What’s my blog worth?

Blog owned by single blogger sells for $15 million

This week ProBlogger got the scoop on a blogger, John Wu, who sold his blog for $15 million. Everyone has been buzzing about it in the ’sphere since. You are probably wondering “what’s MY blog worth?”

People have been commenting on the value of the blog sale above and the value of authority blogs in general. Many wishing they could someday sell at even a fraction of that once their blogs hit critical mass.

So what is the value of authority?

The value of a high traffic blog is immense. When you have a blog that commands the attention of the search engines for top keywords in your market, tons of traffic, a list of regular readers who hang on your every word in a market where advertisers are desperate to get in front of them, you have something of real value.

You should know. If you own such a blog, you are raking in big advertising dollars already. Advertisers seek out even small to mid-level blogs with moderate traffic (500+ visitors per day) to throw their ads in front of targeted demographics across a wide-swath of niches.

They want what you’ve built

Blogs attract some of the most die-hard fans and followers you can find on the net. Advertisers know that with a word, you can send fans who trust and respect you anywhere, to do anything you want them to do. That’s far more powerful than driving traffic with Adwords or other paid advertising.

It is hard work building a blog fan base and link popularity.  It usually takes average bloggers (who don’t know the tricks) 1 or more years to build a blog that has serious value.  It took the blogger in ProBlogger’s story over 2 years.  That’s a big part of the value buyers must consider when making offers on blogs.

Many times blogs will be bought out and the writer is asked to remain to keep the trust and respect flowing and to keep the fan base the of person who made the blog explode in the first place. That was the case in the ProBlogger announcement.

Your ability to demonstrate your blog’s value is key

Brag. Put your rss feed subscriber count from FeedBurner in an obvious place for all to see. If you are starting out, leave this off until you have something to brag about. Having 200 subscribers is something you want to keep quiet about until you have 2000 or more.

Let people know in subtle ways how well your blog is doing in advertising revenue. (optional) Some people aren’t into this, so take it as a “do it if it makes sense to you” tip.

Advertisers and investors will see anyway

If you’re a big deal, people are already checking out your rankings, pagerank, compete.com score, Alexa and your content and comment activity. It is easy to tell how well a site is doing at a glance with the proper tools and investors and advertisers know how to use those tools.

Selling your blog

Why would anyone want to sell their “baby?” If it is really making them so much monthly income in ads, lead generation, sales, or clients, why would they want to sell?

Many reasons

1. The market you are in is slowing, advertisers are harder to find, and you want to get out and start something else before the value of your blog goes down.
2. You are burnt out and want to be free again.
3. Someone offers you $15 million for it. (Take it, dummy!)

Building your blog

Authority blogs have the following ingredients you must build into your blog to go big and profit:

1. Respect:  You content is among the best in your niche, according to the number of links (votes) you have built up over time from other bloggers and site owners (who point because they respect and love your content).
2. Regularity:  Your blog can be counted on for new, quality content on a regular basis.  Note that many blogs that rise to the top of their market niche post multiple times per day within their topic range.
3. RSS Subscribers:  You have to build a huge following.  (”hugeness” depends on the niche) Go to the biggest blog in your niche and see how many RSS subscribers they have.  That’s your goal.  You don’t have to be the biggest, but you should be shooting for it even if you never overtake the biggest players in your niche.
4. Links:  Because your content is so good and in-demand, you should be building tons of links from other bloggers.  This will affect your search rankings and increase the value and traffic of your blog immensely.
5. Peer Acceptance:  The top blogs in any market niche have links from their peers, even competitors, which are some of the most valuable links to get.  Start networking to get on their radars and do whatever it takes to impress them enough to get reviewed or simply linked from one of their “speed linking” posts.
6. Offline Press:  Work on getting interviewed on radio.  Many radio stations look for experts to interview.  This can be a source of instant traffic from listeners and also links from the radio stations’ web sites.  Get on CNN or another news network and you can explode!
7. Learn the Trade:  Blogging is big business and is finally respected among most people as more serious than a diary.  Advertisers have seen the value, obviously.  Even the mass media uses blogs to figure out the “pulse” of online communities on politics, technology, weird and wild information, and many other topics that are news worthy.  So knowing blogging inside and out, learning how to accelerate the process of becoming popular and profitable, and skipping over the mistakes made by all newbie bloggers is important.

Protect yourself

Being independent of the whims of the economy is a dream of more people than ever since the beginning of the web.   Recent market crashes and economic downturns have made more people acutely aware that a “job” is not the definition of security.

Especially the 179,000 additional people in the U.S. who lost their jobs in September.  Having a profitable blog, whether you sell it or not, is security and freedom like nothing else.  One, because it is the easiest business to get started with online.  It’s not overly technical and you can start almost instantly.  Two, because advertisers, even in down markets, have to buy ad space to keep their “doors” open.

Blogging is hard work.  But anything that pays off like it did for John Wu takes hard work.

Is it worth it?

Ask any of the thousands of high traffic blog owners on the web who make anywhere from $5000-$100,000+ per month if what they’ve doen to get where they are today that question.  Ask yourself if such freedom is worth some work to achieve it.

To learn more about authority blogging, and to skip the multi-year learning curve and work most people have to put in to build an authority blog, check out this resource.

