make money on the internet

After the recent PageRank update, several make money online blogs went on sale at impressive prices even though their RSS subscriber numbers aren’t that impressive.

Recent blog sales:

BloggingFingers.com
200 readers, sold for $6,000.
RyanShamus.com
90 readers, sold for $2,500.
OneMan’sGoal.com
180 readers, sold for $8,500.
BlogOhBlog.com
414 readers, sold for $10,000.

45n5 did a computation of the value of some blogs from the Top 100 Make Money Online Blogs based on the average amount paid per subscriber from the above blog sales. Based on about $30 per subscriber, here are the values of the top 3 blogs:

Problogger
Subscribers 34846
$1,079,529.08

Shoemoney
Subscribers 20086
$622,264.28

John Chow
Subscribers 13694
$424,240.12

To value a blog based only on subscriber number is obviously flawed, so what other possible variables could be considered?

What Determines The Value Of A Blog

Some key factors that influence a blog’s price are listed below but bear in mind that these are very much arbitrary and different people may feel differently about the importance of these factors:

1. Monthly Blog Income
Some use the general rule to value a blog at 10 times its monthly revenue generated.

2. Earning Potential
The potential to further monetize the blog for increased earnings.

3. Number Of RSS Subscribers
Will need a substantial number of blog sales to better guage the price worth per subscriber.

4. Number Of Monthly Unique Visitors
No prior estimate on the price per unique visitor.

5. PageRank
Unfortunately still a very important factor that affects a blog’s value.

6. Backlinks
Number of backlinks from other sites.

7. Branding And Profile
Whether the blog has a good reputation and presence in its niche.

8. Domain Name
Whether the domain name is good for its purpose.

No single factor determines a blog’s value but out of all these, I’m guessing that monthly revenue and number of subscribers tops other factors listed here, including pagerank. That’s quite obvious because it establishes a blog’s earning power and potential.

High Priced Blogs With Low Value

Blogs with a person’s name or strong personalities are likely to fetch a lower price and run a higher risk of losing readers. On 45n5’s list of value of blogs, CashQuests is estimated to be worth about $28,000 based on the number of subscribers. However, since CashQuests is very much the voice of Kumiko, the question arises whether readers would still continue to visit CashQuests if a new owner took over.

RyanShamus.com, a relatively unknown blog with someone’s name sold for $2,500 while JohnChow.com is estimated to be worth over $400,000. You could probably capitalise on the John Chow name since it is so well known in the blogosphere but again, would readers continue to support a new owner given that John Chow is JohnChow.com?

Creating a Formula To Estimate A Blog’s Worth

Until someone compiles a substantial amount of sales data and blog statistics to come up with a more accurate formula to determine a blog’s value, ultimately it is the perceived value that determines a blog’s final price. Basically, it’s listing your blog for sale and seeing how much it can fetch at closing.

45n5 has estimated SomeUseless.Info to be worth just over $3,000. But I prefer Dane Carlson’s blog price estimator to calculate how much SomeUseless.Info is worth:

My blog is worth $39,517.80.
How much is your blog worth?

Now I just have to wait for someone offer me that price and I’m sold!