Postkiwi

Lower Hutt blogger Richard McManus, writing on Next Generation Web and Media at Read/WriteWeb, has just been written up in the Dominion Post for his transition from hobbyist to professional blogger. Read/WriteWeb is listed as 28th in the Technorati international rankings of blog popularity, according to number and priority of links from other blogs. It’s listed as 4752 in Alexa’s rank of web site popularity. Richard has 84105 RSS feed subscribers and has a page rank of 7. Whoah!

Richard started his blog in April 2003 but didn’t start making money until two years down the track. The turning point, Richard says, was gaining regular sponsorship and advertising in 2006. He explains today that blogging is a very difficult, and highly competitive, way to make a living. He describes even the earliest days of his blogging as ‘evening activities’ that were an extension of his career. Many of Richard’s readers are in the United States - which means thinking different time zones. Now Richard’s full time and employing a colleague in Silicon Valley to co-write, along with volunteers.

I wonder if there are any other professional bloggers in New Zealand?