You've probably heard of method acting, where an actor goes out and researches a role by interviewing people, learning as much as they can about certain types of people or a certain lifestyle, and spending time in real life acting as the character they're studying. Sometimes they go incognito in a little town, sometimes not. This is arguable, but I believe that the best actors all follow one "method" or another, and that there could be an application to blogging. The gist of using "method" is to get deeply involved in something so that you can understand it from other viewpoints and be convincing in your interpretation - an approach that's possibly applicable to blogging. [Updated: There's more than one type of "method" acting, and they don't all necesarily use this approach.]

In addition to actors, there are writers/novelists who apply a method writing style to research their books. I've done it for a lot of my "speculative" short fiction, but not originally on purpose. I mean, does anyone intentionally use "method" for mad partying and drunken stupors? (Other than, say, Hunter S. Thompson, R.I.P.?) If so, there are probably a lot of Hollywood celebrities doing method research right now, judging from all the DUI arrests for the past 2-3 years. (Although I have my own conspiracy theories about why that's happening.)

What's Method Blogging?

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Celebrity name-dropping into blog posts is an art-form. Brian Clark/ Copyblogger did it with his posts about Jim Morrison and Robert Johnson, and Michael Gray/ Gray Wolf does it all the time. I'm sure lots of others bloggers have, and you can do it too. People generally love to hear something about celebrities in various niches, especially if you have something to say about their favorites. If you have a good understanding of pop culture, and can write about it confidently, why not inject it into your blogging? I see no harm in it. Unless it's just not your style, or you can't think of ways to make the name-dropping relevant. Of course, understand that Brian and Michael didn't just name-drop; they made their posts about the celebrities, then drew relationships between news/life events of the celebrities and their own blogs' topic. There was purpose there.

Without the purpose, you're really just name-dropping and your readers might want to lynch you. How can you be like Brian and Michael and show off your knowledge of pop culture to win friends and influence people? Well, if you have a sports or entertainment blog, it should be fairly easy to name-drop. However, when you're talking about general entertainment figures, it's easy to draw relationships about marketing personal brands. If you are a fan of any celebrity, you are so probably because you enjoy their personal "brand".

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One constant problem I have, despite having extensive search engine experience, is finding the "right" information online. When I write on a topic I know well, it's not always necessary. But as a freelancer, I tend to write about a variety of subjects when I'm working on comprehensive content and resource articles.

What Is A Resource Article?

Let's be clear on what "resource article" means, for the purposes of this post. Linkbait is linkbait is linkbait, but linkbait that also provides much more information for readers is a resource article. These articles are beneficial for numerous reasons:

1. Provide readers with what they're really looking for.
2. Evergreen for backlinks and traffic.
3. Authority builders in search engine rankings.

One site that displays some of the best examples of resource articles is Smashing Magazine. Their articles go beyond list-based linkbait.

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Content to Add

With Microsoft recently making a bid of nearly US$46B to buy rival Yahoo, I was hesitant to start a new series for Performancing that I've been planning around Yahoo Pipes. Hopefully Microsoft will not "bury" Pipes - which is about a year old now - like they have with other useful software I've used in the past and which they bought up. With that in mind, here's a quick "why use it" introduction to Yahoo Pipes.

Yahoo Pipes is essentially a handy way to take data in various formats (XML, RSS/XML, CSV, etc.) from the web and filter and manipulate it. It's really that simple, in terms of functionality. But even that in itself is what makes Pipes so powerful. Here is a very short list of what Pipes can be used for:

1. Custom search engines for collecting information related to a set of keywords.
2. RSS filters for customizing web feeds.
3. RSS radars for researchers or online bargain-hunting shoppers.
4. Dynamic web maps.
5. Custom multimedia content streams (images, video, audio).
6. Producing source data for custom HTML badges, even a "recent posts" badge for a blog network.
7. Monitor for top blogs in a niche.

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Do you follow your competing blogs?
Do you comment on them?

Transfer a long comment into your own article!

1. If I read the comments following an article I love to read short comments.
2. Rule: Long comments should better reside in their own article.
3. Don't hesitate to leave your own Trackback, Related or Follow-Up comment.

Speaking of Follow-Ups: They are one of the greatest sources to dive deeper into a specific subject. You can write about specific aspects of a subject in your own style and length. It's like taking up the ball...

Transfer your reading input into great blog output!

