renegadecollective.com062 THE COLLECTIVE 063

COLLECTIVErenegade game changers | thought leaders | rule breakers | style makers

issue 4

what wouldbranson do?

lessons fromnelson

mandela

helenachristensen

+ elle, tyra, mirandabusiness is not just their bodies

big data: 400 million tweets per day

where’s it all going?

ashton kutcher

as steve jobs

art imitates life

+ hollywood’s

disruptivecelebritechs

THE COLLECTIVE 053

In a world where there are more than 200 million active blogs, how do you make your’s stand out? After all, starting your own blog is nothing new; it’s been a popular way of communicating a running account of our

personal lives since the early ’90s (although back then bloggers tended to call themselves diarists or journalers). But with so many unique, witty voices commanding attention and attracting millions of followers, the business world is taking notice and the dollars are flowing like they never have before. So what does it take to become one of the best? Hard work, determination, and in most cases, a point of difference.

ArIAnnA HuffIngTOn, co-founder of huffingtonpost.comFailure isn’t normally a word you'd associate with Arianna Huffington – she is after all a 13-time author, commentator and co-founder and Editor-In-Chief of that little site often ranked the world's number one blog – but failure is exactly what she credits for much of the success she enjoys today. There were the 36 rejections of her second book, and her abysmal showing as an independent in California’s 2003 gubernatorial race, but rather than hiding away and licking her wounds, Arianna took the challenge in her stride, founding The Huffington Post in 2005, and she’s been laughing all the way to the bank ever since.

The Huffington Post came after she and business partner Ken Lehrer recognised traditional media was changing and they wanted to provide a platform to move the conversation online. Well-connected, they called upon high-profile celebrity friends and industry experts to blog for

them, guaranteeing that much-needed publicity, and such was the popularity of their site that the number of people blogging for them soon went from 500 to 6000. Today, the site offers everything from news to blogs, covering every topic from politics, business and technology, to lifestyle, culture and women's interests, and each month the site has more than 40 million unique visitors, 500 million page views and 3 million comments.

As you can imagine, when there's that much traffic, the money is sure to follow. Although Arianna has been quoted as saying the advertising-supported site “would have been profitable a lot sooner if we hadn’t kept growing”, there's enough cash in the kitty to keep the wolves from the door – AOL acquired the site for US$315 million in 2011, and media reports now put The Huffington Post’s net worth at around US$100 million. Perhaps it’s just as Arianna herself once said: “Everybody has failures but successful people keep going.”

PErEz HILTOn, founder of perezhilton.com Controversial celebrity blogger Perez Hilton (real name Mario Lavandeira) might be one of the most debated figures in Hollywood (high-profile public slanging matches and outing celebrities will do that to a person), but chances are he’s not too bothered considering his site is one of the top revenue-producing blogs around.

Launched in 2004, the ‘celebitchy’ site is the 422nd most visited website in the US (ranked 1150 globally), with some 12 million unique readers each month (although he has come under fire from some media outlets for vastly inflating figures).

Regardless of the exact digits, there’s no doubt Perez is one of the hardest working bloggers out there, posting up to 24 posts a day, and as many as 40 if it’s a big celebrity news day. But the real answer to his success lies with knowing exactly who his readership is and tailoring his advertising accordingly. Most of his readers – 88 per cent of them – are female and most are aged between 21 and 34, the perfect target demographic for all the beauty and lifestyle advertisers he has on board.

Perez doesn’t shy away from admitting his site is advertising heavy, saying, “Advertisers come to me because I get a lot of traffic, and I get a lot of traffic because I work hard,” but he's coy on the finer details of exactly how much he earns.

With the use of advertising banners he would generate US$3500 daily (approximately US$1.2 million annually), although Blogads lists a one-day “take-over” (all three banner ads on the site plus a custom wallpaper) for US$40,000, while other reports put his revenue at an estimated US$111,000 a month based on ad rates and traffic data.

With a TV show, book deal and other commercial interests under his belt, his net worth is considered to be around US$30 million and growing.

DArrEn rOwsE, founder of problogger.netThere’s that old saying that says those who can do, while those who can’t teach, but those who write off the teaching side of things clearly haven’t heard about Darren Rowse. Widely considered in blogging circles as the most successful Australian blogger of our time, he began blogging as a hobby back in 2002. >

THErE might be more than 200 mILLIOn bLOgs out there, but a HAnDfuL of PLAyErs are proving that with the rIgHT sAss AnD smArTs, there’s mOnEy to be mADE.wOrDs: DILVIn yAsAILLusTrATIOn: HALEy JOHnsTOn

bloggers mAkIng A mOTzA

renegadecollective.com054

Realising there was money to be earned through sources such as Google AdSense, he posted up to 50 times over the course of a 12-hour day and within three years he was earning enough money to make it his full-time job.