Don't Miss Out On Free Traffic!
Subscribe to the FTR RSS feed or our email list so you don't miss out on real, traffic driving tips from Jack Humphrey!  Thanks for visiting!

Tags: authority blogs, blog valuation, problogger, selling my blog, whats my blog worth

Webside Chat with Darren Rowse, ProBlogger

How would you like to have Darren Rowse all to yourself for 45 minutes to ask him any questions you wanted about professional blogging? That’s just the chance I got today.

Darren was just starting his day in Australia and mine was just about over here in the States. We talked about things that I try to ask any professional blogger, but Darren has been on my wish list for quite awhile as I think of him as one of the original pro bloggers who are still at it today.

So I had some specific questions for ProBlogger as well. He’s one of the few online who can really shed light on the history of blogging while at the same time share what’s working now and where it’s all headed down the road.

For 2 years I’ve been asking my readers to check out Darren’s stuff. Now you can sit back and check him out right here on the Friday Traffic Report and get to know him a bit. THEN go read every word he writes at ProBlogger!

Darren’s Blogs

ProBlogger
Digital Photography School

Read the ProBlogger book!

Tags: blogging tips, Darren Rowse, problogger, problogger book, professional blogging, Webside Chats

How to get 2000 RSS Subscribers in 3 Months

The Tony Robbins Part…

People with no experience with blogging or building authority are doing incredible things in short periods of time with their blogs. You can too if your heart is in it. The thing that motivates most people is their goals. If you don’t have specific goals and realistic deadlines that push you to achieve greatness, your campaign is dead from the start.

Hint: “I want to make money” is not a goal.

A-List Bloggers, Current and Future, All Share the Same Traits

What I’ve noticed from every successful blog owner I’ve ever reviewed or consulted with is that they are motivated to learn and apply what they learn diligently. They don’t cheat or look for the easy way out (there isn’t one) and they will stop at nothing to see their goals realized.

1. They get up early and work before they go to their “real jobs.”
2. They come home and work into the night, often losing sleep to meet their deadlines.
3. They think deeply about content and their visitors’ needs.
4. They study their market and stay up to date on the relevant hot topics and capitalize on them to generate great, unique content.
5. They network heavily. From social marketing to doing “favors” for bloggers who are higher up on the food chain in order to gain favor with them. (Links being one big favor!)
6. They are thought leaders. Not just followers. They start conversations in addition to participating in conversations started by others.
7. They will do anything to meet a self-imposed deadline for content development, marketing goals and traffic benchmarks.
8. They are motivated by the lure of being financially independent to such a degree that there is almost nothing they wouldn’t sacrifice in the short term to see their long term success. (Most share sleep as the biggest sacrifice!)
9. They don’t expect anything to be handed to them. They earn everything they get as a result of hard work, creativity, and being a thought leader in their niches.
10. They never cheat or look for the easy way out and they don’t believe sales pitches that make schemes and scams sound like the mythical “instant reward” syndrome most new bloggers fall for.
11. Their content is superior, deep, imaginative, and always has a “hook” that almost forces new readers to subscribe to their blog to see what’s next.
12. They generate a hunger in their readership for the value they become known for producing in each and every post.
13. Their readership has a high return ratio. Example: This blog has a 37% return visitor ratio.

If you adopt these traits you will see significant progress in your blog’s growth, rankings, and links. It’s almost guaranteed.

Here’s A Case Study From A New Blogger Who Acquired 2000+ RSS Subscribers in 3 Months
Follow this guide laid out by Tina Su who wrote an excellent piece for ProBlogger recently. You can mirror her system to gain a lot of readers in a very short time.

Related: Social Marketing Advice You Really REALLY Need!
If you are working on a social marketing campaign for your site (you’d BETTER be) then a related story from Search Engine Land is essential reading today: “15 Fundamental Truths About Social Media Marketing”

Tags: blogging case studies, blogging success, problogger, rss subscribers, social marketing advice, tina su

Tuesday Power Linking

Below is an example of me taking the day off. All top bloggers do it. Few others understand it.

Well, in short, we get tired or busy and have to post something, so we “Power Link” to each other and share killer resources without having to write a totally original piece from scratch.

Enjoy!

• What Does It Mean To Optimize A Blog Post? - Excellent article by Aaron Wall
• Content Spinning: A Warning You Should Heed! - This is an excellent article from Brandon over at SEOFeed.com.
• CopyBlogger’s Lazy Sunday Linkage Post - Great resources here. Watch for the link to Seth Godin’s Purple Cow promotion to see if you are really promoting yourself in every way possible.
• Example of YouTube promotion strategy - Michelle MacPhearson shares how you drive traffic from YouTube with a case study.
• John Carlton on the Care and Feeding of Your Future - Very good article, as always, from John Carlton.
• 10 Spam Stopping Techniques For Your Blog - Don’t just manage your spam. Destroy it!
• Finally, something funny - These headlines are hilarious!

Have a great day everyone!

I am going to catch up on all my email that piled up while I was in Orlando speaking to a great group of people at Mark Hendricks’ ISS Mastermind Group.

Tags: blogging tips, copyblogger, john carlton, marketing tips, problogger, seth godin, spam tips