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So you've been reading up on Performancing and other places and want to get blogging on something you have a passion about but don't consider yourself an expert on. "Write what you know," you've heard. So what do you do? Well, while I have my passions, I'm a generalist and a freelancer. Here's how I start blogging in a niche that's new to me, and build up my knowlege.

1. Scope out the niche. Suss out some good blogs in your desired niche and add them to your feed reader. If there's a lot of hybrid blogs - in terms of topics - build a custom Yahoo Pipe to aggregate and filter multiple feeds, then add the result to your feed reader.

2. Set up my own blog. WordPress is my platform of choice (even though Performancing is a Drupal blog, in case you are wondering.) The number of free themes and plugins far outranks any other choice, afaik. If you want to, you can tweak free themes and plugins - or ask a friend. If you want to use WordPress as more of a CMS (Content Management System) to build a generalized site (with or without a blog), you can do that with relative ease later.
3. Start small. Start by writing and posting 5-10 short (20-50 word) summaries per day around current topics, using a techmeme-type of site, or a popurls-type - if available. The summaries link to authority blogs. I include a bit of personal commentary, to develop my voice in the niche. You don't always know what you feel about something until you write it down.
4. Build your site's authority. In newer posts, deep-link back to at least two relevant archived posts. This is critical to start as early as possible, and forces you to be creative. Don't just use the name of your archived article's title in the hyperlink's anchor text; use keywords, get creative. (See anything here at Perf written by Ryan, Ahmed, myself and many others and scan for deep links and take note of what text is used.)
5. Start to focus. Slowly expand your commentary and conclusions - thnks to more confidence from doing more research. The average per-post word count increases. Gradually over time, you can start writing "authority" posts, asyou learn more about the niche.

I've used this approach for a number of niches and found that, eventually, I get to a point where I know enough about a topic that I can hire myself out or do guest blogging. But of course, this applies if you are simply building your own blog(s).

The key thing to remember is that if you wait until you're already expert on something before you blog, you've lost a lot of authority building time. This is a relatively safe way to build your knowledge, without pretending to be an expert. Yet you also slowly build your authority via your blog/ website. It works for me.

What do you when you want to blog in a niche you are not an expert on?

The focus has turned squarely on content. It’s not new. Savvy website owners have all along paid emphasis on quality content and lots of that. That makes perfect sense because of phenomenal success of several content-heavy blogs online.

The more the blogs feel the heat of the need of new contents, the more there is demand for talent for blogging jobs. The demand is still in early stage of formation, but there are enough indications that it will markedly rise in near future.

But why are blogging jobs likely to increase? To understand that it is necessary to appreciate just how valuable is content for a website. I’ll take the example of The New York Times to drive home my view.

Contents freed at the New York Times

The recent decision by The New York Times to throw open its online content free is a case in point. Arguably the NYT decision comes based on its findings that making the content free may fetch more dollars through advertising compared to low growth potential of paid online subscribers.

The NYT’s reversal of decision comes just 2 years after it considered charging for access to some of the contents on its website. 3 things become clear:

1
Web visitors who are not subscribers to the New York Times’ online edition are leaving the site after finding their entry barred to some contents. Many of these are highly targeted readers who come to the site after having searched through the engines.

2
Loosing the readers not only means loosing them to competition, but also loosing precious advertising revenue, because the more the readers stay the more the chance is for them to follow a page ad.

3
Many readers look for analysis on fresh news. The NYT has this in abundance courtesy its experienced staff and worldwide reach, but so do many other online publications. Thus though the NYT has formidable archived content going back to 1851, it still looses readers to competition.

What follows?

2 points that filter out of the New York Times’ decision are:

1
If a site has to retain high visibility, it must have fresh contents every single day. They need to be relevant and targeted so as not to disappoint readers.

2
No site can afford to let visitors slip past and take refuge in competition’s site because of some flaws in the site. In other words, there must not be any ‘obstacle’ on the path of readers accessing any page in the site or wishing to do what they want to within fair practices, such as being able to easily email the site owner and be replied upon promptly.

Blogging jobs come to fore

Seen in this perspective, it becomes apparent that the websites and blogs that earn or plan to earn from ads on their pages – the info-publishing business – have to necessarily depend on a constant flow of contents relevant to their sites.

The trouble is except for giant newspapers, publishing houses and the likes most online content sites lack sufficient in-house wherewithal to churn out endless quantity of contents for days without end. This doesn't appear to be feasible, if not entirely impossible.

