The San Francisco Chronicle has a good article on "Mommybloggers" by freelance writer Carrie Kirby. The opening line is a great attention getter:

Heather Armstrong's blog got her fired. Six years later, it pays her family's mortgage.

Some key facts from the article:

• Heather Armstrong's Dooce.com gets 5-6 million page views a month.
• Her husband "quit his job in 2005 to handle the business and technical end of the site".

Also worth noting: "Mommyblogging [is] a term embraced by some and reviled by others".

Here's a passage that could be misinterpreted: (emphasis added)

Mommyblogging ... has become one of the more lucrative blog categories because of marketers' intense desire to connect with mothers, who are leaving traditional advertising venues such as soap operas for the Internet, said BlogHer co-founder Jory Des Jardins.

That may be true for the entire category, but Mom blogging is generally not lucrative for individual bloggers. (I would be happy to be wrong here, and am open to evidence to the contrary.)

For perspective:

the Armstrongs know how singular it is

The article covers "3 moms who have succeeded online". Based on my very rough estimate, their blogs probably get 30,000 to 120,000 page views per month. (Which is great -- e.g. it's more than this blog!)

In the past, the subject of a newspaper article had few good ways to respond. Blogging has changed that, e.g. Carmen Staicer of "Mom to the screaming masses" makes a minor correction on her blog:

I don't remember saying that I make several hundred dollars a month from my blog - I SO WISH - but from various writing opportunities and not every month. Just the VERY LUCKY MONTHS.

The writer stops by in the comments, with an unintentional (?) reminder of why many of us prefer blogs to the MSM:

Thanks for linking to my article, or rather what was left of it after drastic editing.

My two cents: still well worth reading.

Here's summary of the bloggers mentioned, plus blog category and Technorati rank. (Stay tuned: we'll have lots more data tomorrow!)

Business & Finance 1 blog
Personal Finance
	Mir Kamin			wantnot.net		38,514
Society & Culture 5 blogs
Personal
	Heather Armstrong			dooce		43
Mom Blogging
	Mir Kamin			Woulda Coulda Shoulda		14,249
	Stefania Pomponi Butler			CityMama™		14,494
	Carmen Staicer			Mom to the Screaming Masses		46,335
	Kristen Hammond			Mommy Needs A Cocktail		65,966

			Legend
			Blogcosm profile of this blog
			Link directly to the blog