Profiles of Successful Money Making Blogs
Blogs can be highly profitable as a recent Business Week report on full time bloggers reveal. The ability to make money from the simple act of blogging or writing is an attractive concept to many, particularly when one realizes the amount of income blogs can really generate.
Business Week’s article offers several mini-case studies with income and traffic reports for several websites and I found it a rather interesting read, although I’m already familiar with the blogs profiled.
Some of the blogs included in Business Week’s list include popular blogs like Boing Boing, Shoemoney, Problogger and Perez Hilton.
I thought it’ll be interesting to profile 6 of the 13 blogs mentioned, list their stats and do a quick comparison. I also added in the Alexa Rank, just so you can see it’s inherent flaws when used as a tool to assess an individual web site’s traffic value.
“If you hit a niche and you can build a community, you might not have a $1 million idea, but you might have a $10,000 or a $100,000 idea,” says Nakagawa, who gave up his job as a software developer to play Cheezburger full-time.”
- Launched: January 2007
- Niche: Humor
- Revenue: Estimated $5,600/mth
- Traffic: 15 million pageviews/mth
- Alexa Rank: 4,996
2. Boing Boing
Advertising costs range from $350 to display a small button ad for one week to between $2,000 and $3,000 for the minimum 170,000 impressions on banner ads, all sold exclusively through Federated Media. Frequent posting—the four authors update the site 20 to 40 times each day—drives high traffic to the blog.
- Launched: January, 2000
- Niche: Humor/Cyberculture
- Revenue: Over $1 million a year
- Traffic: 22 million pageviews/mth
- Alexa Rank: 2,180
3. Mashable
Cashmore says it’s the most-trafficked blog on the subject. But he didn’t expect to make a living from it when he began. “The idea that top bloggers would be making large sums was laughable,” Cashmore says. “The folks who held on, however, are doing pretty well these days.”
- Launched: July, 2005
- Niche: Technology/Web 2.0
- Revenue: Estimated $166,000/mth
- Traffic: 4 million pageviews/mth
- Alexa Rank: 1,493
The mechanics are simple: They take celebrity photos from a wire service, add snarky comments about the getups, and click “publish.” The result? Some 3.5 million unique visitors a month, a book coming out in February, and two full-time jobs.
- Launched: July, 2004
- Niche: Celebrity
- Revenue: Estimated $6,240
- Traffic: 4 million pageviews/mth
- Alexa Rank: 14,237
5. Perez Hilton
He may also be the hardest-working blogger making fun of show business, with 24 posts on an average day—and as many as 40 on a day with talk of a Britney Spears meltdown. “Advertisers come to me because I get a lot of traffic. I get a lot of traffic because I work hard.”
- Launched: September, 2004
- Niche: Celebrity
- Revenue: Estimated $111,000/mth
- Traffic: 4 million pageviews/mth
- Alexa Rank: 929
Although Overheard brings in cash, he says, “I’ve always approached it more as a community than a business. I want to make enough so we can invest more to grow. I’m not trying to build a Web 2.0 company that I can sell for millions of dollars.”
- Launched: July, 2003
- Niche: Humor/Urban Culture
- Revenue: Estimated $8,100/mth
- Traffic: 6 million pageviews/mth
- Alexa Rank: 30,122
Lessons to Learn from Profitable Blogs
Having briefly looked at the growth, traffic, niche and revenue for these blogs, one can come to a few general conclusions. While they may be relevant to most bloggers, they might not apply to some outstanding bloggers within any particular niche.
- Web traffic is a very important factor in monetization and profit. Blogs with little traffic will not make as much money as blogs with a lot of traffic, even if conversion ratios differ.
- The niche you choose affects how much money you will eventually make. Some niches are almost inherently easier to monetize. (Tech>Humor)
- Highly unique blogs with interesting topics (Cheezburger) can become profitable and popular very quickly.
- Comparative analysis will show you that you are under-monetizing or not making full use of your traffic. Despite the niche differences, Cheezburger still earns less than Go Fug Yourself, while having four times more traffic.
- Lucrative blog niches with a large potential audience are tech, humor and celebrity culture.
- Metablogging (blogging about blogging) will not make you a lot of money unless you are exceptionally good at it.
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Christ! I had no idea there was THAT much money involved in some of these blogs! Really cool actually. I hope u make a decent amount yourself Maki, since this is my favorite blog
Best regards, Mia
Dosh Dosh, it seems to be working for you. But you’re right, it’s tough to make money by talking about making money.
I hope I can make money like that with my blog.
Great find! I look forward to seeing this blog on that list one day! *=)
Whatever have a great following off line will also work online I think. Money, ***, animals, cars, luxury, celebrity, humor, wisdom, scandals, technology, food, music, movies are the first things that come to mind…
What you cover is however only half of the equation. How you do it is in my mind what decides where you end up in the niche and overall. I am somewhat sad about this list though as I cannot say I really find many of those listed of actual value or quality.
