50k blogs equals $500mil Revenue
Mark Ghosh 
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Top 50k blogs had $500 million in 2006 Revenue: TechCrunch has an interesting link to a study performed by a couple University of Texas Ph.D students in association with Chitika. The study claims that the top 50,000 blogs made somewhere near the astronomical total of $500 million in revenue in the 2006 fiscal year. The linked PDF is very short and the double exponential model that was used to fit (model) the values looks sloppy enough in the short description that it would not stand up well to a peer review. Chitika’s presence and promotion via this study is also quite evident. Frankly, I am surprised that The University of Chicago has allowed their name to be publicly associated with this study considering their heritage and authority in the statistics and economics educational disciplines [EDIT] I stand corrected, the study is from the University of Texas. Thanks AJay in the comments for the catch.
However, I would be a fool to say that there is no money to be made in blogging. GigaOM, TechCrunch, Read/WriteWeb, ProBlogger and other blogging powerhouses are proof enough. I do agree with some of the comments on that post in that revenue generated through such vehicles as Chitika and other ad sales might not be a good representation of blogging revenue and the fact that they used Technorati to choose the top blogs also make the results suspect. For me the communication and the relationships that result from blogging bear the most fruit. An interesting look at the business of blogging nonetheless.
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I think the fact that Discovery Communications bought Treehugger for 10 million is proof enough that there can be money in blogging. I remember when they first started out and they were just a blog like any other (in most respects). They have grown into a green juggernaut.
10. million. dollars.
[Reply] Better Blogging with Michael Martine (2 comments.) — 08/1/2007 @ 9:02 pmWow, I wish I was one of those top bloggers.
[Reply] Amy (1 comments.) — 08/1/2007 @ 9:08 pmI have to admit, when I started blogging back in the day with greymatter, I never expected to make money from it.
[...] eco-lifestyle blog TreeHugger.com, allegedly for $10 to $15 million. Then, TechCrunch published a recent study by the University of Texas (sponsored by Chitika) claiming that the top 50,000 blogs based on [...]
The Top 50k blogs generate 0 Million? | YugaTech | Philippine Technology News & Reviews — 08/1/2007 @ 10:43 pmWhat a dumb study model: take Chitika income and multiply it by 3? This is hilarious.
500 mill accross 50K blog is $10K a year. I’m within this range, except that if you multiply my Chitika revenue by 3, you get something like $150 instead…
Seriously, who’s still running Chitika ?
[Reply] Ozh (74 comments.) — 08/2/2007 @ 2:53 amHi, you are blogging “University of Chicago”, but the pdf-link provided shows two pieces of paper with “University of Texas”. Is there another source elsewhere, or just a mistake?
[Reply] AJay — 08/2/2007 @ 10:14 amTake care AJay
I think the major source of earnings for blogger are Adsense and not chitka
[Reply] Ashok Arora (1 comments.) — 08/2/2007 @ 10:37 amYou’ve got to take these ’studies’ with a grain of salt. In order for them to understand it they take a small subset of the data and make general observations from it. Reminds me of the study on MySpace that Jupiter Research did. Took 4 other sites (including MTV, but not including Last.FM) and said MySpace was *the* best place to promote music. It was as if they said, you know what? let’s ignore the 1000s of other sites that work to promote new and old artists a like, and not even consider them… sounds kind of like what they did here.
[Reply] dr.xnlb (1 comments.) — 08/2/2007 @ 3:26 pmit’s crap.
http://valleywag.com/tech/blog.....285293.php
[Reply] keith (10 comments.) — 08/2/2007 @ 5:44 pmFamous Quote: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”
There is now a fourth, web lies.
[Reply] abradley (1 comments.) — 08/2/2007 @ 8:00 pmi think this can be possible. none of the real big blog earners reveal is true earnings, that’s a fact. if we think that 500M ($500.000.000 ) for 50k (50.000) blogs is 10k ($10.000) per blog and per year!!! Which means $10.000 / 12 months = $833 per month .
This numbers for me are low, i think some big blogs itself, make more than 100k monthly. Just see the case of techcrunch.com itself, each ad spot is 10k mont, it has 8 spots, which means at least 80k per month.
Based on this, i think that $500M are low.
[Reply] Jonix Konios (2 comments.) — 08/2/2007 @ 9:12 pm10 mil for treehugger….wow!
[Reply] Mark (1 comments.) — 08/3/2007 @ 3:10 am[...] Según la compañía de publicidad Chitika, los 50.000 blogs más populares (vía Technorati) generan 500 millones de dólares de beneficios al año. [...]
Blogs, dinero y dinámica de grupos — 08/3/2007 @ 4:54 am[...] Ghosh: 50k blogs equals $500mil Revenue (August 1, Weblog Tools [...]
Business of Blogging: Beware - a double exponential swindle model? » Paperholic — 08/3/2007 @ 5:37 amAre you cent percent sure of the authenticity of the information?
[Reply] Blogulate (1 comments.) — 08/3/2007 @ 7:57 amYeah…kind of a dumb study. 400 million was most likely made from the top 5,000 blogs, and the other 100 million was made from the remaining 45,000 blogs.
[Reply] Rob — 08/4/2007 @ 12:27 amI have to agree with Jonix. I believe $500 mil may be on the very low end of this scale.
First, I know a few blogs that make more than $800/mo and are no where near the top 50,000. I have one that made $700 in May, $800 in June and over $1,000 in July and it doens’t even make the top 250,000 based on Techno rank or Alexa rank.
Second, I supect the top 10,000 make the majority of the coin. That doesn’t mean the rest don’t generate some nice green, but as with most models, the top few percent will be the majority of the green.
[Reply] A.J. (3 comments.) — 08/4/2007 @ 7:21 pm