Does writing a blog constitute work? That appears to be the position of the New York State Department of Labor, which recently declared a laid-off attorney ineligible for unemployment benefits because she was bringing in $1.30 a day from blog ads. Earlier this year Karin--a 2008 graduate from the University of Virginia School of Law who asked that her last name not be published--was laid off by a Karin applied for state unemployment benefits and began receiving $405 a week. Unable to afford her rent in In April, Karin started a blog, called STL Meal Deals, where she wrote about local restaurant promotions. Since she received no payments from the businesses she mentioned, Karin decided to try generating some income by signing up forGoogleAdSense, a service run by the Web search giant that pays bloggers to host ads on their sites. Google sends bloggers checks when their earnings hit $100--a level that took Karin three months to achieve. When the check came in, Karin realized she had a legal obligation to disclose the income to It was after Karin notified the Department of Labor of her AdSense income that the confusion started. The call prompted Karin to file another claim with the state and to attach a letter stating she was running a blog and that the Google AdSense revenue it generated was her only source of income. A few days later, she received a letter from the DOL informing her that it had launched an investigation of her "business" to determine whether she remained eligible for benefits. Karin called the DOL again and says this time she was told that the state considered her self-employed, which would require her to claim earnings each time she received an AdSense check. She called back to get another opinion, and Karin says this time she was informed by yet another state official that she needed to declare that she was working every time that she updated her blog. Meanwhile, Several phone calls by Forbes to the Department of Labor failed to yield a clear response as to whether Karin, meanwhile, has pulled AdSense from her Web site. "It's frustrating that nobody seems to have a straightforward answer," she says. "It's even more frustrating that trying to work and generate additional income, while being straightforward and honest about that income, is treated with suspicion and punished." {% image 1851038 %} Her total AdSense income: $238.75! Google, for its part, seems to want to stay out of it. In a statement, the company said, “Google AdSense revenue supports many publishers and bloggers with a revenue stream from online advertising. We're not able to comment on how various states choose to classify this revenue for purposes of unemployment benefit eligibility." The company does send 1099 statements to anyone who earns $600 or more in AdSense income within a calendar year. The recipient, in turn, is supposed to declare this as miscellaneous income when filing his federal tax returns. Google does not report to the IRS, or issue 1099s, for AdSense income of less than $600 per person. So is blogging work only if you make a certain amount of money? Sources and Additional Information: http://www.forbes.com/2009/10/07/blogger-google-unemployment-personal-finance-google-adsense.html http://blogs.forbes.com/moneybuilder/2009/10/08/blogger-loses-unemployment-benefits-after-making-1-a-day-in-adsense-pay/