Today he is well known for his three blogs: ProBlogger, which runs advice for beginner and intermediate bloggers; Digital Photography School (digital-photography-school.com), another website he started in 2006 to help people take better photos with their digital cameras and phones; and Twitip (twitip.com), full of tips for Twitter users to improve their skills. Combined, these sites are visited by more than a million people each month.

Impressive, you think, but the secret to blogging success is surprisingly simple, says Darren – it all comes down to understanding who you want to read your blog, creating posts that address reader needs rather than your own, becoming a presence in the places where your readers hang out, be it Twitter or Facebook, giving people an easy way to subscribe, and sticking to a strict schedule and posting accordingly.

Clearly, the man knows a thing or two about a thing or two. According to Wikipedia, his ad revenue alone is around AU$20,000 a month, but although this is barely chump change, he also generates income through his ProBlogger conferences and E-book sales (When Rowse released his E-Book 31 Days to a Better Blog in 2009, he claims it generated more than AU$70,000 in sales in just eight days.)

nICk DEnTOn, founder of Gawker MediaConsidered one of the most successful blogging outlets on the internet, as well as one of the most valuable, Gawker Media was founded in 2002 by British journalist and entrepreneur Nick Denton.

Initially it launched with what has now become the supremely popular blog Gizmodo, adding Gawker, a media and gossip site a year later. Today, Gawker Media is the parent company of eight different weblogs: Gawker; Deadspin; Lifehacker; Gizmodo; io9; Kotaku; Jalopnik; and Jezebel.

And it all translates to big money.

While Nick refuses to be drawn into detail over Gawker Media’s finances, repeatedly downplaying the profit potential of blogs in interviews, in 2009 the corporation was estimated to be worth AU$300 million, with AU$60 million in advertising revenues and more than AU$30 million in operating profit.

In 2012, fans and critics alike were given a rare financial glimpse into the Gawker world, when an email from Nick was leaked. “This week has been too exceptional to go without mention,” the email to staff reportedly read. “On Tuesday, on a single day, we booked $2m in revenue.”

So how did he get there? Gawker stands out among its competitors in many ways: It gets ‘sensational’ scoops that do well with its audience, produces sponsored posts designed to look like regular editorial, and its bloggers have at various times had traffic-based financial incentives.

This has attracted a fair share of criticism but the numbers speak for themselves.

Gizmodo and Lifehacker have an estimated monthly global reach of more than 6 million each (as of May 2011) and Gawker has launched local versions of its sites in Brazil, Hungary and the UK, with plans to expand into India and China. By mid-2012 Gawker had reached, on average, 19 million viewers every month and this year after a redesign, Nick reported readership had increased by 10 million monthly. Not bad for someone who once declared that, “Blogs are likely to be better for readers than for capitalists.”

With figures like these, is it any wonder hundreds of thousands of new blogs are being created every day?

sO, HOw DO yOu mAkE mOnEy frOm A bLOg AgAIn?

Advertising percentAge: From big players (like Amazon or AllPosters) to your friends and colleagues, an ad or endorsement on your site with the infrastructure to track click-throughs and offer a financial kickback is gold. (Through the Amazon Associates program, bloggers can showcase Amazon ads and if a reader happens to click though and buy something, the blogger gets a percentage.)

collAborAtions And sponsorship: Just like advertising but often with a bigger, bundled package to make sure everyone enjoys a win-win.

Don’t discount non-monetary exchanges as well – sometimes they can be just as good.

subscriptions: Generating a recurring income through followers who subscribe for greater access to your content or to a service you offer.

text links: Platforms that allow text links within your blog to have a financial kickback, pay per click, such as Infolinks.

Advertising infrAstructure: Consider Google Adsense or Chitika, which allows you easy access to advertisers from all around the world, should they decide to advertise with you. Once a deal is negotiated, you simply copy and paste the ad code into your blog.

freelAnce writing: Bloggers with spare time can also write and post for others. Check out sites like PayPerPost, ReviewMe, SocialSpark or PayU2Blog.

speAking gigs And spins-offs: The bigger the brand and crowd following, the more opportunity to speak, present, write and educate, each coming with a fee.

wITH figures like these, is it any wOnDEr hundreds of thousands of new bLOgs are being created EVEry DAy?

Movers + shAkers