The age of 'blog ' pathys
Frustrated with the fact that the money making drill known as your job has evolved into sitting at a desk from 9 to 5, getting paid peanuts at the end of the month? For all those buckling under the monotony of daily life, the global phenomenon called blogging may just have opened the doors to wealth heretofore unseen in office space.
But how does this work? The answer lies in the revenue generated from ads posted on each blogger’s site. Kiruba Shankar, a popular blogger from Chennai, says, “There are several ways to make a handsome earning through blogs. However, the most popular mode happens to be through ads, specifically – Google’s Adsense service. Subscribers of the service are paid a commission on the basis of the number of hits that ads placed on the subscribers’ blog get. The ads are posted according to the relevance of the blog.”
If you are a lover of gadgets and you frequently blog about the latest in gizmos, your blog could be posted with ads pertaining to local dealers of such gadgets, auctioning sites that sell them at different rates etc. The revenue earned by a blogger would depend on various factors. Ganesh, the blogmeister of Rupaiya.com explains this, “The money you make from the ads depends on the subject of the blog, it’s popularity and its ranking. For an ad space, one can earn anywhere between Rs. 2,000 to Rs. 9,000 per month. Hits on these advertisements could a fetch a blogger anywhere between Rs 4 to Rs. 300.” Ganesh says, “I have made about Rs 7 lakh in about a year and a half. But there are even those who earn from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 20 lakh per month.”
Parminder Singh, the business head of technology, Google India says, “The revenue as well as the exact number of bloggers in Adsense are confidential. Of course, it’s very popular in India and almost every major blogger is a part of it.”
However, ads are not the only way to make money through blogs. Ramanujam, an engineering graduate who makes more money from his blogs than his ads says, “I write product reviews and link my blog to the product’s website. So in turn, that company pays me.” He adds, “I have made almost a six-figure amount which is enough to sponsor my higher education.” But before these figures tempt you to quit your job and start blogging, Kiruba cautions, “It may look like the next big thing in terms of money, but it’s not as easy as it seems. Only a fraction make that kind of money. Moreover it takes a blogger almost a year, maybe more to make money.” Jamshed. V. Rajan, the product head of Ibibo.com, says, “Even though some portals have a system similar to Google’s, they are not as popular, due to the factors like accuracy, relevance etc.”
