Boztopia.com

There’s a periodic discussion that weaves its way through the progressive blogosphere that goes like this: “How the hell can I make any money off my blog?” Sadly, the fact that we still have the discussion as often as we do means there have been no sure-fire answers found as of yet.

Even in the most cash-rich days of the new blog medium, it was tough to get advertisers to commit to supporting political blogs of any stripe, let alone those that boldly proclaim opposition to business interests. It’s a lot easier for tech companies to hawk their products on tech blogs (which is why they do well), and to sell tabloid sleaze on tabloid-sleaze blogs (which is why Perez Hilton does well). But now, with the global economic collapse accelerating the demise of virtually all forms of traditional media, it’s tough for even the most established titans to survive–so what hope does a lone blogger or group of bloggers have in getting their particular vision funded enough to earn a living?

My old colleague Sam Smith has written a passionate plea to progressive billionaires over at Scholars & Rogues, urging them to get off their collective duffs and start using their cash to fund institutions that will help bloggers and online activists do what they do for a living and not just as a hobby. Sam’s argument is that the conservative machine has had decades to build a billion-dollar institutional empire that funds young right-wingers through think tanks such as the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Heritage, AEI, etc. According to Sam, “When their intellects are doing it for a living and ours are trying to carve out a couple hours after work, we lose. When their brightest minds are primarily concerned with crafting winning policy and ours are constantly distracted by desperate concerns about their ability to feed their families, they win.”

Here’s the thing though–they’re not winning. In fact, it’s the very model of the person working a few hours a week that has upended the right-wing noise machine and all of its millions of well-funded policy machines, think tanks, and 527 advocacy groups. But those people don’t work alone–they worked in concert with hundreds (thousands!) of others like them. During the Bush regime, enough pressure could be exerted by those people working “alone/together” to preserve net neutrality, prevent Social Security from being privatized, and force the debate about FISA front and center into the public eye. Now, in the era of Obama, that same pressure is working to ensure he supports the Employee Free Choice Act, that we get universal health care for all Americans, and that Obama and Congress spends the multibillion-dollar stimulus package wisely.

This is real change being enacted through pressure–pressure brought by lone people working at desks over the course of the day, amplified through force multipliers like the top bloggers and communities, and reaching the upper echelons of power. By no means do I suggest this is easy or that there isn’t still a vast power asymmetry between the right-wing noise machine and the progressive left, but the momentum is on our side.

There’s another factor to consider as well–the very funding that powers conservative movement organizations has been decimated thanks to the financial crisis. Shelly Adelson, noted right-wing financier, is broke as fuck. Business-friendly trade organization are facing huge losses and making steep job cuts. As Tom Edsall exhaustively notes, the very forces arrayed to oppose the Obama agenda are falling apart at the seams:

Even as HealthSouth faces life and death decisions which are being, and will be, made by the federal government, the corporation has already had to cut spending on its Washington office from $3.0 million in 2007 to $2.2 million in 2008, and it has begun to let go some of the eight outside lobbying firms to which it had been paying a total of $1.5 million annually, as it has seen its stock fall precipitously – from $20.20 a share in the spring to the $7 range now .

The future of the coal industry could also be determined by the outcome of the Obama administration’s “cap and trade” proposal to limit carbon emissions. As in the health care sector, major coal companies are struggling with sharp drops in their share price – radically pruning the resources available to their Washington lobbying shops.

Arch Coal’s stock, for example, has dropped from a high this past year of $77.4 to $10.43. Peabody Energy Corporation has gone from a high of $88.69 to a current price in the low 20s.

Sam, Tom, and others are right in that the monster is by no means slain and we shouldn’t get complacent. A wounded prey is the most dangerous, after all. But we will never have a better time to build a new progressive infrastructure, including funded and supported efforts for citizen journalism, than right this moment.

In order to figure out what to replace it with, there are a few important things to consider.

The Internet Does Not Owe You A Living

This is a brutal truth that a lot of bloggers don’t get. Many of us thought we’d get cushy jobs in the Obama administration and on the Hill for our work in the election, or the work that we do advancing progressive causes as a rule. A lot of people think that their expertise and their authority demands that they should be funded regularly by readers, or that they should leverage their blogging success into think tank jobs and what not. This attitude reeks of the same kind of entitlement we despise from mainstream journalists and pundits who are watching their careers die and their influence fade, and demanding that we support them simply so they can bloviate. Simply put, no.

