Blogging for the Collective Profit

Here's the kernel of an idea that could result in some bloggers making money. I consider it a thought-stimulator rather than a serious proposal and I'd love to have a conversation with other bloggers and fans about this.

Basic Concept: A Collective Pool of Pennies

The basic idea is that anyone who has a blog and hopes to make money on it pays a flat fee into a common pool every month in which they wish to be a participant. Throughout the month, a system like the one in place at Radio UserLand keeps track of links to stories on each member's blog. At the end of the month, the money is divided among the members proportional to the number of links they've received.

For example, if 100 bloggers each chipped in $10 per month, and the top blogger got 15% of all the links that month, s/he'd receive $150 for the month.

Refinements?

The idea may need some refinements.

For example, maybe only the top N bloggers split the pool among themselves, which would make the pot richer for those who were most successful. Perhaps those farther down the list wouldn't find it too painful since they'd be missing smallish sums of money and would continually be enticed by the larger available prizes.

Another possible refinement would be to put a limit on the number of consecutive months a blog could be entered or could win, opening top money up to a broader audience and avoiding one site dominating because of it's name or subject matter. But maybe that's not appropriate.

Maybe we need to have entries categorized: news, sports, politics, technology, etc., to keep competition keener.

So? What do you think?

Last update: 11/13/02; 2:12:42 PM.