Gawker Media has launched another new entrepreneurial blog – Oddjack - the gambling blog. It has categories on Event Betting, Politics, NBA Playoff Lines etc.

Whilst Adsense won’t be an option for this blog (they don’t like gambling sites) there is plenty of opportunity for affiliate programs and other advertising and I suspect it’ll generate some good income.

Aussie photographer Pete Walsh has taken niche blogging to a whole new level and has started a blog on one of the narrowest topics that I’ve seen a blogger tackle. His topic – the Epson Stylus Pro 4800 printer. Peter upgraded his printer to this new model and is documenting his experience with it.

This is niche blogging to the extreme and an interesting project – over time he’ll develop the most comprehensive information going around on this printer. I’m not sure how well it’ll go at generating an income through his ads but I’m sure it’ll be useful for anyone out there considering buying this printer.

If you’d like to see an amazing example of a ProBlogger who has used blogging to open up some amazing career opportunities take a look at this post by Jeff Jarvis who is quitting a job to take on some more amazing work – all of which he says have opened up for him as a result of his blogging:

‘Blogging has changed my career and opened all these doors. I’ve learned a tremendous amount (or think I have) about the future of the press thanks to the conversation I’ve had here with you all. So thank you. I will continue the conversation and continue learning and changing my old ideas about media until somebody pries my laptop off my cold, dead lap.’

Jeff is a wonderful example of someone making a career from blogging in a way that is not just about writing and selling ad space.

A mate of mine has recently started up a new blog by the name of Geeky Info which I’m sure some of you will find interesting. He’s not primarily doing it to make money (although I think it could be a profitable blog as it grows) but rather its a hobby – documenting his obsession with collecting geeky information. There are still a few Adsense tweaks to make on the site but its coming together quite well.

He’s covering everything from organizational software, to firefox, to security apps, to tablet pc technology. Its going to be one of my favorites for sure. I hope you enjoy it too.

The challenge was to Guess the Topic of the Blog simply by viewing the last month’s statistics.

The guesses began honing in on the right answer almost immediately with two bloggers actually suggesting the right topic within hours of the competition starting.

Congratulations to Jamie and PFBlog who both hit the nail on the head but suggesting the blog could be about American Idol.

The Blog in question is American Idol Blog which is part of the wider idolblog.com network of blogs dedicated to three idol shows (Australian Idol, American Idol and New Zealand Idol).

The idolblog phenomenon started back in November of 2003 when two friends of mine, Rachel and Regan, in New Zealand saw what happened when I started blogging about the first Australian Idol series on one of my personal blogs. My posts generated massive visitors as I did weekly opinion pieces on the show.

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Gawker Media today went live with their latest venture – Sploid – a ‘news site with a tabloid mentality.’

There isn’t much content on Sploid – photos and headlines are pretty much everything – with links to the articles in question. This isn’t the smartest SEO strategy for most bloggers – Search Engines like content and links and pictures are probably not enough to get highly ranked – but when it comes to Gawker they don’t rely upon Search Engines because they have such high loyalty factor of their readers and massive incoming links that push them up in the Search Engines anyway.

As usual they are relying heavily advertising to monetize this site – at the moment most of the ads point to their own sites but in time they’ll attract advertisers who don’t mind exposing their message to an edgy readership.

At the time of writing this they’ve had 50,000 unique readers already – so if nothing else they are pretty good at launching blogs – I suspect they’ll do well with this one longer term too.

Update: Perhaps I should say that I have no financial interest in Gawker after reading the comments on Jeff’s blog after announcing the launch of Sploid.

Shiny Media is at it again by launching yet another blog – Bayraider – a blog that is centered around another net icon – ebay.

Their Press Release Describes Bayraider as follows:

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The team at Shiney Media in the UK have just launched another new Entrepreneurial blog – the Hippy Shopper – the UK’s first Green Consumer Blog.

Their News Release announcing the blog describes it as follows:

Published by the UK’s leading commercial weblog company, Shiny Media, and written by Stuff magazine‚s Managing Editor, Adam Vaughan, HippyShopper aims to enlighten and amuse its readers with green news stories from the UK and links to environmentally friendly sites around the world.

Its daily updates will:

Track the latest green gadgets
Tip readers off about what‚s coming in the organic food market
Give details of green exhibitions
Offer updates on eco-friendly health and beauty products
Give tips on how to recycle products

I love the concept – for a start its a blog with a message that will hopefully make a difference – but its also aiming to make a profit obviously. The main income stream on the Hippy Shopper so far is Adsense (green color scheme) – but I suspect it’ll be an ideal blog for some affiliate programs down the track.

One word of warning – don’t stare at their header too long – you could get a little freaked out and feel the need to smoke some funny grass or something.

Two regular stops on my RSS morning rounds have gone live with new Entrepreneurial blogs in the past 24 hours or so. Both are examples of Niche Blogging and are worth taking a look at to see what you can learn about the art of blogging for dollars.

Firstly is legendary Will Pate who has gone live with his new In Flight Blog – a blog that finds anything and everything in the news about Air Travel. It is the third blog is the GoodBasic Network that also includes the Game Blog (a blog about video gaming) and the Host Blog (a blog about Web Hosting). So far Adsense seems to be the main income stream on the new Air Travel blog from Will which is a good move as there are plenty of well paying ads on that topic (so I’ve heard) but down the track the blog will be perfect for travel affiliate programs which I’ve heard are also quite valuable.

Arieanna from Blogaholics has launched a blog I’d use every day if I was living in her city – its Vancouver Coffee - a blog with reviews of cafes, coffee news and all other related Vancouver coffee news. Its a pretty tight niche topic – a small pond that Arieanna is obviously hoping to become a big fish in. Again its an Adsense blog – but they’re also using their Amazon affiliate program to monetize what they’re doing. Arieanna and her fiancee could well be the most hyperactive and wired bloggers in the world if they keep up their high rate of reviews of cafes!