I love Darren and his blog. But blogs "on blogging" generally cater to a specific segment of bloggers (it's only natural). Corporate bloggers really are not represented there, as one example. (If Debbie Weil did a similar survey focused on that crowd, you'd likely get very different results.)

ProBlogger tends to focus on people who run their own blogs, helping them get started and helping them grow their blogs. The bulk of the content is on the beginner side (and there's nothing wrong with that). Those already earning significantly with their blogs (like those attached to larger media and corporate sites which can pay freelance bloggers exceptionally well) aren't going to be as likely to frequent ProBlogger (nor are their writers, many of whom ghostwrite for clients but couldn't care less about starting a blog of their own).

These are the kinds of reasons you can never take a survey at face value without digging deeper into who the audience was, how the questions were worded, and more importantly who was left out.

With regards to section 3. All I am trying to do is tell bloggers to be realistic. As I pointed out in my article, businesses and sites which sell a product can afford to pay high rates because if they pay out $1,000 to bloggers but it bring in $2,000 in sales it's worthwhile.

However, as I mentioned before, most blogs make their income through advertising and not from selling products directly. Check the latest blog jobs at problogger or performancing and you will see this for yourself. You only have to look at the major blog networks vastly reducing their blogging rates last year to see that blogging rates are low. And many of these bloggers were blogging in excess of 40 hours per week i.e. people you would call professional bloggers.

Listen, I want bloggers to get a better rate, I do. But, blogs whose primarily income lies in advertising cannot afford to pay out those kind of rates. This has nothing to do with me and you, it's simply the world we live in. And I don't believe that I'm undermining a bloggers worth.

Take DailyBlogTips for example, one of the best blogging blogs about. I know nothing about the traffic that Daniel gets or the rates he charges advertisers. Yet I know for a fact that he would not pay out $100 per article. Why? Well, because he isn't selling any products directly on his blog. His blog, like most others, are content based and their income depends on advertising. Therefore, paying out $100 a post just isn't good business because he would have to increase monthly advertising revenue by $1,000 just to break even on 10 extra posts published.

I agree with you that any blogger who writes for a website which sells a product can charge more. If it costs the blog owner $500 for 5 or 10 posts and the blogger generates an extra $5,000 for the business then his rate was justified.

However, as I pointed out in my article, the majority of blogging jobs are not for websites or businesses, they are for blogging networks whose main income comes from advertising.

Just to reiterate, I am not trying to undermine bloggers or the act of blogging itself. The majority of my time online is spent blogging. However, I am a realist and I want my readers to be aware of the current market situation.

Check out the latest jobs at ProBlogger. I advertised a position there before so I know that most jobs advertised there will get around 100 email applications. Do you think bloggers who quote $100 a post are going to get the job when there are 99 other applicants?

I do agree with you that bloggers should be rewarded more for their efforts. I just don't believe that most bloggers will get anywhere near what they deserve – this is just the way things are.

Re: Section I – The statement about blogging being more draining than writing copy on a single subject is actually based on brain research that says you exhaust your brain by switching from subject to subject. If you're writing many blog posts on a single subject about which you are knowledgeable, then yes, your brain may qualify that as one topic, making it easier on you. But it's a fact that switching from topic to topic is more tiring than writing on a single topic, and many pro bloggers are asked to do just that on a daily basis.

As for the website pricing, it was a simple illustrative device. I have known many websites that pay precisely that for their copy simply because they price out by the page. I was only using it as an example for a side by side comparison, not to say that every website is priced on those terms. I'm not sure where you go that. I'm also not sure where you got the idea I was suggesting you write a website to then "sell" it to a customer. I've yet to write a website for anyone who did not currently own (and presumably see value in investing in) said website.

Re: Section II – I think you misunderstood my point here, though I'm in total agreement with you about yours. Posts of varying lengths ought not be nitpicked for cost, and bloggers shouldn't take advantage of that fact.

However, my point was actually about time, not length. Posts of equal length may take wildly different amounts of time, and pro bloggers should consider that fact when they are deciding what their rates for blogging should be.

Re: Section III – With respect, I must disagree. You've basically said that bloggers should simply give up on commanding what their writing is worth, and you've also completely undermined the value of blogging, which surprises me when you yourself write on blogging tips. I'll cover both of these individually.

Saying that you will only get the rate that a blog owner can pay is like saying that people will only call a doctor if they can afford one. Uh, no. People will call a doctor if they NEED one, and they will figure out how to pay for it when they really need it. My argument for this entire series is that blogging is in fact a necessary and valuable component of marketing. If a business really needs that marketing tool to get more business, they will find a way to pay for blog posts.

If they don't need it as a marketing tool, then there's no reason they need a blog. They don't need to pay someone to write posts for them. And they do not (therefore) need to demand a lower rate simply because they do not find blogging valuable enough for their business.

I grant your premise that many businesses do not see value in blogging and therefore will not pay an appropriate rate for that value. This is just fine with me, since many websites DO see the value in blogging and are willing to pay for it. It's about return on investment. If you pay $1,000 for those 10 blog posts (as you say) and in return you get 5 new clients worth $1,000 apiece, you have just earned yourself a net profit of $4,000.

You say look at it from the blog owner's point of view. "Do you think that adding 10 really great articles to your blog is worth $1,000?"

Yeah, I do. If it gets you $4,000 – or more – in new client money, yeah, it's definitely worth $1,000.

And yeah, the blogger should get paid for that. Maybe you could get a blogger to write those 10 posts for $10 apiece, but if you get NO clients out of it, you're in the hole $100. Do you want to be in the hole $100 or have a profit of $4,000?

That's an actual value. And yes, businesses DO recognize it. Telling bloggers to give up on commanding that rate is telling them they should find another job. And I don't think they should.