To grow therefore, a stage will soon come when it will become necessary to outsource blogging jobs. The challenge may then be to attract and retain writers who can adapt to your style of writing, and at the same time have an analytical mind and expertise to do a good job for you.

Mindmaps are known to stimulate both logical and creative sides of the brain. Use of them is often referred as radiant thinking, and they represent clusters of nodes connected by lines. I've been using mindmaps on and off since the late 1970s, after first encountering Tony Buzan's book - he who coined and trademarked the term "mind map". I've used them for entrepreneurial activities, freelancing, software development, project management and writing - especially for blog posts.

Approach

If you've never come across mindmaps before, you may want to check out my mindmapping video tutorials over at Tubetorial. If you are familiar with mindmaps but have never used them to develop blog post ideas (or articles in general), take note of how I use them:

1. Record a list of undeveloped ideas. For example, blog post titles that come to mind.
2. Add subtopic nodes to general idea nodes when you think of them.
3. Accumulate sentence fragments attached to subtopic nodes as they come to mind.
4. Add URL references attached to map nodes so that you can click on them and view web pages in a browser.
5. Explore variations in article discussion flow by recording differing viewpoints. If one "speaks" to you more strongly, go with that.

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Are you suffering from that syndrome called copycat blogging, where you're just regurgitating what other bloggers in your niche have already been saying? Note that there's nothing wrong with discussing the same topics, but unless you're adding something to the conversation, you're just "polluting" the blogosphere with redundant content. I've done my share of this, but am actively trying not to. How do you get around this?

Copycat blogging is sometimes the result of not knowing what you really want to blog about, or even worse, knowing but denying yourself.

If instead you could present topics with some cohesiveness, you have a motivation for taking the time to produce better content. By scheduling themes or topics for specific weeks or even days, you can give your blog more structure - even if it's just subtle and you only loosely follow your schedule.

This is what an editorial calendar can do for you. What is an editorial calendar? For print publications, it's the actual schedule that writers, editors, ad sales personnel and even advertisers follow. Each upcoming edition is mapped out themewise, and content and advertising will reflect this. Because most print magazines will have a year's worth of content scheduled - a necessity since personnel will often be working 3-4 months ahead - it makes planning much easier.

Unfortunately for blogs, it's a little harder to schedule articles for given dates because they don't work on a periodic basis. While there are a few websites that openly state that they're "weekly", they're of course the exception, not the norm. Blogs in general are expected to be spontaneous.

Nevertheless, you can use some semblance of an editorial calendar and gain a number of benefits:

1. Schedule for article series.
2. Have a loose schedule for any future evergreen content, and a framework for topics.
3. Have a basis for "theme weeks", so that you can still write spontaneous "news" content that integrates nicely with feature articles themes/ topics.

You don't have to follow a blog editorial calendar to the tee. However, if you ever have a day where you don't know what to write about, check that calendar. Use it as a backup for ideas, if you feel it's too restrictive.

On the other hand, an editorial calendar can serve as a great reminder to you to cover seasonal topics - which you should write about weeks before an event or holiday, to give yourself a better chance of ranking in search engines.

If you want to know more about how editorial calendars can be used for a blog, see my article Better Websites: Use an Editorial Calendar for Better Articles.

Are you at the point where you're getting multiple daily blogging projects but not sure how to manage them? Many people have trouble managing multiple projects, often feeling overwhelmed. I'm sometimes amongst that group, and I find myself changing my project management methodology to suit my mood, environment and deadlines. Some are more ideal than others for when you're blocked and can't seem to complete your work. I'm highlighting here two ways that you can approach a group of projects, regardless of the size and frequency of each. The second method, multi-tasking, is in my opinion more productive.

The SplashCast below consists of two frames. The first is an image of the way that people usually complete a group of projects: focus on project 1, complete each step, then move on to the next project. In this mode, you don't really think of each task as being distinct - the task is the entire project. I've diagrammed each project as consisting of sub-tasks, then.

The second frame shows an alternate tactic that requires a bit more thought and organization. Instead of completing one project fully before moving on, you split each up into actual sub-tasks and interleave the whole lot of them any way you feel comfortable. In this case, I've shown the completion of each step 1 across the projects before moving to step 2. This lets ideas brew in your mind while still letting you get some work completed. If something new pops into your mind, you can then refine your work by editing what you've written.

Note: to advance to the second frame, press the start button, then hover your mouse over the SplashCast area and click on the advance arrow at top right.

