Blogging For Bucks With Live Journal
- by Gavin O'Malley @mp_gavin, September 22, 2009
"For the first time (users) will have the option to generate revenue from their journals," said Annelies van den Belt, CEO of SUP, the Russian parent company of LiveJournal. "We have wanted to offer the LiveJournal community the opportunity to do this for some time."
With "Your Journal -- Your Money," users who pay a fee can add Google AdSense banners to their blog. Google plans to pass on "most" of the revenue generated from the program directly to LiveJournal users.
LiveJournal user earnings will depend on different factors, such as the cost of the ads, based on the standard Google auction model, according to the company. LiveJournal says it will not directly receive any share of the advertising revenue.
Users will have to sign up for a Google AdSense account to start earning revenue from displaying Google ads. Critical to many bloggers, program participants can control where ads appear on their sites, and whether they are text, images, or both.
Launched in 1999, LiveJournal is presently owned by SUP, a Russian media company that had originally licensed the brand and software for use in the Russian market.
Its original founder, Brad Fitzpatrick -- who has since moved on to Google -- was in attendance for the announcement in Moscow on Tuesday. "I built LiveJournal and now work for Google, so it's fun to see both companies working together for the benefit of the bloggers," said Fitzpatrick.
In April, total minutes spent on LiveJournal increased 273% year-over-year to about 204 million -- edging out LinkedIn, which increased just 69% to about 202 million, according to Nielsen NetView.
