Hobby leads to career for tech blogger

Richard MacManus runs the world's 28th most popular blog, Read/WriteWeb, from his home office in Lower Hutt.

It's every blogger's fantasy. Mr MacManus started a blog on web technology as a hobby back in 2003. He's now turned that into a full-time job that earns him a comfortable living.

The burgeoning interest in Web 2.0 trends two years ago was the spark that let him become a professional blogger, he says. At the time his blog was the only one to write regularly about the topic.

Since then, his blog's popularity has just kept growing. It notches up about 25,000 page views a day and looks set to crack the world's top 20 soon.

By comparison, the main page of popular Kiwi technology site Geekzone was recently ranked 3600th, and entrepreneur Rod Drury's blog rings in at about 17,000th.

Mr MacManus began blogging full-time last year, quitting his day job running the website of a large corporate in Wellington.

Many IT workers dream about running their own blog, but with so many other blogs out there, attracting readers can be tough.

Mr MacManus says a successful blogger has to be knowledgeable and passionate about their topic, update their blog several times a day and engage with others in the blogging community – e-mailing other bloggers and posting comments on their sites.

"It takes a lot of time to ramp a blog up. If you genuinely have an interest and passion about the topic it will show through and eventually it might become a revenue stream for you."

Typically, Mr MacManus is up early and working late, and when working from home it's often difficult to separate work and play. "As soon as I get up in the morning I'm pretty much straight into the blogging."

Because many of his readers live in US, Mr MacManus has to think in Silicon Valley time. He employs a writer in California to post in the US- mornings, and has other unpaid writers who occasionally contribute to the blog.

He says being a long way from Silicon Valley has its ups and downs. He cannot network like US bloggers can, but on the other hand he's not as much of a target for people looking for free publicity for their businesses.

"I'm not constantly being hassled by start-ups knocking on my door. I know some of the guys in Silicon Valley have those kinds of hassles."

He has big plans for his blog. He's working on a business plan for more sites under the Read/WriteWeb banner, including a blog on search engines, one on new web gadgets, and another on the Chinese technology industry.