Bloggers able to make some money while working in their pajamas

Christian Science Monitor: Bloggers can make money, but most keep day jobsThe rise of ‘contextual advertising’ has created a 21st-century version of royalties.

This past November, a survey by problogger.net of 732 self-selected respondents found that of the 625 bloggers using AdSense, 45 percent were making at least $100 a month. Another survey of 104 bloggers at a blogger summit last week in New York found roughly a third making that money, not necessarily with AdSense.

Nearly one-sixth in both surveys made at least $1,000 a month. These samples, of course, skew heavily toward the more committed and successful bloggers.

Also Wall Street Journal: Blogging for Web Sites

THE PAY: Most self-employed bloggers take in between $2,000 and $10,000 a month from ad sales, says Henry Copeland, founder of BlogAds.com, a Web advertising concern based in Carrboro, N.C. The few that have huge audiences make significantly more, he adds. During election time, for example, a political blogger can bring in $20,000 to $30,000 a month, says Ken Layne, West Coast bureau chief for Wonkette.com, a political gossip blog owned by Gawker Media. Some bloggers are employed by companies, but they are often part of the marketing department, and blogging is usually only a small part of their duties.

Online ad spending at 20% in ’07

Lost Remote: Report: Online will be 20% of ad spending this year

Research and advice company Outsell projects that 20 percent of U.S. ad buys will be online in 2007. Outsell surveyed marketers to find out about companies’ ad-buying plans for the year. No surprise – the dollar shift continues to online. This year, those polled will spend about 18 percent more than they did in ‘06. That would bring the ‘07 online ad buys to one in every five bucks of an even-bigger pie. From ClickZ: “The share held by TV, radio, and movie ad spending is expected to slip 3.5 percent this year.”

Link to ClickZ article

Levi suing competitors

levi%20pocket.jpgNY Times: Levi’s Turns to Suing Its RivalsThe design for a Levi’s pocket, first used 133 years ago, has become the biggest legal battleground in U.S. fashion.

The lawsuits, which Levi’s says it is compelled to file to safeguard the defining features on its jeans, are not about the money — one settled for just $5,000 in damages. Instead, the company says, they are about removing copycats from stores. Nearly all the cases have settled out of court, with Levi’s smaller rivals agreeing to stop making the offending pants and to destroy unsold pairs.

But those competitors say the lawsuits are the last resort of a poor loser, a company that has lost billions in sales, laid off thousands of workers and flirted with bankruptcy as the denim industry exploded.

Levi suing competitors

photo from NY Times

NY Times: Levi’s Turns to Suing Its RivalsThe design for a Levi’s pocket, first used 133 years ago, has become the biggest legal battleground in U.S. fashion.

The lawsuits, which Levi’s says it is compelled to file to safeguard the defining features on its jeans, are not about the money — one settled for just $5,000 in damages. Instead, the company says, they are about removing copycats from stores. Nearly all the cases have settled out of court, with Levi’s smaller rivals agreeing to stop making the offending pants and to destroy unsold pairs.

But those competitors say the lawsuits are the last resort of a poor loser, a company that has lost billions in sales, laid off thousands of workers and flirted with bankruptcy as the denim industry exploded.