BoingBoing: A Tale Of Four People Who Do Whatever They Want

If you’re Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow, Xeni Jardin, or David Pescovitz, you can do what you love.

Everyone else: they’re not hiring, sorry.

Still, the success story of Boingboing.net, aka the “directory of wonderful things”, profiled in Fast Company, is worth a read.

The site started in 1999, and since then it’s stayed true to its roots: “The principals post whatever they want, whenever they feel like it. They don’t bother to copyedit in advance, let alone vet or discuss one another’s contributions. Material from outsiders tends to flow onto the site through whichever Boing Boinger liked the idea.”

In short: they’re creating a blog they would want to read. And it works. Boing Boing is making money—2010 revenue may hit a new record—and the blog has brought on new contributors.

Yes, you can do what you love. That is, if what you love is steampunk, unicorns, anti-DRM, and weird bugs.

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