I've left out the "research" step for simplicity, to focus on the writing tasks.  The reason for the second approach is that it helps seed your mind with article ideas and lets the "background processes" of your brain mull them over while you work on another task. This is especially ideal if for whatever reason (ADD, hypothyroid problems, anxiety, stress, guilt, laziness) you cannot focus on a single project before moving on to another one.

As well, I also find that if I "sleep" on articles at least one night before they're posted, they usually turn out better - less typos, more cohesion, etc. What's more, if I'm feeling overwhelmed with the work, breaking the projects down into tasks allows me to focus on a little piece at a time while feeling a degree of control. Also, if I only have a partial story, sleeping on it usually gives me ideas on how to complete it.

Here is my ideal approach for completing a batch of daily posts:

1. Browse my feed subscriptions.
2. Take note of potential references and write down tentative article titles.
3. Write the outline of each article, or just a few bullet points to jog my memory. (However, if I'm completing each project before moving on, I may not use this step.)
4. Write rough drafts, then leave for a few hours or sleep on it.
5. When you return (i.e., in the morning), edit each draft. Now add external and internal (deep) links, if you haven't done so. If you're short of the word quota, search your archives for related stories and see if you can't work in a relevant summary tied to the new story.
6. Post.

Now, this "ideal" approach works best - for me anyway - when applying method 2, interleaved tasks. If I feel up to completing a single project before moving on, then I do so. However, I always feel that the interleaved method allows me to be more productive without sacrificing quality. It's not foolproof, and sometimes you'll still feel blocked - at which point you maybe need to get up from your desk and go for a walk.

When your site gains links from other sites, its authority and ranking can increase. I say can because the authority of sites linking to you has some influence on the ranking you receive (though there are many other factors). I'm not going to claim to be an SEO. Still, it's safe to say that linkbuilding is something you want to do, and regularly.

Many bloggers have covered ways to build links to your site. I'd like to discuss it in the hopes of hearing what you have tried and whether it's worked for you. Here is a shortlist of linkbuilding techniques. I'm not commenting on whether or not I think these are any good because I'm hoping you'll say what's worked for you.

1. Comments.
   Some sites apply a nofollow to links in comments, so you may not benefit SEO-wise. However, your comments, if intelligent (or sometimes controversial), will draw visitors. If these visitors are bloggers, they might link to you after visiting. (Use tools to track comments.) Unless of course you're an anonymous commenter.

2. Trackbacks.
   Trackbacks are an automated technology that most of the bigger blogging platforms have. If you write about and link to someone's blog post, your platform will notify the other one. The other blog will then display a snippet of your post, with a link. While trackbacks are still prone to spam, they seem to generate less than comments might on some sites. (Yet some bloggers say it's worse.) Blogs can have any combination of commenting and trackbacks turned on or off. Note that some trackbacks may have nofollow as well, and may be moderated.

3. Conversations.
   The VoIP bloggers seem to have this down to a pratice. I write about VoIP (ghosted) and subscribe to something close to 80 blogs that discuss communications, mostly VoIP. There's a small group that regularly write posts that bounce off of topics another one of them wrote. So they link to each other almost daily. Personally, I think they should diversify their outbound links, but that's their call. Liz Strauss has talked about link leaking on her Successful-Blog, and I'm definitely a link leaker, linking to relevant posts on as many blogs as possible, hoping to strike up a blogversation. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. (It helps if you do it from a blog where your name appears on each post - not so much if you ghostwrite.)

4. Purchased reviews.
   In addition to PayperPost and ReviewMe, there are also at least LoudLaunch and SponsoredReviews, and others I'm forgetting. Some people are using these for linkbuilding campaigns, by paying people to review their site. For example, fans of John Chow have been purchasing reviews from him through ReviewMe.

5. Link exchange/ request.
   While not everyone is comfortable doing so, people sometimes just ask for a link or offer a swap. Darren Rowse tells you how to go about requesting links.

6. Purchased links.
   This amounts to either offering a blogger money for a link, or doing it indirectly through a service like Text-Link-Ads or Text Link Brokers.

7. Linkbait and social bookmarking.
   This is combo technique. Publish compelling flagship content, including linkbait, then have someone "seed" the URL on a social bookmarking network such as Digg, Del.icio.us, Reddit, Stumbleupon, Fark, etc.

8. Blog carnivals.
   Blog carnivals are an incredbly good way not only to get known in your niche but to also get and give links, and build visitors.

