(12-26) 09:05 PST New York (AP) —

Zach Brooks pocketed $1,000 this month blogging about the cheap lunches he discovers around midtown Manhattan ($10 or less, preferably greasy, and if he’s lucky, served from a truck).

The site, Midtownlunch.com, is just a year and a half old and gets only about 2,000 readers daily, but it’s already earning him enough each month for a weekend trip to the Caribbean Д or in his case, more fat-filled culinary escapades in the city.

In the vast and varied world of blogging, Brooks is far from alone.

It’s no longer unusual for blogs with just a couple thousand daily readers to earn nearly as many dollars a month. Helping fill the pockets of such bloggers are programs like Google’s AdSense and many others that let individuals Д not just major publications Д tap into the rapidly growing pot of advertising dollars with a click of the mouse.

In 2006, advertisers spent $16.9 billion online, up steadily each year from $6 billion in 2002, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau. In the first half of 2007, online advertising reached nearly $10 billion, a nearly 27 percent increase over the first half of 2006.

Little technical skill is needed to publish a well-read blog, meaning just about anyone with something worthwhile to say can find an audience, said Kim Malone Scott, director of online sales and operations for Google’s AdSense. That’s attracted greater readership and advertising dollars, she said.

According to 2006 survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 39 percent of Internet users, or about 57 million American adults, said they read blogs, up from 27 percent in 2004, or 32 million.

That doesn’t mean bloggers are suddenly flush with money. For every blogger earning a decent side income like Brooks, countless others will never earn a cent.

But with the right mix of compelling content and exposure, a blog can draw a dedicated following, making advertising a low-hanging fruit.

“This is really a continuation of how the Web in general has enabled smaller businesses and individuals to compete if not at a level playing field, at least a more equitable level,” said David Hallerman, a senior analyst with the research group eMarketer.

Google’s AdSense is an automated program that places targeted advertising on sites big and small. Other programs such as PayPerPost are just as user friendly; bloggers sign up and advertisers cherry pick where they want to place ads based on categories and the number of impressions a site captures.

Getting paid might even help validate what may otherwise seem like a silly or obscure obsession.

For Samuel Chi, BCSGuru.com started as a way to demystify the convoluted universe of college football rankings for fellow fans.

Chi, a former sports journalist with training in statistics, posts his calculations every Saturday night during the season before official results are released on Sunday. Between Saturday night and Monday, about 4,000 sports fans log on daily to check out the “guru’s” forecast.

This season, Chi made about $8,000 total from the blog; ticket brokers contacted him directly after word about his site got out. Google’s AdSense brought in another couple hundred dollars for Chi, the owner of a bed-and-breakfast in Amelia Island, Fla.

Neither Chi or Brooks had to do much to gain a loyal readership; when it comes to such rarefied interests, word about a good site can spread rapidly in online communities.

“All it takes is a couple of mentions (on other sites) and hundreds of people can be directed to your site,” Chi said.

BlogAds, which helps advertisers target relevant blogs for a commission, prices ads by the week, with sites tiered by the amount of traffic they get.

When the company started in 2002, founder Henry Copeland said it was mainly small advertisers selling T-shirts or promoting bands. Now he said “there’s no big brand that doesn’t advertise on everyday blogs.”

About a third of BlogAds’ 1,500 sites earn between $200 and $2,000 a month, Copeland said. Those sites get anywhere from 3,000 to 50,000 daily impressions.

Google’s Malone Scott said access to advertising online is more democratic, since an ad click from a tiny site is just as valuable as a click from a site with a million readers.

Some advertisers have even found better response from smaller sites with more passionate, engaged audiences.

For ticket broker RazorGator, advertising on blogs like BCSGuru.com means reaching a very specific audience.

“We have found that more and more sports fans are turning to blogs and smaller fan sites to get their information so as an advertiser it makes sense to follow your audience,” spokeswoman Toni Lamb wrote in an email.

The broker has advertised on smaller blogs like Chi’s for the past two years; Lamb would not specify how many blogs it currently advertises on.

Despite rapidly rising advertising dollars online, blogs usually don’t start out as a way to make money Д they’re more a means of speaking to an audience of like-minded individuals. MidtownLunch.com started as a way for Brooks to indulge his food obsession, but he soon realized his quest struck a note with a legion of office workers.

Taking that extra step to get advertising was a no-brainer. Companies like Random House’s Broadway Books have posted ads for food books on the site, along with the makers of independent films seeking a New York City audience.

Brooks only spends two hours at most each day on MidtownLunch.com. But the blog affects his life in other ways. Like Chi, he’s met close friends through his site. He has also scored freelance writing assignments, and, above all, the site has given his endless fascination with greasy foods a sense of validation.

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On the Net:

«www.google.com»

«www.midtownlunch.com»

«www.bcsguru.com»

«www.pewinternet.org»

«www.BlogAds.com»

The member of the royal family targeted in an alleged blackmail plot centring on sex and drug claims is not a senior royal, the Guardian understands.

Scotland Yard yesterday confirmed that two men are in custody, having been charged with blackmail last month. Buckingham Palace has refused to discuss the case, saying it is a police matter.

Although a name was being circulated yesterday, a court order prevents the identification of the royal or any witnesses.

But royal sources indicated that the individual concerned does not have a high public profile.

The two alleged blackmailers wanted 50,000 not to publicise a video they suggested showed the royal in sexual activities with an aide, the Sunday Times reported. They were also alleged to have claimed that they had footage of the aide snorting cocaine and evidence suggesting the royal had supplied the aide with an envelope containing the drug.

The case is the first alleged extortion attempt against a royal for more than a century.

