WebProNews

Read Write Web conducted a survey with some quite interesting results. They asked 20 bloggers and social media consultants (that they claim to know and trust) what kind of money they make with their blogging gigs. The agreement was for RRW not to disclose their names, and for the bloggers themselves to be honest about their earnings.

"We hope that no one will be too angry with us if these numbers lead their employees to feel newly shortchanged and protest," says RWW's Kirkpatrick. "These folks are at the top of their field."

The survey looked at different blogger set-ups, such as those who get paid by the post, those who are in-house full-time bloggers, and expert social media consultants. As Pro-Blogger Darren Rowse notes, the sample is small, but that doesn't make the numbers any less intriguing.

The Numbers

It looks like the average rate on a per-post basis is $25, though some reported to make as little as $10 and as much as $80. "Let's say these people are half-time pro-bloggers making $25 per post, writing 3 posts per day," Kirkpatrick says. "That's $75 per half-day, a little less than $20 per hour, about $1500 to $1750 per month for half time work. Take two of those jobs at once, do it for a year, and you'll make about $40k."

You could do worse, but in-house bloggers seem to be doing better. According to Kirkpatrick, respondents reported annual salaries ranging from $45k and $55k with benefits up to $70k, $80k and $90k with bonuses. "We're tempted to say, based on the anonymously submitted but descriptive replies we got, that the closer to pure journalism our respondents were doing the lower their wages were," he says. Now that's interesting. Critics of blogs as news sources (like the one discussed in this article) ought to love that little nugget.

Those in-house bloggers still didn't make as much as the participating social media consultants who make as little as $150 an hour, and most commonly about $300 an hour. That's fascinating considering the amount of sponsored content infiltrating social networks. I have to wonder how the pay rates of these consultants reflect their practices in terms of white hat/black hat. 

Again, this info shouldn't be considered accurate for the entire industry, considering the number of participants (and also considering that they're anonymous for that matter), but Read Write Web has certainly provided an interesting look into the possibilities of making money with blogs and social media. What are your thoughts? I'd love for any bloggers/consultants to post their earnings (anonymously of course) in the comments to see how they stack up against RRW's data.