Did I miss anything? Which of these have you tried? Did it work? Which technique do you prefer? Which one would you like to try but are not sure how to go about it?

So you've started too many blogs on too many topics all too soon, and you find you can't maintain them all after all. And you're loathe to let go of your babies, even the free-hosted ones. What do you do?

I've struggled with this problem since getting heavy into blogging nearly two years ago. I have way too many sites and can barely find writers for the sites that earn a bit of money, let alone for the ones that could earn money. I've toyed with what to do with them, since if I have them, I feel compelled to do something. Here are some options for your extra blogs. I'm giving them a very superficial treatment, as prep for future discussions.

1. Ditch/sell them.
   Just focus on 2-3 blogs, with 3-5 posts per day per blog [updated]. Once they're up and running, and you have a few guest/regular writers and regular readers as well as regular search engine traffic, you can expand to more blogs.

2. Go zombie.
   Let the extra blogs stagnate. If you're running PPC (Pay Per Click) ads, get rid of them on the zombie sites so that your over all CTR (Click Through Rate) doesn't drop. [Use some other way to record traffic - such as metrics code.]

3. Gift them.
   Maybe you know someone that can do something with the sites.

4. Park them. Ditch the hosting and park the domains for free. I use Sedo.com, but there are lots of others. I haven't received any ad clicks yet, but I can still see how much traffic each parked domain is getting. So if want to sell just the domain, I have better gauge for the price.
5. Burn out.
   Be like me and try to do everything, burn out and get pissed that none of them are earning much money.

6. Turn them into forums.
   There's both free and paid forum script code out there. While a forum is not easy to get kickstarted, if you choose a popular topic and luck out with some good members, the forum could run itself. You might consider doing a revenue share with members as motivation for participate.

7. Web 2.0 community.
   Slap on some suitable code and turn the site into a self-running web 2.0 community. Ning.com used to have an option where you could host a community on your own site.

8. Turn them into resources.
   Not every site has to be a blog. Decide to sacrifice the regular readership (if any) and go for search engine traffic. Build out the site with 50-100 pages (not posts) of solid content focused on a niche and let it loose. You can actually use WordPress as a regular CMS (Content Management System) to publish a non-blog website. [I'll get into that in a future article, but if I forget, someone please remind me.] The beauty of this solution, if you execute it right, is that you can create authority sites this way that don't need to be updated as regularly as a blog. Could you manage 10 or more sites this way, as compared to 10 or more blogs?

This isn't by any means a comprehensive list, and I haven't yet provided a lot of detail. That'll come, as I manage to remember. Got any suggestions for what to do with excess domains/ sites? Have sites or domains to sell? Go list them in Performancing's Blogger Marketplace. Just remember: you can't sell blogspot.com blogs.

No One Has Passion Every Day

Maybe it was that party last night. Maybe it's I'm getting old and cranky. Maybe I'm catching a cold, getting the flu, or maybe folks just irritate me.

Immitation is the highest form of pissing me off. Quit stealing my content and violating my copyright. -- Jen T. Verburmessor

It doesn't matter, if I'm feeling mean and puny. Blog posts are waiting to appear on that blank screen. Why do we do that? It's hard and it takes so much investment. Then if we're lucky folks read it and comment, and the comments, well the comments, . . . and if we're lucky folks write helpful comments that make us think.

1. There's one reason to write -- the comments we receive can make us see our ideas. Sometimes folks interpret what we write in ways we never expected.
2. Speaking of which, writing is a chance to say something uninterrupted. If we take the time to think through a thought we can present it fully, completely, and entirely.
3. Writing gives our tiny voice reach around the world. No one I know can scream that far, even though my older brother said I could.
4. Writing tends to keep our feet our of our mouth. Those things we say that embarrass us -- the proverbial foot in our mouth -- doesn't happen much when we're typing out the next thought we usually think about it.
5. Talk floats away, but our writing stays for tomorrow. In the case of the Internet it stays longer than we will. That's a legacy, boys and girls, Folks will know us long after we can say anything about it.
6. Every - single - word - of - quality - content - we - write - is - promotion. Relevant content converts to audience attention which makes it more relevant which means that search engines value it more and more so that it becomes even more relevant.
7. Look at how each post makes us more visible.
8. Writing is a great way for people to get to know our goals, our skills, our aspirations.
9. Writing makes us think through and organize our thinking. By articulating our ideas in writing, we force ourselvess to pinpoint our meaning. A goal that isn't written is a speeding train soon to run over us and the goal we have been planning.
10. Here's our chance to tell our story loudly and clearly so that folks can hear it.
11. Don't forget what we write brings people who comment back. Some of those people are destined to be with us in the summers and all of the seasons.

