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This morning New York Times is running an interesting post titled “In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop“. The moment I read it, I was pretty sure that it is going to be the food for thought for the whole of the blogosphere weekend. Bloggers from everywhere are sure to post their opinions on the issues raised by Matt Richtel on New York Times.

Matt believes that bloggers everywhere are on the edge of nervous breakdown, or a heart attack (points at Om Malik) or probably even death (referring to Russell Shaw). The claims made by Matt are sensational alright, but it does raise some important questions that we bloggers need to answer.

I can’t really speak for bloggers in niches other than Technology simply because I myself am an Tech Blogger. The Tech blogosphere at the moment is extremely competitive and just about everyone including me are hunting for the next big scoop. Things are rapidly changing in our world and even while we sleep there is a lot happening.

I personally know bloggers who sleep for less than 5 hours a day, which shouldn’t really be a shocker since there would be many more who are probably sleeping even less. I have so many things at hand and that includes my college studies, time with family and friends and blogging. I actually wake up early in the morning to quickly read through my RSS feeds, have the creative juices running through my head for my next while I travel, and I write once I get back home late in the night.

I hardly manage 6 hours of sleep, and I’m pretty much aware that this isn’t good for me in the long run, but this doesn’t stop me from blogging. This passion of having what you write by thousands of people world over, keeps the desire burning to write more and better.

Money obviously is the icing on the cake. I can’t exactly reveal how much I make every month, but I can tell you I do make much less than 30k a year in contrast to what Matt said most bloggers make 30k a year. Off late blogging seems to have been taken as a for money profession, which isn’t the right thing to do in my opinion.

I’m pretty sure you can easily count the number of Technology bloggers who make atleast 30k a year, simply because there aren’t many of them. And just about everyone is trying to get the eyeballs to their content, which directly implies more ad revenue. Speed matters here, news breakers are the guys who receive the maximum exposure and ad revenue. This is the precise reason why we see bloggers working extremely hard to get the next big scoop. And this is where Stress becomes a major factor.

I’m sure the health of many bloggers who are in this game to make money can be adversely affected. Bigger blogs have many bloggers working round the clock writing new stuff by the minute. I’m not exactly sure how a profession that demands churning out thousands of words of fresh useful content is sustainable.

Blogging in my opinion was never meant to be something that is used to make money online. It is and will always be a fun job, and you blog only because you love it and for the love of writing something that is read by people world over.

Bloggers looking to blog only for the sake of money. Stop doing that, shut that computer down. Go out enjoy the sunshine, get a real life. Don’t live in the dark walls of illusion. On a concluding note I’m not exactly sure how the big boys like Techcrunch, Mashable can survive. As the adage goes “Content is the King” and it is the quality that matters not the quantity.

Photo Credit : Brymo