In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop

In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop
By MATT RICHTEL
Published: April 6, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO — They work long hours, often to exhaustion. Many are paid by the piece — not garments, but blog posts. This is the digital-era sweatshop. You may know it by a different name: home.



A growing work force of home-office laborers and entrepreneurs, armed with computers and smartphones and wired to the hilt, are toiling under great physical and emotional stress created by the around-the-clock Internet economy that demands a constant stream of news and comment.

Of course, the bloggers can work elsewhere, and they profess a love of the nonstop action and perhaps the chance to create a global media outlet without a major up-front investment. At the same time, some are starting to wonder if something has gone very wrong. In the last few months, two among their ranks have died suddenly.

Two weeks ago in North Lauderdale, Fla., funeral services were held for Russell Shaw, a prolific blogger on technology subjects who died at 60 of a heart attack. In December, another tech blogger, Marc Orchant, died at 50 of a massive coronary. A third, Om Malik, 41, survived a heart attack in December.

Other bloggers complain of weight loss or gain, sleep disorders, exhaustion and other maladies born of the nonstop strain of producing for a news and information cycle that is as always-on as the Internet.

To be sure, there is no official diagnosis of death by blogging, and the premature demise of two people obviously does not qualify as an epidemic. There is also no certainty that the stress of the work contributed to their deaths. But friends and family of the deceased, and fellow information workers, say those deaths have them thinking about the dangers of their work style.

The pressure even gets to those who work for themselves — and are being well-compensated for it.

Bloggers at some of the bigger sites say most writers earn about $30,000 a year starting out, and some can make as much as $70,000. A tireless few bloggers reach six figures, and some entrepreneurs in the field have built mini-empires on the Web that are generating hundreds of thousands of dollars a month. Others who are trying to turn blogging into a career say they can end up with just $1,000 a month.

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At this moment, as I sit for the 3rd hour of at least a 12 hour day, in my pajamas, with my 4th cup of coffee, I'm laughing my ass off at how much they missed on this one.

While Richtel addressed those who make money at this, he never mentioned those among us who don't manage to make any money at all. I'm talking about bloggers like me!

I do this 6 days a week with at least 12 hours a day and then on our play day, it's at least 5 hours. Between the time spent blogging on two blogs, reading for research on what to post up, writing where I feel there is a need to add my two cents, creating videos and doing research for them, I have yet to get one check for the advertising on either blog. Keep in mind that between the AOL blogs I used to have and the three I have now (one has been abandoned) I've been at this for ten years! This blog has only been up and running since August of 2007 and this is post 1458. Plus posting on other sites, there is a ton of emails to wade through. I get them from all over the world and most of them will never be brought out in the public because these are about PTSD and need to be kept private. Talk about stress!!!

I gave up a great job so that we could move to Florida allowing me the ability to work part time outside the house while being able to dedicate more time to this work. This is what I was created to do. It is to provide knowledge and share information on PTSD especially when it comes to the military and the way our veterans are taken care of. Both blogs are dedicated to that. They are 95% about that and 5% for things I find in searches I find interesting. What has it gotten me? Nothing financial that's for sure. I can't even manage to get donations to keep the DVD's going out. What pisses me off the most about this is I get requests from organizations who can certainly afford to make a donation but won't. They take the videos and copy them, never considering how many hours it takes me to create them and then they share them with their members, which is what I made them for, but then they never think of taking up a collection to help me out so that I can make more of them without regrets for what I'm taking away from my own family.

Richtel is addressing people who make money doing this and don't deal with life or death issues or the kinds of stress people like me across the country deal with. I do this so that no other family goes through this feeling alone, like the don't matter or that they can't find the support they need. I won't regret thinking that trying to end the stigma of PTSD and change what is wrong, or saving lives. I'd like to see him interview me and I'd really let him know what stress is!!!!!!!!!!!

Chaplain Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Namguardianangel.blogspot.com
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington