Mark Penn: More Americans Earn Primary Income As Bloggers Than Firefighters Or Bartenders

Wall Street Journal:

In America today, there are almost as many people making their living as bloggers as there are lawyers. Already more Americans are making their primary income from posting their opinions than Americans working as computer programmers, firefighters or even bartenders.

Paid bloggers fit just about every definition of a microtrend: Their ranks have grown dramatically over the years, blogging is an important social and cultural movement that people care passionately about, and the number of people doing it for at least some income is approaching 1% of American adults.

Read the whole story: Wall Street Journal

Comments

[LiarLiarIraqsOnFire]

When Penn publishes drivel like this it's hard to believe that Sec. Clinton's Presidential Campaign even made it TO Iowa!!!

[NotMcCain]

Mark Penn: STILL lying.....

I guess that's why he's hired all the Bushies to help him. My guess is this is part of his idea to have lobbyists blogging and make his customers think they're getting their money's worth from it.

They. Aren't.

[jeliz]

Why would you want to post something that you're not passionate about? I get this garbage in my e-mail all the time, it's popping up all over when you enter the news channels -- they make their money by selling instructions. It's total spam.

[DMGMD]

What? You mean I've been giving my opinions away for free?

[cantbe]

$5000 a month is probably on the high end for "bloggers" and with no benifits. this explains why you all hate the hard working people who make more and want everything free from our government through redistribution of wealth. go get a real job that creates value. we need firefighters and even bartenders far more than worthless bloggers.

[stell]

Who pays this guy for advice? I guess the fact that all of Bush's former staff are working with him now speaks for itself. They are all the same. Same with Carville, Begala, et. al., the Democratic party is just a means to an end.

[GatorGrrrl]

These bloggers are cannibalizing the news business they feed off. Fewer and fewer journalists are actually gathering information and more and more bloggers are opining about the news. Its junk food journalism

[GeorgeP922]

Why are you here?

[BobsNotWorking]

Beyond the fact that I don't see what Penn's point is - well, aside from the fact that the world he thought he was master of only a couple of short years ago doesn't even exist anymore - I found it amazing that he focused so much of his attention of the fact that bloggers aren't covered by unemployment insurance or employment laws. As if most Americans are? I've been a progressive Democrat all of my life yet I've always been self employed. I've long lamented the fact that the core group of Democratic politicians obviously believed that their base of support was solely within that portion of our society that is employed by large corporations. That belief on their part has always cause them to legislate in ways that left me out. Frankly, I'm glad that Barack Obama's vision of Democratic politics swallowed up that old Democratic machine model. That thinking was far too small and one of the main reasons that Democrats have been losing national elections for decades to Republicans who've been espousing an antiquated ideology along with dehumanizing moral values. Barack Obama may not do much to help me financially, but he is certainly giving voice to my moral views and that is far more than either the Democrats or Republicans have been doing for the past forty years.

[Kevbo68]

Riiiiiight. Who the heck made up the numbers behind that proclamation?

I'm still not going to call a blogger if my house is on fire.

[rikkirighteous]

Sounds like b & s.

[mommadona]

Mark Penn is a discredited creep.

[ManwithaParachute]

IDIOT.

[UrbanInterloper]

If Penn is correct, and that's highly doubtful, the only possible explanation for this many bloggers citing blogging as their primary income is that they've lost their jobs. It's sad, but all some people might have these days is a dollar or two per month from some Google ads in the right margin on Blogger.

[emily00011]

I made more than that, and I didn't even go hardcore on trying to make money off the site, nor is my site something super-popular like travel or dating or children.

Don't speak unless you know what you are talking about.

[GeorgeP922]

Why do we care about a man who hates the Democratic party have say here?

Let alone someone whose whole life can be defined as a joke and an utter failure?

[MsIrisMG]

How in the world does anybody make money blogging?!

[JScott]

That's what I was thinkin. Yeah making a living at 'Wal Mart wages.

[emily00011]

Adsense - extremely easy to set up. I was making like $25/month off them - and my topic wasn't anything popular. It wasn't a lot, but you only get the payout at $100, then it feels like something. :)