A-lister and former Microsoftie uber-blogger, Robert Scoble, asks on his now indie-blog, Scobleizer, “What if I sold ads here?”

Most of his readers are urging him to have a go, including yours truly :

“… I’d avoid the likes of Federated Media, though, as they take 40pc of revenues. Take a little advice from an ad pro on pricing and throw out some feelers to that encyclopedic list of tech contacts you have. I reckon once you’ve tried it, you’ll never look back. Getting paid for something is not just about the money, it’s about knowing the worth of what you’re doing.”

Scoble is a typical example of someone blogging for reputation and attention. Being an “influential” delivers a lot of leverage in the tech world, and leads to many career opportunities that might not have come otherwise.

Advertising, or monetizing your site, is not just about squeezing extra juice out of the lemon — or stone, as the case may be — but marks the moment when you turn from amateur scribbler to media pro. You’re still self-publishing, of course, but if the public is prepared to pay reasonably well for it, you are well beyond the vanity press stage.

Scoble gets a lot of quality traffic, including a large loyal readership, it would be very interesting to see what the results are.

Might he be planning to go down the PaidContent.org route? Is Scobleizer Inc just over the horizon? It will be fascinating to watch.

Jason Calacanis — the man who talks more sense about blogging than anyone else — has published an interview he had with what appears to be an unnamed print magazine journalist.

He covers all the ground, making the nuanced distinctions necessary to understand the choices available in the blogosphere, from personal blogging to media businesses based on blog technology. He defines his own Weblogs Inc this way : “At Weblogs, Inc. we wanted to build a ’scale’ blogging business–that was our goal.” It’s now an eight-figure business.

If you’re interested in the many forms of blogging and how they morph into other activities, read this piece.

Here are a few thoughts of my own

Some see blogging as a form of prayer, others as a kind of social service. They use phrases like “selling out” and “going over to the enemy” if you as much as add Adsense to your blog. Such folk can usually be seen demonstrating with placards outside government and company buildings most weekends.

So let’s be clear about this : blogging is either about gaining attention for yourself or a means of making money. Is craving attention a “better” motivation than making a living, especially when supporting yourself makes a better contribution to society?

Let’s leave the blog pietists behind then and not kid ourselves that blogs are a form of holy writ.

I love blogging. I wouldn’t be doing it right now if I didn’t. But blogging is essentially an amateur activity and therein lies its charm. Personal blogs are just that — a means of self-expression and letting off steam.

However, once you’ve decided you’re in this as a commercial venture, you would do well to adopt the attitudes and terms of writers / authors / copywriters / journalists. They are all seen as professionals outside the blogosphere.

If you develop a number of blog-driven websites into a network, the very word “blogging” ceases to describe what you’re doing. You could, of course, continue sailing close to the wind by over-emphasising keywords to suck in searchers, or use various forms of traffic exchange — in which case you have not left the semi-problogging stage.

Finally, another quote from Jason’s interview : “Also, it is very rare that one new medium kills the medium before it. Blogs are not going to kill newspapers and magazines, but they will take 10-40% of their audience, just like cable TV didn’t kill network TV but it did take 20-30% of its audience.”

If network magazines can take 10-40pc of print magazines’ audience, and given our cost base, we can look forward to a very comfortable outcome.

I’ve resisted changing Syntagma’s header for over a year because I liked it.

However, so many people were complaining their eyes hurt when they looked at it — a good indicator of traffic levels — that I have finally bowed to the popular mood and endless clamour of the blogosphere, and redone the whole thing.

For those folk nostalgic for the old one, fear not. It lives on in the sidebar. And that’s not just because I can’t be bothered to alter it. Its fans can gaze at it and fondly recall “the old days”.

The new one reflects our changing face and role as “a publisher of network magazines”. The effect of old vellum alludes to the paper past of the print format, as well as its durability. After all, no website has lasted as long as the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Maybe Syntagma will be the first.