Why Is Your Blog Worth So Much More Than Mine????
April 13, 2007
In response to a question by a reader, I decided to make my reply a full-blown post. The question was “Why is your blog worth so much more than mine????”
First, that suggests that blogs are worth something. Is this true? Can a blog be worth something? Even if you are not putting ads on your blog?
Your blog can definitely have a value that you may not have been aware of. What is more, it may have certain value you had not intended to create. You may be sitting on a gold mine. Or, perhaps the only worth your blog will have is what it means to you.
Are Blogs Really Worth Any Money? Why?
Yes, blogs can be worth something. In the grand scheme of emarketing, a popular blog has value above and beyond the income it can earn from advertising revenue. As a blog becomes popular, and as other blogs and websites begin linking to it, it builds a sort of credibility or popularity cachet.
What that translates into is this: someone might find it worthwhile to buy your blog and its established reputation in order to use it as a marketing tool. Perhaps you have 30 great posts that someone would be willing to buy the rights to—in order to use as content on their website. Perhaps they will hire you to blog for them.
But, there a lot of ways to value a blog. The question was based on the interesting widget down on the lower right-hand side of the page here on the blog. It comes from business-opportunities.biz, and is the creation of Dane Carlson. So, I will start off relating the value of a blog based on that, and then slowly shift to other ideas about a blog’s worth.
It Is Largely About Popularity And Algorithms
Now, since determining the value of words has always been quite arbitrary, in print and electronic media both, some ‘method’ is used to assess that worth. With blogs, various programmers and sites come up with assorted algorithms that measure a blogs worth.
Things such as the number of incoming links figure into most such equations. More important is the value of those links. In other words, are those links from your three best friend’s blogs that see 2 visitors per day, or are they 100 links—half of which are from high traffic websites or blogs getting thousands of hits per day?
So, getting on with it, a spider or bot (web application that crawls your site just like a search engine) analyzes your blog. It grabs whatever information a particular programmer or service thinks is the way to determine worth and then analyzes it. Plain and simple, every analysis is going to be different and they are all arbitrary. Each is based on what the programmers and marketers and business analysts behind a particular web application thinks about the worth of online content.
As a matter of fact, I rechecked to see if my own blog’s worth had changed, and in just the past couple of weeks (according to the business-opportunities.biz widget based on Technorati data) my blog jumped about $7,000 in value.
So, It Is Just About Numbers Really?
Actually, the secret to a valuable blog is those neat looking dots (•••) I use as separators and the self-deprecating humor on my About page and my cool philosophy.
Just teasing. There are some other things that factor in, though…
The number and quality of links you have on your blog make a difference. How ‘fresh’ or recent the links to your blog are matters. And lots of other geeky things.
Check out Technorati’s excellent explanation of how all those things work in concert to create a picture of your blog’s impact on the blogosphere. Now, does this mean I can put my blog up for auction and someone will offer me…uhm…(peeks down at the lower right side of blog) $56,454.00? Not likely. If that were the case, I would be logged into eBay right this minute instead of writing this post.
Check out Penmachine.com, authored by Vancouver, Canada based editor and writer Derek K. Miller. He has a great comparison chart of results produced by Dane Carlson’s calculator.
An Example
Here is an example of a breakdown according to Technorati of My Errant Mind and the blog I am comparing it to (belongs to the asker of the question).
Comparison Blog
* Rank: 155,264 (216 links from 29 blogs)
* Updated: 11 hours ago
My Errant Mind
* Rank: 40,656 (133 links from 100 blogs)
* Updated: 10 hours ago
The Comparison Blog data means that there are 155,264 blogs plus 1 that have more than 29 blogs linking to them. 216 links in the last 180 days point to the blog. Consequently, this blog was worth $16,371.66 according to Dale Carlson’s widget.
There are 40,656 blogs plus 1 that have more than 100 blogs linking to them. I only have 133 links pointing to my blog in the past 180 days however (note: MEM has only been up and running 123 days I believe).
[UPDATE: less than 24 hours later, here are the new results for the Comparison Blog in questions.
* Rank: 149,965 (219 links from 30 blogs)
* Updated: 4 hours ago
Which translates into 149,965 blogs plus 1 that have more than 30 blogs linking to them. 219 links within the past 180 days point to the blog. According to Dane Carlson's worth calculator, the blog is now worth $16,936.20.
