I remember once watching a television show, a sitcom, where a man walked into a restaurant and sat at a table. When the waiter came over, this man put a stack of one dollar bills on the table and explained to the waiter, “This stack of bills represents your possible tip. Every time you do something that pleases me, I will add a dollar; every time you do something that displeases me, I will take a dollar away.” Hilarity ensued, I suppose (I actually don’t remember any more than that). It was funny because it was ridiculous, but also because there is some truth to it–if a waiter performs well, he may earn more than if he performs poorly or performs in just an average way.
Having a blog is not entirely dissimilar. The currency of the blogosphere is page views–eyeballs focused however briefly on a particular web site. Pageviews translate directly to advertising revenue and a little less directly to influence and other kinds of potential revenue. No matter a blogger’s motivation in blogging, it is in some way tied to pageviews.
Pageviews are as easily measured as a waiter’s tip. Most bloggers have some
