Top 5 Best and Youngest Bloggers
Blogging is a very seductive money making activity because it can be done from whenever in the world you are, you can make money without having to be a sales (wo)man and if you do it right it’s a very relaxed way to make a living. And as you may know some people and businesses have done it: they have highly successful blogs and they provide everybody else with inspiring examples on how to write a blog that’s more than a simple online diary.
Unfortunately, for those of us who are grown-ups finding time to blog can be very hard unless you are unemployed or you can work from home. But for people under 18 year old that can be absurdly easy if they want, and many of them have chosen to keep a blog, fotolog, myspace page or some other form of online presence.
But there’s a small minority of kids and girls that took this blogging activity so seriously that they have reached the status of online quasi-celebrities, and to let everybody know about them I gave me the task of finding the best and youngest bloggers out there and list them all in just one post. Hope you enjoy the list!
Thilak Raj Rao from Tech-Buzz.net. I have interviewed him in the past because he’s a successful 17 year old indian blogger who’s making more than $3000 USD every month out of his blog. Thilak started a little more than a year ago with Tech-Buzz and he worked very hard during 8 months (he didn’t have internet connection in his home) until reaching the point of being able to earn some money with it. Thilak is currently a full-time problogger dedicating something near to 17 hours each day to work on Tech-Buzz.
David Wilkinson from TechZi. David is a 13 year old blogger and entrepreneur from Manchester, England. In his own words, TechZi is “the technology blog that provides the plain-old news with a rather ‘unusual’ twist”. Personally I found it pretty interesting and I love David’s writing style, very dynamic and right to the point. Besides pure blogging, David founded the Zi Media Network that currently runs TechZi and CarZi, which transforms him into a real internet entrepreneur. What do you think? Did you have a blog network while being a 13 year old? I didn’t.
David has been featured on Problogger.net at least two times. The first one in a post by Darren Rowse, and the second time with his own guest post.
Carl Ocab from CarlOcab.com. Carl is a 13 year old kid from the Philippines that writes on his blog since February 2007. CarlOcab.com started as a tech blog but Carl promptly noted that he could do better writing about blogging and how to make money online, and he’s doing as he says: In just 3 months he has been able to attract 1 header and 2 sidebar banners for a total amount of USD $170 and also runs a small adsense box that, together with his traffic figures (as reported by Alexa), is surely making him some more bucks. Pretty amazing.
Paris Spence-Lang from FunnyMunny.ca. Another 13 year old blogger from Canada, Paris wants to be a money advisor when he grow up but while achieving the proper age he started his blog on money advise for kids and adults! And guess what? He’s been receiving questions from adults (not that much but at least one afaik) and his answers are very good (he seems to know more about Canadian taxes than I do about Chilean taxes :P).
Paris has been featured by John Chow dot Com at least once.
Jessica Mah from JessicaMah.com. Well I must confess that it was hard to find the fifth blogger because it seems there’s nobody else so young in the blogosphere which can compete with the success of the previous guys from this list, but then I remembered Jessica Mah from an interview over at ValleyWag and I decided to add her to the list, although she’s more an entrepreneur than a blogger. She ran a successful hosting business when she was 13 and now that she’s 16 year old she’s planning to start “the ebay of hire services” and retire at age 25 with a billion dollars. Now, in regards to blogging, she keeps a personal and not-so-well-promoted blog over at JessicaMah.com, but what I found interesting about it is that she has so much potential that I’m sure she can grow her blog from nothing to be a super-online-star if she wants. She has the intelligence, the brand, the content and by her flickr account the [so f*****g damn good] connections to do it right now. Girl’s power in its more pure form!
I hope you enjoyed the list and to finish I want to congratulate everybody on it for their astounding example and work! My best wishes for you Jessica, Thilak, David, Carl and Paris!
If you liked this list please consider subscribing to Roberto Alamos dot Com by email or RSS to automatically receive any update in the blog. Lots of good business opportunities here ;).
BTW, this post was also written to participate on the ‘Top 5 group writing project by Problogger.net’. Consider visiting it to find more good ‘top 5′ posts written by bloggers from all over the world!.
May 8th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
WOW! I wish I was that smart on that age.
I wonder where they’ll be in 10 years. Maybe the next Bill Gates or something?
