Are You A Millionaire Blogger?
written by John Chow
Hot of the heels of Puala’s list of blogger salaries comes the Millionaire Blogger Hall of Fame by Worldwide Success. The hall is a list of blogs that have a value of over one million dollars. World Wide Success based blog value at 15 times earnings.
To calculate the value of a blog, we assumed a price multiple similar to the way stocks are valued. The average price multiple of the S&P 500 stocks (also known as the Price / Earnings or PE ratio) is currently about 15. We will use this same PE ratio to valuate these blogs. You could argue that this value should be higher or lower. Some people might say that a blog should be valued at a higher PE because of its growth potential. Others may argue that it should be lower because a blog is not as liquid as an S&P 500 stock. We feel that for the purposes of this exercise a PE of 15 is a reasonable value.
Currently there are nine blogs in the hall. John Chow dot Com is ranked third. To make the hall of fame, your blog needs to make $66,667 a year because 15X that is $1 million. While it’s nice to think my blog is worth $2.1 million, the methodology for coming up with the value is completely flawed. While S&P 500 stocks may trade at 15X earnings, it’s 15X net earnings, not gross. To assume a blog’s gross and net income are the same is just plain wishful thinking.
Another problem is the value listed may not be for the Blog. Tyler Cruz is listed at $1.4 million because his estimated annual income is $93,184. However, that didn’t came from his blog. It came from his other sites. If Worldwide Success wishes to make a list of bloggers with million dollar blogs, then they should make sure the revenue comes from the blog and not something else.
If you think you have enough to get into the hall, give Worldwide Success shout and they’ll add you to the list. Even if you don’t have enough, they’ll add you to the “Millionaires in the Making” list.
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Doesn’t really sound like a credible way to determine blog value…
i don’t think you need to take these kind of things seriously.
just read it for entertainment values
It has about as much reliability as a Technorati ranking!
ya it is absolutely useless….but still points out the top blog earners in a way
I’m a millionaire blogger.
so am i…when i’m high….
I’m actually already making millions in South Korea…
…in Korean Won that is.
15x is considered a common multiplier for selling a site or blog at based on earnings.
Obviously this would only make sense if your skills could be transferred to someone else otherwise without the John Chow charisma you may not maintain that readership.
well, they’re talking of being transferred, they’re talking about its current values.
if you think that much, you might just count in the possibility of internet crashed as well
No, im a poor blogger
same here, as it does takes a lot to become a millionaire blogger
How I wish I am one of them. Unfortunately, I’m just an ordinary Joe that is passionate about software development and computer technology. I may not be that rich, but I’m rich on something.
well, it will come.
you’ve got the skills, you’ve got the passion, and bear in mind that everyone in the list was once an Average Joe
it will be a long journey for me
This 15x sounds like way too much also because most blog value is in their author - if the author sells and goes away the blog is likely to be less succesful and make less income. As such its resale value is reduced.
You made the list though, John — this still calls for a celebration! With or without it, you’ll always be a millionaire blogger to us.
and has been….
He also gets more publicity! which is always good!
talking about publicity John, how that article in that magazine influenced the traffic?
[...] indexed posts. Also my trackback’s paid off and i received over 15 hits from a trackback to John Chow’s blog. Which boosted my traffic stats nicely. Also some kind readers stumbled my post which helped with a [...]
A general rule for selling websites is 10-14x monthly revenue plus tangible assets (servers, hardware, etc).
I think he made the list (despite having giving away tons of NT zune, ipod, etc:) because his site doesn’t break in Internet Explorer, which ‘probably’ account for 1/3 - 1/2 of his visitors’ browsers =P.
*Speaking of ‘if the internet [explorer] were to crash tomorrow’, I WILL be very much happy
, because now more people will probably search for FIREFOX.
By the way, John (or anyone), if you have the time, feel free to drop me an email with your css code for this theme, cuz my sites don’t look too good in I.E.
.
Thanks in advance.
