I finally had a chance today to sit down and read Technorati’s 2008 State of the Blogosphere report after seeing it referenced in last week’s Slate Magazine article Blogging For Dollars. With unfailing instinct for the spicy bits, Slate’s senior editor Michael Agger zeroes in on the money part of the report . He poses the tantalizing question: “What does it take to live the dream—to write what I know, and then watch the money flow?”

Agger writes: “From the perspective of someone who doesn’t blog, blogging seems attractive. Bloggers such as Jason Kottke ($5,300/month) and the Fug girls ($6,240/month) pursue what naturally interests them without many constraints on length or style.”

Agger dangles more juicy carrots and mentions the notorious case of “one blogger by the name of Shoemoney [who] became famous (well, Digg-famous) when he posted a picture of himself with a check from Google for $132,994.97 for one month of clicks.”