For years, the outlook for personal websites in China—including independent blogs—has often seemed discouraging. Crackdowns on the domestic internet led many sites to shut down, and talk of new rules such as the idea that “without one million, don’t run a forum” only deepened the sense that the space for independent publishing was shrinking. Even so, that is not the only way to look at it. If society moves, however unevenly, toward greater civility and order, then independent blogs are unlikely to disappear altogether.
What makes a blog “independent”?
Before the term was ever fully settled in common Chinese reference works, a practical definition already existed: an independent blog is generally a blog that uses its own domain name and hosting, and is relatively autonomous in terms of space, domain, and content. In other words, it functions as a standalone website rather than as a page living under someone else’s platform.
Compared with blogs hosted on BSP platforms, independent blogs offer more freedom and flexibility and face fewer built-in restrictions.
By that logic, an independent blog is also far less inherently risky than a forum. If regulators are concerned about harmful information, a personal blog is easier to trace and easier to assign responsibility for: the blogger is the directly accountable party. A forum with hundreds of thousands of users is much harder to govern and much more complicated when it comes to identifying direct responsibility.
The real issues: regulation at the top, survival at the bottom
The development of independent blogging in China involves two different levels of difficulty.
At the macro level, the challenge is how to let blogging develop in a healthy way—through clearer standards, better governance, and some form of protection.
At the micro level, the question is more immediate: how can an independent blog survive and grow, and can it realistically become a professional endeavor rather than just a hobby?
Several ideas follow from that split.
1. A bloggers’ association
Independent bloggers could organize into a formal association, register it properly, and admit members. China is no stranger to associations; in many fields, the creation of one signals a move toward standardization and healthier long-term development.
If anyone is going to defend the interests of independent bloggers and push the field toward normalization, it is hard to imagine that happening without some kind of association. Otherwise, independent blogs remain fragmented—scattered voices with more anxiety about tomorrow than any clear picture of how to get there.
Instead of waiting passively in uncertainty, bloggers could take the initiative and argue for regulated, legitimate development that recognizes blogging as a possible profession.
Of course, an association would need funding to operate and remain sustainable. Early support could come from public donations. After formal establishment, it could collect membership fees. Blog content might be licensed for commercial publication. The association could also launch joint products and services, such as advertising networks, paid writing opportunities, domain registration, and hosting sales tied to member blogs.
Copyright protection is another major issue. A great deal of blog writing receives little real protection. In the future, bloggers might authorize an association to represent them in commercial publishing, handle infringement claims, and pursue legal remedies. If a hosting provider shuts down a blog without justification, the blogger could seek help from the association, potentially including legal action and claims for damages. If such practical support existed, more bloggers would likely choose to join.
There is also a broader strategic possibility here. Plenty of people in China’s internet industry have the resources to build something like a bloggers’ association, but far fewer seem to have the ambition to use it to reshape the web. If someone like Zhou Hongyi were to establish such an organization, it could even help incubate a new portal. Blogs offer content, distributed resources, and audience aggregation. Search services and search-network ads placed across blogs could also strengthen search engine promotion. With coordinated operations, even celebrity bloggers on BSP platforms might be persuaded to open independent sites as well—perhaps through a product built around personal domains and personal portals linked into a broader network.
According to a CNNIC survey, by December 2009 the number of internet users in China using blog applications had reached 221 million. With the right product line and execution, leveraging blogs as a gateway to a new portal would not be a small opportunity.
2. A “green certification” system
Another idea is a certification mark that independent blogs could display to show that the site does not contain illegal information or Trojan malware.
A visible trust badge would give ordinary internet users a way to report suspicious content or malware directly to the bloggers’ association. Once a complaint is verified, the association could revoke the violating blog’s right to display the certification.
This would not solve every problem, but it would at least create a recognizable mechanism of trust, accountability, and self-discipline.
3. How independent blogs currently make money
At present, independent blogs in China mainly rely on a handful of revenue models: on-site advertising, paid posts, event or shopping-related organizing, product sales, and service-based website business.
On-site advertising
This is the most straightforward model: selling fixed ad placements on the site or using ad networks such as Google Adsense and Dangdang.
Paid posts
The market for sponsored or soft promotional writing is large in the United States—reportedly worth more than $20 billion. But based on the Chinese sites that broker paid-post opportunities, independent bloggers generally do not earn much from this route. The reasons are simple enough: there are not many assignments, and the fees are low.
