Seeing the inter-workings of a magazine up close and personal, I have become weary of a magazines as the best platform for journalism. One of my associate editor’s at an internship, who I can’t imagine made more than 40K, was fired, leaving three writers to support all the writing content while two salesmen were hired for 90K – each. Never mind the economy. The business model of a magazine has been compromising the future of journalism for quite sometime. I still want to write for magazines, but I’ve become inspired by Internet opportunities.
I recently interviewed a blogger who sold his blog two months ago. For privacy infringement reasons, I cannot post the Q&A. The company has not made a public announcement of the acquisition yet, so the blogger – we’ll call him Bobby – and site will remain anonymous. Nevertheless, the interview was inspirational and provided fascinating insights.
Bobby had never sold a blog prior to this one. But he turned his blog into a full-time job, committing 14 hour days, 7 days a week even before the blog proved lucrative. He had full confidence he could make his blog profitable and even sell it one day. All it cost him to launch his business was $2500 ($500 to set up the corporation, $500 for a custom illustration and $1500 for the URL because he really wanted it).
When I asked Bobby to tell me about his blog, he referred to it as a community. He invited writers from other blogs to contribute and eventually had volunteers to write on his blog – for free. I wondered why anyone would want to offer their services for free but Bobby said he had so many offers, he turned down 90% of applicants now. Blogging, he explained, was a way for his users to organize their thoughts and strategies. And there was a whole community behind the blog. He hung out with his writers. He provided user-generated articles and even added a reality TV element on the blog where visitors of the blog could chat with people. People lived on his blog. He started the blog because he was unsatisfied with the resources out there. It wasn’t so much that his idea was innovative. He said you just need a unique perspective. To keep and increase the amount of viewers, Bobby blogged 20 times a day when he first started out. He gave a reason for his readers to come back day after day, sometimes hour after hour. He didn’t take vacation for 3 years.
He also tracked his traffic consistently. What intially started out as 500 readers from his personal blog shot up to 3.5 million readers in three years. After a year and a half of blogging, the ad revenues generated enough for him to support himself. His blog provided a service for people looking to shop so they clicked on his ads. This was key he said. Also crucial was his timing (there weren’t many blogs like his then). Soon, contacts from companies for ads were followed by inquiries from venture capitalists and eventually companies who wanted to buy his site. He sold his blog but still runs it. The company has given him complete control of the blog.