So, my adding the blog in question to my blogroll increased its worth by $564.54. Not incredible sounding at all is it? But if ten other blogs link to your site and each is worth $500 or thereabouts?
Now you begin to see how this all works.
If anyone wants to buy a link on my blogroll, I'll sell you one for $150--a great discount! I will even use 25% of any such paid links to go towards my project aimed at helping developing nations make better use of the Internet for education.]
What About Links?
Ah, links do matter. Not only the links coming into your blog, but the links leading away from your blog. When you post, are you linking to the homepage of every person with a URL that looks like ’somefreehost.com/~member_9391834/’ or are you linking to CNET, 9rules, RedHerring, and the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies?
Additionally, the number of links in your content and your blogroll might matter to some. Do I have a thousand incoming links and a thousand outgoing links in my blogroll? Do you think I would be better off if I had a thousand incoming links and only twenty select and lucky few sites in my blogroll? The first insinuates a 1:1 reciprocal linking ratio, whereas the latter case means my blog would have a 50:1 incoming to outgoing link ratio.
That means be selective with the links in your blogroll, and in your content. That suggests it is important to find a few really good sources that become a mainstay of your linking. Others may disagree with me, which is fine. Everyone has a strategy they think works best.
I personally try to keep at least 30%-40% of my linking to a select few highly popular sites that are my ‘go to’ sources, 20%-30% are to moderate to high traffic sites but may be outside my source sites. The remainder are my ‘kicking around the Net’ links, other blogs, and odds and ends I happen across.
Of course, those are not hard and fast rules. They’re more like guidelines. I am quite sure on any given day, I may be violating them myself, but, I do attempt to at least follow them. It just happens to be my personal blogging strategy.
Now, I added the blog of the question asker to my blogroll–and removed two others. One was a blog that had not been updated but once in a couple months. As much as I liked it, I have a goal in mind with my blog, and those links do matter. The other was a blog directory which was not sending me any traffic and which for some reason did not list my blog after I submitted it. No one rides for free, so they got the boot.
That means I have one link fewer and one more newer. What will the impact—if any—be on the blog I used for the example above? I shall post an update within 48 hours of the blog in question’s next update.
Is A Blog Really Worth What Those Widgets Suggest?
The worth is really, in the end, a matter for someone to decide—not an algorithm. If someone is looking to buy your blog for whatever reason, their needs and motivation will determine largely what it is worth. Keep in mind, there are other widgets out there. Another suggests my blog is only worth a couple hundred dollars.
That is quite a discrepancy! What is a realistic and practical assessment? Is there such a thing?
The real worth of my blog is yet to be determined. Whether or not I reach goals I have set for myself and if my blog allows me to move forward with my plan as I have it in mind will have the greatest bearing. I will say this, however. It does have a very real value. I have an idea of what it is. How so?
It has made me many wonderful contacts. I have met a lot of interesting and fascinating and knowledgeable people through my blogging efforts and research. It has also landed me two consulting gigs so far with another possible. One current one will be a few months worth of work. That’s not exactly pocket change.
Landing that contract was directly a result of my blogging. Plus, I’m polishing my writing and building a habit of writing on demand rather than when I’m in the mood. This will pay off yet again I have no doubt, because I believe it will help me finish both a novelette and a novel I am working on.
What is a blog worth? Same as anything else. It is in the eye of the beholder…and perhaps the beholder’s bank account, though not always.
Now, if you want to see a blog worth something, check out Guy Kawasaki’s blog!
Entry Filed under: Blogging, Blogs, Business, Computers, Economics, Education, Entrepreneurship, Everything Else, Friendship, Internet, Marketing, Media, Opinion, Publishing, Random, Random Thoughts, Reading, Relationships, Software, Tactics, Technology, Thoughts, Tools, Writing, eBusiness, eMarketing. .
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1.
Catherine Morgan | April 13, 2007 at 9:12 pm
Hi. Thanks for making a post out of my question. This is a lot of great information, thanks. I was just wondering a few things.
Are you saying you can have too many links in you blogroll? I actually thought I had you on my blogroll….but when I went to my blogroll to find your link it wasn’t there….I must be always clicking on your link in my comments, or from the categories. Should I add you….since your blog is so much better than mine? Or would that just “degrade” the worth of your blog?
