Paul:
I agree the whole debate was flawed. Blogging isn't about making money for most, its about having a pulpit and/or participating in a community. The viability of blog related businesses is not dependent on how many people become professional bloggers, which I suspect will be limited to only a handful, but rather adoption rates of casual bloggers to generate interesting content for advertisers to exploit. Top 100 bloggers posting 3-5 times per day is insignificant compared to the general public posting 2 or 3 times per month.
-Andrew

Maybe blogging is like golf.

Some folks play golf (blog) because they love it, others hate it as much as they love it but feel compelled to play anyway, and a tiny percentage of players are good enough to make big bucks at it.

The standoff felt contrived, a mediocre editor brainstorm... Calacanis could have written an op-ed and Meckler could have stayed home.

I wasted 20 mintues on Saturday doing a rejoinder to someone in tech world who commented �average blog contributor (and the more they post the more this applies) does not have a consuming full time career�

In retrospect I should have gone for a jog! Cannot change everyone's minds.

But if you curious here was my response

http://dealarchitect.typepad.com/deal_architect/2006/04/five_reasons_i__1.html

Does everything one does have to make money? I am sure blogging falls into the category of - Hey I like doing this, how can I make a buck out of it - instead of the - let me figure out how to make a buck out of this category.

Just to add my two cents, I find that blogs that are clearly designed as a money-making venture from the outset -- and some of Jason's fall into this category -- are by far the worst blogs around. If a blog is started and becomes popular and then makes money, that's a different story. I like the golf analogy, but I think it's a little more like the music industry -- bands that are designed and marketed to be profitable may have some success but not long-lasting success, and the best bands are often the ones making no money and living in their brother's van.

I'd argue that of those who *want* to make money blogging are able to. It's just writing, though you have to market it yourself you can make money just as easily blogging as writing.

And, yeah, some blogs that are designed purely for money suck. But, Mathew, I'd argue that's more a management, QA issue than an overall "if you start blogging for money your blog'll suck" kind of thing.

Hell, we founded our business on the principle that if we can find passionate people and give them a platform they will: 1) find an audience, 2) create traffic, which will 3) allow us to monetize that traffic in a non-intrusive way.

Actually, Jeremy, I think you put your finger on the difference -- coming up with an idea to make money and then trying to cobble together a blog to do so puts the cart before the horse. Finding someone who is already passionate about something and working with that, as you say you do, puts the horse and cart in their proper place -- and actually makes it more likely you will make money, rather than less.

Mathew, we'd like to think so. Our belief is that passionate writers find audiences. And while it may take some time, they'll always create more value (and money) in the long run. Keep authors and audiences happy, and the money thing happens almost by itself.

I just blog to share my knowledge as well as expand it. I have a career where I make my money, i dont need to blog for it. Writing in my blog helps me understand certain things more, and express my opinion on matters I find interesting

I find all those Big $$ blogs suck anyway. Hey, good for you , you're making thousands of dollars with your crappy blog. 2 Thumbs up for you!