You know, you could actually make a living online by blogging

Lifestyle bloggers get money, free product samples, and invitations to promotional events

Emmi Tissari

Jenni Häyrinen

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By Matias Åberg
     
      For many people, blogging is no longer just a hobby, as by networking and selling advertising space one can already learn a fair living, even in Finland.
      Communications student Emmi Tissari, who maintains a fashion blog, quit her job in customer service last spring, as she started to make more money from banner advertising than from her actual daily work.
     
”Blogging started as a hobby, and I still find it difficult to regard it as a job”, Tissari says.
      Emmi Tissari’s blog is like a small fashion magazine’s editing office on the Internet: during any given day, Tissari usually writes and adds to her blog a couple of fashion articles, consisting of text and pictures.
      Emmi Tissari also has banner ads for a major clothing chain on her site.
     
According to a recent questionnaire, Finns’ blogging is becoming more and more professional. An increasing number of people are seeking money, networking, and new contacts.
      In addition to money, many so-called lifestyle bloggers get free product samples and invitations to company promotional events. Some of them earn a few dozens of euros, while elite bloggers may earn as many as thousands of euros a month for their pains.
     
”A typical lifestyle blogger is a young woman, probably well over the age of 20, for whom the most important matters are style, trends, and clothing”, says Hanna Pätilä from Manifesto Consulting, a company specialised in PR and communications.
      Another blogger, Helsinki resident Jenni Häyrinen, maintains a food blog, to which she adds her thoughts and recipes of her family’s cooking once a week. Until today, writing a blog has been a mere hobby, but Häyrinen also aims at finding a sponsor for her website.
      ”I do not believe that blogging could ever be a full-time occupation, but it could serve as a part-time source of income”, Häyrinen estimates.
     
To increase the number of visitors and to generate advertising income, a blogger can benefit from going interactive: many bloggers also engage in discussions with their readers online.
      Emmi Tissari’s fashion blog, which has been on the Net for a couple of years, gets around 100,000 hits per month.
      According to Tissari, the amount of rude and superficial feedback has been increasing on the blog in recent months. In addition, she has to remove inappropriate comments more often than before.
      ”The really smart types no longer want to comment on blog messages”, Tissari notes.
      Jenni Häyrinen’s food blog gets an average of 15,000 hits per month. Her aim is naturally to increase the number of visitors.
      ”Content production and the technical implementation of the blog could be developed further”, says Häyrinen.
     
Emmi Tissari’s fashion blog: nofashionvictims.indiedays.com
     
Jenni Häyrinen’s food blog: liemessa.blogspot.com
     
     
FACTFILE: Many bloggers earn hundreds of euros per month
     
A blog is a website or an online diary, to which the writer regularly adds for example text, images, videos, links to other blogs or websites, or other material related to its topic. Many blogs provide the readers with a possibility to leave comments.
     
A total of 43 per cent of respondents to a questionnaire conducted recently by communications company Manifesto said that they earn money from their blog. Last year the corresponding figure was 19%.
     
Most bloggers get free product samples and invitations to trade promotion events. But many also get money from advertisers.
     
The monthly earnings vary from a few ten-euro notes to thousands of euros. According to the questionnaire, most bloggers earn approximately EUR 100 to 500 per month.
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 26.8.2010


Links:
  Blog (Wikipedia)
  Manifesto

MATIAS ÅBERG / Helsingin Sanomat