Some say the value of a weblog is not the traffic attracted, but the buzz generated, meaning that the more a blog is linked to, the more worth it has. This is the theory behind one blogger’s research into the per link value of Weblogs, Inc. after their sale to AOL, and another blogger’s tool to help calculate the value of your own blog.
After AOL bought Jason Calacanis’ and Brian Avey’s Weblogs, Inc. for a sum reported to up to $40 million ($25 million by the lowest of estimates), Tristan Louis took note of the milestone.
The deal provided a “yardstick” by which other blogs may be measured, Louis says.
“AOL has now provided us with some numbers traditional media are willing to pay for a blog,” concluded Louis.
Taking the number of links to each blog in Weblogs, Inc.’s network, Louis calculated their total values in relation to three different pricing models–$25 million, $30 million, and $40 million.
Engadget, with over 13,000 websites linking to it, came out with a lone value of at least $7.5 million, or just over $500 per link. While that may seem high, Louis speculates that Calacanis’ and Avey’s BlogSmith, a blog authoring software, may have been worked into the deal.
Louis’ numbers were meshed with Technorati’s API to create Dane Carlson’s blog-worth calculator. Enter the URL of your blog to find out how much it may fetch based upon the number of links.
John Battelle’s weblog, according to the tool, is worth just over $1 million. My blog, like Rebecca Lieb’s at ClickZ Network, is worthless-except to me, my precioussssssssssss.
