the Food Blog Awards was Chocolate & Zucchini (chocolateandzucchini.com), a Paris-based Web site written by Clotilde Dusoulier. Her blog gracefully conveys her food experiences, such as her introduction to kohlrabi and her daydream of the ideal brunch.

Her site, named for two of her favorite ingredients, includes more than recipes and receives some 7,000 visitors a day, Dusoulier said. "Basically, the idea at first was to find a way to share," said Dusoulier, who writes in English. "I was very much into cooking and very eager to talk about it to my friends and family. And after a little while, I sort of felt like I needed a wider audience to interact with." On most blogs, interaction comes in the form of reader responses to anything that piques their interest.

Unlike political bloggers, who often express opinions and attempt to convince, food bloggers find great things and tell others about them so they continue to exist, said Hillel Cooperman of Tasting Menu (www.tastingmenu.com). Last year, Cooperman, who works for Microsoft in Washington, became the first food blogger nominated for a prestigious James Beard Foundation journalism award.

"What people lack in experience or formal training, they make up for with the fact that they love what they're doing," said Cooperman. "There are some days I don't feel like posting, but I feel an obligation to all those people visiting my blog every day."

According to Google's Stone, the increase in popularity of blogs is partly due to "blog children" -- people, such as Dusoulier, who stumble across a blog and become inspired to start their own. Many, also like Dusoulier, are parlaying their blog experience into more lucrative ventures. Dusoulier is now being approached by newspapers and magazines to write articles.

New Yorker Julie Powell, who cooked and blogged her way through Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" one recipe at a time, landed a book deal with Little, Brown and Co. "Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, One Tiny Apartment Kitchen?" is due out this fall.

Another blogger-turned-author is Heidi Swanson, the San Francisco-based photographer and cookbook writer behind 101 Cookbooks (www.101cookbooks.com). An avid collector, Swanson had begun a private recipe journal for her Web site. After people repeatedly Googled their way into the file, she decided to start a food blog. Her site combines prose, food photos and recipes.

Last fall Swanson published her first book, "Cook 1.0: A Fresh Approach to the Vegetarian Kitchen" (Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 2004).

Total visitor traffic to her site has nearly tripled in the past six months.

Paige Hren, a regular visitor to 101 Cookbooks from Malibu, said that reading Swanson's posts is like having your own prep cook in the kitchen: "She's found the loopholes and what the pluses and minuses are for the recipes."

"My traffic really seems to spike when I post sweets -- anything chocolate or anything cute," said Swanson.

Though some food blogs have begun to seek advertising revenue, most food bloggers "don't get into this to make money," Hudson said, but to make food a little less ordinary for at least one other person.

"How many high-quality food blogs does the world need?" asked Cooperman. "It turns out, a lot."

Singapore blogger make money online

BLOGGERS, and the syndicates which encourage them, are quietly changing the way people turn their online opinions into pots of gold.

By signing up with online ad-placement services like Google Adsense as well as local ones like Advertlets, Blog2U and NuffNang, top bloggers here are ringing in thousands of dollars per month.

According to media services firm ZenithOptiMedia, the total ad market for Singapore in 2008 is worth about $2.07 billion. Google estimates the value of the local online ad market at 3 to 5 per cent of the total ad spending.

Given all that moolah, legions have signed up with the ad placement firms. NuffNang has 13,000 local bloggers, Advertlets 12,000 while the latest entrant Blog2U has 5,000 - but there are overlaps. Google keeps mum about its numbers.
Celeb blogger Dawn offered this caveat: 'Making substantial amounts of money only apply to blogs with substantial daily readership. For lesser-known bloggers, I think it may be harder to make money.'

Although blogging provides her with a 'decent full-time salary', she doesn't rely on NuffNang alone. She also uses services like Google Adsense and Adbrite.

'The ad campaigns are not frequent enough,' she said.

But she hopes a wildcard will come into play.

