I am quitting work and bloggin' full time!

No—I am just kidding. Blogging full time is something I do not want to do, but that is exactly what Jason Kottke, a Web designer, did a year ago. Last year about this time, Jason quit his job and turned to the readers of his blog, Kottke.org, for financial support (though micro payment) in his efforts to produce the site for a year.

Over the course of three weeks, people generously sent in their financial support. The support has added up to $39,900 for 2005 and was almost completely (99.9%) achieved during the first 3 weeks. The biggest individual contribution he received was $500 dollars and most people contributed the suggested $30 dollars. A total of about 1,400 people contributed to the cause.

After a full year of blogging Jason has had it. He announced on Wednesday that he is no longer seeking payments from people. He wrote that he hasn't managed to attract enough readers or developed "a sufficient cult of personality" to support the subscription model.
Kottke, a blogging pioneer, started blogging nearly eight years ago and was awarded a lifetime achievement award at the Bloggies in 2003.

It is sad to see someone like Jason throw in the towel and give up on his dream. He has contributed a lot to the blogging community.