The small cattle, the manure and the crumbs

Guest commentary Anyone who thinks that weblog advertising makes money is wrong, says Nick Lüthi, who invests a lot of time in his weblog,
researched on the Internet, formulated texts, created graphics or even
Sound and image on his personal website for viewing or subscription
at some point plays with the thought: Could my
Turning amateur journalism into cash? Good: Most people blog
for the fun of it. For a few extra francs as
compensation for the often time-consuming hobby, the
few bloggers have any objections. In addition to publishing
as an advertising canvasser, but then there is a lack of
Desire and time. If you're going to earn money, then do it as automatically as possible.

The seemingly perfect way out of this dilemma is offered by the
Partner programs from Internet giants such as Google, Amazon or Yahoo.
For three years now, Google's Adsense program has offered the
possibility to integrate ads into his weblog with very little effort.
to be integrated. However, anyone who thinks that the rouble is now rolling is mistaken. Even much
respected weblogs, such as "schockwellenreiter.de", which, according to
is clicked on around 200,000 times a month by its operator Jörg Kantel,
generates a monthly net income of just 180 euros. With his
This amount corresponds to an hourly wage of 2
euro, Kantel wrote in June 2005. Other companies have reported similar
Blogger celebrities. Web log authors, who are inspired by their
activity, there are at most a few dozen in the world - and
with an estimated number of weblogs in the tens of millions.

Even though Google generates almost 80 percent of its revenue from the Adsense program
(more than 600 million dollars in the third quarter of 2005 alone!) to the
partner, the largest single amount remains with the
Ad intermediaries. Web logs can therefore be used to make money.
Google will say to itself. A lot of small cattle make a lot of muck
- the small cattle are left with the crumbs. This economic reality
basically prohibits the question: How do I become a professional blogger? And that
is not even bad. After all, nobody comes up with the
idea of imagining the conversation on the street, the conversation in the café
to be silvered. The blogosphere is first and foremost a global
Chat corner. When limited resources mean that you can't get into
can only briefly summarize his weblog entries, then this is the
quality can only be beneficial.

> Nick Lüthi is a media journalist and blogger at www.bernergazette.ch.