I don’t know if you know about Jason Kottke. Just about a year ago, he quit his job as a web designer and decided to blog full-time on Kottke.org. Over the course of three weeks, he asked his readers to contribute whatever they could to help him out. He also made it clear that, regardless of whether people donated or not, his site would continue to remain free. About 1450 people contributed (Kottke calls them “micropatrons”), and over three weeks, he raised $39,900. So that was his salary last year. For blogging. On his own blog. About whatever came to his mind.

And according to today’s post, “Oh, What A Year,” he’s done. The reason: It became a 9-5 job for him, and it just didn’t reward him (qualitatively, I think) in the way that he hoped. He writes, “I haven’t grown traffic enough or developed a sufficient cult of personality to make the subscription model a sustainable one for kottke.org…those things just aren’t interesting to me.”

It sounds like Kottke is going to keep blogging, but it’ll be what it is for the rest of us. A hobby.

Despite the fact that he is ending his professional blogging experience, I think what he did was fantastic. He set aside his ~$80,000 /year gig as a web designer to see if he could live the life he wanted. That takes balls. With nothing but his own pluck, he got over 1400 people to reach into their pocket and support him, not because he delivered them a “product” or “service” that they could use, but because he was a voice they wanted to have in their lives. That takes more than balls. That takes talent.

So, Kottke, despite the way the experiment ended, I want to say, one blogger to another, “Nice job, sir.” You made us proud.