One of the big news items in the liberal blogosphere this past week was the announcement that beloved A-list bloggers Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan (two of my personal favorites) have been hired by the John Edwards for President folks to run his campaign blog (Amanda will be the blogmeister and Melissa the netroots coordinator). My deep esteem for these women and their writing and passion has caused me to root much harder than I did before for Edwards to get the nom; if Amanda and Melissa vouch for him, that's good enough for me. And I'm delighted that they've put their credibility and time and effort into this and are getting paid for it. (Meanwhile, Pandagon is busier than ever with new group bloggers Sheelzebub, Ilyka, Auguste, Chris Clarke, and of course Roxanne.)
Glenn Greenwald has announced he too is turning pro, as Unclaimed Territory moves to Salon.com beginning on February 8. Congratulations, Glenn!
With those announcements passed along, and given the quotations from past Pen-Elayne posts I've just amassed below, I think you know what might be coming next. But I'm going to prolong the suspense just long enough to say that I still stand by all my words. Unless one is specifically hired to blog for pay, I believe blogging to be a hobby and, no matter how well you write, it's bad netiquette to ask people to pay for your hobby, particularly when you don't have to lay out any money to do so (and having your blog hosted by Blogger is one of many ways to blog for free), and most particularly when you're well-off enough that what your blog-begging is essentially doing is asking people to give you presents because they like you, which is just plain tacky.
That said: I have been hired to blog for pay.
I will be blogging at a website that is scheduled to launch next Tuesday, February 6. I will post more information about it as soon as I am given the go-ahead. I will also be writing a regular column for this site, as I've hinted at recently. It is not a political site but one about pop culture, specifically comics (where I have a certain amount of credibility and expertise amassed over the last couple decades). As the blog is targeted rather than an uncategorizable mishmash like Pen-Elayne is, and as the other folks involved in it are some pretty well-known industry names with lots of professionalism and creativity and energy (some of whom will be depending on me and trust that I will do the job for which I am being hired) who are sure to garner a huge readership, I will understandably be giving that professional writing some priority over this hobby.
Mostly, though, I hope Pen-Elayne readers won't be able to tell the difference. I am still at my current day job (with the website blogging/column writing constituting a secondary income, although I hope that may change soon), and you know how little I tend to post sometimes during the week. But I still plan to give y'all at least one bit of new content (a Silly Site) every day, as I have for the last few years. And I'm still going to try to keep up with all the 800 or so blogs on my Bloglines blogroll, although I may have to skim a lot more and read a lot less than before since my time will now be split between hobby-reading and reading-for-paying-purposes. And while the pop-culture site is a money-making venture and thus will certainly have ads, Pen-Elayne will continue to be ad-free. I intend to link to my paid gig from my sidebar (just as I have a link to Robin's pages-for-sale) but, on the off-chance I'm offered money for that link, all proceeds will go to the same place where my column-writing proceeds will go - to Leah's orphaned sons.
More information as I'm allowed to divulge it. Stay tuned!
Glenn Greenwald has announced he too is turning pro, as Unclaimed Territory moves to Salon.com beginning on February 8. Congratulations, Glenn!
With those announcements passed along, and given the quotations from past Pen-Elayne posts I've just amassed below, I think you know what might be coming next. But I'm going to prolong the suspense just long enough to say that I still stand by all my words. Unless one is specifically hired to blog for pay, I believe blogging to be a hobby and, no matter how well you write, it's bad netiquette to ask people to pay for your hobby, particularly when you don't have to lay out any money to do so (and having your blog hosted by Blogger is one of many ways to blog for free), and most particularly when you're well-off enough that what your blog-begging is essentially doing is asking people to give you presents because they like you, which is just plain tacky.
That said: I have been hired to blog for pay.
I will be blogging at a website that is scheduled to launch next Tuesday, February 6. I will post more information about it as soon as I am given the go-ahead. I will also be writing a regular column for this site, as I've hinted at recently. It is not a political site but one about pop culture, specifically comics (where I have a certain amount of credibility and expertise amassed over the last couple decades). As the blog is targeted rather than an uncategorizable mishmash like Pen-Elayne is, and as the other folks involved in it are some pretty well-known industry names with lots of professionalism and creativity and energy (some of whom will be depending on me and trust that I will do the job for which I am being hired) who are sure to garner a huge readership, I will understandably be giving that professional writing some priority over this hobby.
Mostly, though, I hope Pen-Elayne readers won't be able to tell the difference. I am still at my current day job (with the website blogging/column writing constituting a secondary income, although I hope that may change soon), and you know how little I tend to post sometimes during the week. But I still plan to give y'all at least one bit of new content (a Silly Site) every day, as I have for the last few years. And I'm still going to try to keep up with all the 800 or so blogs on my Bloglines blogroll, although I may have to skim a lot more and read a lot less than before since my time will now be split between hobby-reading and reading-for-paying-purposes. And while the pop-culture site is a money-making venture and thus will certainly have ads, Pen-Elayne will continue to be ad-free. I intend to link to my paid gig from my sidebar (just as I have a link to Robin's pages-for-sale) but, on the off-chance I'm offered money for that link, all proceeds will go to the same place where my column-writing proceeds will go - to Leah's orphaned sons.
More information as I'm allowed to divulge it. Stay tuned!
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