In a world with 100 million-plus blogs, countless Twitter streams, and more methods of entertainment than you can shake a mouse at, you are by no means guaranteed success simply for having an opinion, no matter how strident and authoritative you sound. I have no illusions that my writing will ever make me rich, so that is not why I do it. I do it because I want to entertain, amuse, and educate my friends and families, and their friends, etc. I have a responsibility to use my gift of gab for the good of my tribe. If I ever fail in my duty, my tribe will leave me and find someone else to lead and guide them. That’s the way of the blog world. You have to keep proving your relevance, time and again, and that means stepping your game up and never getting complacent. If you drop the ball, someone else is more than ready to pick it up. Accept that, and get back to work.

There Is No Magic Bullet, So Bring A Full Clip

Everyone’s looking for that one perfect solution that will enable online activists to do what they do for a living., and this is just as true for media empires large and small. It’s always all about paywalls, micropayments, subscription models, or just demanding that George Soros fork over the cash Michelle Malkin is always claiming he’s feeding us. Everyone thinks that theirs–and theirs alone–is the best and only way for media outlets to survive in a time when no model is proving capable of survival.

But why can’t it be all of these solutions working in concert?

Look at how Kos does it, for example. He has ads, sells swag, offers a subscription model for users, and runs a donation drive to help fund the next generation of netroots infrastructure. Rather than wait for notoriously stingy donors to part with their cash, he and his team are going out to the people they work for–us–and asking for their help. Micropayments by themselves may not work (Clay Shirky thinks they’re overrated), but working in concert with other funding streams, they can do just fine.

And if we want donor sources to underwrite our work, why stop at the typical suspects? Why not offer our services to people like Canonical’s Mark Shuttleworth, Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales, or Virgin’s Richard Branson? None of the three guys I mentioned are averse to throwing money at efforts designed strictly to make the world a better place, so draw up a business plan and get your foot in the door to justify why you are worthy of being funded by them. Or, better yet, look for the people under the radar–the quiet entrepreneurs who are focused on making money, not headlines, and who may share your views. Dozens of right-wing organizations are funded by the Koch oil empire, and most of the free world doesn’t know who the hell they are. Surely we have an equivalent on our side, especially now.

Find Your Niche And Make It Pay

Local issues present an even better opportunity for success than national or issue-oriented blogging. At a time when city and state budgets are falling apart, and there’s absolutely no available journalism to cover this crisis or offer solutions, this presents an opportunity for local bloggers, activists, and citizen journalists to fill the void. This means a lot of work–going to City Council meetings, poring over local budgets, and keeping your ear open for tips from angry workers or political opponents–but you knew the job was dangerous when you took it, as they say. It also means finding a specific slot that you can fill and using your expertise on local issues to justify why you should have this position. When charismatic progressive leaders like L.A. City Council President Eric Garcetti are on Twitter and Facebook, it means they’re savvy enough to understand the value of new media, and what the right person can bring to the dance.

Even more than that, it means talking to local businesses and using their advertising to support you. Get their ads on your blog and support keeping your money in your community, rather than just signing up for Google AdWords and hoping the contextual ads actually make sense this week. Talk to your neighborhoods and set up donation drives. You provide a service by being the community’s voice, and you should be compensated for it.

Most importantly, don’t let blogging be the end-all of your work. Find your particular niche and use that to open doors to other opportunities. Jill Richardson used her skills as a food blogger to get a book written (which you can pre-order now–plug plug!). Glenn Greenwald and David Sirota are best-selling authors because they came with a strong premise and refused to back down or water down their rhetoric, and they were rewarded. I’ll pause to quote the master Dave Winer, who said it better than I:

[G]et in the habit of communicating directly with the people you want to influence. Don’t charge them to read it and don’t let others interfere with your communication. Talk through your blog as you would talk face to face…I can’t promise you’ll make any money from your blog, and I think the more you try the less chance you have. Make a good product and listen to your customers to make it better, and use the tools to communicate, and you may well make money from the whole thing.

Just as with every other aspect of the global crisis we find ourselves in, the old ways of funding journalism and advocacy no longer apply. As the media monoliths tumble and the corporate-sponsored think tanks reel from their losses, we have a golden moment to reshape the paradigm of journalism completely. It will not be easy and probably won’t work well at first, but we owe it to ourselves and the work that we do to try.