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The Future Value Of Your Blog
ll the hype about the sale million. After said purchase,
of Weblogs Inc. to America Tristan Louis came up with a blog
Online (AOL) has given rise valuation scheme based on the
to the now famous question – How deal. He created a chart of blog
much is your blog worth? In value using the value of each
acquiring Weblogs Inc., AOL has inbound link to Weblogs Inc. as
provided some concrete metrics to the basis. It is common knowledge
future valuation of blogs. How that blog readers follow links.
much will traditional media be Search engines also act as users
willing to pay for a blog? and primarily determine blog
Conversely, how much would you quality rankings based on linkage
sell your blog for? data thus direct and indirect
value links are a great proxy for
AOL-Weblogs Inc. Deal – Benchmark value measurement. In the
for Future Blog Valuation blogosphere, conversations that
nurture connectivity represented
Weblogs Inc was established by by links and indexes like
Jason Calacanis and Brian Alvey Technorati give a vantage view of
in 2003. It is a network of blogs the value of a blog.
which includes under its wings
successful blogs such as Engadget Tristan Louis itemized the
and Autoblog. Jason Calacanis publicly available data (list of
pointed out that Weblogs Inc. blogs indexed) at Weblogs Inc.
earns in excess of $1 million network including the number of
yearly in Google Adsense revenues inbound links (Technorati blog
alone. numbers) per blog divided by the
purchase price to determine the
AOL purchased Weblogs Inc. for a value of an inbound link to a
confidential sum assessed at blog. At the rumored price of $25
somewhere between $25 - $40 million, the estimated value is $
564 per link. At $30 million, it However, the value of a blog is
is $677.57 per link and $903.42 not calculated based solely on
at an acquisition price of $40 links using AOL’s purchase of
million. Interestingly, the Weblogs Inc. Jason Calacanis, the
consumer segment chalks up the man behind Weblogs Inc., disputed
biggest percentage of linkage. using links alone as proxy for
Engadget represents over a third the value of the blog network. He
of the overall network traffic. reiterated that the acquisition
price was based also on the ever
Applying Tristan Louis’s Weblogs reliable revenue, earnings,
Inc, sale, Dave Winer has also management and other metrics.
sold title="http://Weblogs.com" Tristan Louis based his valuation
target="_blank">color="#001000" also acknowledged the
size="-2">http://Weblogs.comt> to Verisign for a rumored talented management team,
price of around $2 million. Blog financial performance and growth.
entrepreneur Nick Denton, founder There is direct correlation
of Gawker Media has signed a deal between links, traffic, revenue
with VNU Media to publish Gizmodo and earnings capacity of a blog
(gadget blog) across Europe in or blog network but it takes
six languages. VNU Media is a sound management to maximize all
leading worldwide information and these potentials.
media company which owns
ACNielsen, Billboard, The Value of a Blog – Some Metrics to
Hollywood Reporter, among others. Consider
With this deal, blog publishing
has hit big time. How much is your blog worth?
There is no one standard gauge
yet. But one way to measure the that blogs on the topic of
value is to look at certain digital cameras.
factors to gain a better
perspective on how to measure the Aside from diverse traffic
future value of a blog. streams that come from bookmarks,
direct links or RSS subscribers
Aside from number of links as will make risk of losing traffic
mentioned earlier, traffic level low. Social bookmarking sites are
is a key factor in determining inching their way to becoming
blog value. Highly trafficked prime sources of traffic, with
blogs definitely have a bigger peer referral at times carrying
potential for earning compared more weight than search results.
with those blogs with few There are a number of well known
readership. A blog’s success is bookmarking sites you should link
highly dependent on to. Top bookmarking sites include
visitors/readers. However, Furl, ascertaining the value of traffic href="http://del.icio.us"
is a thorny issue. Some bloggers title="http://del.icio.us"
value traffic anywhere from $3 to target="_blank">$10 per hit a day. From this color="#001000"
data, a blog with 2000 unique size="-2">http://del.icio.usvisitors (page views) would be t>, Diggs, to name a few. By
worth between $6000 to $20,000. leaving an RSS (Really Simple
The downside to this valuation Syndication) feed, you can feed
approach is that some traffic is you readers’ desire for
more valuable than others. A information. Visitors can get
personal blog might have 1000 automatic updates whenever you
unique visitors but more provide new content. Having a
difficult to convert to revenue fairly good base of bookmarkers
than a blog with 1000 readers and subscribers ensure a steady
flow of fans and repeat readers – affiliate program is an
the all-important traffic. advertising model in which a blog
owner markets via his blog a
In the blogosphere as in any given product, on behalf of
other field, revenue or earnings another company. The blog owner
is a major focus. a logical is reimbursed a percentage of all
approach to blog valuation would sales sold thru his affiliate
be to base its worth upon current link. Reimbursement rates can
and projected earnings, assuming vary from 1% and upwards. Google
that your blog is earning Adsense is a prime example.
something to start with. Again,
there are varying views on how to Visitors access blogs throughout
use current earnings to measure a the Internet primarily through
blog’s value. search engines. If your blog does
not have a post appearing in the
Some bloggers opine you should top ten search engine rankings,
expect six to eight months the chances of visitors reaching
earnings as your blog value. A your blog is low. A blog’s
blog with a daily income of $150 presence on relevant search
would be worth between $27,000 - engines is a significant medium
$36,000. Still, others determine for maintaining a blog’s success.
a blog’s value as being two years Search engine ranking and pages
of current earnings. A blog indexed in search engines is
earning $150 a day would be worth critical for generating traffic
$108,000. Again, there is a huge to a blog. Having your blog among
disparity between these methods the top results of a search or
of assessing value. Having receiving a high Google PageRank
diverse streams in the form of (a system for ranking blog posts)
multiple affiliate programs also would increase your blog’s
increases blog revenue. An overall value.
High quality content will always All these aforementioned
be a key factor for determining a objective metrics can be
blog’s value. As has been said considered in assessing the value
time and time again – Content is of a blog. Added to all these, a
King. Moreover, search engines talented management team behind a
can only “read” a blog. What blog, its underlying tools and
attracts a search engine are the blog technology in use can
words, the content of a blog that further help to estimate the
explains, informs, shares and future value of a blog.
educates readers. Good content
increases blog value.
About the Author:
http://www.theinternetone.net
Read more articles by: Danny Wirken
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