If you asked the renowned former owner of this blog what the “key” to “measuring” a successful blog is, I’m pretty sure he would say it’s about the “revenue“. I disagree. Firstly, from a writer’s perspective, it must be a labor of love. If you asked my wife Lara, who does the posts for our Parenting Blog, or the newly hired Quimby doing the Bloggy Award reviews, or even our resident pirate at JOAB, DPY- if they wrote for the money or not, I’m pretty sure the answer would be a resounding “no, it ain’t the money, honey..!!” Point being- the blogger writes for the love of it, not the money.

From the reader or site visitor’s perspective, what do they care? They’re not buttering your bread in a hurry. Of course, the end game lies with your subscriber base and you might make some small cash on a click here, a click there- if you’re lucky. But in the main, this comes later, once you’re “established” for the right, or wrong, reasons.

Ditto- your advertisers, a fickle lot at the best of times, i.e: when someone “values” their blog based on income via, ummm, say TLA- it’s a 30 day outlook with zero guarantees long-term and it’s a system easily manipulated. No better example of this than the mighty altar of Google pagerank- an inexact art at the best of times, and Google would be the first to admit that it is an evolving science. In the end of the day, Google wants to authentically reward the sites that are relevant to the searcher and, given time, they’ll close up all the loopholes and mantras being hailed by the SEO “expert“- whose fundamental aims run contary to Google’s own long-term goals. Authentic means genuine, as in not artificially manufactured. Why does this matter? TLA automatically approves sites if they have a PR4+ pagerank. Simple as that. And the whole system is basing itself on the logic of PR transfer as recognized by Google. When Google learns that these links are paid and not authentic votes, they will not only not reward the site, they will punish it. Condoms, anyone?

And from the blog owner’s point of view, it’s at best a short-term business model that is reliant on projected uncertainties, subject to numerous factors out of one’s own control. I guess there are a few “pros” who genuinely know how to make a profit out of blogging (be they content blogs, services, networks, etc)- but they really are the few. And just because they call themselves “pros” don’t make it so. In the main, probably somewhere north of 99% in terms of “blog owners“- the revenue made is paltry in comparison to the effort put in. In other words, the “richness” of blogosphere right now is in its “non-commerical” and “amateur” nature. And long may that last, even if one does have to patronize a few more dumb ones. Take that “amateur” aspect away and all you’ve got is paid bloggers sold down the river. And after all, don’t cowboy bloggers swim upstream? Of course we’re not all Bill Gates and the kids need feeding. We live in the real world and bills need paying, so nothing wrong with making a dime on your blogs if, how and where you can. I’m just saying that I don’t believe revenue is the “measure of success” for a blog. In other words, you could have the best blog in the world that made zero dollars and a pretty bad one that made a lot.

End Game: so you’ve become a success, need some cash and want to sell up. Somebody once said, and I can’t remember who it was (DPY- can you remind me?)-: “Fools build houses for wise men to live in.” This expression pretty well hits the nail on the head, in that when I look at the blog “market place” and see the level of blog sales- it’s all pretty well slave labor rates. Case in point, some of the recent high-profile, blog-related sales on Sitepoint, you might be impressed initially by the figures being bandied about- PinGoat.com, BlogExplosion.com and BlogHerald.com . However, if you think of the amount of work that went into these projects behind the scenes and you quickly do some figures in your head, you’d have to say it’s not the easiest and most lucrative way to earn a buck. (btw- a disclaimer here- I have no clue to actual sale amounts achieved. These comments are purely based on the BIN prices being mentioned on sitepoint, although I’m aware that two of these sales were done privately for undisclosed amounts ).

Any start-up business model, as far as content-driven blogs or related blog services are concerned, has to be written off as some kind of “loss leader” along with another online or offline strategy, where you really do cash in. Thereby the benefits you gain are indirect and, consequently, your blogs are not self-sufficient business models in themselves. To cite Hirth’s example, Jugend Magazine was never profitable. How could it be? Every weekly issue beautifully designed as a unique lithographic print, never the same logo being used twice. But the follow-through prestige of Jugend enabled Hirth to acquire the largest, and most profitable newspaper in Munich and he died, in 1919, an extremely wealthy man. Such a comparison may seem unlikely, but I see its equivalent happen every day on the web. You build your reputation in one area and benefit in another. Or you can use your blogs laterally to pursue your other interests. Like I’m using Charities Blog right now to push a charity of my choice-: Talpe Foundation. So like in publishing offline, one can easily create a lot of “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” scenarios. Etcetera….

So don’t sell! Build a little war chest, should the need arise for some cash injections. If this isn’t possible, find a partner who can help you hold on. But whatever you do, don’t sell yourself short- your time is valuable and can never be replaced.

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