In prodigious fashion Greta Christina takes time out of her now busy schedule to put together a few words for a fellow Free Thought Blogs member who is in desperate need of a new Laptop. Her blog titled Help Replace Avicenna’s Laptop! reads fairly straight forward.

Meanwhile, several FTB bloggers are relying on pity donations from the fat pockets and in some cases very thin pockets of the readership.

I cannot see the tip-jarring for a spanking new puter as a life or death situation. The good news however, is, the “Lappy” donation drive has reached it’s target.

Is blogging a real job? Well, yes, but only for some. Blogging on PZ’s crappy little wordpress site is not a job. You do not get a wage from it. Therefore FTB blogging is not a job. You rely on donations, not a secured taxable/medical insured/dental insured/superannuation benefits income paid by an employer.

Writers rely heavily (solely) on donations to support their hobby.

It can be argued that several successful bloggers can and do make a living on donations and royalties for material sold and subscription payments received.

This we will explore, and make comparisons to successful bloggers hired by employers and those who we should call freelance or hobbyists.

Those relying on donations are asking for charitable help: I could go door knocking, offering coffee and biscuits and ask for monetary contributions. It is certainly not compulsory to receive monies from the public. It’s merely an option one would exercise if they do so feel the urge to.

Subcontractors work for themselves. No employer you say? Wrong. Self employed with a set costing and charges for services rendered.

You get paid for work carried out.

A blogger may earn $10 for the day or $250 or more. This depends entirely on his/her audience. Blogging is a hobby unless employed professionally. That’s my 2 cents on the matter.

So, in closing, is the FTB blogging crew professionally employed by PZ Myers? Hell no. It’s simply a medium which the bloggers use to provide them with some exposure to an audience. Nothing more. The true winner in having a large blogger lineup on one’s network is the exposure this creates for the site owner, therefore generating site hits and ad revenue for the site owner. Well done PZ.

The bloggers do benefit in another way entirely. In the case of FTB the small horde share just one thing in common. Their paid speaking engagements at conferences related to their blogging topics. This of course is a win win for PZ. More exposure for the writers = more traffic to his site = more ad revenue.

So to my earlier point. Ebegging for donations for computers and mortgage payments? Sure. Some readers will contribute. But how often and for how long will they feel their loyalty to the blogger before the reader’s hip pocket starts to reduce and ultimately refuse to support the writings of the blogger?

Just one more thing. If the FTB bloggers rely so heavily on contributions from those who read the blog content, surely these bloggers will happily accept criticism by the readership for published articles instead of being banned from the network? Afterall, it is the readers who pay your wages. You might like to listen to them once in a while hey Greta?