With all of the publicity for the film that came out in theaters in the USA yesterday (Aug. 7, 2009), "Julie and Julia," I found this newspaper article and thought it was interesting in an odd sort of way. OK, Julie Powell cooked her way through Julia Child's cookbook in one year and blogged about it. The blog became a memoir and is now a movie. Powell has another book set to be released in December. So, this has established her as being successful. I'm excited to see the movie and I think it's fabulous that she found success and, apparently, got herself out of the depression and boredom that led her to the project in the first place. Now, this article that I found is titled, "Julie Powell found fame with her blog, can you?" Here is the link: http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news..._news&cate_img=317.jpg&cate_rss=news_Features What I found odd about this story was the fact that it never establishes exactly what constitutes fame or success for a blogger. Julie ended up with lots of readers, a memoir, book deals, and a movie. Perez Hilton (celebrity blogger) is mentioned, along with a few others who have a lot of web traffic and book deals. Darren Rowse, who is well-known in the blogging world, is quoted. But it never comes out and says if you do THIS or THAT, you are now considered a "successful" blogger. Maybe that's because the piece was so short and there isn't room to talk about what constitutes success in the blogsphere. Or maybe that wasn't the intent of the story. There have been plenty of times in my years as a journalist where I was given a very specific assignment and, even though I found something else of interest while researching and interviewing, I was told to stick with the original assignment and NOT branch out. Or maybe the reporter didn't know enough to dig a little more. Or maybe we -- those of us who have niche blogs -- simply know SO MUCH more than the average person that we're (I'm) expecting too much when I read an article about this business model. It didn't mention actually making money with your blog. It came close: Why else would you spend so much time on it (unless you found it very therapeutic and it was your version of knitting or whatever)? Powell is quoted in the conclusion: Good quote. You've got to have passion for whatever you're doing, no matter what, or you'll get bored, life is too short to do something you hate, etc. Still, once you get those hits and visitors, what then? I think we'll see a surge in people starting their own blogs with the release of this movie. I also thing there will be a lot of people abandoning their blogs after they get started. They'll be excited after they see the movie, with dreams of getting their own book deals, and then they'll get bored. But a lot of them won't get it. They won't understand the intricate details that many of us have learned by studying Internet marketing. That's good for us because we'll still be standing when the bru-ha-ha dies down. Jill