–The SEO Blogger–
I think a similar mistake is a common assumption people not in business think of anyone that has there own business: they must be making lots of money.
Assuming all the money a blog makes is profit is similar.
true…I am a dollar a day blogger
Paula not Puala i guess
hmmm…
I think she forgot to mention me!!! jokes apart, john do you have to pay taxes if you are a millionare blogger and another dozen million worth TTZ owner. How much approx do you pay .
Even dot com moguls are not exempted from taxes LOL. With a significant percentage going to charity, I’m pretty sure John needs to deal with the rest of his earnings as far as taxables go.
Sry to break in btw, but what i meant is unlike what many think, bloggers also have to pay taxes, hosting, editorial staff and other such expenses. Why do people think bloggers are able to stash away ever single dollar they get in a cave?!
not evry single dollar…but loook at digital inspiration…http://labnol.blogspot.com…
he pays no hosting fees, is the sole author and speculations are he makes $1000/day…but he works 12-14 hours on his blog…so he has money but hardly any time….he has to pay taxes but most of it is stashes away and he gets to stay at home…
Ok I was not in the List because I give all my money to Charity
Of course…you were gonna be on this list…congrats anyways !!
I don’t think a valuation on the sale price of an individuals blog is able to be calculated. A personal blog happens to fall along the lines of the author of the blog. If someone buys it they loose the intellectual property that brought everyone there in the first place. It’s like buying Mark Twain’s name. You’ll get some value from the initial confusion but over time the public will catch on and refuse the product.
The value is what you can sell the blog for in the market. Most of these blogs would not even get 20k beacuse they are personal blogs. Maybe coolest gadget can be sold for more. Why would you any one pay more than 5k to have a John chow” blog and that would be sad and most people would stop reading this blog if someone else bought it.
Though I could have a spot on Paula’s list as a webmaster, not blogger, I’m very very far from appearing on that Hall of Fame.
Anyways, congratulations!, though that way of measuring blog value may not be very accurate
thats is funny?
Happy Mother’s Day!
We just went to Red Lobster heh.
Anyone that pays 15x the annual earnings for a website is a fool, but if there are any of you out there, I’ll sell you mine.
The assumption was that most blogs only have negligible expenses so your earnings should be fairly close to your revenues. Taxes were also not considered since most blogs are not incorporated and taxes are taken at the owner’s personal income level.
What makes blogs hard to value is the fact that a blog without its author is not likely to generate the same traffic and consequently the same revenues. Johnchow.com probably would not be the same without John Chow.
This valuation was not meant to be an exact process. It is an approximation given the information publicly available (most bloggers do not publish a detailed income statement like a public company would). But I bet if we were to calculate the exact net earnings from johnchow.com and applied a 15 price multiple you would still qualify as a Millionaire Blogger. Congratulations!
Not even close!
I’m a poor blogger working on it
Just started monetizing my blog 
But I wonder how much you would get if you sold this blog john?
Can you sell a blog like this? JohnChow.com without the JohnChow
I’d say John could sell this blog, set up a new one and it would be just as successful
now that would be ‘making money online’ on an extreme scale. You’d get so much publicity, that the new blog could possibly eclipse this one’s traffic and revenue
[...] Chow spotted the “Are You a Million Dollar Blogger” from World Wide [...]
I’m hoping to show on any of these lists one day. Just gettin the word out.
Ron
Here’s a new one, i heard he’s rich.
http://www.moneydollaronline.blogspot.com/
I consider myself a poverty level blogger :\ but one day I might be a millionaire.
Everybody’s gotta start somewhere; you’ll get your first million, Jim.
[...] am not a millionare blogger ( not present time ) indeed.But I stil learn to make it happend.But if I am not mistake most of the [...]
Oh thanks for the helfpul tips John Chow.
Hi John & others,
Isn’t revealing how much you make from adsense, going to get you banned by Google?
No, it’s not against the rules. You are allowed to reveal what Google pays you.