For bloggers, online ads beckon
In 2006, advertisers reportedly spent $16.9 billion online, up from $6 billion in 2002
Survey: 39 percent of Web users, or about 57M American adults, say they read blogs
"No big brand that doesn't advertise on everyday blogs," says BlogAds' founder
NEW YORK Zach Brooks pocketed $1,000 this month blogging about the cheap lunches he discovers around midtown Manhattan -- $10 or less, preferably greasy, and if he's lucky, served from a truck.
Zach Brooks holds a takeout lunch last week in New York and writes a blog about cheap eats.
The site, Midtownlunch.com, is just a year and a half old and gets only about 2,000 readers daily, but it's already earning him enough each month for a weekend trip to the Caribbean -- or in his case, more fat-filled culinary escapades in the city.
In the vast and varied world of blogging, Brooks is far from alone.
It's no longer unusual for blogs with just a couple thousand daily readers to earn nearly as many dollars a month. Helping fill the pockets of such bloggers are programs like Google's AdSense and many others that let individuals -- not just major publications -- tap into the rapidly growing pot of advertising dollars with a click of the mouse.
In 2006, advertisers spent $16.9 billion on-line, up steadily each year from $6 billion in 2002, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau. In the first half of 2007, on-line advertising reached nearly $10 billion, a nearly 27 percent increase over the first half of 2006.
Little technical skill is needed to publish a well-read blog, meaning just about anyone with something worthwhile to say can find an audience, said Kim Malone Scott, director of on-line sales and operations for Google's AdSense. That's attracted greater readership and advertising dollars, she said.
According to 2006 survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 39 percent of Internet users, or about 57 million American adults, said they read blogs, up from 27 percent in 2004, or 32 million.
That doesn't mean bloggers are suddenly flush with money. For every blogger earning a decent side income like Brooks, countless others will never earn a cent.
But with the right mix of compelling content and exposure, a blog can draw a dedicated following, making advertising a low-hanging fruit.
"This is really a continuation of how the Web in general has enabled smaller businesses and individuals to compete if not at a level playing field, at least a more equitable level," said David Hallerman, a senior analyst with the research group eMarketer.
Google's AdSense is an automated program that places targeted advertising on sites big and small. Other programs such as PayPerPost are just as user friendly; bloggers sign up, and advertisers cherry-pick where they want to place ads based on categories and the number of impressions a site captures.
Getting paid might even help validate what may otherwise seem like a silly or obscure obsession.
For Samuel Chi, BCSGuru.com started as a way to demystify the convoluted universe of college football rankings for fellow fans.
Chi, a former sports journalist with training in statistics, posts his calculations every Saturday night during the season before official results are released on Sunday. Between Saturday night and Monday, about 4,000 sports fans log on daily to check out the "guru's" forecast.
This season, Chi made about $8,000 total from the blog; ticket brokers contacted him directly after word about his site got out. Google's AdSense brought in another couple hundred dollars for Chi, the owner of a bed-and-breakfast in Amelia Island, Florida.
Neither Chi or Brooks had to do much to gain a loyal readership; when it comes to such rarefied interests, word about a good site can spread rapidly in on-line communities.
"All it takes is a couple of mentions (on other sites), and hundreds of people can be directed to your site," Chi said.
BlogAds, which helps advertisers target relevant blogs for a commission, prices ads by the week, with sites tiered by the amount of traffic they get.
When the company started in 2002, founder Henry Copeland said it was mainly small advertisers selling T-shirts or promoting bands. Now he said "there's no big brand that doesn't advertise on everyday blogs."
About a third of BlogAds' 1,500 sites earn between $200 and $2,000 a month, Copeland said. Those sites get anywhere from 3,000 to 50,000 daily impressions.
Google's Malone Scott said access to advertising on-line is more democratic, since an ad click from a tiny site is just as valuable as a click from a site with a million readers.
Some advertisers have even found better response from smaller sites with more passionate, engaged audiences.
For ticket broker RazorGator, advertising on blogs like BCSGuru.com means reaching a very specific audience.
"We have found that more and more sports fans are turning to blogs and smaller fan sites to get their information so as an advertiser it makes sense to follow your audience," spokeswoman Toni Lamb wrote in an email.
The broker has advertised on smaller blogs like Chi's for the past two years; Lamb would not specify how many blogs it currently advertises on.
Despite rapidly rising advertising dollars on-line, blogs usually don't start out as a way to make money -- they're more a means of speaking to an audience of like-minded individuals. MidtownLunch.com started as a way for Brooks to indulge his food obsession, but he soon realized his quest struck a note with a legion of office workers.