For most bloggers, writing promotional copy is often less attractive than contributing to traditional publications or writing for paid-content platforms such as Qidian.
In the long run, though, the domestic market for this kind of content is likely to grow. Blogs with substantial traffic and strong name recognition will have less reason to worry about paid-post income.
Event organizing and shopping-related commissions
Some independent bloggers function almost like local community celebrities. They are socially skilled, good at connecting people, and able to turn those connections into organized events or shopping-related activity, earning commissions in the process. Others may simply be enthusiastic shoppers or affiliates operating in a way similar to Taobao affiliates. From one angle, these blogs exist mainly as promotional tools.
Selling products
A common example is selling domain names, hosting, IT and digital products, or handmade goods.
Service-based website business
This category is broad, and in practice it may be one of the most realistic paths for many bloggers.
- Design services: many web and graphic designers use their blogs to advertise design work.
- Online marketing consulting: SEO and internet marketing consulting are common offers.
- Brokerage services: blogs about insurance or used cars often work this way. An insurance broker may write at length about investment and financial planning, then invite readers to make inquiries.
- Expert services: lawyers, engineers, and similar professionals can use blogs to present cases, explain specialized knowledge, and turn that credibility into consulting work.
- Professional services: language specialists may promote translation services; local bloggers may offer tutoring. Many blogs built by people with practical skills make it clear—sometimes directly, sometimes subtly—that cooperation is welcome. Think of writers linking to their books on their blogs, or professional writers signaling that they are available for commissioned work.
4. The biggest obstacle to professional blogging: e-commerce
After looking at the situation from several angles, one conclusion stands out: beyond the policy environment, one of the biggest bottlenecks in the development of professional blogging in China is payments and transactions in the Chinese-language web ecosystem.
High traffic and broad fame are not things that most independent blogs possess. That means ad revenue and paid promotional posts are usually not enough to sustain an independent site, let alone turn it into a profession.
Abroad, bloggers can install e-commerce plugins on WordPress and complete payments through PayPal. In China, bloggers can install similar e-commerce plugins on WordPress too—but because Chinese users prefer Alipay, those plugins often end up being little more than decoration. The same problem applies to domestic blog systems such as Z-blog, PJblog, and Bo-blog; in some cases they do not even reach the stage of decorative usefulness.
People are still developing new blogging software in China, but when it comes to publishing blog posts, there is no obvious breakthrough left that would persuade large numbers of bloggers to abandon their current platforms for something new. The more promising opportunity may lie in e-commerce.
If a new blogging platform could properly support product sales—similar to WordPress e-Commerce—or paid reading and paid content directories—similar to WordPress Business Directory—then it might still have a real future and commercial potential. One possible model would be free use below a certain revenue threshold, with commercial licensing required above it. China also has many micro-payment providers; forming an alliance with one of them, obtaining sponsorship, and bundling an exclusive payment interface into the free version could be a viable strategy, while charging for additional interfaces.
Take Z-blog as an example. It already works well with search engines, and many site operators use it to make money through SEO. If it went one step further and solved product sales and paid-reading functions, its development might accelerate dramatically. Its current business model revolves around hosting, copyright certification, and value-added services. If enterprise blogging becomes more widespread, that model has real merit.
But if blogging software cannot solve the e-commerce problem, then independent blogs in China will struggle to become professional blogs. Most will hit a ceiling. If a blogger has to switch to something like DedeCMS or ShopEx just to handle transactions, can that site still meaningfully be called an independent blog? Looking at the e-commerce ecosystem around WordPress abroad, there is no reason to doubt that blogging must eventually address transactions directly.
That leads to a broader question. If blogging is to become a profession in China while blog software still lacks good commercial tools, do major domestic payment services such as Alipay and Tenpay not have some social responsibility to offer better solutions for independent bloggers? Who will improve tools like WordPress e-Commerce with proper Alipay and Tenpay integration? Micro-payments are clearly part of the wider direction of internet use. China has more than 200 million blog users, yet independent blogs have found it difficult to grow by riding that trend.
Is the problem a lack of public-mindedness in the internet industry, or a lack of business foresight?
The future of independent blogging in China depends on what is changed and invented today.