I guess taste differs and perhaps is mine just not that of the majority.
What I find amazing is the difference in income. If you have millions of pageviews and only make a few thousand you are definitely doing something wrong. My take would be that the connection between the blog and the reader doesn’t add up. They may like it enough to read it, but not enough to help it or buy from it.
What do you think is the reason Maki? I know you mentioned under monetization and the difference between niches, but it must be more than?
Great post - insightful!
Great article. Lots of good statistical information found right there. Interesting to see how much all those big blogs are making.
I agree with Jan, none of those site make me want to return. It’s difficult to know what the general public want if I can’t understand them.
One thing to note about the cheezburger site is that its fame and fortune will be over as quickly as it began. The trick for its authors (if they’re interested in continuing) will be to capitalize on the next thing, whatever it is.
I am going to go and cry now.
Best post of the week!
BeachBum
Thanks for summarizing that article. I started to read it, but fell asleep with the Bzzzzzzness Week style. You’ve done a great job with this, as usual.
Thanks for the great article! There is hope for us bloggers out there! All the best!
Ken
Indeed, it is only a matter of time before this blog breaks into that group of elite blogs
My site’s been up for only a month and I’m already getting decent traffic and love. I just can’t wait till it becomes one of the “big guys”. Make sure to check it out!
Sly
Interesting breakdown. I hope I see all of you on that list one day.
For the life of me, I cannot figure out how stupid cat pictures with ridiculous captions managed to turn into a money making machine.
Maybe I should start writing silly captions on my butt using lipstick and post pictures of those on my blog from now on. I’ll even rent out butt space for advertising. Anyone interested?
Great list. I wish at least these be my per year income which they have for one month. Ok BTW, I didn’t see Steve Pavlina in the list. He makes 40K per month. Weird!!
Nice overview, Maki. I think the blogs that will make the most money will be ones that set out to provide content, rather than set out to make money.
One common factor I see in successful sites is exactly that, they set out to do something and the profit is secondary (if at all).
Money stinks and you can smell a cash cow a mile off.
Thanks, Maki. We have been looking at making our own hotel blog and this is a great insight into what makes blogs successful. I will have to try and get hold of this original article.
I was so proud that my unique visitors were going to break 1000 this month. *sigh* I’ve got a LONG ways to go before I hit the million mark - but I’m going to keep pushing.
It would be interesting to find out how much strong content sites make - and not just fad type sites. I’m sure it’s not as much, but it would be nice to know all the same.
I am with the others. I went to all of the top sites you listed that make a ton of money and with the exception of perezhilton I really don’t understand them. I really don’t think they are appealing to mainstream bloggers who blog about their lives, their jobs, their hobbies, their kids, etc… I just don’t understand the photos of cats. It seems silly and it’s not really a blog. Nothing is being learned there so I don’t get it. I am trying to develop my own niche blog but I was thinking more along the lines of the lighter side of life..maybe incorporating humor into my every day experiences that I believe most Americans experience…either that or a review of McDonald’s restaurants all over the country. Even that is more appealing to me than a blog with crazy cat pictures.
It seems that blogs involving cats make tons of money… Why is that??? Thanks for the overview, so far I have made a negligible amount of money with my blog, but one day…
Did you know there was going to be a conference in Las Vegas about making money blogging in early Nov.? A lot of cool (and succesful) bloggers will be talking about how they moneitized their blog. The conference is called Postiecon.
Great information, thanks. I often find myself wondering if the market isn’t quickly becoming over-saturated, but from the looks of things there’s plenty to go around.
that is true there are way too many money making blogs out there - you really need to become an expert in the field to really talk about making money on the internet. pro such as problogger is a great blog about making money from blogs
we just need to find the proper niche to properly write about without it involving making money - this will be a new project for me
I really do not think that Cheezburger should be featured because other than putting ads on the site, the guy doesn’t actually do anything but post pictures people are sending him. Most of the macros are being taken from lolcats, caturday, 4/7chan and the like.
It’s pretty much win-win for him: it’s hosted at Wordpress (free), the submissions are given to him (no work), no one can complain that there’s no attribution (submitters are not original authors), people keep featuring it as some kind of magic feat (driving up traffic and CTR). I’ve love to get almost $6000 a month for doing pretty much nothing. On the flip side, lolcats gets hardly any traffic and actually started doing this before Cheezburger did. (I’m not jealous, I like Cheezburger, but I do not think it belongs in this article)
The site also seems out of place as its not a producer of original content such as the other sites where people actually /write/ articles and continually produce content.
