In October this year the American magazine The Atlantic published the rating of 25 most expensive blogs of America.As it is, predictably, the rating was criticized on the Internet.
commentators did not like that in the ranking of both assessed and corporate networking sites and personal blogs singles, readers are put into question the figures for some blogs, especially the CPM, and heard suggestions that the rating politicized.Another strong argument was the fact that even if the declared value and the calculated true, is unlikely to find the real buyers in the market, and this makes the rating meaningless.
Anyway, the newspaper prescribe in detail the methodology of its evaluations.All blogs, including the network, in this list belong to private companies and not owned or run by large media companies or any other business for which the blog is not the main activity.
The rating is based on calculations of audience size, revenues from ad units, the value of the target display (CPM, Cost per thousand impressions), then there is a fee for the actual number of contacts, the number of people viewing content, as well as the number of ad units per page.We took into account the growth rate of the audience, operating costs (staff costs, IT-support, the cost of marketing and PR).Additionally, counted and income derived indirectly from a business that depends on a blog, for example, by holding conferences.
One of the most important criteria was the presence of a unique audience, unique to this blog, which makes it difficult for other companies to take its share of the market.Consider the quality of the editing, the presence of unique sources of information, original content, the presence of well-established relationships with the advertising resources and the level of access to capital.All of the above can prevent other companies to compete successfully with the blog.
The rankings also weighed ambiguity of the content of the blog.That is, for example, overly politicized blog can hardly expect a large number of potential buyers, since its audience is people with a particular fixed interest and therefore attractiveness of the blog falls.
As evidence of the adequacy of the rating, the publication focuses on the fact that last year it realistically assess the value of the blog TechCrunh $ 32 million, and the company AOL, according to various sources, TechCrunh acquired for an amount between 25 and 40 million dollars.
1st place: Gawker Properties http://gawker.com/ Estimated cost: $ 240 million
The Gawker - is a network of sites, a New York gossip blog and comment on the media industry.Gawker was founded in 2002 as a journalist Nick Denton.Today this network of blogs includes resources such as Gawker, Deadspin, Jezebel, Jalopnik, Gizomodo, Lifehacker and other sites.20 million unique visitors per month.235 million page views per month.CPM - $ 19.Annual revenue - $ 53.6 million.Gawker pay authors for the content and tries to minimize operating costs, which make up 55% of the profits.The work of the cerebral network site provides a team of 12 people.
2nd place: The Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ Estimated cost: $ 150 million
In 2005, when he opened The Huffington Post, respected at that time authors online diaries have criticized the intention of the famoussecular journalist Arianna Huffington create a blog from scratch, whose opinion will be considered.But they were wrong.Properly using their money very quickly Huffington of the Huffington Post has done the most influential and popular political online magazine on the web.As authors of the blog hired professional columnists and celebrity bloggers, which provided the explosive growth in traffic.
Running Huffington Post is a significant moment in the evolution of the Web, because it showed - many of the old rules still apply in the new environment: it is necessary to understand marketing, you have to pay top-end sponsors, then it will be popular and in demand.Now The Huffington Post editorial employs a team of 150 people, also attracted by the pay authors.Major content providers - more than 4 thousand bloggers, among them politicians, movie stars, doctors, market analysts and many others.Including - very famous people.120 million page views per month, although the Atlantic believes that figure could reach 180 million.CPM - $ 13.Annual revenue - $ 28 million.The company has very high operating costs.
3rd place: Drudge Report http://www.drudgereport.com/ Estimated cost: $ 50 million
Site-conservative news aggregator, political gossip and mudslinging.Strongly depends on the fate of its founder, which is the Matt Drudge.In 1989, the year of Drudge arrived in Los Angeles, took small room and bought a computer.His subsequent career was that he was selling T-shirts and other stuff in the gift shop broadcaster C-CBS in Hollywood.At the same time he began to lay the foundations of a peculiar media empire on the Internet, sending e-mail caught up scraps of gossip.As a result, the World Wide Web appeared "Drudge Report".Getting subscribers to various pieces of information of its site, Matt gathered them in dubious facts and second-rate news.Information has been associated mainly with politicians.The popularity of the site grew rapidly.According to the news of his Drudge contained 80% of the truth that from time to time supported by the facts.For example, "Drudge Report" for the first time there is information about the relationship of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky - and before the information reached the media.Now the blog has 13 million unique visitors.CPM - $ 6.Annual revenue - $ 13 million.Operating profit - $ 6.5 million.
