There's Money in Them Thar Blogs!

Blogs are virtual real estate and you know about real estate: there's always money to be made!

I was recently browsing through the net when suddenly my eyes popped out! I popped them back in again and reread:

“ … but while their dreams are fueled by high-profile Internet deals — Condé Nast’s $25 million purchase of Wired News, People.com’s acquisition of Celebrity Baby Blog and, most recently, a deal this….”


A quick check in my mental filing cabinet and I quickly shot a note off to my friend
David in New York:

"...Hey David! Wasn't that your friend that started the Celebrity Babies Blog?..."

"Yes" he replied. "She sold it to People Inc in 2007 or 2008 for an undisclosed amount."

"Undisclosed Amount" is always good. Read it any way you want but I can tell you it usually means that your bank balance has just been fattened.

I remember our conversation several years ago. David was telling me about a friend of theirs who started a blog on celebrity babies and how she was having so much fun and that the dollars were beginning to roll in. We chuckled and continued our conversation on something else.

As I started to learn more about Internet Marketing and the importance of blogging, I often thought of the Celebrity Baby Blog. I even visited it several times to get some tips on putting up a blog ... I had thought of maybe celebrity dogs or something along those lines. Never did it. I mean, I did start a dog site, but never a celebrity dogs. I'm not one for celebrities so it would not resonate strongly with me.

But that's not the point! The point is that blogs and websites get bought. Earlier this month I posted on your blog being Google Real Estate. ABSOLUTELY! Now there is a motivator. Blogs and websites are virtual real estate and you can buy and sell blogs and sites just like you do houses and land. It is a growing business on the internet and a very lucrative one.

Still in its infancy, you can buy existing sites for under $10K, do a little bit of work, add value,increase traffic volume and sales, and sell it to a bigger buyer.

Typically blogs and sites sell 2 to 8 times the annual net income derived from that blog or site. Now don't go bananananananas! 8 times is not likely unless you happen to be a You Tube or Twitter or some other online phenomena. But say you bought a blog for $10K and it was already producing that much in annual sales(sometimes owners of blogs just want to get rid of them without much thought as to their real value). With a little effort on your part you add value in the way of higher page ranking, increased daily unique visitors and the annual sales goes up to $40K ...you sell it for $80K. That's $70K in your jeans. Rinse and repeat. Can you say Blogger Mogul?

Its a neat way to make money. But you do need to know something about how to make a poorly performing blog into a star ... and that's what we are trying to do here!

Happy Blogging!

PS...Now that's the kinda cheese I like!

Quick Links:
Celebrity Baby Blog
Google Real Estate