Taking that extra step to get advertising was a no-brainer. Companies like Random House's Broadway Books have posted ads for food books on the site, along with the makers of independent films seeking a New York City audience.
Brooks only spends two hours at most each day on MidtownLunch.com. But the blog affects his life in other ways. Like Chi, he's met close friends through his site. He has also scored freelance writing assignments, and, above all, the site has given his endless fascination with greasy foods a sense of
# 1 Benazir assasinated.
#2. Taliban Offensive
Sept. 29: A Taliban suicide bomber kills 35 Afghan troops and two civilians in the year's worst suicide bombing in Kabul. More than 5,000 Afghans have been killed in a wave of bombings and guerrilla clashes in the Taliban's offensive to drive foreign troops out of Afghanistan. Despite the presence of 40,000 NATO troops, by the fall of 2007 the Taliban controlled vast swathes of Afghan territory, and are expected to renew their offensive in the spring.
#3. North Korea Agrees to Disarm
Feb. 13: Months after testing a nuclear device, North Korea agrees at six-party talks in Beijing to take the first steps towards disarmament. The deal involves North Korea turning off and dismantling its reactor at Yongbyon in exchange for energy aid, although an important aspect of the agreement is the promise of peace talks, via a separate forum, aimed at ending the conflict and normalizing relations between North Korea and the U.S. Progress in implementing the deal has been slow, but substantial nonetheless, although the behavior of the North Korean regime remains unpredictable.
#4. China's Equity Bubble?
Nov. 5: PetroChina becomes the world's first trillion-dollar company, tripling its share price on the first day it was traded on the Shanghai stock market. China now has five of the world's 10 most valuable companies. But analysts fear that the Chinese stock market frenzy is dangerous, and former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned in May that it was due for a "dramatic correction." Since his warning, its value has increased by more than 35%, although it remains volatile.
#5. China Product Safety Crisis
July 11: Zheng Xiaoyu, former head of China's State Food and Drug Administration, is executed after being convicted of corruption charges in a case concerning substandard medicines that led to several deaths. The case highlighted a dramatic surge of cases of tainted Chinese exports, including pet food, toothpaste and toys, prompting calls for stronger product-safety regulation in the country that has become the world's manufacturing hub.
#6. Burma Crackdown
Sept. 26: Burmese riot police attack Buddhist monks involved in peaceful protests, as the military regime cracks down on a movement that has drawn tens of thousands onto the streets of the capital in recent days. Thousands are arrested, and at least 15 people are reported killed. Under international pressure, the regime later holds talks with opposition figures, but there are few signs of movement away from authoritarian rule.
#7. U.S.-India Nuke Deal Fails
Oct. 16: India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh regretfully informs President George W. Bush that a nuclear agreement hailed by Washington as the "single most important initiative" in U.S.-India history has been stalled for the foreseeable future. The agreement, which provided for India to gain access to global nuclear energy markets despite its nuclear weapons program, was opposed by Singh's coalition partners on the grounds that it made India's nuclear program beholden to Washington. They vowed to bring down the government if Singh went ahead with the deal.
#8. Japan's Political Shift
Sept. 23: Yasuo Fukuda is tapped to lead Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, following the resignation of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Abe stepped down in the wake of a serious electoral setback to the party when it lost control over Japan's upper house in July, following a pension scandal. Fukuda is considered to be more of a consensus builder, and less hawkish on foreign policy issues than his predecessor.
#9. China's New Leaders
Oct. 22: China's 17th Communist Party Congress unveils the new politburo that will rule the country until 2012. The notoriously opaque system of bargaining over leadership positions in the one-party system appears to have produced a compromise candidate as likely successor for President Hu Jintao: Xi Jinping, who may now have eclipsed Li Keqiang, believed to have been President Hu's preferred choice. While Li is deemed to be a Hu protégé, Xi is viewed as close to both Hu and his still-influential predecessor, Jiang Zemin.
#10. Shutting Out the U.S.
Aug. 16: The annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) held in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, affirms the principle that security in Central Asia should be in the hands of existing regional organizations. It also staged major war games involving troops from Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The significance of the group, though, is that it unites China and Russia together with the neighborhood's former Soviet republics, and includes as observers the likes of Afghanistan and Iran. The U.S. is very conspicuously not invited into a group whose governments are largely authoritarian in nature, but which the U.S. has sought to cultivate. The SCO's composition and increasing assertiveness reflects a shifting balance of power in the region, and perhaps globally.
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