4th place: PopSugar Media http://www.popsugar.com/ Estimated cost: $ 40 million
site collection for young women.14 million unique visitors per month.Rather, the blog will undergo M & amp; A, since it has a large audience, not only dependent on the founders and cheaper to maintain and operate.PopSugar have more than 12 main brand sites.CPM - $ 8.Annual revenue - $ 11.5 million.Number of employees full and part-time work is about 100 people.Operating profit - $ 3 million.
5th place: MacRumors http://www.macrumors.com/ Estimated cost: $ 37 million
Subjects blog is clear from the title, and needs no comment.The site is about everything connected with Apple.7 million unique visitors.CPM - $ 10.Annual income - $ 9 million.Among a dozen editors and freelancers.Operating profit - $ 2.5 million.
6th place: Cheezburger Network http://cheezburger.com/ Estimated cost: $ 35 million
Group sites, better known under the name ICanHasCheezburger?Devoted eccentric humor for Generation Y (Generation Millennium Generation NEXT, Net Generation, Echo Boomers - the generation born after the 1980s, to meet the new millennium at a young age, is characterized primarily by deep involvement in digital technology) and Generation X (Generation peopleborn from 1965 to 1982.).11.8 million unique visitors and 110 million page views per month.CPM - $ 8.Annual revenue - $ 10.5 million.Operating profit - $ 4 million.The Group constantly creates and kills new sites based on their attendance.
7th place: Perez Hilton http://perezhilton.com/ Estimated cost: $ 32 million
Blog, which was once dubbed "the most hated Hollywood site," publishes mostly rumors and gossip aboutcelebrities.On the blog and upload photos of stars in extremely compromising situations.6 million unique visitors per month.Advertising on the blog company sells BlogAds network.CPM - $ 8.Annual revenue - $ 5.4 million.Perez Hilton have very little revision and thus low operating and administrative costs.Annual revenue - $ 2.2 million.The subjects of this blog is most reminiscent of the gloss, dedicated to the stars of show business, which exaggerated the various gossip, rumors, paparazzi photos and more.
8th: SB Nation Network http://www.sbnation.com/ Estimated cost: $ 30 million
Sport network of blogs writes about three hundred sports teams and other sports themes.Content for money creates Editorial (30) and a group of fans, making operating costs very low.8 million unique visitors per month, 90 million page views per month, at the expense of the fans.Annual revenue - $ 5.4 million.Operating profit - $ 3.3 million.
9th place: Funnyordie http://www.funnyordie.com/ Estimated cost: $ 24 million
site aggregator of humorous videos.The mixture Reddit and YouTube.Founded known comedians, including the popular American actor-comedian Will Ferrell.11 million unique visitors and 40 million page views per month.CPM - $ 14.Annual revenue - $ 6.7 million.Revision - 35 people.Operating profit - $ 3.4 million.Site depends on the names of the founders of the star.
10th: Mashable http://mashable.com/ Estimated cost: $ 20 million
Blog social media news, reviews of new sites and social networks such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, MySpace and YouTube.40 million page views per month.CPM - $ 15.Annual revenue - $ 7.2 million.Operating profit - $ 1.4 million.As amended and freelance work 30 people.The success of a blog depends on its stellar founder Pete Keshmora.Pete in 19 years on a home computer in Scotland founded the resource.Now his project is based in Silicon Valley and is a must read for lovers of gadgets.Keshmor is an expert in the use of and profits from social media.Blog dedicated to various online projects: start-ups, social networking sites, popular Web 2.0 resources and everything related to them.
I think it is also necessary to underline blog MichelleMalkin, which occupies 25 th place of the same rating.
25th: MichelleMalkin http://michellemalkin.com/ Estimated cost: $ 2.5 million
Blog is remarkable in that it is carried out only in the rankings with just one author.The topic of the blog - the ultra-right-wing views.900 thousand unique visitors.8 million views.CPM - $ 7.Annual income - $ 675,000.Operating profit - $ 335,000.
What can I say?Sport, star gossip, humor, computers and politics - that is, the "face" of mass interest.As one American in the comments Rating: "Stunned!And like the same people all sorts of nonsense! ".
Ilya Plekhanov
Photo source: theatlantic.com
Articles Source: novchronic.ru
