A growing workforce of homeoffice labourers and entrepreneurs, armed with computers and smartphones and wired to the hilt, are toiling under great physical and emotional stress created by the around-the-clock Internet economy that demands a constant stream of news and comment.

In the last few months, two of them have died suddenly.

Two weeks ago in North Lauderdale, Florida, Mr Russell Shaw, a prolific blogger on technology subjects, died at 60 of a heart attack.

Other bloggers complain of weight loss or gain, sleep disorders, exhaustion and other maladies born of the nonstop strain of producing for a news and information cycle that is as always-on as the Internet.

To be sure, there is no official diagnosis of death by blogging. There is also no certainty that the stress of the work contributed to their deaths. But friends and family of the dead, and fellow bloggers, say those deaths have them thinking about the dangers of their work style.

The pressure even gets to those who work for themselves - and are being well compensated for it.

'I haven't died yet,' said Mr Michael Arrington, the founder and co-editor of TechCrunch, a popular technology blog.

The site has brought in millions of dollars in advertising revenue, but there has been a hefty cost. Mr Arrington says he has gained 14kg in the last three years, developed a severe sleeping disorder and turned his home into an office for him and four employees.

'At some point, I'll have a nervous breakdown and be admitted to the hospital, or something else will happen. This is not sustainable,' he said.

The emergence of this class of information worker has parallelled the development of the online economy. Publishing has expanded to the Internet, and advertising has followed.

For the obsessive, that can mean never leaving the house.

Blogging has been lucrative for some, but those on the lower rungs of the business can earn as little as US$10 (S$14) a post and, in some cases, are paid on a sliding bonus scale that rewards success with a demand for even more work.

One of the most competitive categories is blogs about technology developments and news.

They are in a vicious 24-hour competition to break company news, reveal new products and expose corporate gaffes.

Bloggers for such sites are often paid for each post, though some are paid based on how many people read their material.

Some sites, like those owned by Gawker Media, give bloggers retainers and then bonuses for hitting benchmarks, like if the pages they write are viewed 100,000 times a month. Then the goal is raised, like a sales commission: write more, earn more.

Bloggers at some of the bigger sites say most writers earn about US$30,000 a year starting out, and some can make as much as US$70,000. Speed can be of the essence. If a blogger is beaten by a millisecond, someone else's post on the subject will bring in the audience, the links and the bigger share of the ad revenue.

'There's no time ever - including when you're sleeping - when you're not worried about missing a story,' Mr Arrington said.

In the case of Mr Shaw, it is not clear what role stress played in his death. His girlfriend Ellen Green said the pressure, though self-imposed, was severe. She said she and Mr Shaw had been talking a lot about how he could create a healthier lifestyle, particularly after the death of his friend, Mr Orchant.

'The blogger community is looking at this and saying, 'Oh no, it happened so fast to two really vital people in the field', ' she said. 'They are wondering, 'What does that have to do with me?''

For his part, Mr Shaw had written a last e-mail dispatch to his editor at ZDNet: 'Have come down with something. Resting now posts to resume later today or tomorrow.'

NEW YORK TIMES

MATTER OF TIME

'At some point, I'll have a nervous breakdown and be admitted to the hospital, or something else will happen. This is not sustainable.'
MR MICHAEL ARRINGTON, the founder and co-editor of TechCrunch, a popular technology blog