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Do you know who Dan Lyons is?   Of course .. Fake Steve Jobs.  He just announced he’d quit blogging, since:

While blogs can do many wonderful things, making huge amounts of money isn't one of them.

But wait!  Did you know Dan Lyons 3 years ago?  I admit I didn’t.  Perhaps it’s my ignorance – after all, he had already been Senior Editor @ Forbes,  but let’s be real, he was far from celebrity status prior to creating FSJ:

• Would he have a Wikipedia entry now, without the FSJ gig?  
• Would he have gotten the Fake Jobs book deal without being FSJ in the first place? 
• Did his celebrity status help him land the new job @ NewsWeek?  (I guess we’ll never get the answer for that).

The point is, bringing Fake Steve to life was a great move, which paid off in many ways, indirectly.   Yes, he is right, only the few best and most popular blogs can generate enough ad revenue to make it big, and even those are in trouble now that the entire advertising market is shrinking:

Technorati, a blog researcher, estimates that bloggers who run ads earn an average of $5,060 per year. Don't call the Ferrari dealer just yet.

We know this here @ CloudAve – there’s a reason you won’t find a single ad here. We can afford to deliver ad-free content thanks to the generous contribution of our Sponsor, Zoho.  The sponsorship model seems to work for a lot of blogs, not just the top few.

I doubt CloudAve would have happened if I hadn’t already built some blogger recognition on my personal blog, which, btw, had also brought me several consulting and Advisory gigs. Ben, Krish and all other contributors can probably confirm that blogging has helped their business and careers.

But don’t for a minute think blogging is just for freelance-types. You may have the most stable corporate job and find myself looking for another one tomorrow. Nothing to be ashamed of, it’s just today’s market reality.  When that happens, what will you do?  Start heavy networking, send resumes?  A bit too late, especially in today’s world.

Whether you’re employed, looking for a job, are a freelancer or business owner, you should be building your own brand –on an ongoing basis, not just when you need it.  Tom Peters wrote The Brand Called You over a decade ago.  He had no clue just how easy it would become with the advent of Social Media and especially blogging. If you’re not doing it, you’re committing a crime against yourself.

Update: although Zemanta recommends related post below, I wanted to break out one, that is a MUST READ:  Dave Whiner's post is just a perfect response, could not get any better:

How I made over $2 million with this blog

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Update #2:  A content-free non-post from Dan Lyons, the non-blogger. How sad.