I happened to catch an article by Dan Lyons who was upset that he didn't get rich by being a fake Steve Jobs blogger. Frankly, I'm surprised that he's surprised. Apparently he fell for the hype surrounding blogging hook, line, and sinker and thought all it took was a snazzy fake name and some viral marketing to get rich online.



He even complained he had one huge day with 1 million uniques and he only made $100 on AdSense. Frankly, it shouldn't have been that surprising to him. What exactly were these 1 million visitors supposed to buy? If they aren't in a buying mood, then burst of traffic aren't that monetizable. This fact has been aptly demonstrated for years going back to the "slashdot effect". Generally this visitors "belong" to another website and are visiting your website on a referral link.

Of course chances are very good they won't hang around long, let alone purchase something from you or one of your website's advertisers. Since they're not buying anything, you aren't getting paid that much. That's just the nature of the online ad business.

Poor Dan Lyons didn't only not get rich from blogging, he even gained 20 pounds while doing it. That's from all the extra calories and the lack of exercise, not from the act of blogging.

In any event, Dan isn't really all that worse for the wear from blogging. He's a columnist at NewsWeek and he's famous for his "Fake Steve Jobs" schtick. Other opportunities have opened up from him, so it's tough to call his blogging unsuccessful.

More likely, he just got sick of using a fake nickname to post and wanted some attention for himself.

Courtesy: Blog Republic