The Internet is like an all-you-can eat buffet restaurant – it’s a place where everyone can find something to suit their individual tastes, can try out different things and (perhaps against their better judgment) can keep going back for more.
It is this eternal and expansive appeal of the world wide web that allows almost anyone, anywhere, to find a niche and even get money for it. Eric Nakagawa’s blog “I Can Has Cheezburger” is overwhelmingly popular, despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that it only features pictures of cats with humorous captions. The amount of money Nakagawa has made from ad revenue on his site has enabled him to quit his day job and embrace life as a blogger (albeit one that has an unhealthy obsession with all things cat).
Perez Hilton’s blog is, according to The LA Times, "like US Weekly, the Star, the Enquierer and Life & Style all rolled into one sweet yet snarky, sagacious yet salacious gay man." Hilton is irreverent, and often downright bitchy about the celebrities he blogs about, and his readers love it. Hilton’s blog is a full time job, and has made him a celebrity in his own right.
On the less ridiculous end of the spectrum, conservative blogger Mark Finkelstein has managed to make a name (and an income) for himself with his blog on Newsbusters.org, even though he is a conservative blogger living in notoriously liberal Ithaca.
There are also blogs and the like that, although they may not allow their creators to quit their day jobs, provide a unique outlet for their authors.
FMyLife.com is an independent outlet for those less fortunate to lambaste their tales of misfortune on a world stage. It is immensely popular, even though the only thing people gain from contributing it is a form of social therapy when other people click a button to agree that their life is well and truly f8%$ed up.
The internet has well and truly down the boundaries of traditional media – it allows anyone, anywhere, to create content about anything they want, and lets everyone else access it. So whatever your poison, from politics to pussycats, there is someone out there writing about it. And for wannabe bloggers, there is always someone there waiting, ready to read your stuff. And maybe, just maybe, the object of your interest (or neurosis) will make you enough money to ditch your horrible day job. Like the metaphorical buffet that it is, the Internet always lets you try everything at least once. And if it fails, you can always write about it on FMyLife.com.
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