Louis Gray writes a good post concerning blogger’s desire to make a profit from their blog, calling this basic desire “shocking.” He points out the hard truth: most bloggers don’t make any money because they add nothing unique to the blogosphere. If they get “pennies” for all their hard work, that’s exactly what they deserve.

Personally, I have no delusions that blogging will ever make enough money to replace my “day job.” But it does make this hobby self-sustaining and then some. The amount isn’t “life-changing,” but I will say two things: while it did take a year to get up to the $100 mark, the next year it took six months, the next three, and since I’ve been blogging for nearly three years now, you can do the math. If that sounds surprising, well, I don’t concentrate on technology and have a lot of movie and TV show reviews that are slightly more targeted and “ad friendly.”

I don’t see anything pointless about that. And I wouldn’t discourage anyone else from having a go at it, as I’ve found it worthwhile. In that sense, I fall more in Mathew Ingram’s side of things: this is “micropublishing.” I find it pretty cool to be able to earn some spare change to buy a few toys and give stuff away to readers of this blog.

But there is a more interesting subject here that deserves further thought. While Louis considers many bloggers misguided for feeling they deserve ad revenue (do I come across that way? I hope not) - the exact same thing could be said for many Web 2.0 startups have “advertising” as their sole business model.

Reread Louis’s post, but replace the word “blogs” with “startups” as the subject matter. I feel many late-stage, Web 2.0 startups provide nothing unique to an advertiser, and are likewise misguided and in need of a serious reality adjustment regarding their chances of building a sustainable business in a ridiculously crowded space.

Frankly, us bloggers are inconsequential in the larger scheme of things. Say a blogger wants to earn some supplemental income, investing perhaps $200 or less to get started (hosting, domain name registration). If they go the free route via WordPress or Blogger, even less. Perhaps they get discouraged and quit. What have they invested, gained, and lost? Not much of anything, since usually it’s one individual toying around with some web pages to see if anyone cares what they think.

Meanwhile, on the startup end, millions of VC dollars can be borrowed, lost, and hundreds of lives affected when a company goes under. The pressure to earn money is greater. The risk / reward is larger. The stress may have people beliving they deserve success. But I’d daresay the amount of “silly” over-optimism regarding ad revenue is just as present.

If anyone also deserves the wagging finger of shame for reliance on ad revenue, it’s many of the same Web 2.0 sites the tech blogosphere (of which Louis, Mathew, and myself are a part) covers, since the effects of their rise and failure are so much greater. I’d say us bloggers are rather beside a much larger point about the over-reliance of ad revenue as an Internet business model.

I’d love to read a post about that subject, instead this light scolding of the blogosphere.

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