I read the New York TIMES story about bloggers dying young deaths, staying up too late, getting fat or skinny, and making lots of money.. I can't say I relate. The TIMES reports,

"It is unclear how many people blog for pay, but there are surely several thousand and maybe even tens of thousands. The emergence of this class of information worker has paralleled the development of the online economy. Publishing has expanded to the Internet, and advertising has followed.

Don't think I can be included here. I blog to report, vent, give thought, re-tell what I find important.. The TIMES goes on:

"Blogging has been lucrative for some, but those on the lower rungs of the business can earn as little as $10 a post, and in some cases are paid on a sliding bonus scale that rewards success with a demand for even more work. There are growing legions of online chroniclers, reporting on and reflecting about sports, politics, business, celebrities and every other conceivable niche. Some write for fun, but thousands write for Web publishers — as employees or as contractors — or have started their own online media outlets with profit in mind. "

I first began my life online in 1999 .. a meager ridiculous personal Angelfire website.. Moved on to the Horror-Report.com (I still applaud myself for beating Drudge by about ten seconds in reporting the World Trade Center being attacked and I was almost sued by Janeane Garofalo's personal photographer in 2004) .. I moved on to Schmuckraker.com, then to this cheap version of the site on Blogger.com. It's free. I am not gaining profit or money by this site.. Not sure if I ever will. It doesn't appear enough people really actually even like me enough to make money off of it. The TIMES continues:

"Bloggers at some of the bigger sites say most writers earn about $30,000 a year starting out, and some can make as much as $70,000. A tireless few bloggers reach six figures, and some entrepreneurs in the field have built mini-empires on the Web that are generating hundreds of thousands of dollars a month. Others who are trying to turn blogging into a career say they can end up with just $1,000 a month. Speed can be of the essence. If a blogger is beaten by a millisecond, someone else’s post on the subject will bring in the audience, the links and the bigger share of the ad revenue."

Again.. Can't say I fall within this category. I work two jobs.. this is my third to a degree since it does take some energy. But I'm not a 24/7 update by any stretch of the imagination.. Maybe that's why the cash isn't flowing in.. I guess death by blogging won't be in the cards for me. Neither will cash for blogs. But at least I can say it's just me here. No one else editing me, telling me what to report or decide.. It's all Schmuck, all the time. When I bother to update. . . Even sometimes on a quiet Saturday night will I wait for my wife to come home from work..