What’s a blog worth? Don’t count on advertising just yet…
April 18th, 2006 | by Klaus Holzapfel |Rohit Bhargava elaborated on the value of blogs in this interesting post at Influential Interactive Advertising. Since so many people are spending so much time on their blogs it is only logical to reflect on the commercial aspects of it.
From my old days as a foreign currency trader I am a strong non-believer in zero sum games. Imagine six billion people on this planet with blogs and each single blog being stuffed with Google ads. Who, besides Google is going to benefit form that?
It should also be noted that among all the hype about blogs the advertising spent on blogs is still very small.
According to a new PQ Media study, advertising spending on user-generated online media - blogs, podcasts and RSS - which didn’t begin until 2002, has grown to $20.4 million as of 2005, a 198.4% increase over the 2004 level. Spending on blog, podcast and RSS advertising is projected to climb another 144.9% in 2006 to $49.8 million.
20.4 million in 2005 for all the bloggers and podcasters really doesn’t cut it.
I am sure you can think of many ways how to monetize on blogs other than advertising. Just keep the zero sum game in mind. It really doesn’t work all that well.