@ Sly (#15) — your site has actually been up since April. Don’t spam, please. If you’re gonna spam, don’t lie.
People should know that, these are REVENUES, not profits/income. They don’t talk about server costs, or costs to buy content.
Another lesson to learn from a lot of those listed is: don’t monetize too soon. Build up the traffic and reader loyalty rather than spamming your pages with ads right away.
Interesting Post! Great work.
Hey Maki - What’s your take on how this list was calculated? Most of these blogs are withing the technorati top 100, but from what I know that list fluctuates based on their whim (technorati’s been known to include sites at #120 within the top 100). For example, I’m wondering why JohnChow.Com wasn’t included?
Dev from dailymoolah.com
This is a great post, and very inspirational to all of us!!
Jan,
I don’t think there’s anything to do with the connection between the reader and the community. Cheezburger has a strong community and they do receive several hundred dollars in donations every month. The only reason I can think of is the niche. Most businesses that are willing to pay top dollar for ads will not be interested in advertising on a humor site that has funny cat pictures as its main content. The conversion rate should be pretty low.
Knowing how to monetize the site is a big factor as well. If I were to take over the site, I’m quite sure I would be able to bring in at least 5K more for each month just by tweaking the ads and aggressively going for direct ad sales.
Brilliant article. I read the full thing online, but getting your take on it has really given me some insight I didn’t have before. Thanks, Maki!
An interesting breakdown - I too, was surprised that John Chow didn’t make the cut. Makes a change seeing him absent from the ‘Top Bloggers’ lists that often do the rounds!
- Martin Reed
Great roundup, Dosh Dosh.
I believe blogs about watching TV online will make a lot of money, judging from how much my WatchFreeEpisodes.com site is growing.
Thanks,
Paula Neal Mooney
@ Maki : “Knowing how to monetize the site is a big factor as well. If I were to take over the site, I’m quite sure I would be able to bring in at least 5K more for each month just by tweaking the ads and aggressively going for direct ad sales.” If I could do that I would send them a letter asking to let me do just that and share the extra money 50/50
I’m thrilled to see that ICHC has had a traffic increase like that.
I do think that it is a bit sad, that the celebrity blogs seem to be the one that get the most traffic. Amazing how interesting it can be to see Britney Spears in her panties or Paris Hilton getting out of prison :-/
Also I think if you want to run a successful tech blog you need some contacts in the business, it makes it even easier if you live in the Bay area.
I’d be interested to see blogs in English that isn’t US-based (or Canadian) and still just as successful as those above and they can’t be about blogging or monetization
I recently started making money with my blog, but these guys are definitely heavy hitters. Something to shoot for!
OMG! I wish I can make that much money!
So there seems to be a mix of opinions when it comes to monetizing. Some say wait until there is a traffic build up, others say dive right in. So, wait or no? And just how large of a build up do you need before you start trying to make some money online? And what is the absolute BEST ways to make that money?
TrudyVan here, This is a real cool site. I have bookmarked it. I will be returning on a regular basis.
very interest to read about blogs that make money
Wow, thanks for the helpful tips on making money blogging. I am a freelance writer and editor looking to expand my subscriber base on my blog, so I am definitely inspired. I tend to gravitate towards blogs with text and photos mixed, otherwise I feel like the blogger is being a bit lazy and not spending at least a little time generating new content. Even posting YouTube videos is getting a little tired, unless the blogger adds some commentary.
Impressive websites I wonder when my site will make that kind of money. I guess the worst part of blogging is getting traffic, once the traffic is established the money will come like water from the river.
Doshdosh,
You have many great articles for newbiw like me. I really opened my eyes wide to realise so many ways to monetize through blogging. Thanks a lot. I already bookmark this site and certainly visit you very often.
Nice article again!
For all of you who commented - you can show which of the above mentioned blogs you like at International Blog Cup that just started.
And of course - don’t forget to nominate your (favourite) blog for 2nd International Blog Cup that will be held in November.
the information was helpful. that’s amazing how things like blogs can replace full time jobs. i only blog for therapeutic reasons and i don’t make a dime. i just get happy when people stop by.
blog-who.com
I was amazed that so many blogs are so much about nothing really.
Obviously, I have to start working on getting more traffic to my poor little blog! It´s very inspiring to see how much people are actually able to earn, but unfortunately, none of them are in my niche! Well, passion has to count for something, right?
I have set up my own experimental blog and it’s the story of money making itself. I hope it reaches those amounts some day.
You don’t really need or want that lifestyle, it might hurt y’all slowly more…….Just tell him you
don’t wanna repeat something your not too proud of z7uas.
Wow, that’s amazing how much revenue these blogs bring from something that was a hobby. Thanks for the stats!
Now I have to rethink my make money online blogs. Maybe I will go in a totally different direction. Now to find out where to go.