The men in custody, aged 30 and 40, were reported to have been arrested last month in what was reported to have been an undercover sting after the royal contacted police.

They arranged to meet someone they believed was a member of the royal’s staff in a suite at the Hilton Hotel, in Park Lane, Mayfair, the Sunday Times reported, and showed him parts of what they claimed was the sex video.

But the man was an undercover detective from the Metropolitan police’s kidnap and blackmail unit, the report said, and as the meeting was secretly videoed by detectives in an adjacent room, the men were seized.

In a statement, Scotland Yard said: “A 30-year-old man and 40-year-old man appeared at City of Westminster magistrates’ court on September 13, each charged with one count of blackmail. Both have been remanded in custody to reappear at the Old Bailey on December 20.”

The court hearing was held behind closed doors.

The Sunday Times said the alleged blackmailers first contacted the royal household on August 2. A man telephoned the royal’s office, identifying himself only by his first name and saying that another man, who worked on the royal’s staff, had an envelope containing cocaine, and suggesting it was embossed with the royal’s personal insignia.

He then reportedly claimed that he had a videotape which showed the aide performing oral sex on someone the caller indicated as the royal. The man then left a mobile phone number, asking for the royal to ring him.

In further calls, one man was said to have claimed that the tapes showed an aide snorting cocaine, and guaranteed nobody would ever see the tapes because they were safe in his flat.

A Whitehall security official told the newspaper the caller then said he wanted 50,000 for the tape. The source said that a senior legal adviser to the royal agreed with one of the men that he would see the tape before handing over the cash.

By then a detective had been attached to the royal’s staff and contacted the gang to arrange the Hilton meeting. The two men were arrested on September 11.

The royal cannot be identified because of reporting restrictions imposed under section 11 of the Contempt of Court Act. This is common practice in allegations of blackmail to ensure that the claims a defendant is accused of threatening to make do not become public through court proceedings.

The restrictions prohibit identification of the alleged victim and alleged witnesses until any further order by a judge.

The Crown Prosecution Service also successfully applied for the September hearing to be held in camera, but it is not yet known whether lawyers will seek similar treatment when the defendants appear at the Old Bailey in December, a CPS spokeswoman said.

“We made two applications, for the section 11 restrictions and for the court to be heard in camera,” she said. “We make such applications to protect the interests of alleged victims and alleged witnesses.” Members of the press were present when the applications were made and did not make any applications objecting to them, she added.

GENEVA —American workers stay longer in the office, at the factory or on the farm than their counterparts in Europe and most other rich nations, and they produce more per person over the year.

They also get more done per hour than everyone but the Norwegians, according to a U.N. report released Monday, which said the United States “leads the world in labor productivity.”

The average U.S. worker produces $63,885 of wealth per year, more than their counterparts in all other countries, the International Labor Organization said in its report. Ireland comes in second at $55,986, followed by Luxembourg at $55,641, Belgium at $55,235 and France at $54,609.

The productivity figure is found by dividing the country’s gross domestic product by the number of people employed. The U.N. report is based on 2006 figures for many countries, or the most recent available.

Only part of the U.S. productivity growth, which has outpaced that of many other developed economies, can be explained by the longer hours Americans are putting in, the ILO said.

The U.S., according to the report, also beats all 27 nations in the European Union, Japan and Switzerland in the amount of wealth created per hour of work Д a second key measure of productivity.

Norway, which is not an EU member, generates the most output per working hour, $37.99, a figure inflated by the country’s billions of dollars in oil exports and high prices for goods at home. The U.S. is second at $35.63, about a half dollar ahead of third-place France.

Seven years ago, French workers produced over a dollar more on average than their American counterparts. The country led the U.S. in hourly productivity from 1994 to 2003.

The U.S. employee put in an average 1,804 hours of work in 2006, the report said. That compared with 1,407.1 hours for the Norwegian worker and 1,564.4 for the French.

It pales, however, in comparison with the annual hours worked per person in Asia, where seven economies Д South Korea, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, China, Malaysia and Thailand Д surpassed 2,200 average hours per worker. But those countries had lower productivity rates.

America’s increased productivity “has to do with the ICT (information and communication technologies) revolution, with the way the U.S. organizes companies, with the high level of competition in the country, with the extension of trade and investment abroad,” said Jose Manuel Salazar, the ILO’s head of employment.

The ILO report warned that the widening of the gap between leaders such as the U.S. and poorer nations has been even more dramatic.

Laborers from regions such as southeast Asia, Latin America and the Middle East have the potential to create more wealth but are being held back by a lack of investment in training, equipment and technology, the agency said.

In sub-Saharan Africa, workers are only about one-twelfth as productive as those in developed countries, the report said.

“The huge gap in productivity and wealth is cause for great concern,” ILO Director-General Juan Somavia said, adding that it was important to raise productivity levels of the lowest-paid workers in the world’s poorest countries.

China and other East Asian countries are catching up quickest with Western countries. Productivity in the region has doubled in the past decade and is accelerating faster than anywhere else, the report said.

But they still have a long way to go: Workers in East Asia are still only about one-fifth as productive as laborers in industrialized countries.

The vast differences among China’s sectors tell part of the story. Whereas a Chinese industrial worker produces $12,642 worth of output Д almost eight times more than in 1980 Д a laborer in the farm and fisheries sector contributes a paltry $910 to gross domestic product.

The difference is much less pronounced in the United States, where a manufacturing employee produced an unprecedented $104,606 of value in 2005. An American farm laborer, meanwhile, created $52,585 worth of output, down 10 percent from seven years ago, when U.S. agricultural productivity peaked.