I make a small amount now, enough to cover my server costs and an extra something in my paypal account every month, but it’s never blossomed into what I had hoped. It’s ok though. It’s not the reason I came into blogging in the first place, so I’m content.

But I will say that you are absolutely correct, Melissa. Conservative advertisers still have yet to embrace the blogging audience as worth their advertising dollars. Something I don’t think they quite understand. I don’t think they realize that people who read conservative blogs are much more likely to be “activists” and take action beyond the everyday headline or column. Instead, they advertise to the average joe who doesn’t follow politics as intensely as the average blog/news junkie.

Hopefully one day they’ll realize that their advertising dollars are better spent on those who actually will get involved (blog audiences). That is the point isn’t it? To create more involvement, more activism for the political cause, right?

Unfortunately, the techonological learning curve for advertisers hasn’t fully caught up with what we, the bloggers are fully capable of.. This has always been a problem right advocacy groups. I mean, have you seen Human events email newsletter recently? Packed full of ugly ads looking like something out of 1994.

Groups like GOP.com, CATO Institute, NFRW, Heritage, Media Research Center, Human events, WND and others, haven’t yet caught on. They haven’t fully embraced blogging nor do they have a clue about Social Media and the benefits that come from these awesome new technologies, hence the advertisings dollars will not come if they don’t understand the value of the medium.

They’re missing a big opportunity to not only reach a more active and informed audience, but also support the great writers and bloggers who are feeding that audience on behalf of their cause.

There is no question that the Left blogosphere are sold to the highest bidder and have traded independence for money and influence.

I’m not suggesting that Right do the same. In fact, it has not been the case at all that the Right has had any sort of coordinated anything communications-wise.

What I don’t understand is why say, the NRA isn’t advertising, using a tiny amount of their budget, to put their association in front of a sympathetic audience.

What I don’t understand is why Heritage will spend huge bucks advertising on FOX where people are DVR’ing through the commercial and instead advertise, which can be measured, by the way, on sympathetic blogs.

It is a matter of changing the mindset of advertisers. When an advertiser puts an image or idea on a billboard, they do not expect immediate action. They know that there need to be at least nine impressions to get the customer to act.

Why not use cheap blog advertising to make one of those impressions? It is so cheap from an ad budget perspective but makes a huge impact both in terms of the audience and also the blogger.

The Right needs more people writing, pushing forward activism (and bloggers are leading local grassroots activism)and presence. People are turning toward alt media and we need quality voices there.

I am not quite sure what it is you are advocating. If, as you say, you blog because you are passionate about writing and politics, which are two of my own passions also, then it is your avocation (as it is mine) to be a blogger, not a vocation. So why is making money from blogging an issue? I am appalled that slimes like Daily Kos aren’t at all inhibited to declare their “opinions” are for hire! I suspected that Hamsher and Kos were whores; now I know it.

I never really thought about it that way. I started blogging in January because I’m genuinely interested in the conservative movement and I can just put my opinions up (or I can go to another blogger’s site and post responses if the material is engaging enough).

Although I don’t pay for my blogging, I am fortunate that I do have a job that allows me the free time to either read a bunch of blogs and respond or write a post on my own.

Now I’m under no illusions as to how many people look at my blog (I think I have a couple of responses at the 20+ posts I’ve written). I don’t blog to make money. I just do it to blow off steam. Now are there bloggers who are more professional than someone like me? Absolutely. I’m a total amateur by comparison.

Here’s a point to ponder. Almost everyone uses the internet in some form or another. However, how many actually read political blogs on a daily basis? I’m not trying to be sarcastic at all with this comment. I think perhaps the Republican Party still sees the vast majority of its audience as not reading blogs to make a major effort in this area (this is pure speculation, admittedly). There will come a time when blogging will be part and parcel for most people (especially as the younger generations move up).