This is a really thought-provoking post, Harold. Lanier's comment on honing a craft really strikes a chord. In my own case, this is fifteen years worth and only now am I beginning to harvest this investment of time, effort and opportunity cost of income foregone while I get my story straight.

You ask "Can you make a living online or are you just part of the long tail, valuable only to aggregators and their advertising revenues?". I think we can.

I am a content creator but am also well aware that I aggregate from other sources - mainly obscure, overlooked and (to my mind) useful academic research. As creator and aggregator, I try to give away enough that is valuable while keeping the really good stuff under the counter.

But here's the thing. I will not make my money online from producing content. It is by doing something with the content and in agreement with partners, their content, tools and methods.

The added value is in the doing and in savvy choice of partners, tools and methods. That's my plan anyway. Will let you know how it goes :-)