Nothing from nothing leaves nothing

Monday, May 19, 2008 by Dave Winer.

Mark Evans asks a provocative question -- are pro bloggers going to be extinct soon? 

If you were to ask a pro blogger this question, they would say of course not.  

Now if you ask me -- there never was such a thing as a pro blogger. It's a contradiction in terms. It's like calling someone a professional amateur. It's like salty orange juice, a drink whose taste is derived from its acidity. Blogging is an amateur activity. It's users writing about what they do, not professionals writing about what users do. 

That pros have tried to hijack the term doesn't somehow evade the old question of what happens to pros in an age where users go direct to each other. They thought they could pull a fast one "Oh we'll just steal their name" and somehow their economic model will start making sense when it didn't before. 

Oh lord, you can't buy a Mercedes Benz with that.  

Remember this old Doc Searlsism. We make money because we blog not from our blog. We earn because we learn from sharing our experiences with others, not because we let advertisers hitch a ride on our writing for a fee. No one pays attention to the ads, so it doesn't matter if you include them or not. 

As Billy Preston once sang, nothing from nothing leaves nothing.  

Hopefully that answers the question Mr. Evans asked.