A digest of the top blogger thoughts and ideas - The A listers

Diane - I hope your husband and mine never get together - it would be so depressing! He feels the same way. I would ask him how do newspapers make money - or TV - or free newsletters? With the subscriptions declining in almost all print media online media is becoming more important. If you consider how much there is out there, places that synthesize information and offer thought-provoking synopses can make money. It's just a question of cultivating the right audience.

I used the newspaper/magazine example, but he still doesn't get it.

It reminds me of my father-in-law. He declined to buy a laundromat because "Who washes their clothes at a laundromat? It is so much cheaper to buy and washer and dryer and most rentals have hookups." Of course, laundromats mint money for the owners. My father-in-law was thinking from his, entirely reasonable, base. But not everyone WANTS to cart around a washer and dryer when they move - obviously there are a lot of reasons to use laundromats.

I think our husbands are having trouble getting their minds around it because it isn't something they would do (read blogs and click on the ads).

Some questions are better left unanswered. This may be one of those.

If/when the question becomes, "What's the business model?" or "What's the benefit for the readers?" - then we have conversational possibilites.

Fred Wilson (A VC) shared a good post on this thought a few months back.

I'm a fan of the saying, "We're smarter together than I am alone." That's why I like the listening role more than the talking role in most conversations (which is - in large part - what blogs are, yes?).

Hope the questions get better:-)

Diane, it's a funnily-put question. Simple answer: The objective is to make more money from advertising and/or sales than you spend on producing the content.

Easier said than done ...

The guy sounds like an insensitive lout! At least take some interest in your spouse's hobby, or fake it or something ;)

I think there are a lot of people out there who don't get the "internet thing" and I figure there's always something else to talk about.

Let's look at it this way: It's good that not everyone 'gets it' ("making money off this thing"). It gives those people who do get it a better chance at making money. :)

Anyway, seriously, a lot of people still don't get blogs. Full stop. The same way a lot of people don't get a lot of other things in life and in business. But, it doesn't discount the fact that money can be - and does get - made out of such things.

Who has time to read blogs? Apparently, millions do. And, the numbers are growing too. :)