Gruber has described his Daring Fireball writing as a "Mac column in the form of a weblog".
It was partly inspired by kottke.org and Jason Kottke.
The site is written in the form of a tumblelog called The Linked List, a linklog with brief commentary, in between occasional longform articles that discuss Apple products and issues in related consumer technology.
Gruber often writes about user interfaces, software development, Mac applications, and Apple's media coverage.

In 2004, Gruber began selling memberships, where readers donate an amount of money annually to show support for Gruber's writing and also to gain access to other perks.
The perks included more detailed feeds, but Gruber has downplayed the importance of the extra features, comparing them to "PBS tote bags".
Daring Fireball logo T-shirts are also sold, which include a membership and a discount on further T-shirts.
All of the site's content is freely available, and in August 2007, Gruber made all of the site's feeds freely available as well, and each week the feed features a sponsor.

Gruber's last account of his part-time Daring Fireball income called it a substantial side income, short of a full-time salary.
For most of the time when Daring Fireball was a part-time project, Gruber worked as an independent web designer; between late 2005 and April 2006, Gruber's main job was at Joyent where he helped with the TextDrive acquisition.

In April 2006, producing Daring Fireball became Gruber's full-time job, funded by advertisement revenue, membership fees, T-shirt sales, and donations from software projects also hosted on the site, such as Markdown.
From 2006 to 2017, the site displayed advertisements from The Deck, an advertising network serving sites like A List Apart and 37signals in addition to Daring Fireball.
In addition to this, many Amazon.com links once carried Daring Fireball's referral ID, and the site's preferences once included a choice of local Amazon store.
Amazon removed Daring Fireball from their affiliate program for a violation of their terms of service.

As of October 2018, Gruber charges US$8,000 per week for RSS feed sponsorship which includes a "promotional item during the week" and a "linked list item" to the sponsor at the end of the week.

Blogger and software developer John Saddington shared results from his sponsorship of Daring Fireball, stating that sales of his indie macOS app Desk generated $16,000 in profit just during the week of advertising, and ultimately contributed to the app being featured as one of Apple's Best Apps of 2014.
Gruber has described his Daring Fireball writing as a "Mac column in the form of a weblog". It was partly inspired by kottke.org and Jason Kottke. The site is written in the form of a tumblelog called The Linked List, a linklog with brief commentary, in between occasional longform articles that discuss Apple products and issues in related consumer technology. Gruber often writes about user interfaces, software development, Mac applications, and Apple's media coverage.
In 2004, Gruber began selling memberships, where readers donate an amount of money annually to show support for Gruber's writing and also to gain access to other perks. The perks included more detailed feeds, but Gruber has downplayed the importance of the extra features, comparing them to "PBS tote bags". Daring Fireball logo T-shirts are also sold, which include a membership and a discount on further T-shirts. All of the site's content is freely available, and in August 2007, Gruber made all of the site's feeds freely available as well, and each week the feed features a sponsor.
Gruber's last account of his part-time Daring Fireball income called it a substantial side income, short of a full-time salary. For most of the time when Daring Fireball was a part-time project, Gruber worked as an independent web designer; between late 2005 and April 2006, Gruber's main job was at Joyent where he helped with the TextDrive acquisition.
In April 2006, producing Daring Fireball became Gruber's full-time job, funded by advertisement revenue, membership fees, T-shirt sales, and donations from software projects also hosted on the site, such as Markdown. From 2006 to 2017, the site displayed advertisements from The Deck, an advertising network serving sites like A List Apart and 37signals in addition to Daring Fireball. In addition to this, many Amazon.com links once carried Daring Fireball's referral ID, and the site's preferences once included a choice of local Amazon store. Amazon removed Daring Fireball from their affiliate program for a violation of their terms of service.
As of October 2018, Gruber charges US$8,000 per week for RSS feed sponsorship which includes a "promotional item during the week" and a "linked list item" to the sponsor at the end of the week.
Blogger and software developer John Saddington shared results from his sponsorship of Daring Fireball, stating that sales of his indie macOS app Desk generated $16,000 in profit just during the week of advertising, and ultimately contributed to the app being featured as one of Apple's Best Apps of 2014.
John Gruber