Calling Bullsh*t on WSJ’s 500,000 Pro-Bloggers Story*

* With the help of The Wall Street Journal‘s very own commentators.

Mark Penn published a story in the WSJ claiming that almost 500,000 people make their living from blogging. According to the author: “The best studies we can find say we are a nation of over 20 million bloggers, with 1.7 million profiting from the work, and 452,000 of those using blogging as their primary source of income.”

Choire Sicha doesn’t believe that and neither do we. For good reason, as it turns out.

Penn’s numbers come from a Technorati study claiming that there are 20 million bloggers, two percent of whom make a living from their site. As Dan Sinker points out in the comments section of the piece, however, only 7.4 million blogs have been updated in the past four months. “Taking two percent of the largest number you can find is not an accurate way to build your argument,” Sinker writes. “Even taking two percent of 7.4 million seems high to me.”

We would agree.

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