The Business of Blogging

A year or two ago, Blogistan's currency was measured in comments and linkbacks (the more you got, the better you were doing). Now real money is entering the picture. From BusinessWeek:

"An estimated 4.8 million blogs now exist in cyberspace, up from just 100,000 two years ago, according to blog search engine Technorati. And bloggers are finding all kinds of ways to make money doing what they once did as mere labors of love. They're signing up with independent ad distributors, striking revenue-sharing deals with large aggregators, landing direct sponsorships by corporations, and getting hired to blog for companies. Depending on the approach, bloggers can earn anywhere from a pittance to more than $10,000 a month."

Online pundit Michael Meckler offers some tantalizing clues about what three top bloggers may be making from ad sales:

"A standard Blogad on [Andrew] Sullivan's site goes for $400 per week, a premium Blogad for $800. He currently has two standard ads on his site. On Daily Kos, the ad rates are much higher: premium $2500 per week; second slot $2000; standard $700. Daily Kos currently has both the premium and second slots filled, and three standard ads. Instapundit gets $2000 per week for a premium ad, $1000 for the second slot, but only $375 for a standard ad. Yet Instapundit currently has filled both the second slot and SIX standard ads. So in terms of Blogad revenue, Daily Kos is generating $6600 this week, Instapundit $3250, Andrew Sullivan only $800."

Extrapolating for the year (which, given the perhaps unrepresentative sample, is a dicey proposition but what the hell), Sullivan would have annual ad sales of $41,600; Instapundit would be pulling in $169,000; and Daily Kos, with revenues of $343,200, could now buy a vintage race car costing exactly that. But that's just a suggestion.

Of course, quite a few bloggers solicit donations from regular readers. Sullivan occasionally uses his blog and his e-mail list to launch a full-blown pledge drive. When he goes out begging, his supporters reportedly pony up anywhere from $79,000 to $120,000.

As for my blogging income: like Consumer Reports, I'm completely ad-free. And you have my solemn promise that that won't change. At least not until someone from Coca-Cola or Bob's Tire & Muffler shows up with a nice promotional graphic and a fifty-dollar check.

Comments

[SullyWatch]

Rogier,

With all due respect, the passage you quoted was actually one we ourselves were quoting from Michael Meckler at red-state.com

[Rogier van Bakel]

NOTE TO READERS: I'd orginally attributed the quoted graf about top bloggers' ad revenues to Sullywatch. Someone at SullyWatch (see below) was kind enough to point out the quote actually came from Michael Meckler at www.red-state.com. Apologies for the mistake. The wayward sentence has been corrected, and my forehead is bruised from repeated slapping.