Jason Kottke - Blogging Career

Blogging Career

Kottke's first site was 0sil8, a collection of "digital experiments."

Kottke, a pioneering blogger, began his blog in March 1998.

In 2000, Kottke and his then-girlfriend (now wife) Meg Hourihan were profiled in a New Yorker article, "You've Got Blog", which introduced blogging to a wider audience. His contributions to blogging were acknowledged when he won a Bloggie Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003, after five years of blogging. After a year of soliciting payments from readers who enjoyed his blog, he stopped because he had not managed to attract enough readers or developed "a sufficient cult of personality" to support the subscription model.

His blogging got him in trouble with Sony when he broke the news of the loss that broke Ken Jennings' Jeopardy! win streak.

On February 22, 2005, Kottke announced that he had left his web design job in order to work on kottke.org full-time. He pledged that all content on the site would still be free while encouraging readers to become "micropatrons" by making an optional contribution of any amount. By the close of business on the day of the announcement, over 200 people were listed as micropatrons on kottke.org. Kottke also received in-kind support through a fellowship from Eyebeam, which provided space for Kottke to work in its research and development labs. Exactly one year later, Kottke announced that over the course of the year about 1,450 micropatrons had contributed $39,900, the vast majority during the three weeks after his initial announcement, and that he would not attempt the feat for a second year.

As of May 2006, the blog is supported by paid advertisements, as part of the design-oriented advertising network The DECK.