A Personal Blog
How Big is the Blogging Market?
Does anyone know of any studies that spell out how big the blogging market is?
I’d include blog hosting, blogging software, blog design, blog consulting, etc in the estimate. My personal guess? Nearing up on 1B$/year, and set to top 5B$/year by the end of 2006.
But, that’s just a guess. I’m fairly certain the industry is nearing up on 1B$ though.
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| Print article | This entry was posted by Jeremy Wright on December 17, 2004 at 5:20 pm, and is filed under Blogging. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |
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about 7 years ago
Blog software makes money? I thought it was all free.
about 7 years ago
$1b a year? Are you kidding me? Lucky to be reaching the $1m a year (at most).
about 7 years ago
G: Some companies are paying upwards of 250K for blogging software.
Six Apart is, all by itself, pulling in roughly 10M$/year. Weblogs, Inc and Nick Denton’s outfit are probably doing another combined 10M$.
Blog hosting and the ads on blogs is sitting at an easy 100M$.
Blog consulting is at easily 20M$.
Sure, that’s only 150M$… But that’s just off the top of my head. And I’m no analyst. I’m sure it’s much larger than that, since that only encompasses a handful of folk, and I know of several bloggers who are individually pulling down 1M$/year (probably 10 of them), and thousands more making fulltime salaries off of blogging (so another 20M$ or so there).
Plus the 500+ companies paying bloggers fulltime salaries, that’s another 30M$, so a total of 200M$ already.
I could probably keep going but it’s time for bed.
about 7 years ago
I have to agree with you Jeremy. Technorati’s about page states that approx. 10% of the “internet population” are reading blogs regularly. Given the demographic of these people, a large percentage of them are not reading your everyday teen rants either. They’re reading the pro’s who are serious enough about blogging to have invested a little cash.
So it would be safe to assume that blog hosting fees are up there in the millions too, as well as professional design fees, custom programming of blog platforms, and other necessary and incidental expenses bloggers pay out.
And what about the money people are paying to advertise on blogs? That’s a nice chunk of change as well and it’s only going to grow in the future…
I think your estimates are a little conservative if anything.
about 7 years ago
I am predicting blogging, as an industry, to top the billion dollar mark in 2005. While some people might consider that forecast to be wildly optimistic, keep in mind that once the big corporate players enter the blogosphere, the industry could explode even beyond my estimates. Blogging revenue is not simply advertisement based, as was the dot.com dream. Blogging has a much wider and deeper base.
about 7 years ago
Give sources for those revenue figures and specific bloggers who are making that much.
about 7 years ago
I think that’s the highest concentration of the word “blog” to ever appear in a post. A new record! ;)
In terms of revenue, I’d probably put blogs at around half a billion, easy. Could be a lot more if you count outfits like Slashdot in as “blogs”.
about 7 years ago
Slashdot makes a lot of money?
about 7 years ago
Yep, they fill their ad slots, which brings in roughly 25M$/year at the posted rates.
about 7 years ago
99% of bloggers dont put ads on their blogs and most use free services. I guess, atleast, your potential clients will like the hype ;)
about 7 years ago
99% That’s a big figure. Thankfully, even at 1%, that’s still 150,000 bloggers.
But, since 30% of Blogger bloggers use AdSense, that’s a solid 1 million bloggers right there. Then there’s the raft of Typepad bloggers who do it to defray costs.
Then there’s the other 250,000 who use Blog Ads. And the 150,000 who use AdBrite.
Sure, that’s only 2-3 million bloggers. But, that’s also only 4 services. And, y’know, it’s closer to 20% of bloggers ;-)
Again, though, let me quote myself in the original post:
“Does anyone know of any studies that spell out how big the blogging market is?”
Because, really, I don’t know. All I have are educated guesses. Is it 1B$? I don’t know. But it’s more than 1M$ on any given day, nevermind year.
about 7 years ago
This is just my personal opinion but I think you are focusing on the small aspect of it. There are people making lots of money off their blogs and they don’t have an ad on it. Those people are not going to say how much they make but I can tell you I know someone who landed a $1M contract because of his blog – and it didn’t have an ad on it.
Using your blog as a tool to make money usually has the potential to bring in 100x more than the blog itself making money.
about 7 years ago
Slashdot has revenues of $25M/year? Where’s that info available?
about 7 years ago
That should have been “Yep, IF they fill their ad slots”. I don’t know how close to full they are or stay, or if they sell all their slots for full price.
about 7 years ago
> Give sources for those revenue figures and specific bloggers who are making that much.
Got sources?
about 7 years ago
Correct me if I am wrong but:
It’s like asking “How many rabbits live in the forrest?”
I don’t think there is really anyway to know.
When you are taking into account money being made are you talking about direct or indirect income — such as “Tyme” mentioned?
Chuck