[swombat]

This viewpoint fails to see that the author benefits just as much as the reader, if not more, from writing quality stuff that attracts eyeballs.

A famous blogger has much better ways to monetise their fame than monthly subscriptions. A blog is a delivery tool to direct people's attention to places - you can sell stuff via your blog. A successful blog is also a powerful reputation-building mechanism. You can sell yourself through your blog. A successful blog is also a great way to open doors - you can introduce yourself thanks to your blog.

By charging your readers, you decrease the value of your blog... to yourself.

[ajdecon]

Which works if you view writing purely as a way to sell your time or your other work. But if you want to make a living by writing, not by starting side businesses, then I don't think it's clear that your content should be free. Some people want to find a way to make a living as content creators, not as content creators + t-shirt salesmen + consultants.

How possible is this in general? I don't know. It's the same problem that exists with all other digital media. But I think it's likely that some people will probably find a way to make a living with paywalls or email newsletters, and be happier that way--even if they could make more by selling t-shirts. And I suspect they will do so with a very high price point, because exclusivity always sells.

[swombat]

Then they can sell ebooks or even traditional books through their blog, and/or get their column syndicated by a paying newspaper (as long as those exist).

Note that I'm not saying that paywalls are always going to fail, just that in general the argument "I write good stuff so I should charge for it" is pretty unsteady.

[carbocation]

To what degree would you say that this line of reasoning would be different if you replaced "blog" with "product?"

[ergo98]

>A blog is a delivery tool to direct people's attention to places - you can sell stuff via your blog. A successful blog is also a powerful reputation-building mechanism.

Reputation goes down the toilet the moment you start selling stuff on your blog. Affiliate links are the scourge of blogs, because you don't know whether it was an incidental monetization, or whether the blogger thought "How am I going to get this thing to pay by indirectly and inefficiently taxing readers?", scrounging around for some sort of affiliate junk to claim to be over the moon with.

Examples abound of prominent bloggers flushing credibility and reputation down the toilet when they chose the "Sell" route for monetization.

Reputation itself is a bias, though. Some of the worst blogs are the ones where the writer is clearly preening themselves for future employers.

[PStamatiou]

> Reputation goes down the toilet the moment you start selling stuff on your blog.

I'd say there are a great number of exceptions to that. My blog has several thousand subscribers (for whatever you want to define an RSS subscriber as) that have been following my blog for years, they know I have been working at early stage startups for years and they value my opinion, even going out of their way to ask if I have an affiliate link for something I might have mentioned on Amazon before or elsewhere.

One guy even held off buying a big DSLR camera on Amazon for a few days until he was able to get my affiliate code from me while I was out of town.

People can have a voice that is valued online and sell stuff through their writing/blog. Affiliate sales on my blog alone pay my rent while I can run around doing startups with no compensation.

Ken Rockwell comes to mind too. He reviews cameras and has amazing guides. Each camera page has a blurb about asking readers to buy it from sites that have his affiliate code.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/

[swombat]

Actually it seems to me that affiliate links are the worst way to sell through your blog. Sell your own product. If you don't have a product, build one, around your audience. They like what you write, so some form of ebook makes sense.