Web Logs Fertile Ground for Writing Talent

July 28, 2004 — -- By now everyone has heard about the influx of bloggers at this week's Democratic National Convention -- the new world technophiles invaded the most starched of political traditions with great fanfare. But when the gavel sounds on Thursday night and the convention draws to a close, will these cyber-commentators fade back into their niche or can they expect to turn their 15 minutes into something more?

The most popular Web logs reach thousands of readers daily, and the mainstream media has reluctantly begun accepting them as a legitimate, alternate forum for public discourse. The Democratic Party gave press credentials to more than 30 bloggers for the party's convention in Boston this week, and Republicans have said they will do the same for their convention in August.

Apparently, they are being heard. According to blogdex.com, a Web site run by MIT's media laboratory that tracks the fastest-spreading ideas in the blog universe, the site conventionbloggers.com is currently the most linked site on the Web.

"People are recognizing that there is a shift in the way consumers consume media. It's an indication that the parties believe these people will be listened to," said Gaby Darbyshire, director of business development for Gawker Media, which publishes five of the most widely read blogs in the United States.

Web logs, or "blogs," can be the most tedious of cyberfare -- often no more than online diaries of people whose lives weren't nearly as interesting as they thought. But as the blogging fraternity exploded in the past several years its membership diversified to include respected businesses and a range of opinions gaining prominence in the media world.

An eclectic mix of voices now dot a blogging universe that tackles subjects ranging from politics to literature to pop culture. Blogs are being used as a new millennium version of protest, a cyber soapbox gaining a loyal following in a world no longer anxious to stage sit-ins. And businesses are using them as a resourceful way to speak to customers.

For the bloggers themselves, a simple passion for writing has turned many into semi-celebrities, a new brand of writers and entrepreneurs using cheap Web space to forge unusual careers. But can they expect to carve out a living solely on their blogs?

From Blogging to MTV

Among the credentialed bloggers at the Democratic convention is 31-year-old Ana Marie Cox, writer of the political gossip blog Wonkette.com. A dot-com castoff, Cox said she was fired from one writing job and asked to leave two others before starting a blog of personal musings that included writing about the build-up to the Iraq war. Professionally, Cox was doing freelance writing when she was contacted in late 2003 by Gawker Media publisher Nick Denton, who hired her to write Wonkette.

The site was born in January. Its combination of suggestive, often lurid headlines, inside information and clever writing has drawn the attention of many in Washington and within the world of journalism.

"I started blogging because I wanted to write about things that interested me. And if I thought something was funny I didn't want to have to call an editor and convince him it was funny," Cox said. "My fantasy came true: that I'd have a blog and someone would pay me for it."

And that's not all she's getting paid for. Wonkette's notoriety led Cox to interview appearances on several cable news stations, and she was recently hired by MTV to do on-air news updates from the Democratic convention.

Like most in the blogging world, her opinions are aired for all to see. An admitted liberal, she makes no pretense for being an objective journalist, a point which has some traditional journalists bemoaning the influx of bloggers at the conventions.

But if their specific role is still debated, the reality of bloggers' inclusion seems a foregone conclusion. Blogs are generally inexpensive, self-financed ventures, meaning there is little to prevent their growth. Writers can pay cheap hosting fees to post blogs, and their readership and influence grow at the will of the market.

"Often it's hard to get discovered in the traditional media, and blogs are a great way for talented writers to show their wares," said Gawker's Darbyshire.

Blog Start-Ups

Some blogs have become start-up businesses devoid of traditional business plans or venture capital finances. Because of relatively low start-up and maintenance costs, bloggers have found they need not market a longer lasting light bulb or build a better mousetrap — they can simply sell themselves, and they can do it through their blogs.

Rafat Ali, the 29-year-old author and publisher of the digital media blog Paidcontent.org, went from unemployed to self-employed through a Web log that started as a hobby.

In 2001, Ali was the managing editor of a New York-based Web magazine that covered Internet business issues. The site struggled after the dot-com bubble burst, and by early 2002 his job was gone and his $30,000 paycheck along with it.

