End of Good Writing (?)

The ArtsJournal folks are hosting a "discussion" of the impact of blogs on art criticism. The conversation naturally takes in the impact of blogs on writing in general - and how do you make a living at writing, if customers/readers come to expect to get it for free. Anthony DeCurtis wonders what will happen to those who want to make money by writing - - if others are just giving it away.

The other matter is, ahem, getting paid for doing this work. I did plenty of writing for free when I was starting out, and occasionally still do for academic journalis and such. But as so many newspapers and magazines implode, how is anyone supposed to make a living doing this?

By Tyler Green responds:

If I didn't blog, magazines and newspapers never would have called with paying work. And I would like to think I have a built-in audience willing/ready to buy books by me.

A blog is essentially marketing-made-public. It also has a nice side-benefit: Because people in the industry (the visual arts) know me from the blog, I have access for paying work. And because I have access to industry folk, I learn things that I can turn into paying work. It's a self-feeding cycle.