"they all depend on your having enough traffic. Unless you're blogging on a hot topic and do a lot of self-promotion, it usually takes months to years to reach that level."

i don't think this reality has received the repeated emphasis here that it deserves.

yes, you can be noticed, popular, famous, you can earn huge bucks. first you need to have (whatever) that will bring people to your product, and encourage them to come back regularly.

i suppose we could define (whatever) as "consistent voice and quality content". and then you promote it. up to you to decide whether this means leaving wittily brilliant comments at several thousand other blogs with related content/interests, or hard sell self promotion on youtube or... when you figure it out, gimme a clue, ok?

there are lists of the most popular blogs. not the best. some of the most popular are absolute crap.

then ag'in, there''s dooce.com, way popular and way good.

i'd say there are just two basics to blogging:

read 'em.

make your own.

there is a freeform community of voices on the web. some are like me:right now i only do the occasional post mainly to reassure a small circle of my friends that i'm still alive and well.

then ag'in, there's david byrne, and beck, and william gibson and rudy rucker.

then ag'in, there's your spot, waiting (if you're not there yet) for you to define and build it.

and yes, if you can post wandering drivel like this daily, maintaining voice, and do a half decent job of networking and promotion, you may be able to reach the hundreds of daily readers required to earn bucks from ads.

Building traffic -- that really does have to come before you start thinking about how to make money from your blog -- even if you aren't blogging with money in mind.

My blog, Gifted Mind, is a fairly small niche, but it's one where people are rather desperate to find information, and Gifted Mind is pretty much the only one of its kind. So people who find what they need there will come back.

It's taken a little over a year to build to a usual minimum of 40 or so hits a day. It still hasn't made 200 a day, but it's getting closer. What helped a lot was being found and linked to by about.com. Compared to the "big" blogs, mine is a blip on the horizon, but in its niche, it's getting to be one of the top destinations.