Special to the Ryersonian

Photo courtesy of Digital Journal

Alex Chumak (left) and Ryerson grad Chris Hogg are behind digitaljournal.com.

Imagine earning almost $500 in two months providing weblinks to news you’re already reading, from an article about an outbreak of HIV in Kazakhstan to the cancellation of O.J. Simpson’s book deal.

A news junkie who often surfs on as many as 12 sites at once has done just that on digitaljournal.com, headed up by Ryerson graduate Chris Hogg.

“Digital Journal gives me a way to focus some of that energy and share the news that interests me,” said the man, identified as wolfman2001 on the site. The father of four and fulltime boiler engineer, who would only say his first name is Norm, had 928 active articles, 2,254 comments and 576 uploaded images at press time.

“The money is mostly an afterthought to me,” he said. “For me it’s more about who gets the story first, and debate over topics that interests me.”

Digitaljournal is an online community where users can post articles, comment, and upload video and audio.

Editor-in-chief and Ryerson alumnus Hogg spearheaded an initiative where members are eligible to compete for a share of a money pool. The amount is funded by ad revenues and varies from month to month.

He thinks he is the first worldwide to pay bloggers for their news and comments, although he said a similar model has been used for audio and videos. “ We are trying to be the largest user-powered site in the world,” said Hogg, who saw the site’s membership increase fourfold since the payment system was implemented.

The more active users are in relation to other users, the bigger their share of the money pool. Norm was the highest earner for October.

Out of all users in November, only three are earning more than $100 this month. The average earning is $36.75.

But money isn’t the only driving factor in increased membership. Leslie Macumber, an editor and textbook publisher in Toronto, joined digitaljournal.com more to support the company than for the money. She expects to earn $12 this month.

“The financial incentives do not play any part in my activity. It is too competitive and I do not have the time to make it worthwhile. I am involved because of the small relationships I’ve formed during the past few months.”

Hogg originally joined the digitaljournal.com team four years ago as a freelance writer when he was still a student in broadcast journalism. Ryerson’s online stream director, who also taught Hogg, is not surprised by the initiative.

“It’s not surprising that recent grads should see the value in paying freelance bloggers, since they themselves are very well represented in this pool,” said Prof. Joyce Smith. “It’s not unlike some of the peer-to-peer music sharing ideas that are out there . . . where each person who ‘resells’ the music gets a cut of the pie.”

Top earner wolfman 2001 said his proudest contribution is a video about engineer Nikola Tesla. The video has been viewed more than 27,000 times.