Good luck with the Writers Project. I’m also participating.
May 8th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
Rehuel,
Yes, they are so damn amazing. At that age I was quietly learning to program by myself, but those 5 five guys (and girl) are just already playing in the big leagues… and being successful!
Good luck with your post for the writing project as well
May 9th, 2007 at 4:16 am
wow.. this is a nice research. I know about David Wilkinson before because he was featured in Problogger. But the rest are quite new to me
Cool stuff!
May 9th, 2007 at 4:18 am
Good luck to these fellow teenagers! I started my personal blog almost one year ago (when I was 14), and it has earned me a figure close to $10,000 now.
May 9th, 2007 at 5:12 am
I would really like to be on that list before my 17th birthday!
May 9th, 2007 at 5:38 am
I’m only 18 but my name wasn’t included in the list. Hehe.. By the way, i just wanna say congratulations to the 5 best and youngest bloggers…
May 9th, 2007 at 7:21 am
Wow! This is an amazing article and truly inspiring. Thilak Raj Rao from Tech-Buzz.net is simply incredible. People that would put in that much time and dedication are such a motivation for me.
May 9th, 2007 at 9:35 am
Geez! This list is pretty amazing! Not to mention those young bloggers!
The one who caught my eye was the blog of Carl Ocab, the 13 year old kid from my country (Philippines). I cant stop thinking how this kid couldve bested all the other blogs on the internet.
Imagine being bested by 13 year olds. Something to ponder on for a moment.
(still in a state of disbelief)
Thanks for your post! It is really informative and interesting!
If you have time, why don’t you drop by my post:
http://mobileko.blogspot.com/2.....to-be.html
It’s also an entry for the problogger top 5- group writing project. ^^ Goodluck to us all!
May 9th, 2007 at 10:51 am
@Chee: Thanks for your support!
@Glenn: Wow, if I have known about you before the list should be name ‘Top 6 Best and Youngest Bloggers’. Keep the good work Glenn!
@GUrbi: Sorry, only under 18yo people man
@Kim: Everybody on this list is an inspiration, but yeah, Thilak is amazing.
@Karlo: Well, in sports it’s very common to see professional kicked by younger players so it’s not that strange
I’ll be sure to check your post Karlo, good luck as well!
May 9th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
I’m 18, and man do those kids have me beat! I feel a bit of jealousy mixed with inspiration. But it’s great to see that not all teenagers waste all their time playing video games.
Thanks for the interesting post!
May 10th, 2007 at 1:51 am
Hey there,
Thanks so much for your kind words! I only started my blog 2 months ago, and I’ve only begun to promote it in the past few weeks.
Keep in touch! I actively update my twitter, calendar, and I’m on meebo chat via my website.
Best,
~ Jessica Mah
http://jessicamah.com
May 10th, 2007 at 11:40 am
Hi Jessica,
Thanks a lot for stopping by. Your history is really amazing and you deserve to be in the list.
Keep the good work and I hope you reach your goal at 25!
May 11th, 2007 at 12:25 am
Nice post Roberto. Entrepreneurship knows no age.
May 11th, 2007 at 1:42 am
@Alden: It’s true what you said, although some months ago I could say something like ’sport talent knows no age, but entrepreneurship???’ Entrepreneurship is about creating value, and it’s not always easy even for adults. But yup, entrepreneurship knows no age too, these kids are the proof.
May 11th, 2007 at 6:09 am
Great article! It’s an honour to hit the list myself and I’m sure the other guy feel the same. Keep up the fantastic work, Roberto!
May 11th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
The only problem with being such a young entrepreneur (I know, I am 15 myself and run http://www.jasonberlinsky.com/) is time. Balancing school with everything else is horrendous most of the time. However, the income does pay off. In the past week, I have made $1,000 passively on my blog, and I guess it is worth the trade-off
Nice work on the list.
Jason
May 12th, 2007 at 2:00 am
Good to see Thilak on top of the list. He has always been a source of inspiration.
May 12th, 2007 at 9:44 pm
Check out www.Gearfire.net
They have a team of four 14-year-old writers, writing about productivity, etc. Seems to be fairly similar to Lifehacker.
