Blogging, so much a part of daily lives today, actually took a while to catch on before becoming enormously successful – practically overnight. Blogging began to rapidly spread in 1999 and shortly thereafter thanks to a few nearly-simultaneous creations of blog tools: Open Diary (1998), LiveJournal (1999), Pitas.com (1999), and Blogger.com (1999).
In 1997, John Bargerm, editor of Robot Wisdom, coined the term “web-log” while attempting to describe the daily list of sites that he “logged” onto during his web travels. A few years later Peter Merholz used the word in his sidebar but made the creative decision to split the word into two: we blog. It wasn’t long after that, that Evan Williams at Pyra Labs began using the word “blog” on its own as both a verb and a noun, before finally creating the term “blogging” in association with Pyra Labs’ Blogger product.
Today, blogging is more than a familiar term. Many of us interact with blogs on a daily basis in one way or another; whether we write our own blogs, contribute to a blog, or just enjoy reading and commenting on them, blogs are huge part of the online experience.
Many people have chosen to make blogging their lifestyle, and their livelihood (even making internet-famous people targets of ransomware attacks). And as we delve into the earnings associated with the top ten bloggers in the world today, it becomes clear why these people decided to make the success of their blog down their career path. Blogging, as a profession, has proven to be quite lucrative but not many people realize just how lucrative a successful blogging career can be.
However, creating a wildly successful, lucrative blog is no easy feat. The blogosphere is competitive, and it takes an extreme amount of dedication, a fair amount of talent, a good amount of business sense, and a whole bunch of luck for a blog to become one of the most popular in the cyberverse.
With 33.9 million new blogs being created every month and over 60,328,496 blogs on sites like WordPress.com, the following blogging stars have truly emerged from the masses and have risen to the top of the blogosphere for a great many reasons. One thing they all have in common, though; none of these bloggers would have attained this level of influence and wealth if they didn’t have drive, passion and expertise in their respective niches.
10. Ewdison Then, ‘Slash Gear’: $60,000 – $80,000 per month
Ewdison Then is the co-founder and executive editor of this consumer electronic and tech news site. He also works as a media publisher for his blog within the site and as CEO of R3 Media LLC.
SlashGear is “geared” towards consumers in need of tech gadgets. If you’re in need of an iPhone 5S, tablet, iPad, or looking to get your hands on the newest, coolest touch screen than you will love Then, because that’s what he does. He puts tech lovers in touch with the latest news regarding all kinds of technology and gadgets. His blog is consistent with its updates and aids readers in becoming the first to get a hold of a new fantastic gadget or app.
Most of Then’s income comes from pay-per-click advertising. His overhead has to be incredibly small as he only staffs about 13 people for this small enterprise. SlashGear is also notable for being the most successful blog to utilize the WordPress platform.
9. Matt Marshall: $50,000 – $100,000 per month
Matt Marshall was somewhat of a presumptuous journalist prior to breaking out as a top blogger. He started blogging in 2006, covering world wide technology. He is founder of VentureBeat, a informative blog that covers a range of topics, not just technology, and has developed a network of technology specialized websites. VentureBeat’s scope encompasses tech as well as money, finance and investment topics. Marshall provides a plethora of valuable information to his readers, including different business techniques to earn money from your investments and aspects of the startup process.
8. Gina Trapani: circa $110,000 per month
Gina Trapani takes her spot as the only woman on this list of highest earning bloggers. Trapani is not only CEO and founder of the popular blog Lifehacker, but she is highly active in the social media community. Most recently she has become a part of both Gawker Blog Empire and Gizmodo. Trapani’s focus on Lifehacker is to find ways to do things better, and improve the way in which one lives their life. Lifehacker encourages followers to share tips and new ideas to make everyday life easier. No wonder it’s so popular.
7. Collis Ta’eed: $55,000 – $120,000 per month
Collis Ta’eed, owner of the number seven blog on this list — TutsPlus — contributes to various famous blogs. This man just loves him some blog! TutsPlus is an informative site for building skills that compiles tutorials, lectures and many other teaching methods to inform readers about application software and numerous designing tools. Ta’eed’s tutorials can help you with anything from downloading a photo to mastering a software application. Not only is Ta’eed making money from this site but members of the site can make money too by writing articles themselves. So whether you need help with music production or have some knowledge you’d like to share and make a buck doing it, Ta’eed’s site is definitely worth a visit.
6. Jake Dobki:$80,000 – $110,000 per month
Gothamist.com makes Jake Dobkins a pretty handsome income. Gothamist is a newsy site. Its articles cover the genres of food, events, and art. The information spans the globe. If you are planning a trip overseas and want to know about the cuisines in a certain location, Gothamist is a good place to look. Gothamist started covering city life in New York but has expanded its reach to 13 cities worldwide: including Toronto, London and Shanghai. Prior to becoming the publisher of Gothamist, Dobkin worked as an amateur urban photographer. Quite a turn of events for the urban artist.
5.Timothy Sykes: Monthly Income: $150,000 – $180,000 per month
If you want to learn how to make lots of money Timothy Sykes’ blog is what you should be reading. It includes inspiring articles about investment, finance, stocks, and the like. Sykes is incredibly smart when it comes to stocks. He is an expert, and makes around two million dollars a month from stock operations. This is on top of what he makes from his wildly successful blog — which is, apparently, like a side job. While some people waitress at night, Sykes writes one of the most popular, highest earning blogs in the world. Sykes’ story is inspirational in and of itself, as he started as a penny stock trader — a penny stock scam geek — and now he trains people and writes articles that help people around the world, and he makes millions doing it.
4.Vitaly Friedman: $150,000 – $190,000 per month
Vitaly Friedman is founder of SmashingMagazine, a blog for website designers. He also started the Smashing Network in 2009 to curate the best of other design blogs. The majority of Friedman’s reported income is from advertising banners and doesn’t include affiliate revenues. SmashingMagazine is the most popular and famous blog in web design and development. If you want to master this field than SmashingMagazine can help you in achieving your goal by making sure you get the newest, latest tips, and provides guides and high quality tutorials to help you on your way.
3. Mario Lavanderia, ‘Perez Hilton’: $200,000 – $400,000 per month
Mario Lavandeira, a.k.a. Perez Hilton, has been a powerhouse blogger since launching his site in 2005. Say what you will about his particular style of journalism, it’s making him a lot of dough. PerezHilton is a blog about celebrity news, scandals and and the like. Most likely you’ll see stuff about Lindsay Lohan and Justin Bieber on here. It doesn’t take a blog making it on a top ten list of highest earning bloggers to tell us that people love reading and talking about the latest celebrity news. So, if you have any burning questions about your favorite celebrity you may want to give PerezHilton a glance.
2.Pete Cashmore:$560,000 – $600,000 per month
Pete Cashmore is CEO and founder of the world famous blog Mashable, which covers anything from technology and business to social media, entertainment and lifestyle. Mashable is the largest (award winning) independent site. It is the most influential, the most read and the most popular destination for digital, social media, and technology resources and news. This generation connecting site was established in Cashmore’s bedroom in Scotland when he was only 19-years-old. Cashmore is now the youngest and almost the richest blogger in the world.
1. Michael Arrington: $500,000 – $800,000 per month
Are you a technology news and article lover? TechCrunch is a great place to be if you are. Founder Michael Arrington has created a one stop destination for tech news. Arrington has famously become know as the “prophet of Silicon Valley.” He has become the most influential personality in technology. His site updates its news so often you can get minute-to-minute tech news. So, yea, if you like technology chances are, you’ll love Arrington. That is of course, if you don’t already.