Tom Foremski reports that speaking is increasingly lucrative for authors/bloggers.

He says Tim O’Reilly gets paid $40,000. Chris Anderson gets $34,000. John Battelle gets $24,000.

I’ll talk to you out in the lobby for free.

For the record, I’ve never been offered more than $2,500 for any speech (and, in the end, didn’t accept that) and almost all of my speeches to date have been done either for free or for just expenses (and, unlike many of the “big names” I don’t ask for business class tickets, which can run about $8,000 to get to Europe from USA).

I’m not being paid to go to Northern Voice and PodTech is picking up my expenses (I’m doing interviews in Seattle and Vancouver). I never charge anyone to be on ScobleShow. To sponsor my show, though, costs big bucks. Thank you Seagate!