May 13th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Well, here’s me: (this is all serious, so don’t laugh)
I’m saving up for a house, I should be able to get it by the time I’m 16.
I hope to be earning at least 2,000 dollars a month in assets.
So on so forth
Thanks for writing me up
FYI: John Chow will be posting on me shortly for a second time.
May 18th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
Wow! gifted child huh! i wish i could earn also $3000 a month.
May 20th, 2007 at 11:26 am
wee cool list. i gues u missed a guy - rishi from rishiraj.info. he is 14 and a probloger.
May 21st, 2007 at 7:51 am
Never underestimate someone by their age. I can tell you from experience that when I first started out working for an internet company at the age of 13/14 (I turned 14 in my 2nd month there) I was being paid $1,500 a week in cash to come into an office and email spam for their adult sites. This was back in the 90’s of course, and everything was so new and young that being at that age and making that type of cash was a new thing. Even until the age of 19, people still never took me seriously and would always judge what I knew or what I could accomplish by how old I was, and would always be reminded of it. You gotta give these kids credit. They are doing it on their own, and making bank from it. Sure, it’s nothing huge, but the only bills they really have to pay now is the $8/yr for their domain, and their hosting bill (or at least payback their folks). They are doing better than most bloggers out there, that’s for sure.
The only advice I’d give to these kids though is that they shouldn’t think that just because you made it big or made some money with one thing, that it will happen every time again. In other words, don’t let it get to your head. When I started my first business, I failed, and lost a lot of cash too. I continue to fail sometimes too, but I see it as a good thing, as trial and error is a lot more valuable than you think.
Also, I dropped out of college because I knew from an early age (and the cash I was making certainly helped) that I didn’t want to be a doctor, lawyer, or even work for anyone again. Don’t cross college off your list, but at the same time, you don’t NEED it the way most people will tell you that you do. Save your cash, and write down all of your brilliant ideas now, so you can use them later.
Alright, enough preaching from me. Goodluck kiddies. Say no to drugs.
May 25th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
Their age is their advantage. Quite a lot visitors are attracted by rumours about the blogs. I don’t want to run down their work but think of all the other 12 or 13 yos. There are 12 yo pro dancers and 14 yo pro singers out there. Nothing new. Early teens can be good in many things.
May 27th, 2007 at 2:46 am
@Paris and David: Thanks a lot for your comments guys, you are tremendous source of inspiration for a lot of people (I’m between them ;)).
@Jon: Wow! What a piece of advice. I strongly agree with you on the point where you said that these kids should not avoid college just because they are earning more than they teachers, nor they must go like everybody else do it (learn something so they can make a live from it in the future). No, they should consider to do it because college or university can be really good places to improve themselves in many areas, including the business one (don’t forget that Google founders were PhD students when they created Google) so they have not lose that experience if they can do it.
@Jason, Jamie & Bobiin: Sorry, I didn’t knew about those kids when I wrote this post. I’ll maybe include them if I write a follow up to this post.
@mdo: Yes, their age is their advantage but ultimately they are the best so they are noted among everybody else. And yes, since always have been gifted kids that are as able as the best adults in some field of human knowledge/activities, but blogging is just so new so these kids are the first examples ;).
May 31st, 2007 at 2:09 am
Haha, I’m a 14 (almost 15 yr old affiliate marketer) I have been doing 5 figure monthly for a while…
It’s good to see other young webmasters
July 1st, 2007 at 1:36 pm
Thanks for pulling this list of good kid bloggers together. I hope to connect with other kids taking blogging seriously. I would like kidreviewer.com to be considered in their company at some point, but I hope that they aren’t all judged by how much money they make. I would like to get sponsors, and my dad set up adsense for kidreviewer.com, but I still want to write about a kid’s perpective either way. I also want the practice writing, so by the time I finish high school I have mucho experience.
They do have much to teach about building a good blog.
I invite you to stop by and leave a comment.
Nick
KidReviewer.com
July 1st, 2007 at 2:52 pm
I just visited the FunnyMunny.ca site you mentioned in your post, and it looks like the author has quit blogging. There are also some comment spammers there making it yucky.
If you have to drop him from the top five, let me be the first to volunteer my blog for an up and comer!
Nick
www.KidReviewer.com