'If NuffNang grows big enough to provide its bloggers with a regular stream of advertisers, I have no doubt I could be earning a full-time income from just NuffNang alone.'
Indeed, Singaporeans come up as the top bloggers regionally. Mr Derek Callow, marketing manager of Google Southeast Asia, said: 'There are more active bloggers in Singapore (using our Blogger product) than in any other country in Asia Pacific.'

For the handful of very successful opinion-casters - and they are just part-timers, mind you - the earnings are more than loose change.

There's 39-year-old Dr Leslie Tay, who likely earns a five-figure sum as a general practitioner. In addition, he gets a small pile monthly just by posting reviews and mouth-watering pictures of various hawker food on his blogsite, ieatishootipost.sg.

Nineteen-year-old, part-time model Peggy Heng pockets between $500 and $2,000 monthly while model and celebrity blogger Dawn Yang, 23, gets anything between $4,000 and $6,000.

Not bad for personal rantings about their daily lives and the occasional commentary on social issues.

How the money-making goes

ALL three parties - bloggers, ad placement firms and advertisers - stand to gain.

Bloggers earn money in several ways. The traditional way - a la Adsense - was that Google would place banner ads which match the content on the blogger's site. Bloggers are paid for page views every time a netizen clicks on the ad. In blogspeak, these are called 'impressions' and 'click-throughs'.

Bloggers can also be paid a fixed sum when an advertiser places a banner ad on their homepage for a period of time. Blog2U, for instance, pays about $5 for a banner ad which stays on a blog for 30 days.

'Should the blogger be selected, they will be notified via e-mail about the type and duration of the campaign.'

Through such ads, a blogger can pull in anything from $50 to $2,000 a week. According to NuffNang, a high-profile blogger like Wendy Cheng (xiaxue.blogspot.com), who attracts 20,000 readers daily, could get about $1,000 a week.

Bloggers can also be paid for talking about new products and services. That extra - in the case of Advertlets - is anything between $15 and $250 per post.

Said Josh Lim, founder of Advertlets: 'This service makes sure that even lower traffic bloggers get a piece of the action.'

While most bloggers earn from local vendors and through the syndicates, Sabrina Ong, 23, gets about 70 per cent of her income from advertisers directly from the United States.

'They contact me directly and ask me to blog about a certain product or service. I get between US$50 (S$68) and US$500 for each post,' said the business and law student who is attending classes at a private school here.

Certainly, the ad placement firms take a cut too. NuffNang charges advertisers from $1,000 to $50,000 per week for an ad. It declined to reveal total revenue.

Advertisers, from Nokia and GAP to Hewlett-Packard, feel that their spending is justified.

Lim Wee Khee, the head of Nokia's sales unit marketing division, considers the Nokia N82 ads which are placed on teen blogs, an 'innovative way' to reach its customers.

She said: 'We aim to garner more depth and visibility in the virtual space through placements on suitable blogs.'

The big picture

TO BE sure, the blab-and-get-paid trend is not new. In the US, where selling online opinion is estimated to be a billion-dollar business, the commercialising of opinions has been around since 2003.

Take the teams behind tech blogs like TechCrunch, Gizmodo and Engadget. In the case of Gizmodo, the six-year-old site attracts up to 50 million 'eyeballs' a month. This lets them demand a hefty price tag of US$3,000 for each ad placed on its site.

Right, this is where the wary takes one step back. Remember the expression 'If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is'? Would that wisdom apply here?

Dr Lim Sun Sun, assistant professor at the faculty of arts and social sciences at the National University of Singapore, believes that sites like NuffNang and Advertlets could well become 'industry standard' one day.

'The Internet is such an unpredictable environment that a service which may first appear fly-by-night may well become tomorrow's industry standard.

'If you think about it, services such as eBay must have appeared suspect in the first instance but are established and widely accepted today,' she said.

Even so, how full is that pot of gold?

For student-model Peggy, the few hundred bucks (and up to $2,000 a month) fuels weekend shopping jaunts.

Ming Shen admits that some of his members earn only $1.68 per week.

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