Kottke Quits

By Lee Odden
Expert Author
Article Date: 2006-02-23

Let's start the rant engine folks….

CNET reports that uber blogger, Jason Kottke has pulled the plug on blogging for a living. All I can wonder is, why it took this long? What kind of business model is micropayments? The guy needs to stop drinking his own Kool Aid and treat that blog like a business, not an experiment.

It's a bit disheartening, really. So much potential and opportunity not realized.

Kottke.org is one of the most popular, most visited blogs on the planet - #23 on Technorati's list of popular blogs. Throw some damn AdSense on there Jason!

There are over 13,000 pages on that domain and over 450,000 inbound links. I hear some SEOs out there salivating. What could you do with a site like that?

Someone please point Mr. Kottke over to Performancing.com or to ProBlogger.net for some profitable blogging education. Some of these guys are pulling in six figures through blogging and in the scheme of things, just getting started. According to CNET, kottke.org only pulled in $39,900 in donations and I was one of them. Hey, it was a good link investment.

Did Kottke accomplish something with his blog? Yes, but it had nothing to do with business or pro blogging. Good luck to you Jason and I hope you can get back to web design or whatever pays the bills.

For other "A" list bloggers, that are not monetizing their efforts properly, it might be "silence of the lambs" time.

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About the Author:
Lee Odden is CEO of TopRank Online Marketing, a digital marketing and public relations firm in Minnesota that specializes in search, social and online PR consulting and training for companies worldwide. Odden has been cited for his internet marketing expertise over the past 10 years by the Economist, Forbes and U.S. News and contributed a chapter to the book, "Online Marketing Heroes" published by Wiley. For the past 5 years he has also been the editor of TopRank's Online Marketing Blog, a Technorati 100 favorite blog and one of the top marketing blogs according to Advertising Age.

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