Michael Haislip: Professional Millionaire

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Ha, ha. You see what I did here? I used the advice of meta-bloggers and made a list. Oh, the irony. Double ha-ha: everything I say here has very likely been said a hundred times over by everyone else. I don’t care. I’m a professional millionaire, and I can mindlessly regurgitate what I want!

1. The genre has become fully top-down

If you weren’t in the game in 2006, it’s probably too late. All of the big-boys have claimed the meta-blogging space, leaving little crumbs for everyone else. That’s not to say you can’t make some decent money, but I doubt there will ever be another ProBlogger or his ilk.

2. Meta-bloggers have run out of original content

There are only so many ways to give the same advice over and over before you turn into John Chow. That’s when you just say screw it and turn into a digital pimp for whatever pays you money.

3. “Blog” is a worthless term

Hey, remember when the word blog meant “weblog?” Yes, a daily log of people’s mundane lives. Truly, the Internet had reached its full potential. Those were the good ol’ days. Now, anything that has comments and is updated by a human being is called a blog. By that definition, every major site is now a blog. The term is meaningless now.

4. Blog-only revenue sources will be in for a rude awakening

Anyone who thinks that the current infrastructure of the Web will be around in 5 years is deluded. Anyone who thinks that the terribly inexact Google algorithm is the end-all of search engine technology is insane. There’s just something about using incoming links that strikes me as an ad hoc way of creating a better search engine. Eventually, someone smarter than Larry and Sergei will come along and change the entire concept of search. Companies such as PayPerPost and TextLinkAds will be forced to completely change their rate structures or die. I’d bet on sooner rather than later.

5. Too much supply, not enough demand

Is it just me, or are there 1.5 meta-bloggers to every 1 regular blogger? Is that even possible? Normally, in a free market, some of these business would collapse, liquidate their assets, and free up resources for other businesses. But that doesn’t work for bloggers. Their assets are their posts and ideas, and they are preserved indefinitely unless someone deletes them. Eventually, a Google search for even the most obscure meta-blogging topic will turn up 100,000 results of Digg-optimized meta-blog posts.