I did notice that some people only have “high-profile” links in their blogroll…..I’m just not sure I understand why this matters? Do you get more hits to your site when you have the “high-profile” links? Or is it just because you are linking to them? If this is a stupid question just ignore it.
Another thing. Did you just start blogging in December? And you are already so “blog-savvy”? Or is there a “My Inerrant Mind” blog out in blog world somewhere? How do you know so much about all this stuff? Because, I just started in January and I still am confused about all this “blogosphere” stuff. Just when I think I understand something, I realize I am actually clueless. In fact, it seems the more I learn, the less I understand. I’m really surprised my blog is worth anything at all.
2.
Sean Wilson | April 13, 2007 at 11:17 pm
Catherine,
I’m glad you liked the post. I will try to elaborate a bit on some of the points to help with clarity.
The answer to this one depends on the goal you have in mind for your blog and the approach you intend to take to get there. First let me clarify a couple points about linking.
Link Weight: all links carry weight because all sites and blogs carry weight; the value of a link is related to the value of the site or blog it is on and the site it is linking to. The weight they carry is three-fold. Traffic, quality, and link ratios are the three-fold factors to be concerned with.
Traffic is self-explanatory. If your site gets 10,000 visitors per day it is perhaps more valuable than if it were to get only 4000, right? This depends on other things. What if those 10,000 visitors all only view one page, while the 4000 all viewed 5 pages apiece? What if you get 10,000 visitors but only 100 are qualified prospects for your site? Now, what if out of 4000 there are 400 qualified prospects?
This is why the intent/business model of your site or blog matters—you need to be able to put all the data into the proper context to decide if, how and when to adjust your strategy. Ultimately, the more qualified traffic your site or blog gets, the better off you are.
Quality is sort of the sum of all things. A site is considered higher quality the more traffic it gets. The frequency of how often content is updated and new content is added matters. The quality of that new content matters as well—is it knee-jerk opinion or has there been some sort of research done? Do important sites dealing with the topic of that content link to it? Does the content contain links to other sites, and are they quality sites?
Link ratios also matter. If I had a blog or site and linked to no other sites, it would lower the worth of my site. If I link to other sites if they link to mine (reciprocal linking) in a 1:1 exchange, it means my site is deemed worth something by those sites and gives it value. However if for every link I put on my blog I were to have 20 other sites linking to mine, it means that my site is considered to have some sort of high merit and thus my blog becomes a higher quality site, and links from my blog then carry a higher weight when linking to another site.
In practical terms, if every major newspaper’s website linked to my blog, it would be assumed I must have incredible content or knowledge and I would also likely get a lot of traffic from such exposure. Thus, if I only had five other blogs in my blogroll, the assumption would be that those site must also in turn be highly respectable because my highly respectable blog links to them.
Back to the question you posed. Can you have too many links? Yes, you can. If you link to 1000 sites and only 10 link to your site, then that link ratio tends to paint your site as 1:10 incoming to outgoing. You would be better off with 1:2 or 1:1, but what you would want is 10:1 incoming for each outgoing link.
A lot of people add their 400 favorite sites to their blogroll. Hey, we all want to share all these cool sites. That’s great! But if you are aiming to make your blog a business or hope to sell it or build a brand around who you are, your job is much easier if you only share 40 of those cool links and then write posts so that links to the others are in content.
Or, you could create your list and have it go out as an auto-responder sent email when people register to your blog…along with a text ad or any other email marketing tactical weapon in your arsenal, and on your blog put “Register and get my exclusive list of the 400 coolest websites!” That’s how you maximize your efforts. (Better would be an auto-responder that emailed “The 40 best marketing sites!” one day, “The 40 best web development sites!” the next for 10 days. Each with a text ad, so that you get 10 times the ad exposure. But only if it suits your model and personality and needs.)
First of all, I don’t think my blog is better than anyone’s and I happen to think yours is one of the better blogs I have had the pleasure to read. My suggestion is to adopt a strategy. I’ll share mine.
I like the number three, and I like to separate my linking both in my content and in my blogroll into three categories.
* High quality sites (major .com’s or blogs with thousands of visitors). Roughly 25% of my blogroll. I focus on sites I think will be useful to my readers and a couple are major portals.