Whew! I'm feeling less cranky, less mean and puny. I'm feeling more like writing those blog posts now. I've got those 11 good reasons. Of course, I have a whole lot more reasons. They are the folks who read what I write. You know them . . . some of them write spy novels -- or, like me, that's what they say they do.
Liz Strauss

Speaking of being a professional blogger and how it's easier today, this is an informal profile of Daily Blog Tips, which has been running an excellent set of posts. Darren Rowse covered them "tomorrow" in 10+5 requisites for professional bloggers, a review of a post they ran (also covered below).

How to Get .edu and .gov Links

Hoping for some valuable .gov and .edu backlinks for your site? Gather .edu and .gov backlinks gives a fairly easy to follow process for finding suitable sites, how to contact the webmaster, and what you need to have on your end.

5 Tips for Writing Timeless Content

Probably the most important suggestion in 5 tips for writing timeless content is that you should eliminate references to time.

Write Pillar Articles

Pillar articles, aka flagship content, is described as being longer posts of over 750 words, with timeless, original content that attracts links from other bloggers.

Blogging Content Matrix

Wondering if your blog has valuable flagship or viral content? Blogging Content Matrix gives a nice visual on evaluating the general value of your site's content. This post is my favorite. It doesn't tell you which niche you should pick but does help you decide whether your content be successful, whether it's timeless.

10 Requisites for Professional Bloggers

10 requisites for professional bloggers has a more exact template with which to decide whether or not you're a pro blogger. Recent posts and comments here at Peformancing have covered things like putting in the necessary time and having passion. Other important qualities listed are:

• expertise on a topic
• writing skills
• technical knowledge
• blogging knowledge
• web design skills
• business/ marketing knowledge
• creativity and innovative ideas
• a network of contacts.

I agree that having all of these skills are good to have (Ahmed echoed that in a comment, stating that pro blogging should be a complete package). However, I'm not so sure that you need to have to have web design skills to be a pro blogger. I think a network of contacts is far more important, and in that group should be a good web designer. Be like Henry Ford, who had a row of buttons on his desk, each of which buzzed an expert in a particular field.

What do you think? Do you need all of the above skills to be a professional blogger? What do you think is the most important requisite, besides writing skills?

Each of you will have your own definition of "professional blogger." Mine is someone who earns their living as a blogger, either through advertising revenue on their sites or getting paid to write posts on someone else's sites (usually ghostwritten). Such a writer might also earn money by other means such as e-book sales, giving lectures, consulting, flipping sites, etc.

Opportunities

This site, if I understand correctly, is aimed at helping those bloggers who want to do this as a living (as well as helping build relationships). It's as good a time as any to consider your options. Bloggers For Hire recently discussed blogging as a profession, quoting a similar article from the Christian Science Monitor.

The latter concludes that bloggers can make money but most of use are keeping our day jobs. They quote the well-known Mr. ProBlogger himself, Darren Rowse, who says that he put in eight- to sixteen-hour days - something many new bloggers don't (or don't want to?) see.

One By One Media, which is affiliated with Bloggers For Hire, expands on the discussion in Like money for nothing. They include an interesting quote from a WSJ (Wall Street Journal) article (subscribers only), in which BlogAds.com's Henry Copeland says that most self-employed (full-time) bloggers "take in between $2,000 and $10,000 a month from ad sales." Would that it were so - I certainly don't take in that much in ads. However, as I think David Krug said here, I'd blog regardless of the money.

Reality

On the other hand, I do ghostblog for some people who do far more than that. The WSJ article also says that political bloggers can make $20-30K/mth around election time. Don't forget that they also give updates every 30-60 minutes, and follow news sources all day long. It just goes to show you that if you're good at your niche, you'll be rewarded.

So ultimately, you have to ask yourself why you are doing this. For fun, for a bit of extra cash, or as a career? For me, it started as "fun". (I'm a know-it-all windbag, so I have lots to write about.) Then a bit of cash trickled in, and then some more, and so on. Now I'm sort of hovering between part-time and full-time earnings, depending on how much contract work I get done each month. (And as a direct result of what I've learned, my own sites are starting to pick up a bit.)

Just remember one thing: it takes effort, but ultimately, it can pay off. Now, what does being a professional blogger mean to you?