■ Akash Kumar, 25, started blogging two years ago. He makes more than three posts a week, which are read by 1,000 visitors a day. The popularity translates to monthly ad revenue of $700.

■ Kamran Banerjee, 29, has been blogging for six years. After reading his blogs on finance and economy, the authorities of an American bank approached him to review their credit card plan. He was paid $100 for the review.

Bloggers in Calcutta are fast learning to reap the benefits of online expression.

A recent survey has revealed that more than half the city bloggers are interested in earning money through advertisements and five per cent already do so.

“Money is a by-product of effective blogging. If a blog is written and designed well, it receives more hits (visitors). Every click by a visitor on advertisements in a blog page earns money,” says Abhishek Rungta, the CEO of Indus Net Technologies, an Internet strategy company that conducted the survey.

There are several ways to generating an income from blogs. “I have a decent knowledge of web design and offered free design templates on my blog. Soon companies starting asking me to design a website for them,” says Anirban Ray, who has been blogging for six years.

Other models include space selling. For example, a blogger may have links on his website, leading to online shopping sites. If a visitor buys a product, the blogger earns a commission.

Celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan (bigb.bigadda.com) and Aamir Khan (www.aamirkhan.com) have inspired many to turn to blogging but “only one out of every 100 bloggers are true and regular bloggers”, says Ray.

Most regular bloggers make posts to “express themselves”, “share knowledge” and “communicate” and not merely for “reputation” or because “everyone does it”.

“If you have good knowledge about a subject and are willing to share it, you can easily blog. For example, living in Calcutta, I can start a blog on the city and places to visit here,” says Pallavi Banerjee, 26, who blogs at myselfpallavi.com.

A blog is a “reinforcer for creative people”, feels consultant psychologist Anuttama Banerjee. “It is a medium which allows one to reach out to many people and yet not be afraid of direct rejection,” she adds.

The bloggers’ meet where the survey was conducted was publicised through Twitter, a micro-blogging platform.

The Indus Net Technologies Blogging Trends Survey also revealed 75 per cent of Calcutta bloggers are male and aged between 20 and 30. The most popular blogging platform is Blogspot and most popular medium for earning revenue Google Adsense.