Can blogs become cash cows?
Over the weekend, I revisited a blog that I once faithfully followed over a brief period a couple of years back. I had stumbled upon it when I was trying to find more information about a particular restaurant in Singapore, and was directed to this site.
The blog is authored by a foodie--or food lover--who calls himself Chubby Hubby, and contains "musings on food, wine and marriage". In it, Chubby Hubby--who turns out to be Aun Koh, son of Tommy Koh, ambassador-at-large at Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs--talks about his passion for food and uploads postings on food recipes, restaurant reviews and photographs.
His blog was highlighted by Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, in his televised National Day address in August last year, as an example of Singaporean blogs on the Web, and has been featured by some global media.
While I enjoyed reading his blog entries--and still do--I was put off when the blog was "commercialized" in the later half of 2006 and started to include advertisements and promotions. I stopped visiting altogether after access to the site slowed considerably and Web pages took a longer time to load, perhaps, due to the advertisements--although I can't be sure if they are the cause of the slowdown.
Koh's Chubby Hubby is one in a community of successful Web logs in Singapore that have leveraged their wide readership base and high site traffic, to make a profit. Another local blog that has been cashing in on its popularity is Xiaxue, hosted by Wendy Cheng who started the site in 2003. Her blog entries usually contain ramblings and rants about her life.
Cheng's blog not only contains the traditional banner advertisements, but also features pixel advertisements that let readers to buy ad space for S$30 (US$19.73) per pixel square.
As much as I feel that blogs should not be milked for profits, I do think that it's an admirable, entrepreneurial attempt by such bloggers in the face of the Web 2.0 evolution. There are even blogs that contain information on how to turn your personal blog into a money-making machine, and help turn you into a professional blogger.
Do you think it's a good idea to turn a personal Web log into a cash cow, or are you already leveraging blogs to spin a profit? Share with us your ideas on how else blogs should be treated.