I could definitely use U$ 20.000, it's more than a year and a half of my (post-taxes) salary here in Uruguay.
(And yes, I should look into consulting, etc. HN is a great way to nag me to move forward and it's good advice).
But, if what you say is true then surely you should consider writing a blog as described in the article?
"Detailed revenue breakdown of a gadget blog ($61k in dec 2007)"
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=216960
http://selfmademinds.com/200801/income-breakdown-for-decembe...
That sounds like paying for a link to me. Does it count as paid links to them? I always wondered about this kind of thing - I would never keep visiting an authored website if something like this happened to it, and I don't know anyone who would, so I've never understood what the buyer gets in this situation.
Make not-so-much money by providing generic content on a subject until X level of popularity is reached, at which point you transition the audience into a not-astounding paycheck and the web property into a commodity valued solely in visits.
And the world moves on, nothing bettered, and very little changed, beyond a tiny shifting of money ownership.
Information Dilution. Instead of a site with dense, focused, relevant content, we can create hundreds of sites with watered-down information.
The more sites we have to sift through, the more money everybody makes.
Google has incentivized the web to dilute content.
Everybody starts somewhere.
This sounds like the "How to Get Rich Quick" book that instructs its readers to write and promote a "How to Get Rich Quick" book.
Where exactly is the common ground between writing something you believe in and writing and developing a blog with the explicit goal of an optimal quick cash exit?
Maybe putting some more time into it will yield rewards that don't appear to be sub-minimum wage?
