Ask HN: Now impossible for new blogs to break into the big leagues?

[eliot_sykes]

Is it impossible for new blogs to break into the big leagues? Have the Gawkers and TechCrunches of the world got blogging all sewn up? What blogs, if any, in the last year have joined the big leagues or made a dent in the domination of the established players?

Edited: Removed fluff, made main questions clearer

[michael_dorfman]

I think the question is a bit confused-- it's not relevant to ask What blogs, if any, in the last year have joined the big leagues or made a dent in the domination of the established players? if your goal is "starting a blog, in any niche, that would make a good enough income to make it their full time job."

Trying to compete in an already-competitive niche is going to be, as you point out, near-impossible if you don't have "a fair bit of luck and friends in the right places."

However: there are plenty of niches out there waiting to be cultivated.

If I had your dream, I'd start from the other side. I'd be asking myself what knowledge do I already have, and am interested enough in to spend significant effort deepening, that would be of interest to some small-but-not-absurdly-tiny group of others?

[eliot_sykes → michael_dorfman]

Thanks Michael, agreed, it is a bit confused.

With the right niche, angle, and persistence, you could start a blog that you could make a living from, I'm pretty confident of that.

The main thing I'm interested in, and I'm sorry this isn't clearer, is that if there are any blogs that have broken into the big leagues recently.

[michael_dorfman → eliot_sykes]

My point is that there isn't one "big league"-- there are a zillion niches, most of which are invisible to people on the outside.

You grandmother or landlord probably don't know about TechCrunch or Engadget, and certainly wouldn't consider them "the big leagues".

If you're really interested in Tech Blogs, though, you should take a look at Technorati's Top 100 (http://technorati.com/blogs/top100), and run whatever analysis seems interesting to you.

[eliot_sykes → michael_dorfman]

Thanks for feedback - removed my fluff from the main post and focused on the main questions

[jacquesm]

Now impossible for new websites to break into the big leagues ?

Now impossible for new companies to break into the big league ?

The difference is, it's no longer 'free'. Nothing is impossible, but it is just as much hard work to establish a new, quality blog as it is to establish a website or a new corporation versus the time when there landscape was bare and every new thing was interesting and an instant hit.

Except of course all those that failed...

The mark of a real entrepreneur is that he or she does not shy away from competition, but rather learns from it and uses the competition as a benchmark, something to be improved upon. If you do that you'll find there is still room for new entrants.

[pramit]

If you look at Technorati 100, most of them have multiple authors, posting 40+ posts/day. Can you do that?