Blogging will soon be the only source of income for Jon Brownstoner, the pseudonym of the man behind the Brooklyn real estate Web site Brownstoner.com. The blogger is leaving his Wall Street career to work on Brownstoner full time. The blog concentrates on historic Brooklyn brownstones.
“I have to spend a lot of time now making this a viable business that can support my family, starting with focusing on selling ads,” Brownstoner says. He has remained anonymous because of his role on Wall Street, but he plans to reveal his name soon.
He started the blog in 2004 after buying a five-story townhouse in Clinton Hill. It began as an outlet for him to describe his renovations to the townhouse, but it gained popularity for its Brooklyn real estate coverage.
Since the Web site launched it has seen steady growth. Brownstoner.com now gets between 12,000 and 15,000 readers a day, he says. A recent reader survey on the site reported that two-thirds of its readers make more than $100,000 a year, and approximately two-thirds are homeowners. Starting March 1, Brownstoner will launch a new feature on the blog that allows users to rate New York real estate contractors.