It has been over a year since we published our feature "The 25 Best Financial Blogs." A great deal has changed. Some of the blogs on the list are gone or no longer have regular posts. Others have grown and become better.
This is a list of independent blogs. However, several major media outlets have excellent blog sections. David Gaffen at WSJ.com, Fortune.com's Apple 2.0 blog, BusinessWeek.com's Fine On Media, and BloggingStocks at AOL (24/7 contributes content to this site). Obviously, these blogs have a level of financial support that independent blogs do not enjoy. Their writers are paid salaries. They have greater exposure due to their relationship with larger websites. They are excellent, but really should not be compared with websites operated by one person or a small group of individuals. Nevertheless, they should be recognized for their own commentary as well as the exposure that they give to independent blogs.
Financial information on blog sites is not readily available. Most financial blogs are much too small to bring in enough direct revenue to support their writers. Some have newsletters, but it is impossible to know what they yield. A number run Google AdSense links on their sites to generate ad revenue, but, based on data gathered from a few financial blogs, if a site is not in the top of its category as measured by audience tracking sites like Quantcast, Alexa and Compete, it is unlikely to have enough revenue to support even one or two people.
Financial blogs end up being either labors of love or ways to promote small money management or paid newsletter businesses. It would seem to be a tough way to make a living.
For constant business updates, go to 247wallst.com.