He had started Paidcontent several months earlier as a tool to get more recognition for his work and increase his name recognition. With no steady income and little money in the bank, he began giving it his full attention.

"It was more like I was getting desperate than really thinking of making the site into anything. I had no money and nothing going for me," he said.

Ali said the blog's start-up costs were in the neighborhood of $20 to $30 per month, including $10 per year for the domain name, an annual host fee and various minimal charges for advertising the site and listing it with Google's search service.

Darbyshire estimates that the hosting fee for a blog with a very small readership remains as low as $100 per year, making it easy for people like Ali to start a blog and maintain it on a tight budget.

"The costs of publishing have come down enough that you're able to start a small, organic media company without much overhead, and that makes it easier for the individual," she said.

Costs Can Rise

But those costs rise as readership grows. Interactive blogs that allow readers to post responses to blog entries require extra bandwidth, driving hosting costs higher. For the most popular sites like Wonkette and Gawker's namesake Gawker.com, it can cost up to $2,000 per month in hosting costs keep the site going. When the costs get that high, most sites begin running advertisements to cancel out their expenses.

By early 2003 advertisers began e-mailing Ali and asking to place ads on the site. At $400 a month for each ad, Paidcontent.org for the first time became mildly profitable. The site's hits continued growing to the point where it gets more than 12,000 per day, Ali said.

Ali charges fees for an e-mail newsletter in addition to his advertising profits, and he estimated that he will net between $100,000 and $150,000 this year. Because Paidcontent.org remains a one-man operation, he keeps his costs relatively low and banks all the profits for himself.

"I didn't ever really think of this as a commercial enterprise. My ideal dream was to work at The Wall Street Journal, but now I beat the Journal with my online coverage everyday," said Ali, who now lives in Los Angeles.

Sites like Ali's are not the norm, and the medium is a long way from becoming big business. Gawker employs only three full-time employees to run the business end of its blogs, and Darbyshire said that in the near-term blogs will probably remain financially solvent for the individuals rather than full-fledged businesses.

"It's still niche and it will probably stay that way. Matt Drudge has turned his blog into big business, but for most people they're doing it because they love what they do — it's not a huge business," she said.

Developing Writers

In the publishing world, blogging is becoming a resource for discovering and developing writers. Some book publishers are known to troll blogs in search of emerging writers, making them a sort of online resume service for publishers mining for talent.

Former U.S. Senate aide Jessica Cutler, who was fired from her job for using her Capitol Hill office computer to post entries on her sexually explicit blog, Washingtonienne, recently signed a publishing contract with Hyperion Books to write a novel.

Blogs are often littered with smarmy, even smutty postings devoid of any attempt at objectivity. Rumor and innuendo dominate the blogging world, and the prospect of condoning bloggers' right to report gossip in a venue as staid as political conventions has led some to label them unworthy.

But with a devoted readership and continued cost-effectiveness, blogs are unlikely to fade away. More likely, as politicians and traditional media search for ways to reach an increasingly elusive public, blogging will be refined and become an even more accepted, mainstream way to gather and disseminate information.

Already a former Associated Press reporter, Chris Allbritton, used a blog to raise money to travel to Iraq and report on the war for traditional publications including TIME and New York magazine.

But don't expect them all to go straight. The world has no shortage of opinionated writers, and with a New-Age soapbox as cheap as $100 per year they're sure to continue blogging their ideals.

"Blogging gives the writers a great return on their investment," said Gawker's Darbyshire. "They can cause a lot of trouble for only a little money!"

But it's not always the prospect of money that keeps them blogging. The uncensored outlet offered by blogs is something that mainstream media does not offer. What starts as a hobby becomes a creative release that most bloggers don't want to shut down just because the bright lights and media attention from the conventions go dark.

"I'm not much of a long-term planner," said Wonkette's Cox. "I'm very lucky that I have Wonkette, and it's not going anywhere. It may not pay much, but it's there and it's fun and I love doing it. It's not about the money."