In case you missed it, Jason Kottke turned pro today. I got an advance notice about this because Jason asked me a couple of weeks ago if I would donate two signed copies of Emergence as part of the loot he's giving away to people who contribute during the pledge drive, which I happily agreed to do. I'm going to send him a little cash as well, partially because I value what Jason does (he's the real embodiment of the talented linker idea I talked about in Interface Culture so many years ago), and partially because I like the idea of blogging as a career, and not a means to a career. Jason doesn't want to be a book author or a television personality or a lecture circuit staple -- he wants to blog. He's built a big enough audience over the years that he could really make this work if enough of us become "micropatrons," as Jason puts it.
I know some will see this skeptically as another version the "tip jar" approach to online commerce that we used to talk about in the early days of FEED. But tip jars don't make a lot of money for subway musicians not because people aren't willing to contribute voluntarily small amounts of money to support culture they enjoy; tip jars don't make a lot of money because there are a finite number of people on a subway platform -- even in New York City. But a successful blogger has hundreds of thousands of people on his subway platform. All it takes is a fraction of a percent contributing, and Jason has a full-time job. So if you're a kottke.org reader, go send a little cash his way.
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