Jason Kottke is, or at least should be, an internet luminary. His Wikipedia entry lists many of his achievements, in numerous areas connected to the internet and digitality. That page also reports, however, that around 2005 he tried to convert the popularity of his blog into something tangible - like money. However:

After a year of soliciting payments from readers who enjoyed his blog, he stopped because he had not managed to attract enough readers or developed "a sufficient cult of personality" to support the subscription model.