* Blogs and sites of those I admire. Roughly 65% of my blogroll links. These are the blogs I really enjoy, read, visit and comment on when I get a chance.
* Oddities, curiosities, and unique sites. Roughly 10% of my blogroll. Just too cool, useful, fun or weird to pass up, these links allow my personality to show through. People learn a lot about you from who and what you link to.
Now, while it is generally better to link to sites that are ‘worth’ more (especially if they will link back to you), because I am who I am, I link to sites I like irregardless and deal with it. I can get away with this and keep my blog growing to a point because I know what that means and I can do other things to counter the effects of linking to any lower traffic sites.
For one, if my blog becomes popular, more people begin to explore my blogroll. Those sites benefit and become more valuable in time. Should they later become high traffic sites because they are fantastic in their own right, then my linking to them and getting a link back when they were a fledgling site pays dividends in the long run.
“Business is about relationships. Marketing is making them work.” That’s the bottom line.
As to the second part of your question, you will not degrade my blog’s worth. When another blog or website links to yours, your blog or site benefits in almost every case. An exception might be if 10,000 pornography sites linked to your blog or website. Something extreme like that could hurt your site’s rankings. I appreciate any and all links!
I hope the above sections have answered the question about why some people only link to “high-profile” sites. It might help them, but are those sites likely to link back? If they do, great, then yes—that blogroll should be kept at a high level of quality if that is what one is shooting for. Myself, I am looking to create relationships, to meet people, to share knowledge, and to toy around with ideas. Sincerity and standing by everything I say, and admitting mistakes are part of relationship building, because it creates credibility and trust.
People like to read the remarkable. I feel I have a long way to go, but it is what I strive for. Not too many people want to simply read things that everyone else is saying or that is being read. In an information age, the information that is most unique has the most value in many instances just because it is unique. Thus, branding yourself is best achieved by creating a powerful, unique source of information out of yourself—be a remarkable voice and you will reap remarkable benefits. The easiest and most obvious way to do so is to be the unique person that you are.
Yes, I did just start blogging in December. This is my first blog ever. However, it didn’t happen entirely on a whim. I have been reading blogs since they first came out and studied RSS closely when it was the “newest thing” on the block. I have been planning to start a blog for some time, and through a series of events, December was the time to do so.
However, I have been adequately prepared for blogging. I have a background in communications, have made a living as a PC tech and can set up and install networks and cabling, have been building websites since 1998, and have a marketing degree with a major in eBusiness. I authored an IT related column for a newspaper, and have reviewed software, and I constantly try new software, operating systems, and I read voraciously.
Those last two things are important. I was the kid who at 12 had read two different sets of encyclopedias front to back. More than once. I read voraciously, and always have. Because I can speed read and thanks to high speed Internet connections, I have a never-ending supply of reading material. However, I try to keep it focused, and every aspect of ebusiness, ecommerce, emarketing, web design and development and related services and technology are my main reading.
It’s my job to know so much about this stuff in other words. Trying things out, getting hands on experience and learning by doing is also important. If I want to know whether or not an abstract meta-tag offers any useful benefit at all for a web page, I stick one online and submit two versions (one with and one without) to search engines and wait for them to show in SERPs (search engine results pages) later so I can analyze the relevant data.
I also learn from my mistakes. Failure teaches you a lot. My many mistakes have begun to pay off for me, and the benefits are starting to show themselves. I also laid out a strategy and have tried to stick with my plan. That helps as well!
Basically, I study business and marketing. I learn by doing and keeping a steady flow of information inbound. I believe in myself and truly believe I have worth. In the end, what makes my blog worth anything are two things: who I am, and the relationships I build with others.
As to whether or not there is another blog of mine out there in the world, there is currently not. However, there will be in just a few days.
I hope this has been helpful in some small way. Enjoy your weekend!
3.
Catherine Morgan | April 13, 2007 at 11:48 pm
It was very helpful. Thanks.
I have no IT or Tech experience at all, I guess that is pretty obvious. I never even read a blog (or new what one was) until I started my own. My son takes care of making sure the Internet and my computer are working.
Anyway, I hope you will tell me more about your blog that is coming out in a few days. Did I guess the name right?